I Just LOVE You, George and Abe!

Yesterday was Valentine's Day... not always my favorite day with sixth graders. However, this year, the day was PERFECT from start to finish. You want to know why? Because thanks to George and Abe, we had the day off! WooooHoooo!

Presidents Clip art by KPM Doodles HERE Frames by Ashley Hughes HERE and Christina Bainbrige font HERE

I know it was just one day, but I feel like I accomplished SO much!

I got up early and, of course, had coffee...
I leisurely checked on the news, (Facebook, included!)...
I planned a math lesson... which seemed to need task cards...
I made some math task cards...
I purchased and downloaded some math task cards from TpT...
I cut out a LOT of task cards...
I took a nap in the middle of the day...
I went for a looooonng hike...
I took ANOTHER nap...
I made some progress on my writing lesson...
I made dinner to share (and I used to STOVE, not just the microwave!)...
I wrote a blog post (well... half of it... because you are now reading the other half!)...
And I simply enjoyed the day!

It was a bit like living someone else's life!

Things haven't been particularly cheery in sixth grade lately.
Yesterday I was reminded that my One Little Word was JOY.
And I felt JOY-filled!

Here are two pics from the twilight hike. One is sunset and the other is moonrise. (BTW, those are clouds not waves, but I can dream, right?)

It's easy to lose track of JOY when you are a teacher.
Around this time of year, the kids seem more... difficult.
I think that happens because we begin to recognize that we are running out of time...

And I think that I get anxious, thinking: We are more than half-way through the year! And I have more than half-a-year of teaching left to do! I start wanting them to learn faster. And when that doesn't happen, life gets a little frazzled around the edges. And it goes downhill from there...

On Thursday, one of my school friends had another interpretation of the recent spate of "bad choices" which had translated into some behavioral issues that make me shudder. I am going to save that discussion for another post (because I don't want my happy buzz to go away), but I will share her weather analogy... Thanks, Paulina!

In many places across the country, the weather had been... well... challenging. Some people have had almost as many snow days as school days! Not the case where I live. In fact, the weather has been in the seventies (and sometimes eighties!) almost every day since the new year began. I'm not saying that to gloat. I'm saying that to explain...

In the past few weeks (of January and February), I have seen many of behaviors that I usually see in April. That self-absorbed, "I'm a big kid now" (Sorry, Pull Up folks!) persona is already in full force. It's been bothering me all day and keeping me awake at night...

And then I remembered what my friend said... "It's like the flowers and the insects and the KIDS have been tricked into believing it's SPRING!" And I think she's right. It's only February... but by all indications, Spring Has Sprung!

So now I have to figure out how to de-spring-ify my students. I already know what doesn't work: Everything I have been doing so far!

Jodi from Fun in First posted this on her Facebook page... "So much of your classroom management is based on your ability to control your own behavior in situations..." Yep! That's true. Being frustrated or disappointed does NOT help. I need to use my "behavior" in a way that guides them back to good choices.

So, I've still got two more days of this glorious weekend stretching ahead of me. Time for some soul-searching and an attitude adjustment and some serious planning to combat the negativity that's been sneaking into our classroom. While we ARE running out of time to learn the four million things on the sixth grade list, we still have four months together--and I want them to be JOY-filled. Just like my day yesterday. After a day like that, things just seem POSSIBLE. And I want my sixth graders to feel that way too!

I'll end with that thought... and a little Melonheadz clip art. If ever there was a magic JOY-booster, it's Melonheadz!

Sending POSSIBLE thoughts your way...