It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house! I LOVE getting ready for Christmas. Yesterday, we returned from visiting family for Thanksgiving, and I spent three hours or so wrapping presents. Today, my entire family woke up and started on decorating the house. We worked all day long and we're not quite done yet! So, this evening my husband and I are exhausted, and I start to wonder, is it all worth it?
A few weeks from now, we will be doing all this work again without the excitement. We'll have to take down all that we've put up. Those presents that I spent hours wrapping will be opened quickly, the paper discarded. So, why put forth all of the effort?
For me, the feelings that all of these preparations create are worth all of the time, energy, and money that we put into it. I love seeing the sparkle in my children's eyes when they see all of the presents stacked with care. I love the cozy feeling in my house when it's filled with trees, lights, and ribbons. I love the anticipation of the holiday and the memories of it later. Without all of the preparation, the holiday would lose its sparkle. Not to say that Christmas is all about decorations, but this post is :). We have plenty of reminders of the reason we celebrate Christmas all over our house as well.
So, as a teacher, I begin thinking about all of the time consuming things that are a part of a teacher's life. I know there are things that I do in my classroom that are just as time consuming as preparing for Christmas, and in the middle of it all, I wonder if it's worth all of the work. Then I talk to one of my former students years later, and they tell me one of their memories from my classroom. And I know, it was worth every minute.
I just recently posted a guide to student motivation on Teachers pay Teachers. It's a free little presentation that I hope might have an idea or two that could help other teachers to create anticipation and motivation in their classrooms.
Check it out:
Thanks,
Krystal
No comments:
Post a Comment