Tonight I read this article.  In it the author of the referred to article talks about his frustrations as a teacher.  He refers to all of his frustrations as things that make him tired.  As I read this I thought, I'm grateful I don't feel tired as a teacher.  Now more than ever since I began my teaching career I feel the same sense of excitement I did when I first did when I was a student teacher. 

There are too many teachers who fall victim to the trap of feeling like they can't escape the system.  They worry they have to play the game or they will lose their jobs.  These are the teachers who will feel tired and burned out.

When I see blogs like Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher, Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher, My Life as a Third Grade Teacher, The Science Penguin, One Extra Degree, A Teeny Tiny Teacher, 4th Grade Frolics, Common Core Activities, and *Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge* I am inspired by these teachers who despite being under the same stresses all the other teachers in the country are still are creative and have fun teaching.  These bloggers are the GREAT TEACHERS! Thank you to them for posting great ideas and discussions to help motivate me.

Along with blogs, you would have to have been living under a rock for the last year if you are a teacher not know anything about teacherspayteachers.com and pinterest.com.  Between these two sites you can find everything you need to make you're lessons engaging and exciting.

There are so many more resources out there that I cannot even begin to name.  I am so thankful for the Internet for that reason. 

California is just now rolling out the Common Core Standards and I couldn't be more excited about them.  While I was a student teacher I learned the importance of depth not breath while teaching.  Readers and Writers Workshop approaches brought this point home for me.  Unfortunately when I started teaching I felt like I couldn't carry out this philosophy, mainly because of the reasons the author of the referred to article mentions.  But this year because of the introduction of the Common Core Standards, the support of a principal who thinks outside of the box, and my combination classroom which has allowed me to develop my own methods separate from other classrooms at my school I have felt myself become the teacher I knew I wanted to be when I was a teacher. 

Now I feel like I will never fall into the trap of being too tired with a lack of creativity or energy. I am on my way to finding out who I am as a teacher and am so excited to see where that leads me.  I love being a TEACHER!!!!