It's good to stretch as it extends your capacity for teaching well.
Yet too much stretching in the wrong directions can cause more harm than good.
That's why the ever elusive and tough to reach balance is so very important in school life.
Reading the culture is imperative in this regard. What's important? What's happening? What's expected? In some areas that might be explicit, coached, and easy to understand, and in other areas that could be blurry, tricky, and difficult to discern. Either way or in between, an educator has many people, situations, and expectations to navigate each and every day.
Part of that navigation requires stretching right--extending yourself in ways that matter so that you learn well and your students learn well too. Part of that navigation requires holding back too. Taking a deep breath, scheduling your time so that you're not "all school" but the right amount of school and that right amount of other factors and efforts that make you who you are and want to be.
Balance stands out there like a blinking caution light for passionate people like me, people who like to wholeheartedly embrace the vision and dream to make it come true.
It's wise to regard the blinking yellow light of caution, and the beacon that's your dream and vision too.
The ebb and flow of a wise and wonderful journey.
