7/23/2023 0 Comments Think positivePositive psychology is a more recent adaptation of humanistic psychology. It focuses on the positive potential of human beings, instead of the old everyone-is-broken-and-needs-to-be-fixed model. It's refreshing, but often counterculture. I'm delving in to this area not only to create psychology lessons and activities for it, but also to apply to my own life and my family. My first lesson, Introduction to Positive Psychology, gives a nice overview of the ideas you'll see in this and upcoming blogs. It begins with an anticipation guide, previews key vocabulary, and has students create their own definition of positive psychology. Each one of these elements of positive psychology is very practical and focuses in on helping an individual find deep meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment in their lives. The founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, poses the idea that there are three different types of happy "lives": pleasure, goodness, and meaning. While my resources will focus on helping students understand and apply these and other concepts to their lives, I also wanted to share some ideas for teachers to apply these to their teacher life. I'm only going to cover the first five ideas in this post-- stay tuned for the next set! 1. Cultivate gratitude. A common suggestion is for people to keep a gratitude journal. I suggest teachers keep an anecdote journal of quotes or actions by students, colleagues, admin, or parents. A small, palm-sized spiral notebook fits nicely inside a teacher desk without taking up too much room. Your entries could be "I'm grateful all of 3rd period turned in their homework!" or "I'm grateful my teaching partner covered my duty so I could call the doctor for my own child." The more specific you can be, the better. Try not to repeat one- ever! One way that I heard this question reframed was changing it from "what are you grateful for" to "describe when you last felt gratitude." The shift goes from listing things to experiences, and makes the exercise more personal and meaningful! I have two minilessons on gratitude you could use with your students. My Introduction to Gratitude resource and Expressing Appreciation resources (these include meditations and application activities too) are on my TPT store for you to check out! 2. Practice mindfulness. In its essence, mindfulness is being present in this moment, not worrying about the future or ruminating in the past. Teachers have to many things to do and think about, that it is so easy to let your mind wander. One mantra that has helped me is "Be here now." Pay attention to the students that you have in front of you- it's the most important time you get with them. Don't think about the copies you need to make, or that ominous question your administrator dropped on you this morning. You and your students both deserve you to be focused and present. Check out this book for a great visual of this lesson! {The Three Questions by Jon H Muth} Mindfulness can also be used as an overarching concept that includes many other topics within it. This resource bundle gives you a lot of options for way to cultivate mindfulness in your classroom and in your life ! 3. Foster relationships. Teachers, find your person. You don't even need a tribe. Find one adult who you can stand for longer than 5 minutes and who shares your teaching philosophy. Teacher work rooms and lunchrooms can be toxic places of gossip and complaining. Avoid anyone who is an energy vampire, and seek out someone who fills your bucket. Then don't let them go. Text them a funny meme. Leave a compliment on a sticky note. Bring them a surprise coffee. Open up to them, and make sure you're trustworthy with their baggage too. While avoiding everyone might seem like the safest option, it is ultimately not the happiest or most fulfilling. 4. Pursue your passion. You've all heard of Simon Sinek asking people to find their "why". Too many teachers rely on external motivation from student successes or relationships. Instead, find your passion through yourself and your own unique strengths and talents. Teaching also tends to focus on a negativity "fix them" mindset for professional development. If you are lucky enough to be given choices, choose to foster your strength, not fix your supposed "weakness". You'll find yourself much more passionate and engaged if you do this. Maybe your niche is creating spot-on formative assessments. Maybe you rock the engagement strategies. Perhaps you go wild for some hands-on manipulative ideas, or differentiation, or social-emotional learning... you get the point. Find what sets your soul on fire (in the teaching world) and do more of it. Then spread your spark to the others around you! My newly added lesson Positive Psychology: FLOW covers the concept of using your skills, passion, and purpose to find meaning in your life. The activities begin with a graphic organizer to learn from the "grandfather of flow" himself, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in a TEDtalk. They will then watch a second video about other criteria for creating a flow state. A self-reflection worksheet allows them to think about and plan for flow in their own lives, and a hexagon card sort finishes the lesson to review how all the concepts relate together. The concept of flow is my new obsession, and I'm telling everyone I can about it! 5. Set Goals. Education is often a goal-oriented space. We set goals for state testing, individual attendance, participation, test scores... it's not hard to find. How often do you get to set a goal for you and only you? A goal that you care so deeply about that you don't need to re-read your write up of it to remember what you said? This might not seem like much to others, but at my new school I made it a goal to bring my lunch every single day. And I did. I also had to stock emergency PB&J uncrustables in the freezer for days I forgot, but I saved SO much time and money by putting this goal out for myself. In my experience, SMART goals don't help. I find them to be too cumbersome. Instead, I like to focus on creating healthy habits that will ultimately lead me to my overall goal. This summer I vowed to get into shape and lose weight to relieve my chronic back pain. I didn't make a smart goal. I chose something meaningful, then cultivated my habits to get me closer to that goal. I did it the old-fashioned way...diet and exercise. Those healthy habits helped me lose 35 lbs in 6 months, and I feel so much better! For an introduction to habits, I created this resource to use with my students. The priority list activity within it is one of my all-time favorites! When we change our mindset to embrace our full potential instead of dwelling on the lack, we can refocus ourselves on a healthier, happier path. Gratitude, mindfulness, relationships, passion, and goals are essential. Don't let me tell you what to do- try it for yourself and see how it can change your world, one choice at a time. Choose to remember one positive over all the negatives. Choose to refocus your brain on what is right here, right now. Choose to cultivate a relationship with another adult to support and be supported by. Choose to find what makes you passionate in your teaching and explore it even further. Choose to look forward into the future to set a goal, and then honor yourself by achieving that goal. Positive Psychology Concepts
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorA midwest teacher in love with creating awesome opportunities for students to think, communicate, and produce. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Comfortable-Classroom
Archives
August 2023
Categories |