"Good for her! Not for me."
If you read my last post, you know I had big professional development hopes for my Christmas break. You also know that by the time I wrote that post, I had been out of school for over two weeks and was proudly catching up on TV.
Big news::I finished This is Us and the new Gilmore Girls "year in the life" episodes!
As far as that Google Certified Educator thing...
On the way home from dinner at our friends' house,
my husband asked me what was on my mind. On the top of the list were my worries about passing the GCE test. He asked why I was taking it, and I went on--
What if the school district when we move is a Google school?
It's one more thing on my resume.
I always want to be better at what I do.
And that's when he said it.
Ok--it wasn't that dramatic and I can't remember exactly what he said, but he told me to take a deep breath. He told me I already go above and beyond, that I'm already very good at what I do. He told me I had already learned how to use it all, so what good is the certification going to do right now? He told me I need to use Christmas break as a break.
He is a very supportive husband, so please don't take this any other way. He noticed how stressed I was; I was more stressed than I had been during the semester! And it was all put on me...by me.
Ironically, the day before I read "Letter to an Overachiever" by Jennifer Gonzalez, my boss at Cult of Pedagogy, and I'm still taking my time through Angela Watson's Unshakeable.
And right there are three influences (my husband obviously the biggest) telling me to relax. To take time for myself. To practice the mantra "it's good enough."
I took the advice (for the first time).
After that car ride, I took a break.
I really enjoyed my break and did just enough work to get me ready for today, my first day of my last semester at Young Harris*. I visited my family, played with my dog, and listened to Amy Poehler's Yes Please on audiobook.
Even Amy supports my decision to take a break.
Her mantra is, "Good for her! Not for me."
I have no doubt many excellent teachers used their break for professional PD and actually got it all done. And that's great for them! But this time, I took a deep breath, decided to admit everything is good enough, and said not for me.
And, again, in my defense...
