I am so excited to be returning to the IMPACT space! Tonight, I graduated from an intensive trauma therapy evening program. It was the support I needed for gaining the skills to prepare for, cope with, and resolve thoughts and emotions arising from my cPTSD. I made it through the semester while attending program 5 nights (to begin) stepped to 3 nights a week. Because of speaking up and taking this step, I am ready to face second semester continuing to celebrate my students’ growth!! I have missed IMPACT during this time and I am thrilled to start 2026 with 3 major personal wins from 2025. *Embracing my value as a person and fully believing in my self-worth. Including setting reasonable boundaries and standing up for myself when those were not respected. I can now say I am a reformed people pleaser! If it doesn’t align with my values or fails to meet the importance/necessary criteria, I can be like Elsa and Let it go! *Continuous growth is a core value for me. Progress over perfection, celebrating small successes along the way. With my leadership and direction, we acknowledge students for great growth alongside those who are top scorers on our district assessments. My focus on individual growth over hitting specific targets has led to some amazing growth in my students’ reading skills!! My personal growth journey in effective assertive communication, mirrors that of my students’ reading. Applying the skills I learned in my therapy program has only enhanced my overall well being. I can now communicate difficult topics in a way that reflects my affirmation- “I am strong and caring”. *The third and perhaps largest personal win for me is a resolution to a journey of healing that I embarked on in Autumn 2019. Six long years of hiking a proverbial mountain of trauma induced thoughts and emotions that lead back to my teenage years. I had already committed to myself that I would not repeat the cycle with my own children and now I can truly say I have broken that for myself and my descendants. Healing is a journey that will never be truly over- but from this point forward, I’ll be able to cope in a healthy manner and learn from every experience. Instead of student trauma sinking me into reliving my own trauma, I can be a beacon and help young people find their agency and voice to intervene for themselves and have a better, healthier, future for themselves and their descendants.

Friends yesterday I officially completed my Masters degree in Lead Teacher. I Mastered it and DONE with it🎉🎉🎉 I wanted to come here and let you know the journey wasn’t easy and today I told myself GOOD THINGS DONT COME EASY. I am grateful for all the obstacles and overcoming the unseen and unspoken. We can do hard things—YOU GOT THIS‼️

I am attending a conference in Nashville this week and most of the sessions I have chosen relate to this topic. I am curious as to how prepared our community here feels to work with kids with these needs. If you could take a moment, this would be helpful. Thanks!! 😃

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Let's make some connections this summer! Comment what level or subject you teach or work with and scroll through to reply to someone you have a connection to :) Not in the classroom, the same roll call still applies. 🩵 Let's make some connections