My Brain Squeeze: A Space for all Educators
Like most starting a career in education, mine consisted of working as a full time student and full time pre-service teacher, having to spend my own free time trying to supplement gaps and learning in my own classrooms, last minute curriculum and admin changes, and having to manage the in-person, to online, to back to in-person instruction. Needless to say, it was a lot.
By the time I was nearing the end of my degree, I was in classes, professional development sessions, teaching full-time, completing edTPA, and working on a research project. I found myself questioning if this was something that I wanted to continue doing. I knew that transitioning to leading a classroom wouldn’t make my workload any easier. I was constantly wondering if teaching was the right path for me. Why wouldn’t it be though? I had committed the last 5 year of my life to it, so was I just going to throw it all away because it would be “too much work”?
“I love education, but is working in the classroom really for me?”. This question would ultimately lead me to attending grad school directly after graduating with my B.A. in Elementary Education with a minor in TESOL. It was the question I had based my application essay on. While I thought it was risky, I knew it was honest. My application talked about how over the years, I found my passion for teaching starting to dwindle, especially during covid. However, when coming back in-person, I decided to research the effects of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) with digital technology advancements to support my students who were heavily affected by the general flaws of the public education system and the “Covid Slide”. With this research, I not only designed and implemented supports and interventions for ELA and ESL learners, but also started to develop my own resources to support myself.
As I was completing my Master’s, that insecurity I had kept creeping back in. “Am I being dramatic? What am I complaining for? It’s teaching really ‘too much work’ when millions of educators are doing this everyday?”. However, this program was a bit different. While much of the professors put an emphasis on “student centered design” they put an equal amount of emphasis on “educator centered design”. Not only in educational settings, but in life. I learned quickly that it was never a matter of “too much work” but “too little supports”.
How can we be expected to care for and support the next generation of learners when were never taught how to do it for ourselves? After graduating with my Ed.M. in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology, I experienced the full scope of what teaching and learning could be. I became passionate in supporting and teaching other educators how to support themselves and their well-being so that they could show up as their best-selves every single day; in and out of the classroom.
All of that to say… welcome! My name is Ms. T! I am a Learning Experience and Curriculum Designer. My passion lies in making learning more enjoyable for everyone. My area of expertise, content wise, lies in Literacy and Language. For the past 6 years, I have worked in developing and teaching content for reading interventions and English language learners. While I have always been passionate about wellness and selfcare, it was only till last year when I realized that I could use my knowledge and experience to help others. Similar to reading, some may think that its too late to re-learn the basics as it may feel like you’re starting all over again; it’s incredibly intimidating. But I’ve learned that interventions, from reading to self-care, are never too late. On this blog, I want to be able to support educators in building resilient foundations for themselves and their students. Regardless of what kind of “educator” you are or how long you’ve been teaching. I hope that sharing my experiences, lessons, and other resources can help all educators.
