Dear Teacher,
I know the secret.
I have the key to the room where the lock all of the “Best. Day. Evers.”
I want to share it with you, but you will need to prepare yourself for it.
I’ll wait…
Okay, are you ready?
The secret to the “Best. Day. Ever.” is you.
I know, it is cliche to say that you are the key to having the best day, but it is true.
Attitude is the difference between a great day and a horrible day. It is all wrapped up in perspective. To change your day, you change your perspective. I love the quote below by Maya Angelou…
Easier said than done, right? I know. I know. That is why I came up with some steps to turning any day into a great one:
- Step 1: Face the reality that life is going to be tougher than you prepared for and”the universe” is going to thwart your plans. Cheery, right?
- Step 2: Dream big for each day, but design your day loosely. What I mean by that is that you need to have big ideas for each day of teaching and plan well…but be willing to let go of your designs for the day when life and reality throws you curve balls.
- Step 3: Be flexible, roll with the punches, and enjoy the ride because your goals are bigger than each day. The age-old rule for teachers is to “monitor and adjust,” and that is a great rule! Things are going to go off-course, so it is important that you are not focused on where you are going each day…your destination is where you want to take students by the end of the year. When you look to that, you can adjust to the ups and downs of each day. Stuff is going to blow up in your face…learn to laugh, learn, and move on from it towards your goals with each child.
- Step 4: Reflect at the end of each day and find the momentary masterpieces that you can build on tomorrow. Yes, we do need to learn from what goes wrong each day, but the bigger thing to think about and remember is what went right. There are momentary masterpieces that happen in our class with individual students each and every day. We need to become masters at finding those and using them as a starting point for the next day. This will make you a better teacher above all other things. (For more on this, please read the post linked above.)
I know that the steps are general and simplistic, but they are a good starting point for you to think about you and your situations. You can have the best day ever any day of the week, but it takes work for that to happen more days than not. It is not easy, but it is work that you can do…and it is worth doing if for no other reason than your mental health and sanity.
You are a great and amazing teacher. I have no doubt that you often have best days ever! Do you have any advice to add to this list or stories of bad days turned to great ones? If so, would you mind sharing in the comments? I don’t usually ask for this kind of feedback, but I think this might be a great conversation to have.
Teacher, thank you for all that you do. I really do believe in you. You have a big fan in me! You are so awesome! You are making a big difference in the life of your students. Keep on teaching!
Love, Teacher
Dear Teacher/Love Teacher 