Some inspiration for the classroom. This is how my day went yesterday (11/18/21).
As a teacher, I’ve been having some
unsettling issues with some of my students lately. I can see the apathy and
un-engaged attitudes, and it got me thinking about my own attitude and my own
struggle to “keep it together,” and I decided something needed to change.
So, yesterday’s bell-ringer
activity was for students to list 5 things that come to mind when they think of
the word, “THANKFULNESS.” When it came time to talk about their responses, I
let them know that I purposely had not used Thanksgiving, because I wasn’t
looking for answers like turkey, and mashed potatoes, or other things like
that, but to think about what it means to be thankful. A few students responded
with words like gratefulness, and kindness, and other words you might think of,
and then I told them my own little story.
I had been listening to the radio
the day after Halloween, and two of my favorite stations were playing nothing
but Christmas music. Already. One day after Halloween. It made me angry and I
screamed in the car, “REALLY??? It isn’t even Thanksgiving yet!” Then, a couple
weekends later, there wasn’t anything good on TV, so I switched to my “Hallmark
Movies” channel where one of my favorite writers’ Christmas series of movies
was on featuring Mrs. Miracle movies. I was, however, disappointed because I
preferred a different actor in the lead role (the same woman who plays Ray
Romano’s mother in Everyone Loves Raymond), but I decided to give the
move a chance anyway.
I was really ready to not like this
movie. As I was watching, though, I found myself getting caught up in the
story, and starting to root for Mrs. Miracle, hoping that the family facing
problems would begin to start working things out. And then it dawned on me. I
wanted the story to have that traditional happy ending where everything works
ou, because I wanted to have HOPE for a better future for them. As I thought
about it, I realized that since the Pandemic started, I had lost my joy and my
hope that the future could be better, and that there could be happiness once
again in the world.
Then I told my students that I remembered
the title of a book that I had read way back in the 1980s called, “Happiness is
a Choice.” That’s what I’ve been missing. That’s why the holidays are so
important to me this year. I need something to reignite the feeling of hope,
and joy, and love, and the belief that things can be better, and that we don’t
have to stay in a world of anger and hatred. But it has to start with me, and
with each and every one of us believing that hope and joy are important, and
that we can, indeed, be happy once again.
Now that doesn’t mean, I told them,
that every day and every moment will be brilliant, and that we won’t occasionally
have horrendous things happen, but it’s a starting place – a place to begin,
once again, to believe that HOPE and JOY are possible.
At the end of one of my tougher
classes, the most incredible thing happened. A student who has been struggling
with massive amounts of just plain tragic events in their life and who has been
being very vocally angry in class to the point of disruptive behavior asked for
their make-up work and apologized for recent classroom outbursts. I wanted to
cry.
The conversation continued, and
this student seemed genuinely, sincerely changed. I think the change for them
had started before they had even come in the door, and I don’t know that anything
I said had anything to do with this change, but it could be that the atmosphere
of the class was different. My heart was so filled with hope for them and their
new attitude, and I hope it is the new beginning they are looking for. It’s a
start, anyway. I will just keep hoping, trying to make positive choices for
more happiness and joy in every way I can.
