A look back on the first full week:

Sunday: Hit the wall and had a major melt-down...an "I can't do this job! I just can't do it! It's too much!" kind of reaction all of the paperwork that I can't seem to leave at work.

Monday: Forgot to put on deodorant before leaving for work. Awesome.

Tuesday: Realized that I over-planned my lessons by about two weeks, forgetting that sixth-graders need instruction on how to open lockers, take out their notebooks, and keep their shirts tucked in. Maybe a few more days before we get into character analysis?

Wednesday: Parent Open House two hours after the end of the school day. Prepared a Power Point presentation that might have made me look like a big dork. It was a bit over done...too much text. Later was cornered by two "concerned" mothers insisting that I stop giving their kids homework. They said our extended school day is long enough and why should the kids have to do MORE work once at home. A legitimate concern, however, I had to remind these women that assigning two small assignments to help the students learn the week's vocabulary list is not exactly out of line.

Thursday: One of my students had to teach me how to activate the light on my document camera...I was grateful but it made me feel like a bit of a dinosaur. Later had a meeting with my principal and team teachers...was lightly teased for being a ball of anxiety and a perfectionist. Went to class that night and was told by a classmate that I seemed stressed out. Two hours later was told by another classmate that I should probably go get a massage.

Friday: Eight kids asked me to go to the bathroom during the first fifteen minutes of class. (What the...?) I said 'no' and made several preadolescent enemies. Later in the day I thought it would be funny to mess with the gifted kids and tell them they needed to memorize 100 words by Monday. They weren't amused. I told them to lighten up and made a few more preadolescent enemies.

The Value of the Homemade Poster

Last spring, while I was cleaning out my old classroom in preparation for the move to the new school, I threw out ALL of my old motivational posters. They were pretty dirty and curling up at the corners, so throwing them out made perfect sense.

However, as I spent some time today setting up my new classroom, the one with lots of white empty space on the walls, I panicked. I thought, 'What is wrong with me?! Why the heck did I toss all of that stuff? Now I'm stuck!' And what with our local teacher store closing after a zillion years of business, I now had no place to go and get-more-POSTERS! And on top of that, I had already spent far too much money on new classroom materials anyway. Then I got an idea. I could just make my own motivational posters. Duh! So, I came home, got on the computer, and made my first poster with this exact text:


You CAN achieve!

Just remember to:

1. Believe in yourself even when things get difficult.
2. Show up and do your best.
3. Refuse to compare yourself to others.

(I also added a little picture of the sillouette of a man holding his arms high above his head as if he'd just won a basketball championship.)

Freaking amazing, right? OK, maybe not. However, I realized that my creation was in some ways better than buying a generic poster from a teacher store. No, my poster didn't have the cool graphics and designs that its manufactured counterparts possess. It was actually a little boring to the eye. But it did have something infinitely more valuable: a sentiment written in my own language and one that I am striving for in my own life, so much so that I dedicated this entire blog to achieving more success and happiness at work.

That has to count for something when it comes to kids, right? They can smell sincerity (or the lack thereof) a mile away.

So now I'm going to crank out more posters whenever the inspiration hits me. In the meantime, feel free to use the text above for your own classroom posters. Add to it! Improve it! Then share it with others! We need each other in this business of teaching!

Happy poster making!

Ms. J