The Quest for Happiness (and a freebie)

Being happy is all the rage right now.  I can't get enough of this song.

It makes me....happy....that this is making the rounds because it can be so easy to get sucked into a negative tornado.  I'm a pretty positive and perky person by nature...sometimes to the point annoyance (I assume), but even so, I catch myself on the slippery slope of complaining.  School can be overwhelming and frustrating at times, but at the end of the day, I have the best job ever.

I've been keeping busy these past few weeks- in the classroom as usual- but also traveling across the country visiting friends and family (so fun!), finishing up the school yearbook (there will be a huge sigh of relief when Monday is over!), and then the principal popped in to observe me this past week (eek)!  You know sometimes when you realize you may have been furrowing your brow and not even realized it?  That has been me all week... I haven't been meaning to stay away from this blog, it's just been slow to sneak it's way up my to-do list.  I'm back...and I'm happy about it!

What I'm trying to say is that sometimes happiness comes easily, and sometimes you really have to focus on it.

You can catch the happiness bug over at 24 Hours of Happy (seriously, how do I get in on this?) and the 100 Days of Happy challenge (Can you send in one picture each day for 100 days of things that make you happy?  Sounds easy enough, right?).

Sometimes we can walk into school like this....or leave a staff meeting feeling like this... or sometimes you just know someone who reminds you of this (and it hopefully makes you giggle!)...

This is one of my favorite SNL skits.  I just love Debbie Downer...!  I find small pleasure in sitting in a situation like this and secretly laughing because it would be the perfect SNL skit.  

If we can't find the happiness, then how do we expect our students to find happiness?  If we aren't excited, then they won't be!  ...and nobody likes to hang around a Debbie Downer.  This reminds me of the SuperFlex character Grump Grumpaniny (he puts people in grumpy moods!).  The attitude brings everyone down immediately.  It's hard to walk away, but let's face it, it's just not healthy.

Here are some things to keep in mind to keep yourself happy (happy teacher, happy class):

We have math and reading "tiers" every day for our RTI time at school.  My students decided this past week to change it to math and reading "smiles" because tiers sounded sad.  Love. It.  

I challenged my students one year to work on a "grateful journal" of things we were thankful or grateful for.  They had to write one thing down each day- just a word, person, or phrase- and they couldn't repeat.  It doesn't sound too hard, but once you get through the first week or so, you have to start digging deeper.  I loved what they came up with.  

After spring break this year I'm going to switch it up a little and we are going to work on our "Things That Make Me Smile" booklet and each day we will come up with something that made us smile that day.  To start getting your students to focus on the positive, you can grab a copy for {FREE on my TpT here}.  Smile!  Pass it on! 

Special thanks to Graphics From the Pond and Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs for their fab graphics! 

And finally, I'm linking up with {Farley's March Currently} because even though we are having ANOTHER snowstorm right now, it is March and that means spring is right around the corner (riiiight??).  As you can see, things are quiet around here right now....

The snow has got to go... bring on the sunshine and summer weather!  Tomorrow will be snowy and a great day to hunker down and read a book in my nice warm house.  And with all this snow, we will probably be having a lot of indoor recess this week (hint, hint).  

HAPPY Teaching!