I recently heard that more than 80% of people spend their life, or at least the majority of their life, doing what they are second best at. Stop and think about that for a moment. Is that you? Is there something you are just amazing at or totally love to do but were told to get a real job, focus...

I was never going to be a lifer. When I made the decision to leave my job in my fourth year of teaching, in the public school system, I was pulled aside by many. I heard things like: “Are you sure?”“What will you do?”“Why would you leave? This is the year you get tenure!”
“I thought you were a li...

I once had a tutoring student, he was in sixth grade and man, sluggish didn’t begin to describe him. Let’s call him Billy. Billy made it about 15 minutes into the one-on-one tutoring session, diving into his reading and writing skills, and to say it wasn’t going well would be an unde...

I have so much more to give than I’ve been giving. I’ve been playing small. When I want to say “shameful” to the above comment or statement of fact, which is not a criticism of myself but a truth, I realize I have work to do on my inner game. I think I’ll start with naming her. I mean seriou...

This story is an excerpt taken from Jill’s coming book: How To Go From Broke To 6-Figures Teaching Kids While Making A Huge Difference. Enjoy. I had a student who once told me, “You can’t say that to me. My dad’s a lawyer. I’ll sue you!” My response before I could censor myself was to laug...

  Warning: A tad bit of adult language within. Why? Because, on some topic, strong language simply amplifies the point of the funny. (Well, that’s what Jessica said!) Don’t like? Cool. No sweat. We have plenty of other ways to offend you here… kidding! Enter at your own risk. I resisted for ...

What Losing Myself Looks Like is a two-part series on depression and what it looked like for me. To start at the beginning, head to Part 1 right now. Depression is a serious topic and affects way too many of us, often way too young. My intention here is that each and every word written here has a...

Maybe we all lose ourselves at some point on this journey called life. Well, my time of losing me was recent and, well, very real. It was hard, depressing and worth talking about because at times I felt so alone. As though I was slowly losing my mind as well as what made me me. Disclaimer. Goi...

My first paid tutoring session was in my most dreaded subject...math. And I was scared to death. See, I had failed math my entire life AND was about to get paid to teach a high school student my worst possible subject. I wasn't a math teacher. I was barely a certified English teacher. I hadn't ...