The Joy Jar

I wanted to share a quick post with you on this fabulous Friday! A few months ago I had an idea to create something called the joy jar for work. I am a speech language pathologist in a school district, so I work with a lot of teachers. I really love my job and I know a lot of teachers really love their jobs too, but not everyday is easy. In fact, there are probably more tough, bad days, than easy, good ones. Working in the education field can be hard. I wanted to find a way to bring back that joy that we sometimes lose, when we put so much effort in day after day without any results or thanks.

I know for me personally I can get so frustrated when I don't see my students making progress. It also  hurts even more, when I know a student doesn't really want to come to speech and therefore doesn't really put forth any effort.

What am I doing wrong? I thought I was a fun speech teacher. Why can't I reach this child?

A few months went by and I had forgotten about the joy jar. Then my principal sent an email with this video to all of the staff.

What an amazing speech!! I was once ago inspired and finally created the joy jar!!

I realized like Dalton says in his speech, you may not reach every student, but you will reach at least one!!! Actually, I am sure you will probably reach most! You can't let those small (sometimes big) negative moments in teaching ruin the positives ones.  Don't let them steal from you that passion that you once had. Never lose your joy!

Here are some of the items I have in my joy jar at work.

The joy jar doesn't have to be just for teachers either. It can be for whatever profession you are in. I'm  sure that there are many people out there who, when they first started their job had a huge passion for what they do, but now after many hard times, have probably lost some of that joy. Let's encourage them to get it back and remember all the good things about what they do!

Many Blessings,