I found myself caught off guard with a staff member recently, and I feel I need to explain myself.
At a training for my staff, our participants were asked to cross the room and ask someone what they are grateful for. Showing gratitude has proven to be very good for your emotional health, and while this may make people uncomfortable, it is a worthwhile task. I was visited by a teacher despite my being a facilitator. I guess she didn't want me to feel left out.
She asked what I was grateful for. This was an easy one. I am thankful for my children. Both are ending stages of their lives and starting new ones. We feel fortunate to be blessed with our kids, even if they drive us nuts sometimes. She followed up with what I was grateful for when it came to work. This is where I faltered, and I could not answer confidently.
It's not as if I cannot find anything about my job or coworkers that I am not thankful for. I have great students, accomplished teachers, and a cooperative school board, and we are pursuing goals that the district has not been able to reach in several years. By all accounts, we are in great shape. What I tried to explain in the 30 seconds the presenter gave us was that this line of work is difficult to stand back and admire your work and blessings. Why?
The work of school is what Simon Sinek calls an infinite game. A finite game has a defined start and end, like a football game or other contest. When it is done, there is a winner and a loser, and the events of the game can be broken down and analyzed. Infinite games are those that do not end, and the goal is to stay in the game as long as possible, building on every success. People who work in schools understand that there are no finish lines, and even if you do well with a class, another one is waiting for you in the fall. There will always be children to teach. The goals of school districts and buildings are the same. If you are doing the work well, you finish one project to feed the next, and so on. Just as there are always kids to teach, they have to have facilities to come to.
I couldn't identify what I was grateful for immediately because that required being done and being able to reflect on how I got there. When you are never finished, you can't do that. I felt a bit of shame in my response to the teacher because I came off as unappreciative. This is far from the case. Agency is in the greatness of others, and all that our little school has accomplished is thanks to the work and patience of those who help me.
I think the lesson for me is that even if I never feel finished, I can appreciate all the steps along the way. Lesson learned. Showing gratitude can help me celebrate what is happening right now. I feel that I need to make amends with my teacher by giving her a real answer.
I'm grateful for:
- Every high five, hug, or "good morning" my staff gives each kid when they walk in.
- All the training and professional growth my staff experiences every year.
- Every pair of shoes that we give to kids that either don't have any or have broken ones.
- "No questions asked" meals for kids who have nothing in their lunch boxes.
- All the behaviors we teach instead of punishing.
- All the sick days staff donate to other staff in need.
- Every time a teacher is moved to tears by a student's progress.
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