A Matter of Fact, or Mindset
One Christmas, my mom gave me a picture to go in my kitchen. I had told her that I wanted something that had an organ red in it to pop with the apple green in my kitchen. My mom then in turn found this picture of the Eiffel Tower. While it was a beautifully romantic picture, it didn’t exactly go in my kitchen. My mom was disappointed she had selected the wrong picture which was her gift to me.
The red was too dark and the picture itself was too dark for my apple green kitchen. But since it was a romantic picture, it went in my bedroom. While it was a thoughtful and beautiful gift, I never liked the colors for my house, and it always felt too dark to me.
This past summer I finally replaced the picture in my room and put it in a yard sale to declutter my house. Along with it I placed a wooden frame to get rid of as well. Neither of them sold. So back in the house they went.
One day I was going through items I still had to get rid of. When placing the frame (pictured above) against the picture I was seeking to eliminate, it suddenly struck me. Wow this frame beautifully captures the color and elegance of the picture. And just like that I instantly loved the picture!
Like a revelation, my mind began whirling. How much does this frame and picture symbolize the mindset in which we live? Like this frame pictured above, we bring our mindset to all of life’s circumstances we will encounter, including our environments.
It’s easy to feel secure, and happy when our circumstances are sunny, and bright. But when the clouds come and rain on us, does our happiness wash away when we encounter the first classroom disruption? When our life, including our emotional state, is made up of our circumstances, or environment we will be like the house built on the sand in the parable found in Matthew. The first wave to wash up on the shore, and our emotional state will crumble to pieces in front of everyone. This was me.
To be completely honest, I have always struggled with being easily perturbed emotionally by disruptions, or other circumstances, and it became easy for me to become overwhelmed. One day, when dealing with a class that seemed particularly in need of an attitude adjustment, I sat at my desk spiraling into a mental state of such frustration. I could barely contain myself.
My thought? I should just grab control of the room and lay into them. After all, their attitudes were awful, their behavior was awful, and they needed to be disciplined.
During this particular week, I had actually had a veteran teacher tell me he broke down crying during his class from complete frustration. These kids sitting before me, had had almost every teacher “lay into them,” at this point. So why shouldn’t I? They deserve it, right? The problem was this method had not worked for me so far. It had not served me well. The more I meditated on this fact, the more I realized, these kids did not need an attitude adjustment, it was me. As hard as it was for me to admit this, I knew it was true. It was me setting the mood and the tone in my classroom, and it began with MY attitude. The students would relax and enjoy themselves if I could.
The question at hand; was I in charge of my emotional state or were my circumstances?
Admittedly, my attitude was horrible. I had a decision to make. I had to find a way to get some joy, or I wasn’t going to make it through the class, let alone the rest of the day. My attitude had to change and quickly.
I was grasping at straws in order to do this. So, I did the first thing I could think of. I grabbed a dollar bill and told the class the first person who can make me laugh will get this dollar bill. They each took turns, one after the other telling me jokes, or doing funny and silly things. An interesting thing happened, not only did my attitude change when I set my mind to it… but the entire class had a change of attitude. No more grumbling and complaining or being defiant or disrespectful. I realized that my change of mindset was able to shift the entire room.
The other amazing lesson which came out of this was that the kids, when given the chance to take the ball and run with it, never ONCE became inappropriate with their humor in any way. The expectations had been clearly laid in my classroom and they knew them well. I didn’t need to go over my expectations with the class again. The one who needed to follow the expectations in the room WAS ME!
Going home that evening, it struck me how many teachers were so frustrated with these same students and were getting nowhere. Every one of these students saw one bad attitude after another (from their teachers). Was their behavior good? NO. Was their attitude good? NO. But it was able to be changed when my attitude changed.
No, there was no trick to this. I just had to fight for my joy and choose to change my mindset. What a thought. I had the ability to change my mindset, no matter what mindset my students had. Yes, I could have even told you this before this day, however, seeing the shift in the students on one of my most difficult days in this school year I couldn’t deny, that I had some work to do on my personal mindset and specifically my attitude. The work had to be done by ME.
If your circumstances control your emotions, you will be just like this house made of sand. Teacher its not just the circumstances life throws at us, it is the mind set which we bring to our circumstances. When we are in control of our emotions and our attitudes, we control our environments, not our circumstances. You can choose joy today!
26. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27. and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:26 (NKJV) New King James Version
The Fruitful Educator 
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