For 10 of my 17 years as a high school Spanish teacher, I was battling infertility. As you can imagine, going through a fertility struggle is stressful. As you can also imagine, being a high school teacher is also stressful. Put the two together and there were days when I just couldn’t find anything to smile about.
During my 10th year of teaching and 6th year of my infertility battle, I had lost my joy. I could not understand why God wouldn’t allow us to get pregnant and I was very focused on everything that was going wrong in my life. On top of that, I didn’t feel like I was connecting with my students and teaching just wasn’t very fun anymore. I went to a colleague and asked for some help with regards to my kiddos. She gave me a list of about 25 ideas, and I grabbed on to “Good Things.”
For me and my kids, “Good Things” happened every Monday at the beginning of class. We would pass around the Hello Kitty ball and everyone had to share one good thing that happened to him or her over the weekend. I tried to share something different with every class, which meant I had to come up with 6 different good things every Monday, and that wasn’t always easy. There were times when “We had fajitas for dinner on Friday” was all I could think of to say. But I challenged myself to focus on the positive and slowly, I found my joy again.
As the weeks progressed, “Good Things” evolved into sharing one little thing that makes you smile (like Hello Kitty for me), giving a compliment to a classmate, or telling your favorite Thanksgiving food. Honestly, I think “Good Things” did as much for me as it did for my students.
I miss sharing “Good Things” with my kids, so I hope that we can share them with one another. That’s what being part of a community is all about, isn’t it? Focusing on the positive and building each other up! So, what is your “Good Thing” from this past week?!
6 comments
I love this, good things! I fixed brunch for my daughter, granddaughters and a good friend. Then dinner with long time friends. Being with family and friends makes me happy.
These good things( gratitude) has been proven that is you think about the good things the chemicals in your brain change and produce serotonin, the funny part is you do not have to actually write anything down you just have to plan to do this and it changes the chemicals.
Thank you for sharing your good things from the week, Judy! Family time (and time with friends who are like family) is the BEST!
I love focusing on good things. That simple brain exercise helped me through some tough times. There is lots more good than bad. You just have to look.
So very true. It might be difficult for us to see the good at times, but if we try, it is always there.
Love this idea such a great way to connect with students and focus on the positives in your life. For me, this past week has been wonderful having my parents in SC visiting with us 🙂
Thank you for sharing your Good Thing, Ameka! Family time is one of my favorites as well! Hope you make awesome memories while your parents are in town!