We did something every day during teacher appreciation week. One day we had a survival kit:
Teacher Survival Kit:
Smarties™ – So you can be smarter than the students
Band-Aids™ – For all those little boo-boos and paper cuts
Rubber Bands – To help you remember to be flexible
Paper Clips – To help you keep things from falling apart
Enlighten-“mints†– When you need fresh ideas
Pure Life Water™ – So your synapses won’t lapse
Popcorn – To keep you a-hoppin’ and a-poppin’
Bubble Wrap Therapy (a small square of buble wrap to pop)
Stress Reducers: (tips on de-stressing)
Stress Reducers
“Square†Breathing – Inhale for four counts, hold your breath for four counts, exhale for four counts, hold it (don’t breathe in yet) for four counts, inhale for four counts. Repeat for five minutes.
Shoulder rolls – Slowly, and with no tension, rotate your shoulders up, around, back, and down ten times. GENTLY and SLOWLY “loll†your head from side to side, ear toward the top of your shoulder ten times (don’t force your head down at all, this should just be a GENTLE, SLIGHT stretch for your neck). This is nice done to a slow “row, row, row your boat†cadence. Repeat entire sequence 2 or 3 times.
Lower your shoulders – Are your shoulders up around your neck with tension? Take a deep breath and LOWER THEM!
Stop hunching – Are you all hunched over like Quasimodo (the Hunchback of Notre Dame)? Then take deep breath, throw you shoulders back, and suck in your stomach!
Black Hole Eye-Relaxer – Put your hands over your eyes, blocking out the light. Now open your eyes (keeping your hands over your eyes) and breathe deeply ten times (it’s pretty cool, if you position your hands just right, you can sound just like Darth Vader when you breathe!).
Thank You Smiles – Put a big smile on your face, go find some one and thank them for something, ANYTHING! Repeat five times or as needed.
Words to Live By: ( slip of paper with the following quotes)
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape.
Anonymous
Maybe chocolate can’t cure all ills – but why not give it a chance?
Anonymous
It is bad to suppress laughter. It goes back down and spreads to your hips.
Fred Allen
Do what you can, with what you have, right where you are.
Theodore Roosevelt
Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.
Abraham Lincoln
The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.
H. G. Wells
You become successful the moment you start moving toward a worthwhile goal.
Samuel Johnson
Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
Will Rogers
And if all else fails………
Chocolate!