What Makes You Happy?

This school year, I’m staring a book club for teachers.  We will be reading Teach Happier This School Year: 40 Weeks of Inspiration and Reflection by Suzanne Daily.  Our first meeting will be at the end of September, and I am eagerly awaiting chatting with my colleagues about making the school year happier for teachers and students.

This week was our first week of school with the students present.  I work in a private school for girls, so it’s like a tiny piece of heaven.  I am very grateful to work on a beautiful campus with an amazing group of girls (and little boys in JPK and PreK), and very dedicated teachers.  This will be my 46^th year in education, and I have not burned out, so I figure I might have something to say about keeping oneself optimistic and energized.

My life has not all been sunshine and rainbows, but over the years I have learned to appreciate the important work I do lifting little ones up so they can reach their potential.  That has always been at the forefront of my mind.  And yes, there were years in which I put EVERYONE first, leaving myself dead last, which eventually made me exhausted, worn out, and resentful.  I didn’t want to be that person, so I had to teach myself to leave little bits of the day for myself.  I’m still working on it, but I’m much better at it than I used to be.

I now approach stress in a different way. Stress can be used to your advantage if you learn from it, and it makes you stronger and more knowledgeable. A little bit of stress can make you more resilient and keep life exciting, according to Hans Selye, the Canadian endocrinologist known for his studies of the effects of stress on the human body.

I am hoping to stay in education for 50 years and for 25 years at my current school.  I’m not sure I will reach this goal.  But I’m sure going to try!  To do this, I know I must start every day with gratitude, blessed to work in a place with such lively spirits. So many times, it is the children who have shown me the way to happiness.  So many times, their fresh way of seeing things has given me pause and made me laugh. 

I want to make sure I pause and reflect every week to list all the times where I experienced happy moments.  I want those moments to become the hallmark of my teaching this year.  Here are five precious moments that made me happy this week.

Lunch Out

My colleague, Kristen, and I decided to go off campus for lunch, which we rarely have the chance to do. We went to a pretty little salad place and sat outside in the sun.  Finally, we had a chance to catch up on our summers and our families.  Kristen showed me a video clip of her youngest son’s summer play performance.  He is such a character – full of spunk and joy!  Watching him perform made me so happy.  I know he is bound for greatness.

Hide and Seek

My friend and Kindergarten teacher, Molly, took her students on a tour of the World Language classrooms, which are located near my office.  I was meeting with our school psychologist in her office when Molly interrupted.  She told us that she couldn’t find her students and asked if I would come help her look for them.  Immediately, I understood that we were playing Hide and Seek.  I walked down the hallway shouting, “Kindergarten, where are you?”  No answer.  I stopped by my office door.  “Maybe they are in here,” I said.  I went in and looked under my desk. “They’re not under my desk,” I said.  I saw that they were huddled under my meeting table, but I kept playing.  “Hmm…,” I said, “ Where could they be?”  I looked a couple of other places and then I said, “Maybe they are under here, as I bent down and looked under my table.” They all screamed gleefully. And I laughed with them.  What a simple pleasure.  What pure joy.  I am so glad I took a moment to play with them.

Trying a New Food

I have always loved fruit – all kinds – from all over the world.  I like to try new things.  This week, I found “red velvet apricots” at a local gourmet store.  I absolutely love apricots so much so that I ate about a bushel of them that fell from my friend’s tree when I visited her in Italy. At the time, I thought it was worth the whomping stomachache I received after consuming so much of them.  These red velvet apricots true to their name were a mellow red in color. Their skin felt like velvet too. When I got home, I washed them, and put one to my mouth. It felt like velvet sweetness. How could something taste and feel so good? It was a happy surprise.  I hope they don’t run out of them before I return!

Witnessing Confidence

Our first recess of the year and  a group of teachers asked me to pay close attention to one first grade girl, who is often shy and timid.  It would be her first time on our big playground.  When I got to the edge of the playground, one teacher was going over the playground rules.  Everyone listened intently.  When we were given the signal to play, everyone ran in different directions.  I took the first grader’s hand and said,  “Let’s go slowly and get a feel of what there is to play with.”  Sandy said, “ I know where I want to go.  I want to go to the Challenge playground.”  Then she looked up at me and said, “I’m not afraid, Mrs. Emery. I can do it.”  I smiled and let go of her hand.  “Okay, Sandy, go play,” I said, as she ran ahead. She jumped and leaped as she ran and then quickly scrambled up the cargo ropes.  Sandy got to the top and waved her arms wildly, “I went to the rock wall by my house all summer!” I looked up at her, “Oh yes, I can see.  You are an expert climber.”

With that, I stood at the side of the playground and watched her confidently climb and spin and twirl.  What a difference a summer makes!

A Little Lace

I spent the last two weeks moving my office.  My former office was a big, beautiful space with new wood floors and wrap-around window. My new office was small and dingy with a dark green carpet and one window covered in chicken wire and another narrow window with an air conditioner.  I decided that I would make this change gracefully.  I challenged myself to make the new space cheerful.  I bought bright pillows, I painted one wall white, and I hung up my photographs.  The last thing I added were lace curtains to the chicken wire window.  As I turned to leave my new office at the end of this week, I looked at the window, and it camouflaged the chicken wire superbly.  The light shone through the lace and now my new office looks warm, cozy, and inviting.  Just like I imagined it to be.

Spelling Surprise

It was the second morning of school, and I dropped into the kindergarten to see if I could lend a hand.  When I entered, the children were busy writing affirmations on sentence strips.  I absolutely love invented spelling.  For instance, there are so many ways to spell beautiful: bootiful, byootaful, butifol, butifull. I smile every time I see how young children use their creativity and the knowledge we’ve taught them to create messages.  I came upon Lena, who was busy writing.  She asked me to help her write the word, “fantastic.”  I slowly sounded out each letter as she wrote.  When I got to the second “a.” I slowly sounded out the short “a” sound three times in a row: ă, ă, ă.” Lena quickly turned her head up to me, “ That word has three a’s?” she asked, surprised.  I chuckled.

“No,” I replied, “I said the sound three times so you could hear it better.”   

I hear good,” Lena said.

 “Yes, you do,” I replied. We proceeded spelling “fantastic” until we got to the /k/ sound.  Then Lena looked up at me and asked, “Which one?  There are two letters that make that sound.”

Again, I chuckled.  Lena was one smart cookie.  She already knew so much, and it was only the second day of kindergarten. I said, “Well, which one do you think it is?”

“K,” Lena said proudly.

“It’s C,” I said, as she proceeded to write it on her sentence strip. “Lena, you did such a great job spelling that big word.  Let’s count all the letters.”

Lena counted, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Nine letters!”

“Wow, Lena. You are a FANTASTIC speller,” I announced. Lena reached over and hugged me, and I hugged her right back! This may have been the happiest moment of my week, and I will cherish it as one of my best teachable moments.