So there’s this student that I know at our school who might just be the happiest person that I have ever met. I fortunately get to see her every morning, and her contagious warmth, smile, and attitude brightens my mood without fail, and sets the tone for my day. She’s like the weather for me, as well as for everyone around her, in that she changes the mood, the energy, and the outlook of anyone lucky enough to cross her path. This past Friday, when she arrived at school, I was busy dealing with an issue that had started my day in a less than ideal way, and my frame of mind was less than sunny to start my morning with students and faculty. She blew into my office like a warm breeze, dripping with sunshine and rainbows and it instantly snapped me back into the right frame of mind.
Since that moment I’ve been thinking deeply again about how we, as educators, are the weather for each other, as well as for our students each and every morning when we arrive on campus. We are either warm sunny days or cold cloudy ones, just waiting to influence and affect everyone else around us. The beautiful thing about this kind of weather thankfully, is that we have a choice in what the forecast looks like, and an opportunity to make it anything we want. This particular student chooses to be sunny and warm because that’s her outlook on life, and even if it’s miserable outside, or if she is caught in a torrential Vietnamese downpour, I don’t think she has ever really had a rainy day in her life if you know what I mean.
It’s not hard to recognize how your attitude, or the attitudes of the people around you, profoundly influences your life. Attitude is contagious, and it is the one thing that you have complete control over when you wake up in the morning. Everyday we all make decisions about how we will react and respond to the situations and events in our lives. We can either view them problems or as opportunities, and most of the time we have the ability to frame or reframe them into something positive. These decisions make us who we are for ourselves, and maybe just as importantly, who we are for the others around us. Think about the impact that you have on your students each and every day, and how a bad mood, a negative tone or a curt response can influence their opportunity to learn, to feel safe, to feel supported, to take risks and to internalize how adults deal and respond to difficult situations. For me, I always seem to come back to one of my favorite quotes by Maya Angelou, which states, “If you don’t like something, change it, and if you can’t change it, change your attitude”.
You see, we are teachers, role models, and change agents for our students and our community, and the most important thing that we have to offer is not our content knowledge or our advanced degrees or our extensive life experience, it’s our attitudes toward life and learning. So, what’s the forecast for you on Monday morning, or in the upcoming weeks, or for the rest of the year? Will you choose to be like this student that I mentioned (who just happens to be my beautiful daughter Gabby), and be that perpetual warm sunny day, with blue skies and gentle breezes, or are you going to something less inspiring? Either way, that daily decision will impact your community, your students, and your relationships with each other in very real and profound ways.
With that in mind, here’s a trick that most of you might already know. If you feel your mood deteriorating down to cloudy or rainy, or if you’re struggling in one way or another to keep that smile on your face and that spring in your step, take a few minutes and head out to the fields, the gyms, the cafeteria or the playgrounds at recess and take a look around. It is impossible in my opinion to not be snapped back to sunny after seeing our beautiful kids running, and connecting, and laughing, and playing. That’s a guaranteed way to adjust your attitude, and a simple way to be reminded of what’s really important in our lives. Remember everyone, and take this to heart, you are the weather for your community each and every day…so what’s that going to look like? I choose sunny and warm! Have a wonderful week everyone and remember to be great for our students and to be the weather for everyone around you. There’s nothing but warm sunny days ahead.
Quote of the Week……
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. – Anthony J. D’Angelo
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