Escaping burnout in an unexpected way

Proverbs 27:17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another.

The school year always wears me out and I look forward to the summer. Normally I bank heavily on the fact that vacation will work wonders for renewing my spirit.  We often find respite on the beach, away from all thoughts of work or the new school year.  This year with two vacations scheduled, I had high expectations of awesomeness.  We spent a week of vacation in Wisconsin Dells, and another week in Nashville.  Both of these were great, but the driving and intense family time created more exhaustion than renewal.  After Nashville, I was home for a couple days and headed off to Iowa for a week to help out after my dad's surgery.  A nine hour drive brought me home for a couple days and after presenting at a conference for two days, spending a week at the University of Kentucky for graduate school was not high on my list of things to do before the summer was over.  It actually ranked right below scrubbing all baseboards in the house.  I'm glad I was so wrong.

I found what I have been missing for awhile was not more time to "get away" but rather more time of intellectual stimulation.  I spent a week with classmates from all over the world (have you heard of Dana Watts?  She's a pretty big deal).  We had a lot of laughs, but the best part was that I was pushed to think beyond where my academic thoughts normally end.  We were challenged to ask deep questions, and then go deeper with those thoughts.  As educators we get so focused on what lies directly in front of us that we never pause to expand our thinking.  

I was encouraged by my cohort to never settle.  They encouraged me to start sharing the great things I'm doing in my classes.  <--- This is a huge weakness of mine.  I am not one to brag on myself and I often let others take the credit.  In the words of Curt Rees, "Dude, you need to grow an ego! You're freakin' awesome!"  

Who do you work with that you can encourage?  Who is the "iron" that can help sharpen you?  Who can be your critical friend that will offer an honest opinion?  

Thanks to all of my cohorts from University of Kentucky's School Technology Leadership program.  This week was exactly what I needed.  Find our crew on twitter #ukstl