“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
I naturally prefer to work alone. I feel like I am at my best when I am in my own space, with headphones on, and focused on the task at hand. For some things this might be the best way to work. When I am working on photos, writing blog posts, and sharing things on social media, working on my own usually works out for me. However, as an elementary school teacher, working alone might not be the best approach. When I first started, I tried to do it all on my own. It didn’t really work out for me like I thought I would. I would stay up all night trying to get everything ready, and then come into the classroom early trying to put it all together. I thought this was how the best teachers got it done. I later realized all I was doing was spending so much time preparing that I didn’t have the energy to actually teach and deliver the lesson. Fast forward a few years later. Now everyone on my team shares the burden of preparing lessons, practice, and activities for students to do. I now have more time to address individual student needs, work on other school related projects, spend more time with family, and most importantly rest. The number lesson I learned from the pandemic is the importance of rest. A good night’s sleep is more valuable than staying up all hours of the night putting together something that might work. I learned by leaning on others I can achieve more, and the true beneficiaries of that is my students.
I took these photos earlier this summer while I was out on my many bike rides. This is one route that I do that’s a little farther, but allows me to see different sites of Charlotte that I don’t normally see. I tried my best to capture the beauty of this place. It’s a small patch of land in the middle of a neighborhood filled with wildflowers and crape myrtle trees.
How has working on a team helped you become a better person?
Through Griffin's Lens 