Halftime!

by Linda Burns, chapter member

It’s January. It’s football season, and Super Bowl XLIV is right around the corner. Super Bowl is exciting!  We recover from the holidays and all the hustle and bustle to throw football parties and cook comfort foods which make the house smell delicious. Simmering pots of chili, spice rubbed ribs and smoky hot wings are on the menu, as well as vegetable platters, chips with award winning dip and our favorite salsa from the best Mexican restaurant in town. We invite our closest friends; the friends we feel so comfortable with that we can wear sweatpants or grungy jeans, yell at the television while shoveling chips into our mouths and know they still love us. While many of us and our families “actively” watch the games, we are watching from our couches. We are merely spectators.
 
We see what happens on the field, but what happens in the locker room? What happens at half-time while we are watching elaborate musical performances? I think I have a pretty good idea. No matter how the game is going, at half time, the team has a chance to reflect on the first half and see what can be done to improve the second half. They know the team they are playing. They know their moves; their strengths and weaknesses and they know what they have to do. They are in a different position than they were at the very beginning of the game, because they have had the chance to work with this team up close and personal. We are teachers, and teaching is not a spectator sport.

Do you remember last August? You may have ridden in from summer break full of adrenaline and excitement, prepared with new tools and goals for the school year.  It’s 2020, a brand-new year!  It’s the second half! Aren’t we lucky? As teachers, we get to revamp, re-start, re-organize and reconnect with our students as we enter the second semester. Bring the high energy of the roaring 20's into 2020 and set the tone for the next decade. Let’s move into this new semester with renewed energy and excitement! Use what we learned first semester to help our students achieve their learning goals and become the MVP’s they are meant to be.