We give people some incredibly useless advice. Get organized. Speak up for yourself. Take better care of yourself. Set boundaries. Participate more. Be confident. Ask for help. Find a hobby. Okay. How? I have spent most of my career in education, which means I have spent a lot of time around goals, feedback, evaluations, interventions, and people telling other people how they could improve. One of my least favorite experiences was learning that, on most teacher evaluation sys

I have purchased an embarrassing number of domain names. This feels important to disclose before I give anyone advice about finding their purpose. I have started blogs. Built websites. Created teaching projects. Abandoned teaching projects. Researched ideas extensively, made elaborate plans, created three organizational systems for the plan, and then somehow made the entire thing so complicated that I no longer wanted to do it. I know this about myself. I have a tendency to m

There are few words in education I trust less than “unmotivated.” Not because unmotivated people don't exist. I have personally avoided folding a basket of laundry for four business days. But after a decade of teaching, I think we use the word much too quickly when we don't understand what is happening yet. I've taught the student with 42 missing assignments. The student who needs to go to the bathroom every time reading starts. The student with three completed assignments cr

I used to think I wasn’t making art because I was too busy. I’m not sure that’s completely true anymore. I was busy. Teaching is busy. Caring for other people is busy. Building lessons, answering emails, adapting materials, solving problems, managing emotions, sitting in meetings, noticing what everyone else needs before they even ask...it all takes something from you. But I don’t think I stopped creating because I had nothing left to make. I think I stopped creating because

The first time I accepted a travel teaching contract, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I knew how to teach. I knew special education. I knew I was burned out. Everything after that was a bit of an experiment. Eventually, that experiment would involve multiple states, a campervan, housesitting in beautiful homes, several teaching licenses, significantly more money than I had ever made as a teacher, and at least one teaching position I called to clarify I was absolute