My very first post!!!

It is pretty funny that in the process of trying to figure out what to do a blog about that I never even considered doing a blog about teaching, learning, and parenting those who are learning.  I am an elementary school and also a parent of a toddler and a tween, so I often feel like I am all over the place!!!  However, now I have more of a perspective of the problems that parents face.  Also, when I deal with my own children as well as my students, I realize that some of the problems they are facing now are those that I myself had to deal with.  I try to balance when to push students toward success and when to sit patiently and allow them to grow.  My perspective of teaching has most certainly changed now that I am parenting at the same time!!! I have a lot more respect for the struggles that parents go through that I may have chalked up to complacency before I had children of my own.  
I have been teaching for over 15 years and I should think I have a wide breadth of knowledge about that!  
In addition, my mother was a teacher for over 30 years – in fact, she was my biggest inspiration to get into this whole thing!  My mom is hearing-impaired but taught hearing children throughout the course of her career – in fact, she was my teacher in second grade!  I remember a smart comment I made once when I was a mouthy teenager that “all she had to do was go and teach the kids and then come back home”.  I had no idea of the extent of liability, bureaucracy, and "red tape" involved!   On my hard days, I think back to those comments and really regret I said that.  
Teaching is no joke!  I often say that if I only had to deal with the children, my life would usually be AMAZING, but there have always been four human components that I have to think about in my teaching career: myself as a teacher, the parents, the students, and the administrators.  I think that teachers can be so stifled with directives and mandates about what NOT to do that some just end up doing NOTHING.  Frozen like deer in headlights...  That’s the fog that so many of us teachers end up wandering through: no voice, no say, no impact.  
I really want this space to be different.  I want this to be a place where ideas and opinions can be shared and respected.  Please keep in mind that we are all entitled to our own opinion and disagreements do not need to lead to fights.  For ALL of us who share here, lets be positive and respectful.  Ok... I've got to get at least one teacher-ism in there: "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all".  Just kidding!  However, I am hoping that when necessary we can agree to respectfully disagree.  I know that some things said here will not be respected by everyone, but I want us all to be able to share FREEly, but just be respectful of yourself and others in this space.  Please refrain from profanity, crude comments, and hateful messages.  I look forward to seeing what we can all learn when we are FREE to share!