It was the best of times…it was the worst of times. This line from Charles Dickens A Tale of Two
Cities could be used to describe the current state of education. Education is a subject of our national
conversation. This is the BEST TIME to be a teacher. Unfortunately much of the public discourse on
education focuses on the negative – lagging test scores, widening achievement
gaps, ineffective teacher training. When is the last time you read something
about the good things happening in education? So this is also the WORST TIME to
be a teacher.
How can we, the teachers, change the dialogue? Maybe educators
need to start with ourselves. I recently viewed a powerful TED Talk by Shawn Achor,
The Happy Secret To Better Work.
One of the techniques Achor shares for
changing one’s focus to be more positive is to list three new things you are
thankful for each day. The premise is after 21 days of listing three different
“gratitudes” you will naturally focus more on the positive aspects of your
life.
I am in the midst of my 21 days. At first it seemed pretty easy
– the people in my family, my work, my health, my friends. Then it got a bit
more challenging to avoid repeating things - until I realized I was thinking too big. I
realized I could be thankful for small things – hitting one green light on my
commute, the smile from the cashier at the grocery store, having the IRS pick
up the phone after one minute instead of 45 minutes! Even on a day where not
many things go well, I realize something does. A dear friend admitted that one day she listed breathing as one of her gratitudes. What a difference it makes to
focus on the one positive thing as opposed to the ten (hundred? Thousand?) things
that were negative.
Just imagine if we were to apply this to our teaching lives. What
if some time during the day we could take a moment to think about the positive happening
in our educational world. What learning happened? What connections were made?
What joy did we witness? Let’s jot down three things that worked. If we can’t
think of three we will write one but we will write it in big letters so it
fills up more of the page. Let’s make sure we frame those gratitudes in
positive language. There is a world of difference between the following:
My friend didn’t hit anyone when s/he came into the classroom
this morning.
(subtext – usually hits, will hit again, will probably hit someone at morning meeting)
vs.
My friend kept her/his hands to her/himself when s/he came into
the classroom this morning. (subtext – S/He did it! Self control, learning,
meeting expectations)
As long as we are focusing on the positive, we may as well try
to frame it using positive language.
Let’s challenge ourselves – 21 days of THANKS FOR TEACHERS!
BTW you can interpret that phrase in multiple ways and one of
them might give you your first gratitude for the day;)
Still learning...to teach, Dr. G.
Have you ever seen this blog? https://onegoodthingteach.wordpress.com/ It makes me happy every time I read it. Even when I totally don't understand the math being discussed, which happens fairly frequently.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it with me - everyone in this business can use more reminders about the joy of teaching!
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