Go and Shine! Nine Strategies for Cultivating a Positive Mindset

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels but specifically K-12 and community choirs. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/publications/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For more information, email  or visit acda.org/chorteach. Following is an excerpt from an article in the Spring 2023 issue titled “Go and Shine! Nine Strategies for Cultivating a Positive Mindset” by Elizabeth Weismehl
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Joy and gratitude are all around us if we pay attention. Focusing on joy and gratitude can lead to a more vibrant, purposeful, and fulfilling life, including improved physical and mental well-being and increased creativity. According to mindfulness practitioner, teacher, educator, and scientist Patricia Jennings, gratitude impacts the level of teacher burnout. The purpose of this two-part article is to provide strategies for finding joy by practicing gratitude and positivity. Here in part one, we will first focus on exploring mindfulness and practicing gratitude for our own benefit. In part two, I will share strategies for use with students.

A Mindset Shift
I always believed that, in general, technology had a limited role in elementary music and choir (playing audio recordings, for example). When I was interviewing for my current job fourteen years ago—in a district known for technology—and I was asked about my weaknesses, lack of technological skills was the first thing that came to mind.

My classes and rehearsals had always been a place for students to get away from computers. When the pandemic began in 2020, my mindset imploded, as it became apparent that we were on the verge of a new way of teaching—one in which technology would play a critical role. I was not prepared.

By the end of the school year, I was grieving the loss of singing with others and felt stuck as to how to teach music and sing remotely the following year. I did not have the energy to think about teaching in this new reality, and I considered leaving the profession. If I was to be an effective teacher, something needed to change.

*Visit acda.org/chorteach for more responses in the full article. Choose the Spring 2023 issue.