Poker Face

"You can't chose the cards you are dealt, but you can choose how you play them."

I put this quote up on my SmartBoard today as I shared some pretty upsetting news with my news with my students. Before I even told them that we were needing to cancel an upcoming performance and trip, I had them tell me what this quote meant in their own words. Here are just a few of their responses.

"Sometimes we can't choose what happens in our life, but we can chose how we react to it, both good and bad."

"We might not be able to control who comes into our lives and how they act, but we can choose our reactions towards them."

"Sometimes life can be hard and difficult, but how we react to situations determines our character."

"Life can suck. But we get up and make the most with what we have."

"You have to stay positive, even when it is really hard."

Out of the mouths of babes...

The Cards...

The cards we have been dealt with lately, well it is losing hand. Funds cut, non-sense legislation, talking heads that are not in our state but seem to be experts on our children and our education system, and the lack of respect for our profession as a whole. I went to college, I took the tests, and I paid all of the money, it is time that I'm treated as a professional for what I do, day in and day out. This is environment is hard and toxic. I don't do well in negative situations. I fall apart in negative environments. I will admit that lately I have allowed the cards that I have been dealt determine my attitude. My attitudes towards my faith, my family, my friends, my colleagues, my students, and my profession. I started to create more tension in an already toxic and hard environment. 

How To Play The Game...

This should not stop my passion for life. This poorly dealt hand does not determine who I am as an educator and as a person. Things are rough and hard but it all depends on what I do with circumstances that I have been dealt with. This does not stop me from doing amazing things in my classroom with my students. Despite the hand that we have all been dealt with in education, I'm inspired by educators that are going above and beyond the cards that they have been dealt and doing amazing things with their students. Yes sometimes life sucks, but we get up and make the most of it. We play the game to the best of our abilities. We create joy out of chaos. For the Love we just do the best that we can. 

For the Love...play your game and play it well.