As teachers, we’re given cards or notes from students, parents, and administration thanking us for our hard work or for going that extra mile.  This is especially true around the holidays or at the end of the year.  These kind gestures are somewhat expected and, most often, somewhat overlooked with a simple, “well, that was nice after a hellish year.”

What do we do with these cards, notes, letters, drawings, etc? Typically, mine landed in a pile, stacked amongst binders and notebooks from the year. I might find them a few months later, read through a few, and at best, they’d continue to live amongst binders; at worst, they’d be thrown away. A few really good ones might make it home and into a memory bin store in the

Let me introduce you to the “Monday Folder.” The Monday Folder is a folder or binder that stores meaningful cards and letter from students, parents, and administration. Why? Because when you don’t feel like going back on Monday, you’re reminded of the real value of your work and the power that you have within your classroom.

Two weeks ago, I received a Facebook message from my 8th grade teacher. He said that he was looking in his basement for a painting he had done, and he came upon a letter that I had written to hi the day after graduation. To my teacher I wrote, “You can’t even begin to imagine all the days you helped my life become easier.” It continued, “Thank you. I know that those two words, thank you, seem so short for all I’m trying to say, but there isn’t enough time to tell you all the reasons why I want to say it.” The letter was an entire page long filled with emotion (her, I was a teenage girl!), love, and gratitude for all my teacher had done for me.

The letter was important enough for him to keep for twenty years, but it doesn’t hand much power in the basement!

For all the teachers out there, here is my challenge to you:

I challenge you to create your very own Monday Folder. Open the bins or photo boxes housing your cards and notes from students, parents, co-workers, and administration. Then organize them into a folder or binder, so that you can see them WHENEVER you want – a frustrating Thursday, Sunday afternoon, or the dreaded Monday morning. Whenever you want a dose of appreciate or a reminder of all the good you’re doing, your Monday Folder is there for you.

If you’re a new teacher, create an 8×11 vision board with symbols and words depicting the type of teacher you want to be. This way it can be slid into the front of any binder and you can see it all day long. And get in the habit now of saving all of the touching cards and notes you’ll get throughout your career.

Teachers, if for no other reason, consider this: your Monday Folder highlights the best of you. If you get a nasty parent complaining about you to a new principal or administrator and you feel your reputation is on the line, you can walk into the office, put your Monday Folder on their desk and show them the real teacher you are.

We want to hear from you! Do you have a Monday Folder? How accessible is it or how often do you look at it? Thanks for reading and we can’t wait to hear from you!

Congratulations! You did it! You finished another school year. Maybe it was the hardest year of your life, or maybe you had the best class ever, either way, another school year has come to a close. This means it’s summer!!! It’s one of the perks of being a teacher right? Summers off!! Yes…and…

Many times summer flies by and you are walking back into your classroom feeling like you never left. Don’t let that happen to you! Here are three reminders for you to get the most out of your summer, and make sure you are ready to bring the happy back into your classroom in the fall:

1) Be Intentional With Your Time

If you want to spend the day binge watching TV, do it! But be intentional that that is what you are doing – you are guiltlessly relaxing! Being intentional is just making sure you are in charge of your time. Each morning, take a few moments to really think about your day. How do you want to feel today? What needs to get accomplished? How might that look? Can you incorporate some of how you wanted to feel into your day? For example, if you want to feel pampered, can you find 15 minutes to pamper your toes and give yourself a pedicure? Or if you wanted to feel rested, can you schedule a short nap or time for a bath? You have the power to be in control of your summer!

2) Slow Down

Summer goes fast enough. If you don’t slow down, before you know it you are back in your classroom looking at a new class. Slowing down is a simple concept. It could mean stopping and noticing. Make sure you are taking the time to notice the smile on your child’s face as she splashes in the pool and waves at you. Or the way the birds chirp or how ice cracks in your drink while you are outside reading. Slow down and make every moment count!

3) Relax To Rejuvenate

Take this time to relax and do something for you. Heck, do many things for you! You have been taking care of students all year, it’s time to take care of you! Make sure you relax your brain and relax your body so you can feel rejuvenated for the fall. Teachers have two months out of the classroom for a reason – use them! Even if you are teaching summer school or taking summer classes, you need to give your brain and body a break and recharge for the fall. Take time for you!

You work really hard, and you deserve to enjoy this time for you. If you follow these three tips, you will feel ready to go back and tackle the world. But that isn’t your job just yet. Your job is to relax and enjoy your July!

What Is It And Why Should You Care?

Emotional Literacy (or emotional intelligence as it’s more commonly referred to) is “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.” (definition from Wikipedia)

Whew, that is a mouthful. Basically emotional literacy is understanding and dealing with emotions. Why is this important as a teacher? Well, aren’t we already dealing with emotions everyday? I think emotions and feelings are the most important thing we should know how to deal with as teachers. Not only to understand our own emotions, but teach our students how to understand and deal with their own emotions.

Our students are not getting as much emotional support at home. Especially if you work in a lower income district, students come to school with all of these feelings and look to teachers and the school day for them to be expressed. Many kids don’t understand what is going on with them, and many kids have high emotional literacy, but don’t have the space to learn how to understand it.

Then you look at the teacher, we are overwhelmed and overworked, and our feelings are spilling out all over the place. We don’t have time to teach what we need to teach in 42 minutes so forget even talking about feelings.

That is the problem. When we don’t understand it, even though they are happening all the time, feelings that is, then we ignore it and it becomes a huge problem.

So, emotional literacy is super important for teachers to understand.

There are four steps in understanding emotional literacy in education:

Step 1: Awareness – Make sure you understand and identify the emotions and what is happening..

Step 2: Thoughts and Emotions – Understand the relationship between what we think and what we feel. Some people feel and then think, and some people think and then feel. Either way, they are both related and they both can be controlled and managed.

Step 3: Attaching Meaning – Once you understand what you are feeling, and what thought caused it, then you can decide what to make it mean. This is where things get out of control quickly if not checked, and where emotions can flare up quicker than intended.

Step 4: Managing Emotions – The ability to manage emotions effectively is a key part of emotional literacy in education. This is where you know you are in control, and you can choose to feel things that empower you and lead to happiness, not the other way around.

Action For You: Where do you think you could use this in your teaching?

Learning how to identify, understand, and manage your emotions will not only make you an amazing teacher, but an amazing person!

One of the most important aspects of our job as teachers is forming meaningful connections with the people around us. Not only does it make teaching more fun, it also increases our effectiveness as teachers. Here are three areas that are the most important in forming meaningful connections as teachers, and for you to feel happier in & out of your classroom!

Know Who YOU Are: Connecting To Self!

In order to really form amazing relationships with students and colleagues, it’s really important to have a firm sense of who you are. Here are some reminders for you to connect deeper with yourself on a daily basis.

• Listen to yourself – Are you complaining? Whining? What do you sound like to others? If you don’t like it, change it.
• Slow down – try not to act as if you are always in a hurry. All kids deserve someone who will have time for them. Show them you have time, even if you feel like you don’t. Make time for yourself as well, you deserve it!
• Get a life – outside your classroom. You don’t assign homework seven days a week, so don’t take work home every night. Do something for you outside of school. You will be happier and your students will benefit from it as well.
• Talk less, listen more, reflect daily – this applies to all aspects of your life.
  Spend time with people who are not teachers- it will help you get outside of school talk for a while. Or when you are with your teacher friends outside of school, do not talk about school!

Know Your STUDENTS: Connections To Kids!

This is so important. Take the time to really get to know your students. Think about how they learn, and what they need. So many times as teachers we try to put students in our boxes, mold them to the way we teach. However, we are really there to serve their needs. We need to teach who we are in a way they can understand.

• Create a positive classroom culture – be intentional on how you set up your classroom, what posters you hang up and how you arrange the desks. Make it inviting for the students.
• Open up to your students – and they will open up to you. Share some of your life with them. Tell them stories about things you care about, and they will start to trust you more and open up to you more.
• Encourage dreamers – effective teachers are dream-makers, not dream crushers. Try to encourage your students to dream, think big and be hopeful.
• Ask what they think – kids are used to being TOLD what to do, and they are seldom asked or listened to. They will feel great that you wanted to hear what they have to say, and you will gain some valuable insight on their lives and your classroom.
• Give some time to students everyday – even if it’s a small conversation about what is going on in their lives. Maybe you pick one student a day to learn a new fact. Take down times to really connect with students.

Step 3: Know Your COLLEAGUES: Connections To Each Other!

Really supportive and wonderful colleagues are a true blessing. Even if we are working in a difficult school, if we have a few supportive cheerleaders, it can transform the whole experience. Teaching can be very lonely if we don’t get out and actively try forming meaningful connections with other teachers.

• Help each other – we are all playing for the same team. There is no competition when it comes to making a difference in a kid’s life. Work with each other to support the students.
• Keep an open door – don’t teach in a vacuum. Great teachers learn from each other. Make sure you are networking with other teachers. Try to team teach when possible. Find ways to connect with your peers- either in your school or a professional organization.
• Say “Hi” – this may sound strange, but even just walking down the hallway, make it a point to smile and say hello to everyone you pass. It makes a world of difference if you are smiling and making eye contact, especially early in the morning. It can really make someone’s day.
• Be proactive – make sure you are being proactive in all your relationships at school. Be proactive with planning, communication, problem solving and addressing anything that might be frustrating you.
• Have fun! Yes it’s here again! It’s really important to have fun with your colleagues as well. Laugh often (hopefully not at the expense of students) and be silly together. It’s a great stress reliever and it feels good!

“The key to being insanely efficient is minimizing unproductive behavior.” @xordinaryteach

Are you the type of teacher who never seems to have enough time? For many years that was the case for me. Before I learned tools to help me become more efficient, I always felt like I was drowning in paperwork and lesson plans. Although I had heard of many other time management strategies, they seemed inapplicable to me as a teacher.

One of the best strategies that I have found for managing my time is called FOCUS. In this method you figure out your task and zoom in. You take one thing at a time and cut out unproductive behavior. You must remind yourself that the only one responsible for protecting your time is you. And lastly, set your mind on success.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and feel as though you don’t have enough time, practice these steps and I guarantee you’ll understand the power of focus.

In this video I breakdown a time management strategy called FOCUS. If you are an overwhelmed and busy teacher and want to find more happiness in your classroom and your life, sign up to receive my weekly video blogs here.

Tweetable: Resist checking out! Don’t miss your life! #happyteachers

Learn how to resist checking out. This time of year screams overwhelm! It makes perfect sense if you think about it. We hibernate for months, and then…

• we’re wrapping up a school year
• sporting and extracurricular events are in full swing
• invitations for graduations, wedding showers, celebrations like Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, etc. kick in to high gear
• we’re busy making plans for summer (is anyone else booked until August already?)
• we’re planning for next school year (who’s retiring, moving grade levels, etc.)

…and did I mention the weather’s nice and all you want to do is be outside?!

        

When things get overwhelming, it’s natural to start checking out. Energy, time, and motivation are lacking, and it’s easier to check out than freak out. In the last week, I’ve heard “I can’t wait until school’s out,” “I can’t wait until summer,” and “I can’t wait until the end of June,” more times than I can count. But that’s 4-6 weeks of our lives.

In this video, I suggest quite possibly the easiest tip to avoid checking out. If you are a teacher and want to find more happiness in and out of your classroom, sign up to receive my weekly video blogs here.

“We are bringing happy back in and out of the classroom!” #extraordinaryteachers

As teachers, it’s easy to get caught up in overwhelm or negativity. Today I’m offering up quick and fun ways to bring happy back into your classroom and your life. Taking time to reflect on what’s working in your classroom or taking time to really connect with a student can change the whole course of your day. These are simple tips that can be used any time of day with very little effort, but can have a huge impact.

What to learn even more about how to become the happiest teach you know? Sign up to receive my weekly video blogs here.

Though I pride myself in being someone who remains pretty cool, calm, and collected, I sometimes forget who I WANT to be as a teacher because I’m bogged down by all the “shoulds” – especially during state testing!

If you’ve been getting overwhelmed and bogged down, then watch this video for 4 easy reminders to make teaching not only manageable, but fun and inspiring.

“Be the extraordinary teacher you are!” #happyteachers

In this video, I talk about 4 easy steps to get out of the overwhelm and return to the extraordinary teacher you are! If you are a teacher and want to find more happiness in and out of your classroom, sign up to receive my weekly video blogs below!

“Happy teachers will change the world!” #happyteachers

This week my students took the state math exam and they were so GREAT! You see, I had an amazing conversation with them that absolutely transformed their behavior.

We talked about their *dreams*. We talked about what they wanted to be when they grow up and what they want to work towards. Through that discussion, I learned a great deal about their aspirations.

Then something remarkable happened…their entire demeanor shifted. Monday they were acting out, angry, and frustrated. After our conversation, they were focused and optimistic – despite the state math test!

Why are dreams important? Because they make our everyday, mundane tasks have purpose. We know this, but when was the last time you thought about your larger goals? When was the last time you allowed yourself to dream?

In the video above, I talk about the importance of dreams and goals in your life and in your students lives. I truly believe that happy teachers will change the world. If you are a teacher and want to find more happiness in and out of your classroom, sign up to receive my weekly video blogs here.

“Teachers want time. Time with students and time to actually teach.”
#extraordinaryteachers

Over 300 teachers filled out our Teacher Happiness Survey, and you guys had a ton to say! In this video we’re going over the results about what’s working in your classrooms and what is dragging you down. Each day, as teachers, we’re balancing dozens of roles and tasks. Let’s see how it’s affecting our happiness.

The video offers a general overview of the results; however, if you’re looking for specific numbers, please click here to view the detailed numbers in PDF format.

What to learn tips and tricks to become even happier in and out of the classroom? Sign up to receive my weekly video blogs here.