I just hit spring break, and it’s going well. I’ve done some yard work, seen some friends, and of course you know I just got back from a PD!

Last Friday, the last day of school before spring break, I had a co-curricular meeting. We have these about once a month and otherwise have PLC with our department. All of us teachers were like “Aww man, come on, a meeting the day before spring break?” Needless to say, we are rotten just like our students. Learning doesn’t stop the day before a break, and neither does professional collaboration!

It was such a fun and informative meeting where we discussed “What is your brand?” One of our assistant principals recently attended a PD about this topic which focused on the “brand” produced by districts and schools, but he wanted to pose this idea for us to ponder in relation to our brand as teachers.

He started by showing us logos and asking for our initial reactions (I was so proud when we all called Coca-Cola poison–count me out of sugary drinks) we discussed many key points and completed a graphic organizer. We pondered many facets of our “brand” as teachers. “What do students say about you and your class when you’re not around?” We talked about our brand message (mine was “Everyone can learn math!”), how we want students to feel when they’re in our classroom, among other things.

One of the categories (I am at a loss for the exact name and it’s spring break, so I am not going into the school to look at the handout to find out, HAHA) was about what is your secret facet, like something about your personality that people may not quite believe or know about you. To preface this, my assistant principal, who was my former choir teacher, shared a story about me as a student. He said for a dress up day for school (maybe beach themed?) he wore flip flops and I was so intrigued with the fact that he had hair on his toes! Now I absolutely remember NOTHING about this, and I have half of a mind to think he made up the story because I just cannot fathom that I would have noticed or cared about such a thing!

So, now you understand the reason behind the bizarre title of this post! Now let me explain the moral of the story. This got me thinking about how it is funny the little interactions in life that we remember that no one else does, or vice versa. Clearly he remembered that interaction because it made some sort of impact on him (he was probably thinking about how weird and random of a comment that was). We both remember when he would chew out the altos for talking while he was working with the sopranos (my group). I remember small interactions that others may not and I have certainly had many other instances of friends, family, coworkers, and students telling me about something I did once upon a time. So, each person is impacted by interactions in different ways. So what does that tell us about our behavior? As people, and certainly as teachers, we must be very careful to not have a “bad day” so as to affect others negatively. We must do our very best to be gracious, caring, fun, and understanding on all occasions. When we feel the urge to say something kind, we should follow through, because we never know what kind of impact we might make.

So here’s to always being on your best behavior! Haha. Here’s to always doing our best, and always walking in kindness and integrity. Here’s to always being approachable, understanding, and encouraging to our students, and coworkers.