Past NYSEC Board President, Michelle G. Bulla, is the featured author for the fourth installment of the NYSEC Board’s “Back to School” Series for the Voices of NYSEC Blog. In this post, she shares a bit about what keeps her motivated.
What’s something that you do to keep yourself motivated?
Professional and personal connections keep me inspired and focused and give me respite when I need that. Professionally, I attend conferences and create small PD learning opportunities with colleagues both in and out of my district with things like book clubs and collaborative co-planning for learning adventures in separate spaces. I visit other schools to spend time with educators I’ve met at conferences and in professional organizations like NYSEC and NCTE and the Hudson Valley Writing Project in order to see what new – and old – ideas look like on the ground, in classrooms, with students.
Personally, I’m a big fan of “playdates” with friends. Sometimes these are in the form of “First Fridays” and happy hours, and sometimes – at least a couple times a year – they are longer, “sleepover parties” where I and a small group of close friends find a house somewhere to rent for a weekend. These happen with different groups of friends, but in each case, we go, cook, drink wine, share stories from our lives and our professional endeavors, laugh and sometimes cry, and deepen the intimacy that keeps us all feeling like we belong to ourselves and to others and to the world.
The motif? Connections. Intimate, meaningful (and fun!) connections that expand my horizons and deepen my relationships. These keep me grounded and centered and moving in directions that matter to me.
Michelle G. Bulla is a 20+ year high school English teacher at Monroe-Woodbury High School in Orange County, where she also serves as 9-12 English Department Chair. She is on the Executive Board for the New York State English Council (NYSEC), serves on the NYSED English Language Arts Content Advisory Panel, and worked on the new revision of the state standards.