The Good Life

In our class, Fridays aren’t just the last day of the school week. It’s the day of the week we take a moment from reading and writing to celebrate and uplift each other. We call this our “Fri-Yay!” My students have come to love these mini activities so much that when they come in on Friday, they ask me immediately what we are doing for Fri-Yay that day. There have been some Fridays, for various reasons, that I didn’t do an activity and they were so disappointed. From this, I know it’s important to them. They need positivity. They crave the feel good vibes that our Fri-Yay activities bring. Hence, the reason this idea came to be!

Last year was a rough school year. My 6th graders tested every teaching strategy I knew and ounce of patience within me. And I feel I have a lot of patience. But this group, they were tough. It didn’t help that I was pregnant all year, but I wasn’t the only 6th grade teacher struggling. It was across the board a testing year for all of us in the building. The hallways were corrupted with fights (me and my pregnant belly got in the way a few times..was even elbowed in the stomach and had to go get checked by my doctor), bullying, nasty words spoken to each other, tearing each other down, and just an overall lack of respect in the hallway; towards each other and towards us as their teachers. I had students up yelling in my face, throwing furniture, and just plain walking out of class. And the list goes on…It was the first time I really took a moment to ask myself if I was cut out for this job. The years before were nothing like this. I had a conversation with my supervisor about feeling like a failure as a teacher and admitted that I was looking into going down to teach elementary school if this year continued on the same. I carried the stress and weight of it all home with me every night. I had a horrifying story from work…every single night. Andrew finally told me that I needed to not bring work home with me. It was affecting my well being, my mental health, and my overall happiness. He was right. Something had to change…

Halfway through the school year, my students came in and there was nothing on the board for the agenda that day. My students were confused. I started class by bringing my white teaching stool out from behind the front table, and hopped by pregnant self up on it alone at the front of my class. I sat there in silence for about 30 seconds. My students could tell something was up. I remember their worried faces. The hushed quiet that fell across their seats as they waited for me to speak.

“We are not getting into our book clubs today. Instead, we are focusing our time on something so much more important than that. Today, we are going to focus on each other.” I continued on sharing with them all the things I was seeing and hearing in the hallways and in my classroom and how much it broke my heart. They listened so attentively. They knew I was serious.

I continued on, “How we treat each other. How we speak to each other. How we support and encourage each other. How we work together in groups. All of this is important. Yes, we will learn reading and writing. We always do, and you guys work so hard in here. But today…Today we stop and focus on what’s also important in school. We are going to focus on us. We are going to spend time making someone else’s day a little bit brighter instead of tearing it down. Who we are as people, is just as important as what we learn in class.” They sat in silence, but I could see some smiles slowly starting to show on some of their faces.

I have always had the philosophy that what we learn academically in school is just as important as the other skills we learn from being in class. And this particular group needed a reset. Or maybe, just a reminder that we are in this together. That friendship, community, and positivity is so beneficial as we grow up in life!

That Friday was our first Fri-Yay. I handed them each a colored piece of cardstock printer paper. I asked them to write their own name in marker at the top how ever they’d like. Then, I blasted some feel good music and we walked (some danced) around the classroom, and we wrote one thing on each other’s paper that we appreciate about them, admire about them, or just something positive to help them remember why they are awesome!

It.

Was.

Magical.

I’m tearing up just typing this…

The mood and vibe in the room changed. They were smiling, laughing, and not a single person wrote something bad. They all lifted each other up that day. At the end, each student’s paper was filled with positivity and encouraging messages written by each other and for each other. I asked them to go back to their own desk and take a moment to silently read what others see in them, what was written on their paper. My eyes teared up seeing how important these words were to them. I could see it on their faces. I did this for all 7 of my classes that day. I said this paper was theirs to keep. Some of them put it on the front of their binder, taped it up in their locker, and some parents even shared their student hung it up in their bedrooms. I knew I was on to something…#spreadthegood was born from this day on.

Every Friday from then on, we spent the last 15 minutes of class to do a positive community building activity. Each week was something new. And if I forgot, boy did they let me hear it. Slowly over time I saw a shift in our hallways and in my classrooms. It was working!

Fast forward to this school year, and I am still taking those 15 minutes every friday to build in community time within my classroom. This last Friday we did an activity that I did last year, and decided it was time to do it for this year. This last week we started Semester 2. A new semester is a fresh start with grades starting over. I felt that with the beginning of a new semester, it was time for my #spreadthegood Fri-Yay.

I keep a hashtag above my door all year long that simple says in big bold letters “#spreadthegood”. We started this last Friday finishing up our argumentative essays. I stopped them about 15 minutes early and said we were going to watch a video that will lead us into out Fri-Yay activity. They quickly cleaned up so we could get started! I started it off by showing them a Kid President video about Everyday Heroes. The message is that it takes everyday people to carry out random acts of kindness to spread some good in the world. We took this message and had a discussion about how we could spread the good in our school. They had excellent ideas! Towards the end of our discussion, I explained that spreading the good starts in our classroom. I handed out a blank notecard to each student. I then explained, “I would like to invite you to spread the good by decorating the outside of our classroom door. You can draw or write anything you want on your notecard. All I ask is that when every student walks into our room, your notecard will help make their day a little bit brighter, especially on those hard days. We all have those days, right?! And as a bonus: every student, parent, and teacher who walks by our classroom will see our door too. You don’t have to, but if you’d like to…please create a notecard that will help #spreadthegood for us all to see here at our school.”

Not a single student opted out. Some students even asked for two cards, or three! They were excited to get started on their cards. I promised I would have them up on our door when they come in on Monday morning. I stayed an extra hour after school Friday to get these up in time. It was so worth it! I went through and read all their notecards at the end of the day, and it just filled my heart with so much joy. I know they are only 11 and 12, but they are capable of so much more than we think. They inspire me to strive to be the best version of myself that I can be. I’m the lucky one.

I say it every day, but I sure do love my job. I love helping them strengthen their writing skills, falling in love with books, and seeing those moments where they finally understand something new we are learning in class. But this. This is also what I love. I love seeing them come together and lifting each other up. I’m so glad we stop to take those 15 little minutes out of our whole week to focus on each other. Because sometimes, each other is all we have. Each other is what gets us through. This is true for middle schoolers, but also as adults. So, lift each other up when you can. Take a moment to brighten up someone’s day. You never know how much they need it. Afterall, like Kid President said, it only takes one person to show kindness to another person and we can all slowly start to spread the good in this world. I know in Room 202, we are bursting to the brim with goodness.

Much Love,

Lindsay