Teachers working on Saturday???

I'm sitting home tonight reflecting on my Saturday, not how much time I spent napping, not how great the basketball games were I watched, or any of the other "lazy" Saturday type of activities!  I am reflecting on how awesome my job is as a teacher, how unbelievable the people are that I work with, and how much good there is in education!  I spent my Saturday at the first annual Michigan Flip Teaching Conference with about 150 other passionate educators today!

I'm always so disappointed when I hear the negative press that teachers get, it really starts to weigh on you as a professional.  I often think, why are the good stories in education never shared?  Why are people not lifting up teachers and supporting them more?  In an effort to process some of these feelings, I am sitting her writing this, fully knowing that it will only be read by a very small audience of teachers or people who agree with my point of view, but I'm ok with that!

I just spent the good portion of a Saturday with a group of teachers who all want to excel at what they do, in order to better serve the students that sit before them on a daily basis.  150 teachers gave up a Saturday to learn from one another and help each other improve their craft.  Besides these 150 teachers giving up a Saturday, a handful of teachers gave up far more time putting the conference together!  Brian Bennett, Dave Prindle, David Fouch, Dan Spencer, Delia Bush, Doug Ragan, Karl Lindgren-Streicher and others (sorry I'm sure I forgot about some!).  Everyone involved gave up time and energy in order to better education and one another.

Bottom line, there are so many amazing educators out there, willing to give up so much in order to help students!  We need to be celebrating this, the good that's occurring in education.

I had a great day, meet other amazing teachers, learned a ton to bring back to school with me Monday....and all this on a Saturday!  I'd do it all over again next Saturday.....MIFlip team, what do ya think?