I have a flip chart of feelings on my desk at school. Each day, sometimes during the day, I flip it to a feeling that represents my current mood.
It’s designed to do two things:
- Teach my students new vocabulary.
- Make my students aware of how I’m feeling so that they can adjust accordingly.
That second goal turned out to be much less meaningful than I had initially envisioned.
Years ago, a now-retired school secretary always had the pulse of the principal, so when I needed to ask for a favor or disclose an act of stupidity to him, I would ask her if it was a good time to do so, and she would always know.
I thought my feelings chart could serve a similar purpose for my students, but I’m almost always in a great mood, so the only feelings that appear on my flip chart are words like bouncy, chipper, giddy, hunky-dory, inspired, and mischievousness.
Last week, I flipped it to “peckish” when I was hungry, but that’s the closest my students have seen to a negative feeling.
I was flipping through the chart on Friday, looking for something new, when I saw “subversive” and thought, “Yes, this is me.”
An hour later, one of my students saw the chart and wondered what “subversive” meant. She turned the chart over, read the definition, and then announced to me and the class, “Oh, this is always you. Every day, this is you. This should be the only feeling for you. You need to buy two of these charts. One should just stay on subversive, and the other one can show a different feeling. You are subversive every minute of every day.”
It’s so good to be known.
