31 Days: Like

This is Day 18 in the 31 Days of Small series. 

I tell a story in my classroom.  I pause at the right moments and move around the area just enough to give it interest without being too distracting.  I turn the musical selection on and we listen to the story come alive.  My students grin and giggle and I get the rush of "I love my job" and I consider it a privilege to share in the wonder with my students. 

We talk about which selections we prefer.  We discuss them in musical and practical terms.  We make funny observations.  But I'm careful to remind my students about proclaiming which song they like "better" than the other, or ranking the selections in order of preference.

Every song serves a good and important purpose in my classroom.  

Sometimes my students have an all or nothing attitude--they can only like one type of music because that's what their friends or family like.  These students don't want to waste their time listening to anything else.  Sometimes there are students who are absolutely captivated by whatever song is playing, and then within a few minutes they are captivated again by something new.  

I remind them that they can like more than one song if they want to.  I encourage them to be brave in their decisions and to not feel like they have to go with the rest of the class' opinion.  And I remind them, just like in social media, you can like a whole bunch of things because there is never a limit on your "likes"--so they can like away!  

We don't have to be stingy with our likes and with our love.  We aren't given a daily allotment to use or lose, and we're always allowed more and more helpings.  We can be encouraging and supportive of others without feeling threatened or small.

Our worth is not diminished just because someone else seems to be getting a lot of thumbs in the upward direction.