I am an approval seeker. I've known that about myself since elementary school, where my rule following ways often got me labeled as the teacher's pet. The epithets hurt, but were overshadowed by the praise I received from adults.
Yesterday was an asynchronous planning day; all students worked remotely from home to give teachers a chance to meet and plan and attempt to get a handle on hybrid teaching (read: twice as much work), the model for most of our classrooms at the moment. Our principal gave us a choice board model that we could fill in with our tasks to help us focus, so of course I made one for the library, filling it with tasks for myself and my assistant.
Bear in mind that I knew we wouldn't get to all of it; we have two more asynchronous days plus scheduled work days, and I told my principal this list would take us through the rest of the semester.
My assistant was busy all day with circulation and inventory, and did a bit of weeding, too. I looked at my checkmarks at the end of the day, and felt a bit disappointed in myself. So then I started listing all the stuff I did in between those check marks:
ordered some ebooks requested by a teacher, looked up resources for Black History Month and why professional gamers need to be able to read, looked unsuccessfully for 4 operation calculators, made a slide for my Fairy Tale Digital Breakout lesson, chatted with the parent support specialist about providing books to our students, attended a library association committee meeting with my promotions subcommittee, pulled books to promote with classes this week, emailed back and forth with the a library district chair to promote our conference event....
And I shared it with my principal, approval-seeker that I am. And she gave me kudos, the equivalent of a grownup gold star.
The next time you are feeling like you haven't done what you needed to by the end of the day, pause and write down what you DID do. As educators, we are great at pointing out our students' successes, often not so great at celebrating our own. I bet your ta-da list will be a lot longer than you think.
Fascinating idea, that "ta-da" list. I believe we aren't fully aware of all that we really accomplish in a day, especially when we get derailed or overwhelmed. This is kind of like turning around to survey footprints in the snow: Hmmm, maybe I got farther than I thought! It's true that we need to celebrate our own successes more often. Why don't we? Is it because we feel we shouldn't, or because we just don't have a sense of it? I believe there needs to be a "stop and celebrate" option on that board!
ReplyDeleteI once had to record everything I was doing in fifteen minute increments for my job running IEP meetings, to recapture federal funds. It was eye opening...In this winter of record snows, I love the image of looking back at the footprints. And yes, let's add that "Stop and celebrate" for the next round of workdays! I will have to do that with my assistant, who has been instrumental in helping me turn this library around. Thanks for celebrating with me, Fran!
DeleteYikes this is me all over. I need these ideas - a Ta Da list and as Fran noted a Stop and Celebrate square. We do so much and forget its all those little things that are actually BIG important accomplishments. Thank you for framing this for me!
ReplyDeleteIt is empowering, to look back and realize just how much we do...and sometimes, important to bring it up to those who don't really know what we accomplish in a day, yes? I hope you took some time to celebrate your own ta-da list!
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