Stuck in a Rut

I've been in a bit of a rut lately.

Yes, lots of fun tech learning has been happening.
Yep, I'm teaching all my classes and working with all our staff.
Work continued at it's typical pace, I continued checking things off my to-do list on a daily basis.
We even held our first in-person (mostly) school-wide event last week and it was Ah-May-Zing!

But.

As March 13 loomed closer, I started getting lost in the past two years. While Covid may have sucked the life out of a lot of things, I also learned more than I could have ever imagined during the pandemic - about life, about teaching and learning, about tech, and about me.

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As a highly sensitive person, I feel everything around me, in addition to what's going on in my head. Sometimes that is a totally badass skill to have! I mean, I can read a room like nobody's business, and can adapt to what I'm walking into.

Combined with anxiety and depression (well treated, thankfully,) sometimes things get incredibly overwhelming... especially around milestones that weren't so pleasant to begin with.

As March 13 loomed closer, and finally arrived, I finally recognized why I was feeling so slumpy, and once I recognized what was going on, the struggle dissipated. 

This coming week is the MACUL conference (Yahoo! My favorite!) and I know that as I'm driving there on Wednesday, there will be flashbacks of the conference two years ago, when I was en route, and turned around to head back to school to crisis-plan-how-to-teach-remotely technology tools. Instead of sinking into the gloop, my goal (hope!) is to think about all the amazingness that DID come out of the pandemic.

For example...

• The whole school is now tech savvy enough to teach remotely using a variety of tech tools! (I'd been trying to get many on board with tech basics for years!)
• We are now 1:1 in all grades, which has enabled so much more personalized learning for our students!
• I learned that while I am an excellent problem-solver, my brain finds multiple solutions to any given problem before most people processed the problem itself. Because of that finding, I have learned to become a much better listener and team member.
• Bonus family time, without realizing how much I actually needed it, created new family routines that I love.

So. March 13 is here, and with it came daylight savings. As this post draws to a close I actually feel lighter (and not because it's still still light outside while I'm drafting this!) and am feeling even more excited for the coming week, and beyond. 

If you happen to be attending the MACUL conference, consider adding my sessions to your schedule! I promise they'll be worth the time! (And there will be giveaways! Lots of giveaways!