One thing I love about teaching is being able to stay at home with my daughter during breaks. Am I off the job? Never, but at least we get to figure out our own schedule.
Today, we decided to “color” with the crayons she got for Easter. Being not quite a year and a half old, crayons are a new concept to her. but she learned quickly how to get color on the page. When we were done, I had her put her colors back in the box.
See I am a perfectionist when it comes to a lot of things, even if my house is still a mess. I like crisp corners on my books; dog-eared pages make me cringe. I like books to be put back on the shelf spine out. AND I like my markers and crayons to be put back pointy or cap side up.
My 1 year old helped me to see that sometimes we just have to let go of the perfectionism and just celebrate that the crayons were returned to the box, and the books have been returned to the shelf. She put them in willy nilly, but they made it in the box.
This got me to thinking about my classroom and the things that eat away at my perfectionism or drive my OCD tendencies nuts. Pencil shavings left around the sharpener. Notebook metal spirals sticking out. Classroom library books placed on top of the baskets instead of in them. Should these things be taken care of? Of course, but they don’t need to ruin my day or anyone elses. It’s not about having the perfect classroom. It’s about the learning being done.
So going into the next school year, I hope that I can put these things into better perspective and not let them bother me so much.
I think I am learning more from this little girl than she is from me! She’s so wise ;)
Happy Monday,
Colleen
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