Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Today was a great day, take out the student that chose to not be kind, the ones that told me LA is just boring and that they hate reading and writing, take out the student that would not stop talking to his peers when others were presenting, take all those out and today was a great day.

The problem I find is that we focus on those things so much more than all the good and so I write this just to give myself that chance to reflect on the beauty that I was able to witness in class today, the fun that most of the class was having exploring a prompt from The Creativity Project. Taking something abstract and making it a character in a story. Some made poems focused on “determination” as an attribute.  Others (who had also told me the class was boring) wrote beautiful words with a fantastic contrast between light and dark. Another still wrote what might be the greatest poem about a lonely jar on a shelf that has ever been produced.  I have stories of courage being written and comic strips about bravery and love and their journey together.

I celebrate those great moments today because we can always find cruddy points in the day. We can even focus on them for a time. For me I want to turn the question around, you think things are boring, tell me what fun looks like to you? What can I do to help you find joy in this work? Because look around you will see it if you choose to.

Easter Break is fast approaching, some kids do not like school but they like home even less. We need to remember that for some school is the break. React to the cruddy parts of the day with understanding even in the hardest of times, and focus on the beautiful points to build you up and get you through.

Who else got to read about a lonely jar of food about to expire?

My job is pretty great.