Sometimes I struggle with keeping perspective, lose touch with my priorities and things start to go sideways. It's on these days that I start to get down and need to find my way back up to my natural, happy, positive self. I've started thinking of this challenge as 'finding the smile' - finding something in my day to be happy about and to celebrate. This can often be found in my relationships with my family and friends, but another common contributor I've realized is art. For example, I love the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. The dynamic images and colours paired up with the intellectual humour is just perfect to me. Other aspects of art also apply, and I will continue to pursue this theme throughout the semester. Find the smile :)
I am quite sure my son was the inspiration for Calvin - at least those comic strips really appealed to him when he was young and we could see why!(He still puts rabbit ears above my head when anyone takes our picture and he's 34, so our favourite strip was one of Dad as photographer being driven crazy by Calvin's antics! I think you could use these comic strips to encourage reluctant readers. I also love your name for the strategy you use to lift your mood - "find the smile"!! What a great thing to be able to share with your students and to do as a group as a class routine or as needed!But first, so great to do it for yourself - a teacher's positive mood is a wonderful asset.
ReplyDeleteThank you Willow! I find that our world can get to be so complicated, any time that I can take an abstract concept like 'being happy' and make it more concrete for myself and my students I like to!
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