Forgive me for having taken a hiatus that was longer than I expected. I went back to work and it was tough managing life. This week, I’m in summer school. But, by the grace of God, I will not have teach, only observe, for this first week! Whoo Hoo! God is good!

It was a long year but a fruitful one. I finally learned to work smarter and not harder, which was an answer to an eight-year-old prayer. I was forced to learn to maximize my time as a high school English teacher during my preps and to go to bed early with my son, Noah, which turned out to be a blessing.

I also revamped and expanded my public speaking elective to include a leadership portion that was not only well received by students and teachers but has also ignited a passion for teaching students that leaders are taught not born. Sadly, leadership is rarely taught. More on that some other time.

I can say that leadership was at the core of my evolution this year, as a Christian and as a teacher in a secular school. I learned to define leadership, to become a student of leadership, and to embrace the position which I have run from all my life.

Although I’m an extrovert, I’d rather follow a great leader than become one by trial and error. Fortunately, I have a couple of mentors that are incredibly influential—more than they even know.

This year I allowed the Lord to show me and lead me. More specifically, I learned to embrace leadership from a servant leader’s perspective—-Jesus, of course, is the greatest model of a servant leader. As He said in Matthew 20:28: He did not “come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” If you’re interested in more on this topic of leadership from a Christian perspective, I highly recommend reading Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard. Fun fact, I was an administrative assistant in the publicity department of a publishing house that handled one of his earlier business books when I was in my twenties. I might have brought him water or coffee, not sure. Who knew? Small world.

At then, at the end of the year, my school awarded me “Teacher of the Year!” A title I wish no teacher should ever have to compete for and yet, a title that I was humbled to receive.

Click here if you would like to hear my acceptance speech. If you’d like just the highlights, you can listen up to minute 4 and after minute 7. In between, I am providing quotes for other winners of different positions at different schools.

This is as long as I can go now because if I keep going, I risk not sending this out.

Please subscribe to my youtube channel. If I get more subscribers, I can eventually get my own youtube url. And I perhaps may even have more time for videos.

God bless you all,

Liz