As the daylight grows shorter, the leaves fall off the trees, and colder weather moves in, it can feel like we are doing what needs to be done to survive – but not necessarily thrive. Resilience helps us move from surviving to thriving, allowing us to bring the best version of ourselves to our students, colleagues, and the school community. Resilience is built by continuously taking small action steps. One small step forward repeated regularly allows for good habits to be formed and leads to bigger changes than waiting to take one huge leap when the time is right.
One first step you can take to build your resiliency is to reflect and celebrate your many accomplishments so far this school year. Taking time to reflect and celebrate helps point out the many obstacles you’ve overcome, the resiliency you’ve used to get to this point, and naturally leads to new ideas on how to problem-solve future challenges. This is the perfect time of year to spend 15 – 20 minutes reflecting on all that you’ve accomplished through one of the three reflection and celebration structures provided below. In doing so, you’ll feel more confident and competent, and ultimately more resilient!
1. Stroll down memory lane – In a neighborhood, there are many different houses that vary in stature, shape, and color. Some stand out more than others, some look alike, and some draw you to them, making you linger. To reflect on your many accomplishments in this school year up to this point, imagine that you are walking in a neighborhood, on a street called Memory Lane. Each house is an accomplishment for you to identify – one thing that you completed so far this school year. Some of the accomplishments will be grandiose and others will seem small, but it is important that you pause and identify as many of your accomplishments as possible. Taking time to reflect on the big and the small accomplishments will feed your soul and reinforce your desire to support students, colleagues, and the families in your learning community.
2. Impacting Others – Accomplishing tasks feels good, but what feels even better is seeing (or hearing) the positive outcome it had on others. Think about an accomplishment you have achieved this school year and who it benefited. Then, reflect on what those individuals might think, feel, say or do because of your accomplishment.
For example: To learn about each student in your class, you created a ‘lunch-bunch’ where you meet with small groups of students twice a week and eat lunch with this rotating group. At this point in the year, you’ve had a chance to meet with every student a couple of times and as you think about this accomplishment, you might consider what you heard or saw students do in response to your ‘lunch-bunch’ (smile, tell you a connection the next day, feel a stronger connection to their peers, come, etc.). You might also think about what the students might have been thinking or feeling (gratitude, security, appreciation for your attention, happiness). Considering the positive impact of our actions and accomplishments on others pushes us to continue giving our best. When we feel connected to others and see how big of an impact we’re making, we are able to persevere when facing challenges in reaching our accomplishments.
3. Word Web – If you like to doodle, bullet journal, or make connections, creating a word web might be a reflection style that works best for you. If you own an expanded set of flair pens, crack them out along with a plain piece of white paper (or a journal) and you’ll be ready to start. In the middle of the paper, write down a word that will help you reflect on all of the accomplishments you’ve achieved so far this school year. Words like success, accomplishments, feats, achievements, wins, progress, or another of your choice help start the reflection process, encouraging you to think of both big and small accomplishments. Let your creativity shine as you work through this thought exercise, creating a web of words and phrases that highlight all that you have achieved this year. Once the web is created, look to see the connections between various achievements and celebrate all that you have accomplished so far this year. Identifying connections between accomplishments helps to recognize patterns and learn the magic formula for our own and our students’ success.
As we continue to work in providing our students with the optimal learning environment, it is critical to carve out some time to reflect and celebrate our many accomplishments. Looking for improvement and learning opportunities is important, however the path for increased growth and success truly lies in the reflection on what we have done up to this point. Reflection leads to renewed energy and purpose – propelling us to continue recognizing problems that can be resolved, removing obstacles, and visualizing the steps for making it a reality.
Written by Sarah Fillion & Dana Januszka for Positive School Solutions 2021
