TL;DR:
- Sometimes we struggle and need to put in greater effort in order to feel aligned, content, and balanced. Happiness is a discipline.
- We may be feeling nervous about returning to school, but remember love this school year.
- People remember us for the way we love. So as we begin a new school year, we can love our students, colleagues, families, and ourselves. Consider making it a goal!
On June 29th, I lost my beloved mom to Alzheimer’s. She was just 67 years old, my favorite teacher, and “my person.” Just about everything I know about happiness I learned from my mom well before I later confirmed these teachings by reading research by positive psychologists.
How can I possibly consider how to teach happier during one of the saddest seasons of my life?
We’ve learned that happiness is a discipline. Sometimes we have to walk through sad seasons and put in a greater effort to feel more aligned, content, or balanced. Today I would like to highlight a phrase I included in my mom’s eulogy that may help us adjust our perspective as we approach our upcoming school year.
It’s officially August.
The “Sunday of Summer.” In the next few days, the “Sunday Scaries” from September to June turn into the “Back to School Scaries” for anyone in education. I have yet to meet any teacher who doesn’t get nervous before a new school year begins. We may envision arriving late on the first day, or have the dreaded nightmare of walking into our classroom with nothing prepared. Nobody is immune from the Back to School Scaries!
As we start feeling jumpy and nervous, let’s consider the message of my mom’s eulogy: At the end of our lives, we will be remembered for the way we love.
Let’s say it one more time for those in the back: We will be remembered for the way we love.
While we may be getting a little nervous to begin a new school year, we are also never more rested or optimistic than we are right now. So while we have all of this rest and optimism, let’s consider how we are going to love this year.
At the end of our lives, we will be remembered for the way we love. Click To TweetLove This School Year: Loving Our Students
What conditions do you want to cultivate this year so your students bloom like crazy? Fast forward to the last day of school this year and consider how you want your students to feel. Are they leaving the year feeling supported, important, and loved? Now rewind and envision the small moves in language and action you can take to accomplish that. How will you be remembered by your students in June of 2022?
Love This School Year: Loving Our Colleagues
We spend a lot of time with our colleagues and they directly influence our overall happiness. What is within your realm of influence and control that supports mutually supportive and beneficial relationships with whom you work closest? How will your collegial relationships become stronger this school year?
Love This School Year: Loving Our Families
In this Teach Happier space, we’ve talked about the unattainable work/life balance and understood it more to be about work/life satisfaction. As we taught through COVID, many of us reprioritized our time, our health, and got a little healthier with our boundaries. Let’s be sure we do what we can to be sure we love and care for our students at school. But also make sure to conserve energy to love and care for our families at home.
Love This School Year: Loving Ourselves
After the last year and a half, we learned how necessary it is to care of ourselves in order to care for others. How will you give yourself permission to nurture you? What professional and personal boundaries do you plan to set and honor in this upcoming school year? The only way we will remember this school year fondly is if we prioritize loving care for ourselves.
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As we move through the “Sunday of Summer” and get closer to the “Monday of 21-22” I will end this piece the same way I ended my mom’s eulogy:
“Here’s to quietly tucking in tiny moments of love into our days.
Here’s to our eyes sparking when we see someone we love.
Here’s to living a life grounded in gratitude and abundance as Love’s boots on the ground.
Here’s to being remembered for the way we love.”
Happy New Year, Friends!
Small Shifts, Big Gifts!
If you want to be remembered for the way you love this year, consider making a short goal for how you will love your students, colleagues, family, and self this year. Bonus points if you create a calendar reminder so you can be accountable for these goals!
ABOUT SUZANNE DAILEY
Suzanne Dailey is a proud member of the Teach Better Family! She is an instructional coach in the Central Bucks School District where she has the honor and joy of working with elementary teachers and students in 15 buildings. Suzanne is Nationally Board Certified, a Fellow of the National Writing Project, and has a master’s degree in Reading. She is dedicated to nurturing and developing the whole child and teacher. Suzanne lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania with her husband and two children.
Check out the Teach Happier Podcast here!
