Free positive thoughts...

Anyone else ever experience the "Christmas Crescendo"? Leading up to the holiday break, it seems that students are often off their rocker. Parents are too. Everyone is. I have long ago stopped asking the question, "are you excited for break?" Instead I find myself prodding a bit to see how they are feeling about the break and asking things like, "does your family do gifts at all?" Or, "how can you keep busy over the break?" I would venture a guess to say that the majority of students I work with closely do not look forward to having this much time off of school. In turn, there is a lot of acting up, reaching out, emotional things happening right now. Routines are shifted and the most vulnerable of our population is often impacted negatively.

This has all hit me so hard this year. I definitely needed a pick me up. In my old files I came across this sign that I had made once upon a time... FREE POSITIVE THOUGHTS. What a concept! I knew I needed something, so I added more positive thoughts to the bottom and sent out an invite to my staff! Come one, come all!

If your holiday season is one that you enjoy, I hope it is everything you hope for this year. If not, please know that we "feel ya." One step at a time. Sending out love into the world in hopes it hits those who need it most this holiday.

The little things...

It felt as though the day and week were dragging on. In the middle of touching base with several different students I had some freshmen stop by quickly, with excited tones, to say that they were doing something positive. I halfway blew them off because of the other things I was in the middle of doing. After a while, I came out of my office and noticed that these students had canvased all of the lockers with positive notes. Kids are so amazing. If we empower them to do good, they will do good. 

"You are amazing, intelligent, appreciated, beautiful! Happy Friday!"

Relationships are key.

This year I have been blessed to meet and work with some new educators who really "get it," if you know what I mean. When you meet one of them - one of those who "get it," it is SO refreshing. A newfound respect for the good ones emerges. I am beyond thankful to have the opportunity to work with such amazing colleagues. How do you build relationships with students? It's worth a ponder...

Kids do well if they wanna? Say What?

What is your philosophy? I have talked with even the very best of teachers who fall into the "kids do well if they wanna" trap. It is so easy to think this way, especially if we have kids standing in front of us telling us they "DON'T WANT TO DO WELL" or they "DON'T CARE." Sound familiar? I'm a firm believer that there's more to the story. There's more to all of this behavior we see on the outside. Kids need us to not give up. They need us to advocate and care and love and support. They need us not to judge. They just need us.

Busyness...

How many of you set new school year goals? I have too many to count, but the personal one that I have been struggling with already on the 4th day of school is to "be less busy." I know that sounds ridiculous, but I mean it. We spend so much of our lives being "SO BUSY" and I really do not think that is necessary. Yes. You heard it right. I do not think it is necessary, even in a fast-paced school environment, to be busy all of the time! Being too busy is stealing our ability to connect, to reflect and to breathe - all of THE most important things we do in a school.

What we often forget is that our students notice us. They notice all the little, and big, things that we do every day. I like to say that "every day is a job shadow" for our students. They are watching how teachers go about their work. And these moments with each student matter. Every single one of them matters. I love this article (below) that said it best when it stated, "There is a whole eternity present inside each of these moments, these breaths, in which we are truly present. And there is a thief that robs the grace inside these moments. That thief is scatteredness, busyness." Here is where that comes from: The Thief of Intimacy .

I took a step back to think about whether or not my busyness was robbing me of moments with my students and the answer was a resounding YES! That means I have work to do, and it is so possible. My goal is broken down into things like this:

1. Walk slower in the halls - you don't need to practically run everywhere!
2. Make sure your body language doesn't scream "I'm busy!"
3. Smile more (I have a case of the RBF - look it up ;))
4. Keep your desk clear and neat so the "scatteredness" isn't shining through
5. Breathe. Take more deep breaths to reset your brain.
6. Spend less time on emails/computer work, it can wait.
7. Answer the question "How's it going?" with positive remarks about the day - Never, never say things like "Oh, it's going." or "I'm busy!"

To name a few. :)

How are you going to cherish the important moments with your students this year? What's your strategy to be less busy? I'll take all the advice I can get! Remember, connecting, reflecting and breathing - that is the real work. The important work.

Grow.

Have you had this conversation with a student lately? Or maybe with yourself? I know I have, several times today even. I love this little reminder, especially as Spring has finally decided to show up. What a great way to re-set, breathe and grow a little. Let's take a moment to put aside the Winter blues and the muddy thoughts to help bring the positive aspects of Spring to the forefront. That. Is. All.

Choose your life.

This week, with some little ones, I posed the question, "do we get to choose our future career?" It was extremely interesting to hear their responses; it typically went like this: "Yessss... Noooo.... Well... Maybe...." You could see the wheels turning in their minds when they first thought, "YES!" and then when they thought of a parent or friend who has a job they do not like or want to do, they thought, "NO!" Almost all of them had a story of someone who does not like a career path and did not choose it, yet all of them also said that THEY want to choose their own career someday. Of course we do! We had great discussion about what went into being able to choose your own career and also why some people end up in careers they do not want to do. I originally did not think that the initial question was going to induce so much discussion and thought.

Don't you love those moments? The times when you take one simple little thing and turn it into a grand, and unplanned, learning experience? Here's to Friday and here's to choosing our own lives!