The Daily 180°

For 180 days, teachers and educators on all levels are hyper-focused on the jobs before them. This work can be exhaustive. As an educator, your influence spans generations, leaving a lasting impact on individuals, communities, and the world. The Daily 180° is a powerful interactive tool that will remind you why you go to work each day and inspire you to find the mindset necessary to sustain your journey. Believing that teaching is the most important job in the world, several years ago, author and teacher J.D. Durden conducted case study research on teachers‘ morale levels and their intention to stay in education or not. After the research was concluded, the data showed that more than fifty percent of teachers from across the country were actively thinking of ways to get out of education. Concerned for education and our youth, J.D. started working harder from inside buildings rather than trying to change the outer layers of our educational system, realizing that might be the only thing we can control these days. With the new knowledge of how teachers were feeling, she spent an entire contracted school year-one hundred eighty days-writing my perspective on real-life happenings around her at work. The Daily 180° writings and reflections in this book are thoughts and questions she wrote each morning before her days started. Realizing that shifting my mindset, sometimes 180 degrees, is a guaranteed controllable, this practice kept her focused on the necessary work in education. On days when your perspective needs to shift 180 degrees, I hope you welcome the turnaround and move through your day with an open heart and mind because we need you. Please read a daily inspirational message with a relative self-reflection prompt attached. As you move through the days, you will notice the following key concepts intertwined throughout the book.Influence Reality Relationships Resilience Reflection Retention Mindfulness Kindness Leadership Accountability Honesty Emotional Intelligence Social Intelligence Cultural Intelligence Empathy Optimism Change Expectation Failure Success Internal Wealth