Embracing Joy Is A Choice

This week is teacher appreciation week.  I am a teacher (if you have read this blog AT ALL, you know that).  Teachers have had a huge impact on my life, as a student, as a teacher, as a mother, as a human being.  I can’t imagine what I would be like without the amazing professionals who have shaped me.  So, before I write anything else-THANK YOU TEACHER PEEPS-you have made a difference for me.

Over Spring Break, I received an e-mail from the National Council of Teachers of English, informing me that I was the recipient of the “Reclaiming the Joy of Teaching” award for 2015. I was overwhelmed.  I didn’t even know I was nominated, and I wasn’t even sure what the award was about.  Upon investigation, I learned the following, “The Reclaiming the Joy of Teaching Award is presented to a teacher at any level that inspires authentic progressive literacy learning.”  Again, I was humbled.  Some of my family members do not even know about this. I’ve been thinking a lot about joy as a result of this recognition. First of all, I recognize joy is active.  Joy does not just happen.  Each day, we must choose joy.  Second, the word “reclaiming” caught my attention.  Why should teachers have to “reclaim” their joy?  I believe there is so much negativity right now about education that teachers are ashamed to admit the joy they receive daily.  I want to write a post about why I find joy every day in my chosen profession.

My seniors last day was Friday, and as many of them begin a new, exciting journey, I wanted to write about why joy is attainable and why teaching brings me so much joy. 

1.   Know your weaknesses and ask for help: I know what I struggle with.  When I first became a teacher, I was ashamed to admit that I had weaknesses.  I felt pressure to be perfect in everything-having grades in each week, being organized, having perfect lesson plans, reaching every single student, having no discipline issues.  You will never find joy if you believe you have to be perfect in everything.  I struggle every day with certain aspects of my job.  I own this truth, and I have people who help me.  My team loves me-warts and all.  I think this was the most revelatory aspect of coming into teaching from a previous career.  It isn’t a competition-everyone on my team has something they totally rock at, and they openly share with me to help me better every single day.  Knowing I have people who aren’t judging me, but seeking to help me has paved the way to finding joy for me.
2. Find the pony: Every single day, at the end of the day, I sit down and I reflect.  I find that a lot of new teachers think reflection is about focusing on the negative, but that is not what it is for me. How many times after a disaster have we thought, “Oh, I really need to reflect on that!”  Most teachers I know (including myself) agonize over our failures.  For us, they are torturous.  The lesson may bomb, a parent may be rude, a student may be struggling, and these are all things I will think about-but if I let myself be overwhelmed by these things, I will never find joy.  Instead, I allow myself to think about those things, often writing them down, with an action plan, and then, I carve out at least ten minutes to reflect on the positives.  Some days this is easy- but often I have to really try.  It is like one of my favorite stories that I share with my students.  Here it is paraphrased: There were two princes, one was always ridiculously happy and joyful and the other was always overwhelmingly morose and sad.  The king did not know what to do.  He knew neither one of his sons would be fit to rule as they were.  So, he made a plan.  He took the sad prince and locked him in a room with every wonderful thing he could think of.  He took the happy prince and locked him into a room of horse poop.  He left them there for several hours.  He returned and unlocked the room of the sad prince and found him sitting in the middle of the room crying.  The king asked what was wrong, and the prince said, “I just know I’m going to break something.”  The king simply shook his head and walked away.  He went to the happy prince, and as he approached he heard laughter.  He opened the door to find the happy prince covered in poop laughing.  The king, aghast, looked at the prince and asked what in the world was going on.  The happy prince smiled and said, “I just know there must be a pony in here somewhere.”  So, every day, find the pony!  This does not make you blind to the negatives; it makes you sighted to the good.
3. Be real: Two words-two scary little words.  When I first started teaching I thought I had to be perfect.  I studied everything I was teaching so I made sure I knew everything that could possibly come up. I had listened to the dictionary pronunciations of words to make sure that I didn’t make a fool of myself.  Guess what happened-I didn’t know everything.  I stumbled, probably on the second day, and I felt humiliated.  But I survived. I learned to laugh at myself.  I started embracing the fact that I am just a regular person who knows a lot about English and American literature.  My students saw that I was being honest, and they started being honest with me. We laugh every single day as we struggle with this incredibly difficult task of learning.  Learning is not linear or neat-it is messy, painful and beautifully complex.  When you are authentic in your desire for learning, and you admit who you really are, you will find joy.
4. Be curious: I never stop wondering about stuff. I read all the time. I watch the news.  I listen to music. I watch movies. I wonder how things work. I imagine. I share my curiosity with my students. I recognize that the things we teach have intrinsic value in them.  I wonder what that is. I ask myself, “Why did someone choose this as important?” I share these curiosities with my students.  We question everything. We wonder. We embrace multiple possibilities. It is joyful. 
5.  Listen and be thankful: Every single person has a story. I try as hard as I can to create
   
   opportunities for students to share their stories, their own ideas, and their voice. When they do, I am always grateful.  I try to write a lot of thank you notes.  For my final exam, students had to interview someone who had made a difference in their educational journey. I listened to every single interview and wrote a thank you note to everyone who participated.  My students thought I was crazy, but I was genuinely thankful to hear these stories.  My students are always required to reflect on every assignment, and I choose some of the reflections each assignment to conference with the student and thank them for sharing with me their thoughts. In a world where we have so much to cover and so little time, I have learned more from listening than I ever could have communicated.

So, it’s true, I am a joyful teacher. Joy is not a singular pursuit.  For me it requires a school full of professionals and friends who encourage each other, a classroom full of people who have their own ideas and struggles, and the safety to share and express gratitude. If you get the chance, thank a teacher this week, and find your joy!