The Exasperated Teacher Blog UK

Whilst mooching on Pinterest© over the Christmas holidays, I came across this pin which highlighted a challenge to make your inner teacher happy. 

At first, I asked myself a few questions:

1. Is there such thing as a happy teacher? (Jokes, I’m sure I have been happy a few times in my career as a teacher, although now I struggle to dicipher whether it is actually happiness or hysteria…)

2. Why is happiness considered a challenge for teachers? The daily stresses and struggles of the job make it challenging to see the happy aspects of our work on a daily basis. Unless it is Christmas and then it’s all fun and giggles until a child runs riot around school, or gets glitter in their eye. Therefore, I consider the challenge to be finding happiness in your job, not actually becoming a happy teacher. Surely if we seek the happiness in our job then we’ll be happy? Or is it easier said than done? 

3. What exactly do I need to do in order to consider myself a happy teacher? I took a look at some of the “challenges” involved to judge whether it would be do-able. Achievable. 

Ok, so quite a few are achievable. I’ll admit. And actually some of them, I probably never do, or don’t do often enough. 

So with that I saved the chart and decided to have a go. Starting today, 04.01.2017, I’m doing the 30 day HAPPY TEACHER Challenge. I’ll keep track of my daily antics and post a reflective evaluation of my challenge… who knows, maybe I’ll persuade my teacher colleagues to have a go too?

So… here it goes!