Twenty or Thirty

You might be one of the twenty or thirty people that need to read this post today. Or you might know one of them. (And we know there are more than twenty or thirty, right? But there are at least twenty or thirty at a very particular point.)

If you’re one of those twenty or thirty, you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. Winter Break may be just starting for you, or it may be a few days away. You had this hope – or this wish – that if you could just make it to Winter Break, things would get better, right? Somehow, some way, you’d be able to rest and recover and maybe even reground yourself a little bit. Somehow, some way, the never-ending piles – virtual and physical piles – of Work To Grade would either grade themselves or somehow, some way, you’d find the time and energy to deal with them. All that Planning and Preparing, all that Making Of Materials that you’d hoped for … yeah, that also, ideally, would either get itself done automagically or maybe, just maybe, you’d find the time and energy.

Oh, and family stuff! And holiday stuff! And “just me time” stuff … that, too, would happen automagically, or at least it wouldn’t take very much of your time or your energy.

But we know, right? We know what happened last Winter Break and the Winter Break before that. We know about the Piles Of Work that were still there when school started back. We know about the Plans To Rest that did happen, but we know you were still tired when January rolled around. We know what happens when you do the same thing expecting different results.

One of my favorite writers on Facebook, Terra Vance – Marked Melungeon, frequently talks about the differences between being broke (which can happen to anybody; it’s a cash flow issue) and being Poor (which is a generational identity and a set of values and beliefs expressed in all kinds of ways, including Never Enough Money). Terra doesn’t really talk about this, but in between broke and Poor there’s another thing, a thing where the values and beliefs are aligned and resonant with scarcity-fear but there isn’t the generational identity of being capital-P Poor. For lack of a better term, I call it impoverished or small-p poor. Most of us have been broke at some point. Some of us have been and felt impoverished. Some of us have a heritage of Poor. And it isn’t just about the money!

If you’re one of the twenty or thirty, you’re not broke or impoverished or Poor when it comes to money. Not right now anyway, even though teacher salaries are what they are. Where you’re feeling broke or impoverished is with time and energy – the time and energy it takes to be the teacher you always wanted to be. It seems like there isn’t enough time or energy in the world for that.

And that’s why you’ve been wondering if it’s Fixable. And that’s why you’re so, so Tired and Sad … so anxious and frustrated and overwhelmed. That’s why you’ve been kinda-sorta thinking about finding a new career path … but that’s also why you’re hesitating. You don’t want to give up your professional identity as a good, experienced, effective teacher, even (especially!) when you aren’t feeling all that good or effective on a typical Tuesday. And you really don’t want to give up the good learner and good student parts, the parts that led you to become a teacher in the first place.

So, if you’re one of the twenty or thirty this week, you know you’re ready for the next right step. You know you want to find out whether your real teaching problem is Fixable or not – the professional identity problem, the part where your values and beliefs about school and teaching and learning and students seem to be so misaligned and incongruent and dissonant with the realities of students and schools today. And you’re hoping it’s fixable, because what you really, deeply, strongly desire to do is to Reclaim your Teaching Confidence and Reground your Professional Identity and Rebuild your Teaching Practice in ways that work for you AND for your students, colleagues, context, and community.

And that’s the invitation. Go ahead and get in touch with me and we’ll get your call scheduled. It’s $90 to find out whether that Real Problem is Fixable, and when it is (because, in your heart, you know it is; that’s why you’re going to book that call), $60 of that $90 goes towards the program where we actually fix it.

Isn’t that the holiday present you want to give yourself? And it’s not just for yourself, either. It’s for your family. It’s for the people you love, the people that love you, the people who are worrying about you right now because you’ve been so tired and anxious and overwhelmed.

There’s no fake-urgency. There’s no artificial scarcity here. But you know you’re ready, and you know you’re ready now. Go ahead and get in touch on Facebook or LinkedIn or by text at my Google Voice number (865) 226-9380. You can know it’s Fixable and start Reclaiming Your Confidence and maybe even Reground and Rebuild before Winter Break is over … maybe before it even starts, depending on your schedule. And you’ll have energy and attention for the important personal and professional things, too. And you’ll know that next January isn’t going to be like all those other Januaries.

Go ahead and get in touch today and we’ll get started.

Quick Update

salvēte, amīcissimī!  This is a very brief post just to let you know that there’s now a Table of Contents for all the fābulae (longer stories) and fabellae (shorter stories) from Tres Columnae that I’ve published so far, either here on the blog or on the site itself.  There’s a link to it from the homepage at www.trescolumnae.com/wiki, or you can use this direct link. As a special bonus, you’ll also find a draft of the story that will most likely appear in a blog post on Tuesday (three days in the future as I write this).  Feel free to share the link with your friends, fellow teachers,students, and other friends of Latin and the Classics if you’d like! 🙂

While you’re there, please feel free to register.  It’s free, and you gain the ability to create an internal Tres Columnae blog (or multiple blogs, if you’d like) and to make comments on the stories and other “stuff” there.  We’ll also be able to notify you easily when the Basic and Standard subscription options are available.

Grātiās maximās omnibus legentibus!  Hope you have a good and happy weekend (a three-day weekend for many U.S. readers) and a happy Valentine’s Day with those you love and care about.  In honor of Valentine’s Day, I don’t expect there will be a post tomorrow; and if there is one, it probably won’t be directly about the Tres Columnae project.  We’ll be back on Monday with a few thoughts about impersonal verbs, or the modus inpersōnālis (who knew the Romans thought impersonals were a mood?!) and on Tuesday with a story that incorporates them.   Till then, thanks again, and please keep those comments and emails coming.