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I woke up today feeling very positive.  Was it due to a restful weekend?  Was it because it was the first day of a new month?  Could this conscious effort to look for the positive every day really, actually (gulp) be working?  Suffice it to say, I think a combination of all of the above had me feeling chipper and happy and ready for a great week ahead when I pulled out of my driveway for my short, but scenic drive to school.  On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate myself this morning as a solid 8.  I admired the changing leaves in the trees as I sang offkey beautifully to Call Me Maybe,  a song that most times has me practically skidding off the road to change the station.  But, what the heck?  It's October and life is good.  Whatever the reasons,  I arrived at school ready for a wonderful first week of October.  

I didn't get irritated when I realized that I had forgotten to make a new seating chart.  I had promised the students Friday that they would have 'new seats for the new month'.  Sigh.  Quickly I drew up an arrangement that would move the talkers apart, get the easily distracted kids near the front, evenly split boys and girls, align the desks so I'd have a clear view of the kids that played with things in their desks, and make sure the new kids were by some of their recently acquired friends.  There were at least fifteen other things "to do" before the bell rang, so a quick refill of my coffee was in order.  The fact that Call Me Maybe was running over and over and over and over in my head was starting to wear on me.   But I didn't let that get to me.  Think positive I reminded myself.

Then, just as the positivity scale was beginning to slide down from an 8 to more of a 5, in walked a fellow teacher.  Now, this teacher is one who is never without a bright smile, a quick laugh, and a witty word.  The fact that she is a lower el teacher and I'm an upper el teacher and we don't usually venture to each others rooms/hallways too often was a surprise.  The even bigger surprise was she had a gift for me!  She beamed and handed me some Kettle Corn with a cutsie little note (remember, I said she was a lower el teacher!) wishing me a Happy October.  Really?  For me?   She relayed to me that she had caught up on all my blogs over the weekend and they made her smile.  She even said I'm a good writer!  Wow!  Now I guess I know a little bit how the kids feel when their teacher compliments them on their writing.   I realized that by her saying that, it made me want to write more (and better).  I decided I would compliment my own little classroom of writers more to inspire them and keep them writing.

My surprise gift!

 By the time the bell rang, I was up to a 9 with the  positive boost from my teacher friend.  Who cares if I didn't get all fifteen of my "to dos" done.  I would somehow finish them as I always did. I left the gift on my desk all day as a reminder.  That way, when the meter started to slide a bit, a quick glimpse at the package helped me catch myself.   I didn't want to open it; I wanted to save it and preserve it somehow.   And then, on the drive home tonight, I decided to 'pay it forward'.  Tomorrow I'll give the gift to a student.  Maybe it will make his/her day just as bright and positive as mine was today.  

I'll be honest with you, when I left school today, the positivity meter was hovering around a 7.  Let's just say "computer lab" and 15/22 students not able to remember the step-by-step directions given painstakingly in class right before lab.  But it's all good.  

What's your positivity meter number?