Joy
Do you remember the song, Joy in My Heart?
It starts like this: “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.”
So many teachers and students do not feel the joy down in their hearts these days.
It is a struggle now more than ever for everyone because of the pandemic. Joy seems to have left the classroom like “Elvis has left the building”. Especially at this time of the school year, there is a prevalent feeling of “the music has stopped, and the concert is over!” A mood of “I’m done!”
I won’t go into detail and describe the atmosphere and culture of current feelings in the classroom because I think everyone already knows and understands what it is like.
I want to focus more on how we can dig deep down in our hearts and find that joy again.
This is what Maya Angelou has to say about joy:
“Joy is a freedom. It helps a person to find his/her own liberation. The person who is joyous takes responsibility for the time he/she takes up and the space that he/she occupies.You share it! When you continue to give it away, you will still have so much more of it!”
There is an overwhelming cry from the hearts of teachers to be free. “I just want to teach.” has become an ironic cliché in education. Teachers feel so burdened and overwhelmed and unappreciated and unsupported and….(name the emotion).
So, how can we bring forth more joy into the classroom, and why is it so important?
First of all, there is little to no freedom in the classroom today!
So much is controlled, prescribed and demanded of teachers and students nowadays as they are “performing” like robots as well as being inspected under a microscope.
Second of all, you can’t share or give away what was not created and owned by you to begin with. We have de-personalized and de-humanized teaching and learning for the sake of test scores, school grades, competition for funding, technology-generated data, etc.
It may seem impossible to find joy in the current classroom climate. But it is still deep “down in the hearts” of most teachers. It can be found in the same place and in the same ways as we always have. It is just more challenging because there are more layers to get through; like peeling back the layers of the onion à la Shrek style.
Worry, doubt and fear can steal away joy. So can anger, disappointment, shame and blame.
That is…
if we focus on them and give them the power to be in control and flying the plane, so to speak.
Joy has never left the classroom.
Other emotions have just taken over the controls, much like in the movie Inside Out.
Like in the movie, we can’t deny other emotions that are not “positive” like the characters Anger, Disgust and Sadness. Major life events and challenges show us that Joy cannot be operating the control panel all the time. We don’t want to sugar coat what is going on with toxic positivity and deny that the other emotions exist or that they are in the classroom too.
But we also don’t want to focus on them and allow them to take control of the classroom, which, as any teacher can attest, can happen quickly and can take over all control of everyone in the room. Yikes!
What we can focus on is the little things that invite joy in to stay a while and free us up from the other emotions that might be overwhelming us and permeating our classroom heart walls.
Things like heartfelt acts of kindness, seeing and hearing and valuing yourself and your students; gratitude; generosity of spirit; focus on relationships and a sense of belonging through invitation, inclusion, the intra and the inter PERSONAL, the humanity in us all.
What are some of those little “joys” and what do they look like in the classroom?
A teacher who recognizes and acknowledges even the smallest learning gain and growth in children and shares that with the children and their parents.
A student who realizes how much they have learned and excitedly shares it with others instead of answering “nothing” to the question “what did you learn in school today?”
A teacher who stands at the door and greets every student and asks questions to see how they are and tries to get to know them as a person. (I even saw a TikTok video on social media of a teacher who greets each student with a different, fun dance move).
A student who has an epiphany and makes a connection to what they are learning and subsequently “glows” with confidence and affirmation.
A teacher who actually has time to plan (or better yet, grade papers!) during their planning period so they don’t have to work so many hours at home.
A student who gets to have recess and can run and play and socialize with friends.
A teacher who listens from the heart and does what is best for all students for their social emotional growth as well as academic growth.
A student who tells the teacher, even years later, how much of an impact they have had on their life and thanks them for it.
A teacher who will forever call her students “my kids” and still “like” them on social media platforms because they have built a trusting and caring relationship together.
A student who acknowledges how hard their teacher works and does their part to lighten the burden and pressures that the teacher is under (like doing their best to participate fully in the relationship they are building together).
A teacher who is seen and heard and supported by parents, administrators, district and other school personnel.
A student who recognizes the value of education and tries to do their best.
A teacher who never gives up on a child, no matter what!
A student who never gives up on school, no matter what!
Of course, there are always the “standards” that create real (+ bigger) joy in education, no matter when, where, who, etc.
***More time, resources, support, recognition, compensation, creativity, permissions
***Fewer meetings, PLCs, data chats, duties, standardized tests, distractions
***Less paperwork, scrutiny, judgment, shaming, blaming
So, let’s focus on the little joys in the classroom that add up to freedom from all the other things that don’t serve us well and that can slow us down, trip us up, hold us back and take us off path.
Invite and allow joy in the classroom to set you free! Then, share it in service to yourself and to others.
Suggestion: Add this to your lesson plans every day:
Today, JOY visited my classroom, and it looked like this:
As a teacher:
1.
2.
3.
As a student:
1.
2.
3.
Here are a few resources to help you become more enlightened and empowered to bring more JOY into your classroom:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/music-teaching-tool-maria-alegria
https://education.byu.edu/sites/default/files/ARTS/documents/educational_movement.pdf
https://www.weareteachers.com/team-building-games-and-activities/
https://ozobot.com/blog/27-tech-tools-teachers-can-use-to-inspire-classroom-creativity
https://inservice.ascd.org/chemical-reactions-in-the-classroom/
https://learningspecialistmaterials.blogspot.com/2020/08/how-can-teachers-trigger-dopamine-and.html
https://www.thepathway2success.com/101-positive-affirmations-for-kids/
Inspirational song – have a dance party and invite joy!:
Happy by Pharrell Williams
Photo credit:
“The Heart Nebula (IC 1805)” by Martin_Heigan is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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