So this post has been a long time coming. I originally heard this track early in the spring of this year, but of course, school got in the way. I also wanted to make sure that in creating the narrative that went along with the song was sound, and I could articulately get my point across. I feel like now I’m able, especially after coming across a powerful line in Sean Gaillard’s The Pepper Effect. He writes, “Believing that we do have a resonance is key to all of our moves in the schoolhouse as educators. The classroom is the canvas on which we paint the colors that will shade a legacy for our students.”

This spoke to me as if it was pumping through my earbuds. Gaillard, like me, finds inspiration through music. The muses he uses in The Pepper Effect are The Beatles. With this quote, he is likening the audacious potential power that educators have to the final resonating chord at the end of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

Personally, I’m not a Beatles fan, nor am I familiar with the album, but the metaphor (no pun intended) still strikes a meaningful chord. I like to think of it as a bone rattling bass drop, or in the case of this Gryffin track, the opening chord progressions. They set the tone for the experience, or create impact that allows the listener to attach emotion, feeling, or meaning to the tune.

That’s us. That’s teachers. Administrators. Aides. Educators. Nobody compares to us when it comes to creating emotion, feeling, or meaning in our lessons. John Hattie states that teacher efficacy has the greatest impact on student achievement. This means that a teacher being confident in his or her strategies, abilities, and knowledge is more powerful than the positive behavior plan your school may be planning on implementing this fall, or the new reading program that you are learning about this summer. Within the mind of the teacher lies the fuel and force to make these two strategies meaningful for students.

That being said, we are charged to foster this resonance that lies within us through professional development and collaborative work that will allow us to carry our “sound.” Reading and researching best practices, analyzing trends, and digesting professional texts all help to amplify the impact that we as teachers can make on our students. Presenting at and attending conferences is also a great way to sharpen these skills. As an EdCamp Greenville organizer, I am a firm believer in the greatness that we can harness from each other. I learn so much from my EdCamp Greenville tribe, and do not take for granted the invaluable experiences that each one of them is able to share. It is through them, my professional learning community, that I am also strengthened, renewed, and affirmed.

So that sound–that resonance–be it at the end of a tour de force album, or the beginning of an awe-inspiring ballad, is within each one of us that has been called to be a teacher. The power to change a child’s life and inspire him for the future lies within us. Nobody compares to us.