Handle Hard Better
This didn’t lead me to a magical epiphany, but it did leave me inspired. For those of us teachers who plan on staying in the game, handling hard things better should be on our to-do list.
Kara Lawson is the current head coach for the Duke Blue Devils women’s basketball team. “Lawson guided the Blue Devils to their best season in recent history as Duke finished the 2022-23 campaign with a 26-7 overall record featuring a 14-4 mark and second-place finish in ACC play, while also earning a No. 3 seed and advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Duke’s 26 victories were a season’s best dating back to the 2016-17 campaign while the 14 conference victories were the most since 2012-13.” Go Duke Kara Lawson Page.
The following video recently appeared on my social media feed. It's a speech that Coach Lawson gave to her players. One of the main points of the speech is that life continues to throw challenges at us, and one of the best things we can do to set ourselves up for success is to learn how to "Handle Hard Better."
It was a message I needed to hear. I also shared it with my 8th graders.
I compiled a list of the hard things in teaching that I'd like to handle better And shared it with my Crew (homeroom). Some of my "hard things" were student attitudes and effort, difficult home situations, lack of work completion, having to repeat directions and an ever-increasing workload.
This didn’t lead me to a magical epiphany, but it did leave me inspired. For those of us teachers who plan on staying in the game, handling hard things better should be on our to-do list.
