My need for Forward Momentum.
Right now, it can feel like we are stuck. As educators trying to navigate remote learning, modified learning, or a combination of both it can feel like we are treading water. I’m personally trying to make both work at the same time. I have a classroom full of kids 5 days a week and also a handful of kids who have chosen to stay remote that join us on a video conference for the period. I’m not sure what success looks like. I’m not sure what forward momentum looks like.
I can point to things I’ve gotten better at and things I’ve switched up that probably should have been given up long ago as we’ve been teaching through a pandemic but despite this I am having trouble feeling like I am truly moving forward. I have talked to a lot of my colleagues who feel the same way.
I follow Aram Arslanian on Instagram (@aramxarslanian), he’s a hardcore kid turned entrepreneur who happens to sing in a rad hXc band, Change, and runs Cadence Leadership, which helps businesses learn to communicate and work together more effectively. Recently he shared a message on his social media about trying to find forward momentum outside of what you’re stuck on at work. Giving yourself something to focus on that you can succeed at and feel like you are getting that forward momentum.
This message totally resonated with me. I feel stuck right now. I feel like every time I take one step forward, something with COVID and teaching takes me two steps back. I took this advice and decided to challenge myself in a way that I could find success and forward momentum out of the classroom. This is hard. My life is education. If you’re an educator, you probably feel like your life is tightly intertwined with what happens in your classroom. You don’t just take those essays or tests home to grade, you also take the baggage of what’s happening with your students in their lives or what you see impacting the communities you serve. That can weigh us down.
So I’ve decided to challenge myself. I’ve decided to find something outside of my classroom, outside of my role as a president of a teacher’s union to feel success and forward momentum on. I’m the type of person with a bunch of irons in the fire but they are all education irons. So finding something outside of teaching outside of education has been a little tough. So because I’m a little zapped for anything that’s not education oriented (I mean look I host an education podcast, I am in the middle of my second education masters, I am doing my admin internship, and I lead a teachers union). Everything is education. That being the case, I decided to take another page from Aram and run for 100 days straight (Check out his video about it here). I had gotten back into running when the pandemic hit. It helps me clear my mind and this seemed like a challenge that would give me both figurative and literal forward momentum.
As of today, I hit day 46. I don’t know if I will hit 100 days straight but I’ve never run more than 5 days in a row before. So 46 feels like some serious success and some serious forward momentum. I track my days on a little blank 100 square grid I took a screenshot of. Most mornings, I share it along with the music I’ve listened to on my run on my Instagram story (@joshrbuckley). Checking that box is my forward momentum and every day, I feel like I’ve accomplished something. To be honest, right now, that feeling is something I have desperately needed. My wife has noticed a change in my mood (I was in a pretty down place for about a couple months) and I have noticed I’m handling my stress a whole lot better.
I’m not saying you need to lace up your sneakers and join me every morning. I’m not saying you have to take on some big goal. Mike and I talked about finding “your punk.” Find that thing that drives you. Find that thing that you can grab a hold of and drive yourself forward. Find that thing that you can challenge yourself with. Something that can give you forward momentum.
In my classroom I can feel like I’m treading water. In my job as union president, I can feel like I’m treading water. But…every morning I’ve got feet hitting pavement, loud music in my ears, and I’ve done something I’ve never done before. It’s helping me move forward and it feels like I can start moving everything forward.
