Smiling at the End of the School Year

Yesterday was the last day of our school year.  I celebrate surviving and mostly thriving through my 9^th year in the classroom.  Every school year seems like a combination of a marathon race and a roller coaster ride, if you can combine those two things.  A couple years ago, as my students were bickering toward the end of the year, I said, “You two get along; don’t make me pull this car over.”  That broke the tension and made us all laugh.  I realized that the school year is sometimes like a long ride in a car.  At the start, everyone is friends, but by the end, everyone is getting on each other’s nerves. In my classroom, we write each other friendly letters, practicing our writing and telling each other how much we appreciate each other.  I start this after spring break, when we need to build class morale.

Now that we are on the other side of the finish line of the school year, exhausted but hopefully satisfied, this is a time to celebrate, reflect and refine out teaching.  In my class, the wonderful parents and students made a book, with each student answering two questions:

1. What did you enjoy about this year?

2.  What makes Mr. Griffith such a great teacher?

One girl wrote that what makes me a great teacher is that I spent two weeks to teach her long division and would not let her give up.  Now, I don’t remember that, but it sure feels good to read that, as I stand panting at the finish line of this marathon race of a year.  It is encouraging to know that I helped her not give up and even learn some new skills on the way.  Also, I know my students and colleagues helped me when the marathon race seemed too much.

Another student wrote that what makes me a great teacher is that I light stuff on fire.  This is true but should not be taken out of context.  I am a certified science teacher and thoroughly trained in safely performing experiments.  With that said, nothing gets the kiddos attention like lighting something on fire.  (Check online about lighting money on fire without it burning up.) One student wrote that she started the year not interested in science but ended the year loving science and wanting to know more.  That statement makes the long and exhausting school year well worth it.

As I read through the book they presented me, my heart was touched again and again.  This is a book to keep for the low points in the school year.  One girl wrote that she wanted me as a teacher so much that she couldn't sleep the night before the first day of school.  When I am reminded how much I mean to some students, it helps me feel how important my job is and what a tremendous opportunity I have to connect and guide these students through the journey of education.

At the end of the book, the parents got together and they answered the two questions.  One said, “You are a special teacher because you lead the students by example by teaching and living gratitude.’  Another parent said that the balance of discipline and fun makes a successful classroom.  I agree and try to give the students love and boundaries, focusing on the positive.  I was encouraged to read that a parent wrote, “Mr. Griffith gives of his heart to the students and makes them feel important by honoring them individually.”  I think that you should connect with a student’s heart before challenging their brains.

One final reflection concerns an area I am trying to improve upon every year, listening, really listening.  Most school days are so busy with many tasks to undertake simultaneously that it is sometimes difficult to give individual students my sustained attention and really listen to them.  But, this is important.  I had discipline problems with one student until I figured out they just needed me to start the day by giving them a couple minutes of my undivided attention, listening deeply to them.  These kind of rewards appear when I give of myself. 

One tool I use to help get the time to listen to students is I give each student a “conference” at least once a month.  This only takes a couple minutes.  In the conference, I tell them one thing they are doing well and something they could work on.  In addition, I ask them if there is anything I can help them with.  When I started this, I was surprised how many students took this opportunity to tell me something I could help them with.  I would have never learned this without this little extra effort. 

Another tool that I learned from my partner teacher is to give students a “birthday lunch.”  This means they get to bring a friend up to the classroom and eat with me on their birthday.  During these 25 minutes, I ask them what is going on in their lives and sit back and listen.  I am always rewarded for this investment of time.  One student told me that his “birthday lunch” was his favorite part of the entire school year.  

Here is a quote to end the blog:

"Good teaching is an act of hospitality toward the young, and hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest." - Parker Palmer

From Learned Helplessness to Learned Optimism

Today I will post an excerpt from a book I read recently and enjoyed on many levels.  It explores the latest ideas on the power of gratitude and how to apply it in our lives.  A book like this enables us to make the farthest journey of all, the 18 inches from the head to the heart.   This is from Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman.   Seligman is a leader in the field of positive psychology, which includes gratitude.  Interestingly, 47 years ago, he pioneered research on “learned helplessness.”

Now, he is pioneering research on “learned optimism.”  This is exciting, the idea that we can become optimistic by practicing gratitude and using some other spiritual tools.  This delves into psychological research and gives some foundational research to areas that some thought of as too "touchy, feely."  I received a BA in Psychology and Biology back in 1994 before this research in positive psychology.  I probably would stuck with it if this was around.

Before the excerpt from the book, here is a powerful quote I got from a parent yesterday:

“A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge and wisdom in students.” – Ever Garrison

Now, here is Seligman.  The first paragraph is an introdution:

“A generation ago, the study of psychology was dominated by a focus on the abnormal and the negative. But more recently, there have been academic movements that have undertaken a data and research-based study of the positive dimensions of psychology, with a view toward prescribing activities that can be imbedded into a person's life and increase that person's structural level of happiness. One such effort comes from Martin Seligman and the University of Pennsylvania. The following is a sample of the type of activity this academic school of thoughts recommends based on its own systematic studies to deal with the increasing prevalence of depression in our society:

"Here's a brief exercise that will raise your well-being and lower your depression: The gratitude visit. Close your eyes. Call up the face of someone still alive who years ago did something or said something that changed your life for the better. Someone who you never properly thanked; someone you could meet face-to-face next week. Got a face? Gratitude can make your life happier and more satisfying. When we feel gratitude, we benefit from the pleasant memory of a positive event in our life. Also, when we express our gratitude to others, we strengthen our relationship with them. But sometimes our thank you is said so casually or quickly that it is nearly meaningless. ... Your task is to write a letter of gratitude to this individual and deliver it in person. The letter should be concrete and about three hundred words: be specific about what she did for you and how it affected your life. Let her know what you are doing now, and mention how you often remember what she did. Make it sing! Once you have written the testimonial, call the person and tell her you'd like to visit [him or] her, but be vague about the purpose of the meeting; this exercise is much more fun when it is a surprise. When you meet her, take your time reading your letter.

"You will be happier and less depressed one month from now. ...

"Here's a second exercise to give you the flavor of the interventions that we have validated in random-assignment, placebo-controlled designs: [The] What-Went-Well Exercise (Also Called 'Three Blessings') We think too much about what goes wrong and not enough about what goes right in our lives. Of course, sometimes it makes sense to analyze bad events so that we can learn from them and avoid them in the future. However, people tend to spend more time thinking about what is bad in life than is helpful. Worse, this focus on negative events sets us up for anxiety and depression. One way to keep this from happening is to get better at thinking about and savoring what went well.

"For sound evolutionary reasons, most of us are not nearly as good at dwelling on good events as we are at analyzing bad events. Those of our ancestors who spent a lot of time basking in the sunshine of good events, when they should have been preparing for disaster, did not survive the Ice Age. So to overcome our brains' natural catastrophic bent, we need to work on and practice this skill of thinking about what went well.

"Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance ('My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today'), but they can be important ('My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy').

"Next to each positive event, answer the question 'Why did this happen?' For example, if you wrote that your husband picked up ice cream, write 'because my husband is really thoughtful sometimes' or 'because I remembered to call him from work and remind him to stop by the grocery store.' Or if you wrote, 'My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy,' you might pick as the cause 'God was looking out for her' or 'She did everything right during her pregnancy.'

"Writing about why the positive events in your life happened may seem awkward at first, but please stick with it for one week. It will get easier. The odds are that you will be less depressed, happier, and addicted to this exercise six months from now. “-Flourish by Martin E. P. Seligman

Seligman has an interesting YouTube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRqYQhjKO_0

Is music a spiritual weapon?

Thus far, I have been focusing on gratitude.  Now, I will turn to another spiritual tool, music.  Music has the power to inspire, heal, rejuvenate, transcend and helps us grow and learn, inside and outside the classroom.

Yesterday, there was a graduation at my school.  An 8^th grade graduating student told me how much my teaching him guitar has made an influence on his life.  He has played guitar for the last four years and he wants to play professionally, possibly teaching guitar to put himself through college.  That encounter made my day, my week, my year and possibly my life. Hearing that something I taught four years ago ignited a spark and passion for a student makes it all worthwhile.

Then the conversation got interesting.  He said, “You know I love to jam and rock out, but playing guitar is spiritual to me.  It is a spiritual weapon!  When I hear a guitarist I really like, for example Slash, who plays low and bluesy, the music just fills me up on the inside.”  Wow, I thanked him for sharing that with me.  Also, I told him I would call music more of a “spiritual tooI” because "weapon" has a destructive feeling to it, but what he said got to heart of something that I think about often, the power of music.

I feel the profound pleasure of creating music and now an even deeper satisfaction in teaching others to play guitar, opening up to the miracles that music brings.  I truly believe that music reaches parts of my spirit that nothing else has ever touched, that music opens up portions of my soul and allows transcendent nourishment that is inexplicable.  Recently, I played for two hours at a micro-brewery with a friend and the synergy and communication that music allowed between us was definitely transcendent.

In the classroom, a fellow teacher is now learning guitar so she can add it to her lessons.  Music is such a powerful tool (weapon?) in the classroom.  The students remember lessons more readily and more permanently when it is set to music.  Even if you are not a musician, you may find ways to bring more music into your classroom and into your life.  This year, a 4^th grade science student found a song about the water cycle on YouTube.  It was a rap and it was actually scientifically correct and very catchy.  To this day, I catch myself singing a portion of that song, “It rises to the sky from the sea below, then down to the ground as rain or snow.  I keep movin’, movin’ ‘cause I’m the water cycle. I keep movin’, movin’ ‘cause I’m the water cycle.”   The students even made up hand motions to accompany the song,

So, explore music, check out and enjoy new kinds of music.  I love to bring new genres of music into my Pandora playlist.  Be bold and adventurous and learn a new musical instrument.  This is a way to grow in fresh and sometimes surprising ways.  In the past, research made links between students learning music and doing better in math.  Now, research shows that students that learn music do better in all subjects and that learning music helps the brain to make connections that it would not normally make.  Mature adults are encouraged to learn to play musical instruments to keep the brain active and healthy.  I taught guitar to a woman whose retirement gift was a guitar a month of lessons.  What a thoughtful and potent gift.  I tell people to learn guitar by taking lessons or they can teach themselves by viewing lessons on YouTube.  Music is a gift.  Enjoy it.

Here are three relevant quotes about music:

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” 
― Confucius, The Book of Rites

 “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” 
― Khalil Gibran

“Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” 
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Gratitude and Happiness

I was reading over the blog from last week and I wanted to let everyone know that gratitude does not always come easy for me.  Some days, I do not feel grateful and can even be negative.
 
But, gratitude has become easier for me as I practice it daily and really try to flex my gratitude muscles.  It seems like practicing gratitude is like working out physically.  Sometimes I don’t want to work out, but when I do, I always get rewards.  This is like practicing gratitude. I don’t always feel like doing it, but when I do, I see the world and everyone in it in a much more positive light.  If I can be consistent and make gratitude part of my routine, the resistance seems to dissipate.

A few years ago, one of my students said, “Mr. Griffith, can we all do a gratitude list together.”  My heart rose and I was so proud of this student.  After I profusely thanked her, she said, “I wanted to do a gratitude list with you because you look so stressed out today.”  That made me laugh, but it showed how people around us can gently remind us to be grateful and help us restart our days to get out of funky moods. 

I was listening to an interesting Podcast from the Ted Radio Hour about Happiness.  Some parts of the Podcast were compelling, especially the portion about gratitude from David Steindl-Rast.

Here is the link for the podcast link.  Check it out if you get a chance:
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/267185371/simply-happy

David Steindl-Rast is a monk who has written books on gratitude and has a wonderful website, www.gratefulness.org.  This is another site to check out.

In the podcast, David Steindl-Rast said that we have an opportunity every day, every moment to be grateful.  He said the challenge is to stop and notice all that we have around us to be grateful for, like the sky, trees and people.  Last week, I posted about putting little reminders where we see them and be reminded to stay grateful. When I drive,I try to remember to make a mental gratitude list at every red light.  When I do this, I am a happier driver and a happier person.

Taking it to another level, I am trying to develop more gratitude for the people and things in life that really irritate me.  These people can be my biggest teachers, helping me grow in patience, kindness and love.  This is challenging because it goes against my usual reaction.  But, this is where dramatic growth can occur.  The interesting phenomenon here is that when I can be grateful for the people who make irritate me, they don't irritate me so much anymore.  One friend calls these people his spiritual sandpaper.  They do not feel good but they rub off his rough spiritual edges.

In the podcast, another interesting part is when Dan Gilbert talks about how having more “stuff” does not make people happier.  He says that over the past 50 years, people live in bigger houses and have more “stuff”, but the overall happiness level has not increased.  This reminds me that happiness is an inside job; I do not need things on the outside to be happy.  Gratitude helps me be happy regardless of what I have or don’t have.  A better way to put it is that gratitude brings deeper peace.

Here is a quote for you to think about this week:
"To educate is to guide students on an inner journey toward more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world."-Parker Palmer

Say thank you until you mean it.

Here is my second post and I am excited.  Thanks for all the positive feedback.

In my life, I like to put gentle reminders to stay positive where I see them often.  I put one right by the computer monitor that I look at hundreds of times a day that simply says, "Drop the negativity and pick up the positive."  This was made by one of my students.  I had my students make cards like these and place them where they will see them often.   Many share these with their families. 

One student said he did not realize how negative some people were until he started to practice gratitude. I have another friend who puts his gratitude list on his refrigerator, so he sees it every time he goes to get something to eat. When I was hanging out with and went to his refrigerator, it really made me feel good when I saw that I was on his gratitude list.

Here is one of the inspirational reminders a friend gave me that is taped to my mirror. I see it every morning and it helps me start my day off right.

“Say thank you until you mean it.  Be thankful for everyone and everything sent your way.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order and confusion into clarity.  It turns a meal into a feast, a house into a home and a stranger into a friend.  It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into opportunities to grow.

It also turns existence into a real life and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of the past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Gratitude makes things right. Gratitude turns negative energy into positive energy. There is no situation or circumstance so small or large that it is not susceptible to gratitude’s power. We can start with who we are and what we have today, apply gratitude, make a list and let this powerful spiritual tool work its magic. But, it is not magic; it has been shown to work, if you do the work. Say thank you until you mean it. If you say it long enough, you may even believe it."

Every person I know who has tried making a daily gratitude list of at least 5 things and stuck with it for at least two weeks with a willing attitude has experienced tremendous rewards.  You may make the list on paper, create a word document use your iphone.  There are even apps that make this easy.  For me, a written list is more powerful than a mental list. 

Also, I will share a quote on some of these posts.  Here is a great quote from a good friend:

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it"- William Arthur Ward

So, try to express some authentic gratitude to someone in your life today and add them to your gratitude list.

First Post

Hello everyone!

I am now in the digital age as I start this blog.  I am a teacher and I wanted to start a conversation about teaching and using spirituality to teach and live.  Now, spirituality is one of those words that sometimes carries baggage, so I will just define it as "that which gives meaning to one's life and draws one to transcend oneself."  In more common terms, spirituality may be thought of as the things we do that nourish our souls, which feed us from the inside.

Teaching and living take so much from us, we need to find ways to restore and rejuvenate mentally, physically, and most importantly, spiritually.  The teachers who not only survive but thrive through all the pressures of teaching are the ones that find ways to nourish themselves spiritually.  Once, I had a Principal that said at our first faculty meeting, "The year is about to get real stressful.  I hope you have a strong spiritual life."

I recently submitted an article in Teacher's Net Gazette's about utilizing gratitude in the classroom.  It will be published in the June 2014 edition.  Gratitude is a great example of using spirituality in the classroom.  I will post the entire article on this site later. 

Simple put, gratitude is one of the most powerful spiritual tools; looking at everything that is positive in life and watching it grow stronger and larger.  What we focus on in life grows, so when I am thankful, I see the positive grow.  Conversely, when I focus on the negative, that aspect of life grows.  Keeping a gratitude journal ensure that I look for the good in myself, others, and life.  Gratitude enables me to enjoy everyday, no matter what happens in the day.  My students and I keep a list of 5 things we are grateful for every day and have 1,000 gratitudes at the end of the year.  It bring so much sunlight into my classroom, we can't help but feel the positive effects.

Also, I want this conversation to be about living and the practical tools we can share to help grow in a world where time and resources often seem scarce.  Using these tools has helped me to enjoy teaching and enjoy life, instead of just treading water.

I will post at least once a week and I would love to get feedback from you.

Talk to you soon.