#TeacherLoveTribe Where are you?

I can't help but wonder where they are. They registered, they retweeted my post, but nobody is here. Here I am in my Teacher Love Tribe Zoom session alone, again. I'm going to be interviewed by Matt Miller for #ditchsummit very soon about #TeacherLoveTribe and so far, it is a tribe of one. Me. Alone. I get a few  "sorry I can't make it tonight" texts each week. I know everyone is busy. I know we are on summer break. I myself sometimes want to send out a " sorry I cant make it" message as well. But I don't. And I won't . If you build it, they will come. That's what Kevin Costner' Field of Dreams professes right?

Well,  even though I can't be sure, I have a pretty good notion of what might be going on. Personal Development like this, can be a look in the mirror that is hard to swallow. Once you open up and get vulnerable even just with yourself, there can be emotions triggered and you have no clue where they may be coming from. And sometimes, you know exactly where they are coming from, a place you have chosen to steer clear of. I have been there. There were very ugly times in my life when I couldn't look in the mirror metaphorically, or even physically for that matter. I had very little grasp onto anything stable and felt like I was being tossed from nightmare to nightmare. It wasn't overnight, but one step at time, I began to get a better grip on my life, and make the changes I needed to wellness. For me it took some pretty scary and devastating moments to turn things around. I'll leave those stories to the book I may write one day. Shoot, who knows, if I get the hang of this blog thing, you just might hear a story or two here.

With that said, I want you to know #TeacherLoveTribe that what I want to build is a community of support with as much or as little engagement as you are ready for. You can come to a zoom session and simply listen. You can leave at any time. You can stay. You can contribute. It's a short 30 minutes. We begin with a quick breath, guided relaxation of movement, to get us centered and grounded, move into a small thought for the day and then we workshop it. An activity for you to do right then, or when you're ready is proposed and that's it. You can stay and chat about what resonated with you, or leave and work on it as time allows. It's a start. And you deserve it! If you're ready to join register here. bit.ly/TeacherLoveTribe

Introductions are in order!

Here I am, Crystal Chavez, 40 years old, starting a blog. I am a teacher. I am a wife. I am a mother of 2 sons. I am officially a blogger. I have lots of thoughts, strong opinions, and tons of passion. I also have a voice. I am a champion for student voice and push hard for my students and children to know how much their voice matters. I had to take my own advice and use my voice. To be completely honest, I've been thinking about blogging for awhile. Others have asked me to guest blog and I have respectfully declined quite a few offers. I thought on more than one occasion to myself who would read it anyway. As I read my colleague and friend Brent Coley's book the other night, "Stories of EduInfluence..." he spoke about the power of sharing.  He mentioned that there may just be that one person that needed to hear what you have to say. It was the nudge I needed. Thanks @brentcoley. So I begin this blogging journey to share my story in hopes that it may touch someone, help in some way for my readers to fell peace, love, joy, or comfort. I don't know the ins and outs of blogging. I actually rarely read blogs. I prefer verbal communication. I was a communications major in my undergrad and public speaking was a big part of that. You may even see me opt out of blogging and throw a Vlog in, here and there. Is that allowed? I really should go read up on Blog rules, but then again, I'm not typically a rule follower. I'm the one disrupting the status quo, to push progress forward, and take risks to see what might work better. I'm the one who asks uncomfortable questions. I'm sometimes loud, I have quite a bit of energy, and I love to talk. I karaoke to release stress, and love to challenge myself. You'll probably get to know my self talk battle well as I take on new challenges. A common phrase lately has been " What did I get myself into?" If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking around. Let's see what happens next.