Not so long ago I was dragging my feet through the last few weeks of term four, mentally counting the days until school holidays. My tolerance level was out the window and I was just a tad grouchy. I was ready for school holidays and so were my students. But school wasn't over yet! So onward we ploughed.
Sometimes I think we teachers get so bogged down with ticking the boxes and getting things done that we forget to pay attention to the here and now... Celebrate the little things! So as a way of arming myself against the end of term tension I'm doing some of the following things:
1. Positive Reminders. This gem came from my Aunt who has years of classroom experience and, to me, is the epitome of professionalism. She recognised the importance of positive communication within the classroom and how it can suffer when teachers find themselves in a rut. Sometimes for me the positive vibes definitely feel the strain towards the end of the year! So what she did to combat this was place small laminated smiley faces around her room. Everytime she noticed one of the smiley faces during a lesson she would make a point of identifying something positive happening within the classroom. According to her this had a huge impact upon not only her mood but also her interactions with her students. I'm going to use these grow mindset posters by Tales From Miss D as my positive reminders. Click here to check them out.
2. Something personal/ from home in your room. This one is pretty obvious but I thinks it's an important inclusion. One of my favourite classroom items is a huge rainbow dream catcher that my mum bought me when I started my first permanent job. I've had some tough days and having it there to remind me that people have faith in me kept me going. And my kids love it! It's one of those classroom features that they make a point of showing to all our visitors.
3. Class photos. I take a million photos of my students to include in their yearly portfolios. Every dress up day or school event we take a class photo and celebrate just how awesome K/1 is. So this year I purchased some bright frames to display our class photos in. The idea of this is to remind myself and my students that we are a team and that we are awesome! Even when we're battling our way through a 40 plus degree day and a brown snake has just wriggled its way up the hall (this seems to upset me way more than it does them!).
4. If all else fails put on Taylor Swift and Shake it Off. Never has my class danced it's way though this song and still felt tired or crabby.
I'd love to hear what others do to get through those weeks or days where it's feels like your wading through concert just to get to Saturday! Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.
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