Today I’m sharing a post that has become near and dear to my heart. This is not meant to be controversial or directed any one. I cannot sit silently anymore. This has been bothering me for a while and so I want to address it. But this is a movement or issue or cause that has become a passion of mine. It’s time we step up and share our happy classrooms with the world!
HAPPY CLASSROOMS! #happyclassrooms
It started with my friend Kayla and I discussing the negativity that surrounds teaching. You know, when you turn on the news or look at social media and you see all of these things that schools and teachers are doing wrong. Or how we’re failing our kids. Well here’s the truth people:
TEACHERS ARE NOT FAILING OUR KIDS. SCHOOLS ARE NOT FAILING OUR KIDS.
We are doing incredible things every day. Our students do incredible things every day. Our schools are doing incredible things every single day.
The problem is that none of that makes the news or shows up on social media. Why? Because teachers are not using our voices. We’re not doing a good job of telling OUR STORY. No one knows the truth about what happens in our classrooms better than us, so why are we allowing others to tell our story? Teachers, it is time that we start using OUR VOICE on social media to let our friends, family, community and the world know how amazing teachers are!
That’s why Kayla (Top Dog Teaching) and I started the #happyclassrooms mission. It’s so easy. We all share recipes and cat videos so why not take a minute each day to share 1 happy or positive thing that happened in your classroom?? Seriously. I am challenging you to join this movement. As of the writing of this post, there are 40,000 Instagram posts using #happyclassrooms . Let’s make that 100,000 and let’s trend on Twitter and Facebook. Imagine the impact we can have on our schools if we were sharing our #happyclassrooms! I also encourage you to spread the happy classrooms message! Click on the happy classrooms image to download your printable poster! I printed mine and it’s now posted outside my classroom door!
Warning: Real Talk About Happy Classrooms And Social Media
Now, this is where it gets real. Not only is there a ton of negativity surrounding teaching, there’s also negativity coming from teachers. I see it every Sunday on social media. A flood of posts about dreading Monday or not wanting to go to work or how “awful” the next few weeks will be or how a “group of kids are called a migraine” (Those are from actual posts!) Let me state this: I get it. Teaching is hard. And stressful and frustrating. There are good days and bad days. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Trust me, I know. I’ve worked in some very toxic situations. I also get that we need to vent and unload those frustrations. But here’s my opinion: social media IS NOT the place to vent those feelings.
But we need to vent…
We need to vent to our friends, our family, our spouses and our colleagues. In the privacy of our homes or classrooms or while having adult beverages. We need to get it out. I am 100% in agreement with the need to vent. But social media is not the place for it. It needs to stop. It’s damaging our profession and making teachers look bad. Do you see your doctor posting on Instagram that she’s dreading seeing patients tomorrow? NO! I also firmly believe we need to share the realities of our classrooms because we all know there are things that the public need to know. But we can share those in a meaningful way without damaging our profession. We need to tell our stories and share our concerns and raise awareness. But we do not need to flood social media with how much we dread school. Please stop. Please.
And here’s why: that’s public. Teachers see that. Administrators see that. More importantly: PARENTS AND STUDENTS SEE THAT! How in the world would you feel as a parent if you saw your child’s teacher post that they were dreading school? Imagine how students in our classes feel if they know we’re not excited to see them?! And you know all of those people who say we get paid too much or we’re just babysitters or we don’t deserve more respect or resources? They see all of those negative, complaining posts too. It just reinforces the idea that teachers don’t matter or that we’re failing our kids. Teacher, I am pleading with you to stop filling up social media with negativity and instead flood it with positivity and all of the incredible things happening in our classrooms.
Join the happy classrooms movement!
I know this post will not sit well with some and that’s ok. But I hope you read this, share it and join in the #happyclassrooms movement. Let’s start flooding social media with the awesomeness that is teaching and our classrooms and most importantly OUR STUDENTS! Let’s show the world how incredible our students are and let’s use our voice to prove that we are not failing our students. And if you need some positive posts to share…here are some of my favorites!
Here is a very powerful article to remind us just how incredible each day in our classroom can be and it truly sums up the powerful mission of happy classrooms!
You can also check out my post about how we’re all on the same team! Check out my cool kids post!