Truisms

Lately I have found myself easily inspired with the help of technology and social media.
Through the wonderful apps on the homepage of Google Chrome as well as the addictive streams of Pinterest, I have no shortage of wonderful quotes to chew on each day.

Taste your words before you spit them out.

As a teacher, this one stuck with me longer than the average touchy feely quote.

Hyper aware of the power of words, and the impressionable and sensitive nature of my 11 and 12 year old students, I sometimes wish that teaching had a pause button."Wait class, I am going to pause here and take a moment to thoughtfully choose my words here, as I know that you, for whatever reason, will remember this." or " Actually class, ignore what I just said. It was stupid and poorly phrased." Ha.

 It is such a go go go profession, one where thinking on your feet absolutely has to accompany the preparation and pre planning, you know, ying and yang and balance - all that jazz. Yet there are all those teachable moments, and all those sentences that fall out of your mouth, that perhaps could have been phrased better to hold more meaning. Or meaningless words that somehow morphed into meaning something else. It is so hard to recreate those vulnerable moments with 12 year olds, you kind of wish you could just get it perfect the first time. I am hopeful that as I develop as a teacher, and as the material and curriculum that I teach becomes more familiar and natural for me to deliver, that I will have more courage to take the time needed to taste my words before I spit them out.