Teach Inspired

Teach inspired. That is my mantra for the new year. I hit kinda a valley if you will last year. I just felt, for lack of a better term, uninspired. I needed inspiration, I needed to fill my own teacher cup. It can sometimes be hard where I work to feel full all the time. I guess you could say that for every teacher everywhere at some point, but it was true for me last year. I work at a school that has one teacher per grade level. Collaboration, even though it can and should be, is not our building's forte. Teachers tend to keep to themselves and since we don't have a team to bounce off of weekly, or even daily it's hard to get that inspiration you need during those hard days, weeks, and let's face it...months.

And then a group of teacher bloggers,( I follow most of them and they have truly kept me going with some of their blog posts,) went to the Ron Clark Academy. And, their posts about their trip truly inspired me. I had heard of Ron Clark before, but that was about it. After I read about their experiences I watched The Ron Clark Story, and read every one of his books in a week. I am rereading them again this summer, slower, so that I can let it all sink in, and get the most from it, but then I couldn't get enough of them. One of the biggest things I took away from him is that he teaches inspired. Everyday. Even, when he worked with a less than inspiring colleagues, in less than inspiring situations. When people told him no, he still taught inspired. And, he changed lives of his students, and is continuing to not only change his student's future, but he reaches out to teachers and inspires them as well.

So...all that to say this summer I am seeking out ways to inspire my students. Little things that I don't necessarily talk about, but they are just there. Inspiration in every corner for them, and for me. So,  I decided to turn my boring old, drawn on, brown, clipboards into a small source of inspiration. My kids use clipboards all them time, and I have a class set of them. I thought it would be fun, and inspiring to write a quote on each of the clipboards. Now, I am no artist, and I have no skills with hand lettering so don't expect these to be eye catching :). Here are a couple that I have done already.

Now this is a super complex craft y'all. :) I took the .97 brown basic clipboards from Wal-Mart. Then I grabbed some black acrylic paint (because that is the color I had the most of on hand), and a paper towel. I squirted (that's the technical term by the way) the black paint on the clipboard and rubbed it around with the paper towel to coat the whole board. Because, I didn't have any paint sponges or brushes on hand, and then I really liked the way it looked once it was done. I had to do 3 coats of the black paint. Then, when they dried, which was very quickly I might add, I took a white paint pen, googled inspirational quotes, picked one out, and wrote it on the clipboard. Whaa La! They are not perfect, but they are perfectly mine! I love them, and I hope my kids do too, and just maybe they will read the right quote on the right day and it will give them the little intrinsic push they need to do their best that day! :)

Teach Inspired Friends! It's the best way to be. :)