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The Honey Choice...

The first nine weeks of school...

So many words can be used to describe the first nine weeks of school.  I bet you thought of several words as soon as you read that first line. This is the time when we make "those comments"... you know what comments I'm referring to...they are the same comments we hear our fellow educators, parents, grandparents, and students saying... there just wasn't enough time, I feel so overwhelmed, MY CALENDAR IS SO FULL, it's too much pressure, I can't do any more than what I'm already doing...
When our schedules are full, and the pressure to get the routines down and the skills taught, and for families, the skills learned... it can be just that...overwhelming and stressful!  Stress brings in negativity.  It creeps into your day little by little and before you know it, your "glass is half empty" attitude has ruined your outlook on what was meant to be a perfectly wonderful day.  

PTA:  Pause, Think, Act!  

I teach my first graders this.  PTA.  Pause.  Think.  Act.  Stop and think about what you're about to say or do.  Will it make someone feel good and lift them up?  Will it help you better your day?  If the answer is no, then you have to choose to act in a different way.  Kind words and actions are like honey, sweet to the soul, and mean words and actions are like vinegar, they sting.  So this is how I teach my first graders.  Are you being honey, or vinegar?  

I was waiting the other day on my kids to gather around my table for reading group.  We were in the process of changing centers.  It had been a rather challenging day for me.  Little things were going wrong, and I was dealing with a particularly challenging behavior problem.  Needless to say, I was having a "vinegar" day. A little girl came to the STEM center.  (Right now our STEM center is Legos.)  I heard her ooh and ahh and then she turned to me and said "Oh wow!  Look at this wonderful creation someone made!  We should share this wonderful creation Mrs. Savage!"  I looked up to see her delicately holding the Lego creation the previous student had made.  It was a simple construction of Legos that somewhat resembled an aircraft of some sort, but to see the look on this child's face...pure wonder, amazement, and pride in another student's work was evident in this little girl's eyes as she looked the creation over.  I immediately got my phone, snapped a picture of the engineer who had designed this Lego creation, and thought to myself...Wow!  Instead of focusing on the negative things...look for the simple joys!  Just as this sweet girl had done.  That's when I realized I was being vinegar!  Here I was sitting with a "glass is half empty" attitude. My perfectly wonderful day was being ruined by my choices!

The Creation

I'm the Driver!

I was reminded today of Rule #1 from Jon Gordon's book, The Energy Bus. We are the driver of our bus! We are in charge of what kind of day we have.  Our choices, our attitude, our work habits... they make or break our day.  We have been teaching this at our school, repeating it to our kids, reading about it, and yet it took a group of our third grade students to remind me that this rule applies to the grown ups too!  So often we get caught up in the struggle of the day, the stressors, and we forget we are modeling for our young children, our fellow educators, our families.  These sweet third graders took time out of their day to create a video to spread the message that we are the driver of our bus.  We have the control to go the way we want to each day.  We just have to make the choice...

Honey.... or  vinegar....

What's it going to be?

I'm the driver... so I choose honey!

Make your day what you want it to be. Be the driver. Choose to be honey. Choose to empower yourself to have a "glass is half full" kind of day!

~ Liz

Mrs. Jones' 3rd grade class at Central Elementary, a model school for The Energy Bus for Schools.


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