Happy New Year!

I hope that you and yours enjoyed the holiday season and spent it surrounded by family and friends. School is now only a few days away and I wanted to share a brief update about the Teacher Voice blog and podcast as we move forward into 2019 and the second half of the current school year.

As is my usual habit, I spend a great deal of time during the winter (and summer) break reflecting on how I can improve as a teacher and, more importantly, a human being. Many of the books I read the last few weeks also led to much introspection about the quality of my life at the current moment and how it could be improved. One of the many realizations that I came to during the last couple of weeks is that I have devoted entirely too much time to Teacher Voice.

One of the most common questions that fellow teacher friends asked me during the first year and a half of the Teacher Voice project was some variation of how do you do it all? To be honest, “doing it all” had a cost, the biggest of which was a loss of time that I typically devoted toward self-care and self-betterment. In the first year and a half I wrote over 70 pieces for the blog and published over 40 episodes of the podcast, but I was sleeping less and found myself increasingly struggling to give my absolute best to those who matter most as a teacher–my students.

In an effort to restore my sanity and get back to basics, I am significantly scaling back what I will be doing on Teacher Voice. At most, I will write no more than two posts per month, and I will only publish one podcast during each month. Furthermore, I want 2019 to be the “Year of the Teacher,” mainly because I felt that the second half of 2018 focused exclusively on guests who were running for public office that would impact public education. Though I immensely enjoyed the conversations with those candidates, I’d like to share the voices and perspectives of those who are most often ignored by our elected officials–the educators themselves.

But here’s where you can help, fellow educator! I would still like the Teacher Voice project to become what I originally intended: a sounding board for those who are in the profession to share their perspectives and ideas by writing guest posts for the blog or being guests on the Teacher Voice podcast. Does this sound like you, dear reader?

There is still one podcast that I have yet to publish from last year, and I hope to have it published by next week. The first teacher guest podcast was recorded a few days ago, and that should follow later this month. But if you would like to write a guest post for the blog or appear on the podcast yourself, please use the “contact” feature at the top of the page or email me directly at 1teachervoice@gmail.com.

Thanks again for your interest and support of the Teacher Voice project!

– Ryan

P.S. – Be sure to Like or Follow the Teacher Voice Facebook page if you haven’t already. While I will not be creating as much original content moving forward, I will still share relevant public education news on that platform. You can also jump directly into the conversation by following me on Twitter as well.