Last November, Bill Ferriter and I had a discussion about teacher burnout and how those of us who consider ourselves at the forefront of teacher leadership in our respective situations. The conversations kept streaming my way, and while the vets handled this situation much better, the stakes for other teachers only heightened as the year passed by. Being the reflective person I am, I said, “Well, isn’t the solution right in these spaces?” After all, reflection tends to help sow the bits of practice together into one bundle we can better handle.

Then, I noticed the lack of actual writing going on.

Then, it became a lack of socializing as a whole.

Then, I sat there, still typing away, skipping days here and there, when I said: “Can this Christmas break come ANY SOONER?!”

It seems to me that, even those of us who use these spaces to reflect and push the agenda for the teacher / educator voice, we’re still primarily in the school building, in the classroom, in the hallways, in the gyms, and in front of 20-30 children’s faces at a time, draining ourselves of our life energies in the process. How do we get enough time to blog, which is a considerably laborious process for those of us who care about the difference between there and their.

Where do we make the time to formally reflect? I agree that reflection is good, but reflecting formally, whether on paper or on this venue, and documenting that process proves more useful than random musings. What’s your weapon of choice?

Mr. Vilson, who has 1 more day to go before the blue moon greets me in a cold embrace …