Five Ways to Enrich Your Teaching Life

I found this article, "Five Ways to Enrich Your Teaching Life", to be really enriching. If you have time, I encourage you to read it.

Here are some thoughts I have about how each of the 5 ways applies to VIE:
1. Collaborate: At VIE, it's easy to work in isolation and a challenge to collaborate :( My experience is that reaching out pays off - saves me work, gives me energy and supports my students even more!
2. Stand up for your profession: As we all know, VIE is under the microscope as an 'alternative' school & is therefore even more susceptible to negative views. We can counteract this by simply sharing how we support students with an education that works for them! Tell the world how hard you work & inspire them with your courage and dedication.
3. Mentor other teachers: I am grateful to have had the chance to help other teachers with a variety of issues from math to technology, etc. It's not only been rewarding to help but given me great insight into teaching; working with 'students' of all ages!
4. Be a student: One of the things I love about VIE is the fact that there is so much room for growth - always LOTS to learn. Being a student myself not only models "life-long learning" but allows me to have compassion for the students I work with. Being a student doesn't have to mean just academic learning... learning anything new is enriching!
5. Stand up for yourself: My experience at VIE has been very supportive when it comes to pay for extra duties. I think this bit of advice makes a good point in general but not as applicable here at VIE. To me, "standing up for myself" would be more inline with the statement, "Make sure you are doing your best in everything that you do..." That relates to #2 above.

I'd love to hear your thoughts....