This week I spent a few days with the professionals at Branching Out Consultants. It is the mission of this organization to educate new and seasoned teachers with quality professional development for Christian school administrators and teachers through highly focused workshops, one-on-one coaching opportunities and administrative consulting. I couldn’t possibly write for you all of my take-aways from the last three days, but I would like to share the following quote, which I discovered during my professional development and believe are powerful words to remember each day I walk into class.

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

― Haim G. Ginott