After teaching for 14 years, it's hard to pinpoint one best day. As a third grade teacher, I am with the same students all day long for every subject and it can be challenging to have a whole day be great. I had a mentor who used to say, "find one shiny moment every day. One thing that brings you joy and focus on that." This really resonated with me because especially as a new teacher, we tend to be hard on ourselves wanting everything to be perfect, which is an almost impossible standard to live up to. I really try hard to find one shiny moment in each day I am in the classroom.
When I try to think about the best day I've had in my career, I'm not sure I've had one day where everything went as planned, but I do have tons of shiny moments, where at least in that one moment, everything was great. I think about the time my students wrote about ecosystems they wanted to visit and then packed construction paper suitcases creating all of the things they needed. We listened to music and they worked for over an hour, on task, having fun, showing off their creations to each other. It felt like a success for that moment. I remember when one of my strugglers finally solved a long division problem by herself. I took a picture of her in front of the problem she solved on the chalkboard. I still have that picture. I think about all the times I received a note or drawing on my desk from a current or even former student telling me I'm the best. I think about all the lovely emails and cards I've gotten from parents thanking me for making a difference in their child's life and even their family's life. I think about all the times I've seen a "lightbulb" finally go off in a student after endless amounts of trying something. I think about hugs when my students walk into the room in the morning, and the times that some of the students didn't want to leave in the afternoon. So no, I don't think I've had one best day in my career as an educator. I don't know that teaching is about having the best day. I think the beauty of teaching is that we get to collect thousands of shiny moments to bring us a career filled with joy, and I think that's gotta be better than one great day.
Tamra D. :o)
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