How many blogs do you see people writing about puppy dogs, rainbows, unicorns, and all of them and Tinkerbell live with a positive attitude? Bah!  Finally, the chance to be a curmudgeon has offered itself up, and I’m grabbing on with both hands!

 

I’m currently in the last day of a three day class on K-5 math and the Common Core.  I’ve not been a “math teacher” for many years, and this class made sense for me to make the Core more personal to me, plus, it gives me a chance to organize my thoughts a bit, and create a plan.

 

We are grouped by grade, and it’s nice to have other fifth grade teachers who’ve taught math recently just to listen to, gain knowledge from, and ask questions. However, my attitude is not good, and this is why!  Our group features a local teacher, not from our district, but close enough, who’s done nothing but complain about everything! It’s been a fairly steady stream since the start of this class, and it’s wearing me out.  The kindergarten table is small, and I’m thinking of making myself a teacher of little ones just for the rest of the day.  The paper is too long, our break is too short, my students aren’t coming with the right skills, I don’t have to worry about this as I don’t have much time left in teaching! Ack!! I can’t imagine being a student in this kind of classroom, let alone work around this kind of attitude.  It’s just sucked much of the life from our group, which is sad.

 

It just got me thinking last night, am I this way? Do people not seek me out because of my attitude, or do I draw those with a similar negative attitude towards me? A little self-reflection can be painful, but in this case it was not.  I work with some of the most caring, selfless people I know, people who would bend over backward to lend a hand.  But more so, they laugh, they smile, and while everyone has a bad day, they aren’t ones to dwell on it.  I love this about my co-workers, that they can have fun and enjoy themselves in one of the most stressful jobs out there.  I draw from their strength, adding my own dry sense of humor and quiet leadership to the pool to be drawn from as well.  Yes, I do draw people in, but they are the ones who have a positive outlook, regardless.

 

So, I’ve got one more gosh darn hour with this woman, and while kindergarten is probably not in my future, I know walking into my classroom that I have a wealth of positive energy to bring, and to work with.  I feel for this teacher because we work in a stressful profession, but we work in a profession that is so filled with great things happening on a daily basis.  Find that.  Feel that. Share that with those around you.

 

Drat, that wasn’t negative at all! 🙂 I did manage to work the work curmudgeon into a blog post, so that has to score me points somewhere!