Dress for the Weather: What Teachers Can Actually Control
Dress for the Weather
Here's a quote, a resource, a book, and an affirmation to help power you through the rest of the week.
Quote
"There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." Alfred Wainwright - Scandinavian proverb, popularized by Alfred Wainwright
Resource: Dress for the Weather
The season is changing both in and out of school. You can feel it in the building. Conferences, the first real grading crunch, a schedule change, and getting absent kids caught up have become more of a chore. In the northwoods where I live, I'll be scraping ice off of my windshield soon.
Nobody in Northern Wisconsin wastes time arguing with the weather. You look at the sky, grab the right layers and go. The weather just isn't something we can control. The layers, that's another story.
School works the same way, but we forget.
We spend evenings arguing with the forecast. Class sizes. The parent who won't email back. The new initiative. The kid who walks in angry because of something that happened at home before the bus came. These challenges just aren't something we can control.
The Stoics had a name for this: the dichotomy of control. Some things are up to us and some aren't, and most of our misery comes from mixing up the two piles. Psychologists Lisa Aspinwall and Shelley Taylor approached it from a different angle and called it proactive coping. People who get ready for the stress they can see coming handle it better when it shows up. It's a lot like choosing your layers.
Grab a sticky note and draw a line down the middle. Control on the left, Not Control on the right. Fill it with what's actually on your mind this week, and be honest about where things go. That parent email goes on the right. Your reply to it goes on the left.
Stick it on your laptop. When you catch yourself standing in the rain yelling at the clouds, look at the left column, pick one thing and do it. Pull on a layer.
My Control column this week has a 10-minute walk, in whatever weather decides to show up. (It's part of the 30-day challenge I started yesterday. More on that in the P.S.)
I did this same sort back in May 2025. Some things moved columns. A couple are still stuck on the wrong side of the line, and I'm okay with that. You don't sort once and stay dry for the year. You check the sky again tomorrow.
Wainwright spent his life walking northern England, where the weather can turn three times before lunch. He didn't get to pick the forecast either. He just showed up dressed for it.
Book
There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda Åkeson McGurk - McGurk grew up in Sweden, where kids play outside in pretty much any weather. The book is her case for getting kids (and the rest of us) back outside, rain or shine, and it's full of practical gear-and-mindset ideas for parents and teachers. If you've ever kept a class in for indoor recess because of a little drizzle, this one will make you rethink it. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Same price for you.)
Worth Your Time
- Stop Spending Energy on Problems That Don't Belong to You: the next step after the sort, once you know what's in your Not Control column.
- Why October Is So Hard for Teachers (and What Actually Helps): if this month has felt heavier than it should, you're not imagining it.
- Kids are getting ruder in the classroom. This researcher explains why (CBC News: The National): a short segment on research out of Ontario and Quebec on classroom behavior since the pandemic. A good one for the Not Control column, and a reminder that it isn't just your room.
- 5 'Good' AI Use Cases That Are Actually Bad for Students (Edutopia): brainstorming, drafting and summarizing sound harmless, but they're often the exact skills kids are there to build. The question worth asking first: does the learning depend on them doing it themselves?
Now Repeat...
I'll grab my layers and walk in ready for whatever kind of day it turns out to be.
With Gratitude,
Jeremy
P.S.
Our 30-day challenge started yesterday, and it's not too late to jump in. Everyone picks their own small challenge. Mine is a feel-good song for the drive in, six words about the day and a 10-minute walk. Post yours with #30DaySTRONG, and whatever you pick, add a feel-good song to the shared playlist. Not a teacher? You're welcome too, so forward this to a friend. Need an idea? The Thirty-Day Challenges workbook has 42 of them.
