Welcome to February! I am sure all the spring calvers were thrilled to here Phil promise us six more weeks of winter. At the school, we had to make sure we had all the necessary contacts to be able to call a snow day. It has now been 11 months since we have had a snow day or a late start. I think our kids feel like we are somehow conspiring with Mother Nature against them. In this month’s corner, I want to touch on a topic that is prevalent to schools this time of year, every year - management of time and “burn out.”

February is sometimes referred to as the dogdays of the school year. It is natural to have a time when motivation feels low and external drivers are lacking. One of the main contributors, in my opinion, is the lack of vitamin D. We need the sunshine and it is common through January and February that teachers show up at school in the dark and the sun is setting when you get home. I honestly believe some wrestling coaches don’t see the sun for about six weeks. I think this is the first domino to fall.

What results from this lack of sunlight is lower energy and overall impact on your mood, which can impact your interactions with kids, colleagues, and your family. Negative interactions exacerbate the feelings we already have and the snowball rolling down the hill just gets bigger. Another aspect of this perfect storm is the overwhelming calendar. With junior high and high school basketball in full swing, wrestling meets to attend, church youth group you have to make a dinner for, and don’t forget your child has two tests and four quizzes this week they need to be ready for; we feel like we are juggling 12 balls and there is no way of putting any of them down.

It is pretty easy to get a woe is me attitude, but my article is supposed to come with some answers, not just sympathy. So, here are a couple of things that I think really help a person deal with the dogdays of the school year. First, make sure you love what you do. As a teacher, or any person that works in a school, you have to be wired a certain way to truly love showing up for kids every day. Anyone could work in a school on Sept. 15, the energy in the building is infectious. But for those of us who have been around for a while we know what kind of people are meant to work in a school. It is the person that can give a kid a pat on the back, or a “you’ve got this”, when they can tell the child feels like they are alone in the fight. It’s the teacher that can get after a kid for not handing in their paper when it was due for their class and still hold the kids' hand as they pray at youth group that night. It is the teacher that can check the temperature of their classroom and know that what she has planned for the day isn’t what the kids need right now. These are the people that are truly meant to work in a school. We often hear “mind over matter” and “attitude is everything.” John Maxwell once said something like “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” and I often tell people that if you roll out of bed every morning looking for what is wrong in the world you are guaranteed to find it every day. There may be a thousand ways to say it, but positive self-talk, grace for those around you, and constantly looking for the good in all situations can have an amazing impact on your overall mental health and world view.

These internal drivers are very important, but stealing another idea from John Maxwell; who are you letting on your bus? We need to be mindful of the people we associate with and realize if they are energy givers or energy takers. Do the people around us give us support and help us see the positives, or do they join us in complaining about everything that is happening to us? Sometimes we get our mood adjusted by osmosis of the people around us. This works two-fold. One, find people who are going to give you energy and two, be the kind of person that will give energy to the people you come into contact with each day.

As the father of five boys, now men, I think I am qualified to give a little advice. We have to understand how special this time of life is. Being able to sit in the hard bleachers, eat stale popcorn, and watch my kids play ball and be a part of a team has been one of my favorite life stages. Have my boys been in the game as much as I would have liked? Probably not. Have my kids’ teams won every game I thought they should have? For sure not. I could choose to see their sports as a negative experience, but… I appreciate the kind of men they have become and the role that playing sports had in shaping them. I understand that my attitude affected their experience (both positively and negatively). I appreciate the coaches that invested their time and passion into my children.

I realize I use sports as analogy a lot, but the idea is the same for teachers, peers, bosses, etc. If you are looking for the good, you will feel appreciation and if you are looking for the bad, you will find regret.

I am not sure if this article is more for teachers or parents. In reality it is probably a bit of a perspective check for me personally, but the advice is solid. Don’t allow the dogdays of anything get you down. Be the master of your experience with some positivity, the right people, and an overabundance of appreciation.

Have a great month!