Recently my friend Shelley Burgess, along with her husband, Dave, published a picture book for educators. P is for Pirate is a fun inspiration for teachers and leaders, walking through the alphabet with a fun pirate twist. One unique Burgess touch was the fact that Shelley and Dave reached out to many educators, through twitter, to share their own ABC words. The ideas of others were included at the back of the book. I was honored to be asked, and to have my “M is for Mirror” shared.

During this week’s #satchatwc chat, Shelley asked all participants to share their own Inspirational ABC’s for Educators. I tweeted out as many ideas as I could brainstorm during that hour-long chat. I wanted to capture what I tweeted as well as to finish my own alphabet here for my own reflection. I haven’t gone through the alphabet like this since I finished by Abecedary of Reflection! Please feel free to play along in the comments with your own ABC’s.

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A: Awesome. Educators take on this awesome work on behalf of kids and work so hard every day!

B: Brave. In this new frontier of education, we must be brave and stand up for what is best for kids.

C: Challenge. We need to teach our students (& ourselves) to face, not fear, challenges.

D: Deliberate. We need to be even more deliberate & purposeful in our work.

E: Experience. Our students & teachers need to participate in experiences beyond the four classroom walls!

F: Fun. “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Have fun!

G: Generous. Be generous w/ feedback to students & teachers. Be generous w/ books! Be generous w/ learning opportunities!

H: Honesty. Educators need to be honest about our own strengths & how we can improve to support our students today.

I: Independent. We need our students to learn how to be independent learners, knowledge seekers, researchers, citizens!

J: Joy. Let’s help one another keep the joy in both teaching and learning!

K: Knowledge-seekers: students, teachers and leaders.

L: Literacy for all!

M: Mirror (of course!). We must provide time for reflection for teachers!

N: NEW. Never lose the light you see when a student learns something NEW.

O: Okapi, if @burgess_shelley can make Tapir work, I can make this work!

The okapi is one of my favorite animals. From the unique coloring, to the fact that you think the okapi is related to a zebra, but it is actually part of the giraffe family, this animal can teach us much about not judging a book by its cover (or an animal by its stripes!).

P: Passion or persistence – both are important to keep the classroom moving forward!

(This is as far as I got during our Twitter chat, but I’m going to continue on here!)

Q: Quizzical. Encourage our students and colleagues to continue to ask questions like quizzical toddlers!

R: Repetition. Learners need to see, read, write, and hear new ideas multiple times.

S: Social Justice. I retweeted this word in complete agreement during the chat:

 YES!! RT @RosaIsiah: A5 S is for Social Justice. I’m a voice for all Ss, an advocate 4equity/social justice for ALL #satchatwc

T: Triple threat. The triple threat of the future should be students who can read, write, and think, integrating skills across content areas.

U: Unbelievable! The reaction teachers should have after releasing students to do more on their own, using their own creativity.

V: Verdad. Truth. Let us tell the truth about the state of our work so we can build on our strengths.

W: Windows. Keep the windows of possibility open and ready!

X, Y, Z: Zest!  Yes, let’s hire educators with a zest for learning and desire to help all students succeed!

Monday motivation