Yesterday, I got an out of the blue email from a former player wishing me a happy birthday. I was a bit shocked, because seriously, how would she know? Then I remembered, during our band trip she’d mentioned she has an “email notification” set so when I post, she’d know.

#crazystalkertype

Ok, maybe not, but still, it was kind of cool to know that since I’d written about her, she’d been checking up on my writing. We emailed back and forth, getting on the topic of inspirational videos I like to show from time to time. I’ve backed way off of them because I really don’t think they work, but she wrote:

They actually are inspiring and I’ve carried some of the main points with me

#cool

So, maybe, just maybe I am having the smallest of impacts on my students.

Today, we read “Three Lessons from the Happiest Girl in the World“, a story by a former student of mine (an amazing athlete and a tremendous writer) ABOUT a former student of mine (in the top 3 in terms of the most talented girls I’ve coached). The crux of the blog are the three lessons learned:

  1. Lesson One: Being unhappy with other people, should not impact being happy with yourself.
  2. Lesson Two: There are only two things you can control.
  3. Lesson Three: To be happy, you’re going to have to work at it.

I’m not going to talk about the blog much as I’m think I may have wrote about it before, but I asked my students to write about their thoughts about it. I had three different student write about a current player, how she’s always so up beat, so kind, and is always “happy”. If they can make the connections between a blog about a former player to a current player AND see how the positive traits connect them, my work here is done!

I love pulling this blog, videos, and other tools to help kids realize that you have to stay positive, even when the situation would allow you to be otherwise. If you stay positive, those negative things go away faster and you are much happier with you. The impact we has teachers can have by keep our attitude positive is scary.

Tonight, we went to our daughter’s last concert performance, which happens to be the last concert directed by our current director of 32 years as he will retire at the end of this school year. The band instructor, who’s been in our district since 2010 said these were the words our music instructor told him, and they’ve stuck with him:

They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Wiser words have never been spoken.

Find those positive things to bring into your classrooms. Find something to talk about with your students that brings the light up in their eyes. Do this, and you’ll keep the light going far beyond your reach as a teacher.

And you’ll have a lot of fun too! 🙂