Posted on by hildaweisburg

Joy Creates Success Creates Joy

You are back to work after the winter break. Does it already feels like a long slog to the end of the year? It does for many of us. Your students are feeling the same way. So are the teachers. How are you going to get through this? The blog post title is the spoiler alert, but it sounds unbelievable. What are you supposed to do? Sprinkle fairy dust on everyone?

It’s not that remote an idea. Think of the times when a lesson in the library really clicked and you could see the joy on students’ faces or just one student. Recall those moments when a student thanked you for something. Those isolated moments can be cultivated, and it’s important to know how to do it.

Administrators are now discussing Joy as the secret ingredient in education. Indeed “Centering Student Joy” was the theme of the December 2024/January 2025 issue of EL (Educational Leadership), the journal of ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). While the articles are addressed to administrators many can be translated for the library. The article, Joy: The Oxygen for Learning by Katie Egan Cuningham and Kristin N. Rainville is one example. Here are some of their ideas:

The Joy of Connection – The pandemic taught us that humans are social animals and thrive best through connecting with others. Among the ways we can foster connections are:

  • Prioritizing the “We” – You may already do some of this in “pair and share” activities. Give students sentence starters that incorporate “we” so they know you’re with them. Look for ways use more “we” sentences when talking with teachers.
  • Strengthen Relationships – Check in with teachers and students to follow up on how things are going, particularly with personal challenges they may have shared with you. Where appropriate show your vulnerability by sharing the ones you are facing.
  • Celebrate Challenges – Point out where some element of accomplishment has made a student ready for the next step. In talking with teachers, note how much resilience they have shown in dealing with life’s difficulties.

The Joy of Engagement and Brain-Friendly Learning – Be mindful of how learning occurs in different cultures particularly those who do so through storytelling. Incorporate opportunities within a lesson where they can share their stories with others.

  • Activate and Assess Prior Knowledge – Go beyond KWL (What I know/ What I want to Know/ What I learned) charts. The authors suggest you use anticipation guides with statements about the topic. Have students agree or disagree then explain their response. This lets you know what their prior knowledge on the subject is. At the conclusion of the lesson, they can talk about what changes they would make to their original assessment.
  • Consider Working Memory Demands – We have only so much space in our brains to deal with ideas and move them around. The authors suggest you “provide a series of shorter deadlines for longer assignments, break down tasks into smaller chunks, help students prioritize what’s most important, and incorporate multiple methods for presenting information.”
  • Motivate with Mastery – Mark the successful accomplishment of steps along the way to the planned outcome. Acknowledging mastery increases self-esteem, confidence, leadership skills and more. Everyone wants to feel that they are making progress. Help them feel this.
  • Opening Up to Joy – Tune in to the small joyful moments in your day. Be aware of what makes you smile. Take time to enjoy the beauty, wonder, and grace you observe whether it’s a sunset or birds in flight. Savor your food, especially the dessert. There’s potential for joy all around you. You just need to open yourself to seeing it.

When you start seeing the results from incorporating joy into your practice, schedule a meeting with your principal to share what you have learned. They will hopefully be aware of the importance of joy. Now you can take joy from knowing the principal sees you as being knowledgeable about current educational thinking and a leader.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Look for Glimmers and Find Joy

Joy is a wonderful feeling. It swells inside you and bubbles over. Life is great. Things are wonderful. When we consider what brings us joy, it’s usually the big moments: particular holidays, important events such as graduations and weddings. But wonderful as joy is, those special moments occur infrequently throughout the year. Unfortunately, we have too much in our lives that brings us down.

The solution? Find ways to increase our joy.

We can’t miraculously create more of those big events, but there is something we can do to bring “mini-joy” into our days: glimmers. Glimmers are micro-moments of joy – the opposite, in many ways, of micro-stressors. These are the everyday moments which give us a rush of happiness, a moment of gratitude, or a sense of calm, peace, safety and goodwill. That instance when some little thing makes you smile or even catch your breath. You might see a rainbow in a puddle, a tree that has burst into flower overnight, or received an unexpected compliment. Glimmers don’t last long, but they are special.

In the article What Are Glimmers and Why Are They Good for You? the Newport Institute explores how to bring glimmers into your life. According to the blog, the term was coined by Deb Dana who said, “[Glimmers are] micro moments that begin to shape our system in very gentle ways.”

While the times of joy are easily recognized, you need to be alert to glimmers as they appear. Glimmers are the opposite of triggers. One lifts you up, the other pulls you down. Some of the sample Glimmers given include:

  • Feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin
  • Getting a hug just when you need it
  • Stopping to smell flowers in bloom
  • Enjoying the feel of the sand between your toes while walking along a beach
  • Relishing the taste of your morning coffee or afternoon tea
  • Looking at a photograph of someone you love
  • Watching a child laugh or a puppy frolic

You can feel the positive effect these Glimmers have on you by how your body reacts. To get the best results from Glimmers, you need to collect them throughout the day. Six suggested ways to gather Glimmers are:

  1. Set a Glimmer Intention – Set a goal for finding a specific number of Glimmers per day. You can start with one and build on that as you become more aware of them. Pick a time of day to find one and keep your focus.
  2. Go Where the Glimmers Are – What places are you most likely to find Glimmers? I find them on walks. You might choose a playground, the library, or a special place in your home. When you know where they are – you can seek them out.
  3. Engage Your Senses – Glimmers can come from any (or many) of your five senses – and the more the better. The sound of birds chirping and the color of their feathers. The feel of the body wash on your skin and its scent as you shower. The taste of a favorite dish or a new one. The smell of a book – and the anticipation of reading it.
  4. Jot Them Down – Recording when you experienced one keeps the Glimmers present in your mind and reminds you of all the places they can be experienced. The Institute suggests a Glimmer Journal.
  5. Limit Screen Time – If you are absorbed by your devices, you won’t notice the Glimmers. And if you aren’t focused on screens, you will have more time to engage with people and/or things you enjoy, which brings more opportunities for Glimmers.
  6. Connect with Others –  Humans are, generally, social beings. Find and seek out people who spark Glimmers in you. And tell them of the special place they hold for you.

Glimmers are small, but when collected intentionally, the pay-off is big. Be on the look out for the many Glimmers in your life. You will be more joyful – and less stressed – because of it.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

On the Path to More Joy

Today I’m concluding what has unexpectedly become a three-part series on joy. It seems especially fitting after a stretch of gray and rainy days where I live and the change of clocks in the United States which heralds a lengthening of daylight hours (something that personally gives me a lot of joy).

Finding and noticing joy are key to our ongoing mental health. And because our mental health affects our physical health, it has an important role to play in our ability and willingness to do the work we love. We think joy comes from an event or occurrence that happens to us. But we don’t need to wait for those moments. Last week in my blog, I shared the first five ways to bring joy into your life from 10 Ways to Find or Create Joy at Work by the Career Contessa Team. Here are the remaining five ways:

  1. Give Back – We usually think of this as volunteering, but at work it can be something as simple and meaningful as giving someone a true compliment – one that is specific to something you saw or experienced with them. Better yet write them a note so they have it to reference later. Is there someone who helped you recently? Send a thank you note (yes, e-mail is ok, but imagine how’d they’d feel getting something handwritten).
  2. Surround Yourself with (You Guessed It) Joyful People – Who are the people in your life who seem to have a zest for living? The people you can’t help but be drawn to. Find ways to see and work with them more often. The Career Contessa Team says these people need not be from your school. Your family and friends can (and hopefully do) bring you joy. Spend time with them. Don’t sacrifice joy with them to get more work done.
  3. Distance Yourself from Work Vampires – The Career Contessa Team says these are the “people who mosey up to your desk to complain, spread gossip, complain, and complain.” They delight in finding and magnifying everything that isn’t going well and suck out any joy you might be feeling. Recognize them for who they are. You may have to see them if they are your colleagues (and we have to be in relationship with everyone), but do what you can to minimize the time they take. And be sure not to agree with them. It will be added to their gossip.
  4. Find Small, New Ways to Do Old Things – Many times when we feeling down makes us yearn for change, we look to do big, sweeping things. Instead, we are often better off making small, sustainable changes to make things one step better. That can give us the momentum to continue to do more and more. Finding small ways to do old things differently can spark all kinds of energy and joy. You can also try a new approach or set up – put your desk near a window, change display areas, redo a bulletin board – and get help and input from others.
  5. Embrace You and Your Strengths – We are all unique. Our inner critic often wishes we were more like someone else. Why waste time on that.? You are you, and you bring your unique strengths to all your interactions. Seeing that what you bring is special and important can help you rekindle the joy for what you do and how you do it. The Career Contessa Team concludes with fun exercise. First, list five of your strengths. Complete this sentence for each one: I am (your strength), and it matters because ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________.

Now you have ten ways to find and create joy in your life. I have found that joy is contagious. The more joy you bring into your life, the more you will notice and the more you will attract people who want to be with you. Knowing that joy is something you can reach for and find whenever you need it is very empowering. And feeling empowered supports your work, your leadership, and everything you do. As well as creating more joy. Don’t think of it as secondary – make joy a priority and see the amazing results of your efforts.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Bring Back Your Joy

Do you wake up each weekday eager to get to work or dreading it? Have you started counting the days until your retirement? Somewhere along the way, your joy has drained out, and each day is a grind. Two weeks ago, I blogged on how to Rediscover the Joy in Your Work. I shared five tips then, but we need all the help we can get.

Most of us can handle the usual stress of the jam-packed life of a school librarian. It’s the added tensions of the scrutiny and suspicions of what we do, why we do it, and how we do it, that are siphoning off much of our love and passion. Our students, teachers, and our administrators need us to continue to bring our joy when we help and work with them. Which is why I was pleased to find the blog post 10 Ways to Find or Create Joy at Work from the Career Contessa Team.

The team prefaces their advice by asking, “What if you have tried, and your work holds no joy?” They then proceed to answer their question. Here are their first five suggestions:

  1. Identify Your Core Values + Beliefs – As a school librarian you embrace the Core Values of Librarianship from ALA. You also share the six Common Beliefs in the National School Library Standards. Beyond that, what are your beliefs? Write them down (try to keep it to no more than five so you don’t get overwhelmed).
  2. Find Ways to Infuse Your Core Values into Your Work – Take this identification to the next step by journaling by listing some ways you bring your core values and your beliefs into your day. Look at what you wrote and congratulate yourself for making a difference each day. Take in how these values make you feel. There is joy there.
  3. Make Time to Laugh + Share Laughter – We have only to look at the number of comedies set in challenging situations to appreciate the power of laughter. It has even been scientifically proven to be good medicine. Look around = there are funny and ridiculous things that happen everywhere. If you look for it, you will find it. And when you find it, you can share it.
  4. Share New Ideas – This is natural to school librarians and a wonderful place to find joy. We are curators. The ideas don’t need to be library or even school related. I just shared on my School Librarian’s Workshop Facebook group about a school district that is bringing inclusion into the community by having one school lunch each week be from one of the diverse communities represented in the area.
  5. Start a Club – It could be for students, but it can be for teachers. Your club should be something that you like to do, but it need not be a book club. You might do one on gardening or knitting or some ways to contribute to the school or outside community. Your club can be ongoing or have a limited duration. It forms connections, builds relationships, and makes everyone feel better. Something for people – including you – to look forward to. Instant joy!

Becoming joyful about being a school librarian shouldn’t be one more task. Pick one or two from the list and try it on for size. If it’s not you, pick something else. Let me know if you want me to share the remaining five. And in the meantime, I hope you’re able to find more joy and bring it to your work and life.

Posted on by hildaweisburg

Love The Life You Live

Do you love your life? Only on special occasions? You are not alone. Many people count the days to their retirement even when it’s years away, and it’s not a healthy way to live. When we are not seeing the positives in our life, we are easily stressed. In addition, our negative perspective affects how we see events and people. Studies have proven our mental and physical heath are affected by our emotions.

Mindset is powerful. You know that from your experiences with students, teachers and administrators. We discuss it in SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) and possibly in Professional Development groups you belong to. A negative mindset hampers your Emotional Intelligence.  

In a post about the central tenants of his book, The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment, Marshall Goldsmith offers this 5-step approach to re-examining your life and coming to love it:

  1. Align your aspirations, ambitions, and actions—Just as you have a Vision for your library, you need one for your life. Why are you doing all this? Why are you working so hard? Goldsmith says to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve. What is your big goal? In a way, this is like your Mission statement. Follow that up with ideas and plans of how to get there. In essence, you are creating a strategic plan to have the life you really want. Goldsmith cautions against basing success on the quantity of your achievements. That leads to the overwork many of us are prone to – and the exhaustion that accompanies it. Hustle culture doesn’t work. Focus instead on the doing rather than the totality (the end result) –relishing the learning that is part of the journey.
  • Eat the Marshmallow – Referring to the experiment where children were asked to decide if they want one marshmallow now or wait until later and get two, Goldsmith asks what if you are asked to delay further for three? How much gratification should you delay? Waiting for an ultimate reward can suck the joy out of everyday accomplishments. Delight can and should be incorporated into your every day. You don’t need to wait until you earn it because of some big event. Use the good dishes. Buy the thing you want so much.
  • The “New Me” Paradigm—We need to remove the “when” from our life view. Deciding that happiness will come only when a certain event or achievement is reached keeps you from enjoying the now. Goldsmith notes that there is no correlation between achievement and happiness. You don’t need to be better, thinner, more financially secure, or any other version of a “better” you to embrace being happy now.
  • Credibility Must Be Earned Twice – I have never seen the idea put this way before, but it is vital for school librarians to recognize. According to Goldsmith, for people to trust you, you have to be competent at what you do, and you are. But that isn’t enough. Your work must also be recognized. And that is where we sometimes miss the mark–and miss out on happiness. The lack of recognition for our work is a big factor in not loving our lives. The answer is to market yourself so that what you’re doing is noticed by your core audience. If that feels too hard, start by promoting your program. As Goldsmith says, “If good work really spoke for itself, no company would need a marketing function.”
  • The LPR – This is your Life Plan Review, a daily reflection of how you are doing. Goldsmith did it with a group, but you can do it alone. I keep a Success Journal near where I work to track my daily accomplishments so I can see what I’ve done in a day, rather than only focus on what still needs to be done. If you’re only looking forward, you cannot take joy in what is happening now.

You have so much in your life that is good and so much you’ve accomplished. True, there are challenges and problems, but if you look closely, you can see how much is right with your world. Take time to see all the good choices you’ve made, the wonderful people in your life, the opportunities you have. Start loving the life you live–or keep waiting for more marshmallows.