These words from Haim Ginott might be a little scary, but they're a lot inspiring.

Here we are, colleague, with about a month under our belts.

I'm a bit late, but I'd like to offer the annual re-posting of one of my favorite thoughts. A few years ago Mr. Matt Reeves, then my assistant principal, read this to the staff on the day before school. I like to pass it on as a first post of the school year, a message that is both cautionary and inspiring:

"I have come to a frightening conclusion.

I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.
It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life 
miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized."

~ Haim Ginott 

from Teacher and Child: A Book for Parents and Teachers, 1972