On Thursday, we had a great and lively discussion about Nel Noddings article. I want you all to think deeply about this - what is YOUR happiness? Not determined by someone else, not what will make your parents happy/proud, not what you think I want to hear...what is YOUR happiness?
I'm asking because I think it is important that you KNOW this - until you are truly "happy" you cannot help others to find their happiness...in my mind, this includes teaching.
I'm not looking for "warm fuzzies"...I'm looking for you to really think about this and be honest with not only your classmates, but yourself as well.
I'll share mine with you as well...but not just yet. I look forward to reading your response...
dr.m
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I think my happiness is being kind of crafty. I love just sitting down and doing a crafty project. I made my own key hook by my front door and my own big LSU picture frame for football pictures. And thinking about it more, I realized that both of these things helped me in some way become better organized; and before I sit down to study or write a paper or just whatever big thing for a class, I have to make the room that I'm in clean. It just makes me feel so much better and helps me clear my head to have things put away and organized. It helps me to clear my head at the same time I'm clearing the room of the clutter.
Hopefully I'll be able to think of more, because over the last few years I've been able to find what makes me happy more and more without worrying what others think.
Right now, honestly, what makes me happy is going home and spending time with my family. I love being able to go home and just relax.I also really like to read for fun, so just laying around on a weekend outside on a nice day makes me happy! haha and a weird thing that makes me happy is being organized,and having set plans.
Thanks Laura and Christine...I appreciate your comments, so far.
I want to encourage you to think beyond the superficial...about what makes you happy emotionally, spiritually, and mentally...beyond having a "neat" place to work or "relaxing"...WHY do these things make you "happy"...what IS happiness to you?
Good start...let's go deeper, further...in the sense that Noddings was urging us to go with helping children seek their happiness....
dr.m
I would have to say what makes me happy is being at home with my family. Especially during the holidays. I have a very large family and we are very very close. We always had our friends, but we were together with each other alot more. For me to be here in Baton Rouge during the holidays away from them is awful. It's like something is missing. We all understand each other alot more then anyone else understands us and us to them. We have that family bond that friends can't have. I think I'm so happy with them because I'm in my comfort zone. I am and will always be the most comfortable when I'm with my family. They have seen me at my best and worst times. My happiness is really sitting around the living room with my family just watching tv or doing something common. My happiness is sitting in the kitchen during the holidays, while everyone is making a different dish at the same time. My family means so much to me, and being able to get away from school and life to spend time with them is how I get by day to day.
Happiness to me, with out being warm and fuzzy of cours, would be equality for all. If this is a possible task, it would include home life, school life, college, work, health care.....but let's get real - that would be communism not democracy, and everything that one works for would be divided with others who do not - WHY WORK?? That would not make me happy.
What I can do to make me happy is to work as hard as I can and to the best of my ability in whatever I do. This includes me as a mother, wife, daughter, sister and student (hopefully one day teacher). As a teacher, I can implement fairness and equality into my students. I want my students to know that hard work pays off and that EVERYONE is capable of this in SOME way. I want to go beyond the curriculum and connect with my students in a way that they trust me, respect me, and believe me which in return they will believe in themselves. This would make me happy.
Oh, and a little extra money would make me really happy!!!!!!
I'll try to go deaper next time...
Everyone has their own desires and interests that seem to make them "happy" or help them find happiness. I know that I have struggled to find true happiness, especially since I have moved away from my family and been in school here. Not that I'm not a happy person, or not that I'm in a bad mood when I'm not doing things I don't particulary like to do, but I know that I have my highs and lows, ups and downs constantly. For me happiness comes from being content with who you are as a person. Until I moved out of my house and lived on my own, I never really strived to figure out who I was in the sense of this world that we live in. I agree that you have to know who you are and what you deisre to accomplish in life and in general for yourself before you can worry about assisting others to find their happiness in this world. Which by the way is a difficult thing for everyone. I mean I always think about how famous people or rich people have everything they want and can buy anything and they seem to be happy, but no one really sees what goes on behind the scenes. You know that saying "money can't buy happiness"- it's so true in my opinion. Because at the end of the day, when you are by yourself with no materialistic things or whatever, are you really happy? Or do you start thinkning about what you are going to invest in next. Don't get me wrong- I think it's perfectly fine to buy nice things for yourself and for others, but that shouldn't be your main focus all the time I guess.
People especially in our generation seem to struggle with always comparing themselves to celebrities and falling short- "If I lose this much weight, I'll be happy" or "once I buy that outfit, I'll be happy" and the list continues. I'm not saying I don't do it, but there are statistics that show girls who walk away after reading magazines like cosmo or whatever feel more insecure about themselves than they did before reading it. I don't really know where I'm going with this, but It's so true that until you are completely satisfied and happy with yourself, it will be very difficult to put aside your worries of the day and deal with your students and devote all of your attention to their needs.
I think my happiness is success and peacefulness. I want to be able to provide for my child. It is important she knows she can do whatever she reaches out to do in life regardless of what the next person says. She is the main reason I am in school now. I want her to know she can do the same as I am doing. It is very important to me that she succeed in this life. The ability to prove others wrong also makes me happy. There are so many times we say what a person cannot do instead of trying to help that person reach their goal. I like to be that person to help regardless of what that person is trying to do. I like to know I can be that person they call on for whatever reason whether it is to talk or just to hang out. Good health is another thing that matters. I like the fact of knowing I do not have to take daily meds or go to the doctor every month. I enjoy being by myself sometimes.
This is a tough one because it is hard not to be warm and fuzzy. I think my happiness is when I am walking with my mom. It’s the one time of the day where we can both release stress, while spending time together. We talk about everything. But in our walks what really brings me happiness is that I am there for her. If she needs to talk, I am there to listen. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with her, so when I am home our walks are very much needed.
Happiness for me is finding your place in life and your path and being content there. This is not easy and it takes a long time to get to know yourself. Maybe that makes it sweeter when it does happen. It is hard to go to college at a young age and try to decide what career to choose. In reality you have tried so little at that age. I know because I have been there. Middle age (or almost middle age, where does it begin?) is not so bad. I am secure with who I am, where I am going, and even what I've learned from where I've been. I am glad to know what I do about myself and to have gained the life experience I have gained. I am grateful for the people in my life and all the blessings I have been given. I am hopeful about the future. Happiness has to radiate from within you before you can warm others with its glow. I just made that up, pretty good huh? You can quote me if you want to. It would add to my happiness:)
My happiness is being all that I can be. It's going that extra yard, doing something 110% - whatever it may be, its dropping anything and everything to help out a family member or friend. I believe that giving my all will help me in the teaching world to be going from a good teacher, to a great teacher. Everyone should have a great teacher that truly puts in all their effort and being there for the students. Sacrificing their time to help students that are in need, or just to get the classroom ready for the next day, or change lesson plans last minute because you notice that your first lesson plans are not going working out like you hoped they would. Me being all I can be and more - thats what my happiness is.
Hello!! I haven't been able to come up with anything deaper yet, but I wanted to definitley get my two blogs in for this week!! Still thinking...
I think my happiness would be a lot of what people have already said. I am truly happy when I am with my friends and family. When I can be myself and not be worried I will be judged because of something I am doing or not doing. I think as a teacher I will want my students to feel like that all the time. If they don't feel comfortable with the people they are around they will never thrive to their full potential. I think true happiness would be to have a place where everyone feels accepted, and doesn't get made fun of, like I feel when I am with my family.
I think happiness is being completely content with who you are as a person, and feeling secure in where you are in life. Surrounding yourself with people who support you in everything you do, and who are happy for your accomplishments, or push you to do better. Overall, just being comfortable with who you are, and having positive friends and family.
i was talking to my roommate about this
and she told me that she thought happiness was having a goal and succeeding in that goal...
and when i got to thinking about it, i think that everyone's goal in life is to be happy.
whether it's happy through love, their job, family, friends, passions.... everyone wants to be happy and everyone has their own way of being happy.
to me happiness is my goal in life. it's what i strive to be each and every day. there are many things that help me along the way to achieving happiness, from music, to friendships, to love... lots of different things make me happy.
to me i'm utterly happy when i think about how i have helped others. whether it's just by smiling to a stranger that day, or actually sitting with that person while they needed to cry and vent about something awful in their life. knowing that i was there to help them makes me truly happy. and the reason this makes me happy is because i know that they are happy.
happiness is that feeling inside that you don't have to think of anything negative at the moment, and that only good is happening
happiness is that feeling of balance. the feeling that something worked out in a way you wanted it to... the feeling of success.
the feeling that the bad thoughts don't outweigh the good. when you have all the good emotions running through your thoughts and veins.
it's the feeling of having fulfilled something. having a purpose/goal and achieving that purpose or goal.
happiness is satisfaction.
Knowing I have both of my parents in my life has definitely made me happy. Especially when I think about my friends who did not have their father and mother. Definitely being with my family makes me happy.
Happiness is being successful. When I set out to accomplish something, and put a lot of hard work into it, and I do finally succed at it, I am truely happy. After a little while the happiness fades, but if I countiue to be successful at things I am doing, and set goals for myself, and achieve thoses goals I feel like I could be happy. It is a lot like what Katherine said, but after she said it I thought it made since. I also still feel like being comfortable with yourself and your surroudings makes you happy. I think these go hand in hand. If you are happy because you are achieving your goals, you will have more confidence, which will make you happy.
I feel that my happiness comes from a lot of different things. I am always happy when I know that I am doing the right thing. I agree with Jessica in that it is always a great thing when you are working hard and then acheive a goal you were trying to reach! I also know that when I am at home and around my family that I am very happy and feel comfort. Thats what I want my classroom to be like. To be a place where kids can feel at home and be in an enviroment that makes them feel that comfort.
My happiness is helping other people. I love to see the look of gratification on someone's face when i help them out. My biggest happiness is cooking. I like when the people that eat it tell me it's good, but what I like most is knowing that I created something good from a bunch of things that would not be good on its own.
Another source of happiness for me is kids. I love their innocence and their candidness. They are usually truthful. I love when they don't understand figures of speech and think you mean something totally crazy or take something figuratively literally. They are so purehearted and honest. They are usually giving you their full attention and not worried about something else. They are also affectionate. Kids really are great when we take the time to appreciate them. They really can add to our happiness.
Happiness is being around people who love you are care about you. It is being content with who you are and your surroundings. Happiness is the warm, comforting feeling you get when you acomplish something or do something you really enjoy.
My happiness is being surrounded by people I care about and doing things for others. I get the most joy out of making someone's day or doing something someone apreciates.
I think my happiness is making other people happy. I am never one to really be in a bad mood. I hate to see others in one, if they are I do my best to make sure they are happy. If everyone is happy, I am happy.
I also am very happy when i get things accomplished. I am a "to-do list" kind of person. Once I can cross something out on the list, I am very happy!
I describe happiness as being optimstic about life. Happiness is about being grateful for what you have in life. Also being able to relax with my family and friends definately makes me happy and content. School right now is not making me happy. It is making me stressed and when im stressed im not happy. But I think everyone's "happiness" involves something a little different, which is not a bad thing at all, its what makes everyone unique.
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