Yesterday, fellow Road to Awesome author, Melissa Wright, posted the quote to the left with this tweet- 

" Every day is another page in your story.  Each day is important in shaping who we are on our journey."

I love this! Every day, we write another page of our own stories. We are the authors of these stories and we determine our reactions to what happens during the course of each day.  

This past weekend was the perfect example to this. On Saturday,  my husband and I went up to clean out my mother-in-law's apartment, Without a doubt, it was a hard and long day. My mother-in-law passed away a few weeks ago suddenly. She had only just moved down close to her children last March from Long Island. As we entered her apartment, we felt so sad . There were so many things that she had only gotten to enjoy for a short time- her new bedroom set, new living room furniture, etc.  To add to the sadness, Saturday would have been her 78th birthday. 

As we went through the apartment determining new homes for her treasured items, we were so thankful we were not alone- that my stepson, his girlfriend and my sister-in-law was all there to engage in this daunting task. It was a task that none of us wanted to do- but we had to do, But being all together helped us get through this tough situation.  On Sunday, we continued that process at our own home, finding homes for the items that we had selected to bring home. But as we moved her treasured items to their new homes, there was a sense of comfort. We could feel her in rooms of our home as we added her items to our own home.

But this idea doesn't just apply to our personal lives. Educators all around the world are working harder than ever.  We are all dedicated to our students, but there is no doubt that the constant pivoting of the past year plus has taken a toll on educators.  Now, as state testing grows closer every day, educators naturally feel the push to make sure that their students do their best on these assessments. There is a hurried push for fit in as many standards as they can in a short time. In most states, these assessments will not be evaluative of teachers, but provide an idea of where our students' needs are. But, that doesn't stop the feeling of educators to do their best to prepare their students.

Maybe, we need to use the idea above to frame this.  Our students' strengths will be celebrations. Our students' needs will reveal lessons that we will use in the future. We can use what went well to reexamine virtual practices that worked. Most importantly, we can work on using whatever we discover to give our students the best memories to conclude this year- focusing on their growth, not the gaps that might exist.