Do The Next Right Thing, A Lesson For Educators

Video Transcript:

In this video, I am unpacking a life lesson learned from a recent Disney movie and sharing three practical steps to make that magic happen.

This holiday season Disney has graced us with another Frozen movie. So, our houses and classrooms are once again filled with carefully crafted, annoyingly catchy tunes. Perhaps most importantly, though is one particular theme woven into the storyline. One of the mantras repeated throughout the movie and accompanied by its own musical number is “do the next right thing.” While this motto very well might have saved Anna’s life, the emotion of the words spoke more significantly to my teacher heart.

So much of what we deal with every day in our classrooms and schools seems insurmountable: more and more adverse childhood experiences impacting the children that we serve every day, state mandates which seem completely removed from any form of reality, and consistent initiative fatigue. It’s no wonder so many teachers feel completely overwhelmed. However, every day we show up and we do the best that we can. When I think critically about that line: do the next right thing; I really feel that that is what educators are doing every day. Only, we don’t have magical powers or even friendly snowmen to help. We can’t solve every problem, but we are doing the best we can.

While reflecting on this mantra, I was reminded of a podcast. You 2.0: How To Build A Better Job, with Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski from Yale University. She offers insight into the concept of job crafting, which plays on the moniker: you can’t control others you can only control yourself. She shares research which examines the ways in which individuals describe their work. Given similar industries, and even organizations, individuals view the tasks they complete each day in very different ways. For example, a hospital employee tasked with cleaning a patient’s room. One might call themselves a cleaning person while another may describe themself as a safety and comfort manager. This may seem like a silly turn of phrase, but researchers Amabile and Kramer in their book The Progress Principle found that people are the happiest in their jobs, when they are making progress on meaningful work. Meaning is constructed by the individual. So, as long as the person finds their work meaningful, they may find joy in completing it.

This struck me as a possible approach for educators.

In the podcast, Wrzeniewski describes the practice as crafting the boundaries of the job and posits that this crafting allows an individual to differentiate “just a job” from a calling.

There are three main considerations when it comes to job crafting: task, relationships, and cognitive crafting.

When it comes to tasks, it may be helpful to list the tasks that offer the most joy. When planning out the week, schedule specific times for these tasks. For example, if sharing positive news with a parent is something you enjoy, make sure that it is something you do every day. Even if you spend the night grading essays, save yourself five minutes of stamina to write that positive email. It will leave you in a good place before bed.

The second consideration is relationships. Find time to foster the relationships that matter. This may mean using some class time to check in with students or committing to spend at least half of the lunch period in the faculty room with your colleagues.

All of this may feel like one more thing, but that is really where the last consideration comes in. Cognitive crafting about changing the way you think about your work – similar to the cleaning person v. safety and comfort manager. So, you aren’t “giving up class time,” instead you are “investing in your learners.”