What is your why?

Sometimes I am so blown away and mind-boggled by the point of view my students are coming from that I can't help but shake my head. But here's the cool thing: our students are so mold-able right now that they NEED us to help them see beyond themselves. If we get too boggled or upset about how narrow minded some students are, we might not get to the good stuff!

This week, I had a student who was adamant that it was okay to use really offensive words (cue words like the N-word and you know what I'm getting at) when talking with your friends - because, "hey, our friends know we're joking." After a long and calm discussion about this, the student went on his way. An hour later he returned and said, "hey, so I've really been thinking about our conversation... I think I get it. I have a question. If I'm talking about something and use the word 'gay' to describe it, is that a bad thing?" The student was so genuine in his question. Though I was totally confused WHY HE DID NOT KNOW THIS ALREADY, I calmly and almost excitedly invited him to answer his own question. We processed this too. It was a real and honest "AH HA" moment. 

This is exactly why I do what I do. I love the AH HA moments the most. What is your WHY?

This is a great video that puts it into perspective on why we need a WHY... :)

Mindfulness thoughts...

I often talk about the brain, introduce new mindfulness techniques and "meditate" with the students... there are many thoughts about this, and sometimes I worry it won't be taken seriously, but the students love it. Little by little, they learn to use it on their own. I like this school-wide initiative:

Check out this school!

Creativity and Imagination

What fun to be with children when the only real goal put forth is to allow them all the creativity and imagination they want in an activity. Children come from a very different perspective, and often we forget to take that seriously. This week, the questions were, "If you could come up with the craziest, wildest, goofiest imaginary friend ever, what would he/she look like?" AND "What are the many, varied and unusual ways you would use one million beach balls?" When we get beyond the typical and move into imaginative thinking, some really great things come out.

This type of thinking is definitely a part of social, emotional learning (SEL) - especially if the kids are presenting and listening to each-other present on their outlandish ideas! Why not even take this idea into academic and career planning (ACP) with having them present on their creative job ideas. Or, what about a student professional learning community (PLC) that was all about creativity, giving them ideas to run with!? Taking our major initiatives and making them into something exciting gives them a new twist. Why not?

Some of my favorite responses were:

"I'm going to eat all of my beach balls and then, look, here is a drawing of what I'd look like!"
"I'm making a flying pig and flying bunny who play with me all day!"
"I made a beach ball mountain so I can climb high - all the way to the top!"
"My imaginary friend is a ghost and let me tell you all about him...." - he went on and on!
"I'm jumping into a giant beach ball pool and look, beach balls are flying up as I jump into them!"

In the spirit of Random Acts of Kindness...

This week, my students are all starting their random acts of kindness, through the secret agents program they started. I'm excited and nervous for them! I really want it to go well.

After a semi-negative start to the school year, this was so necessary! I did not even realize how important it is to talk about positive things. Just the mere act of talking about something positive can lighten a mood, change the energy and truly transform a space. Now, what if we extend that concept to an entire school building. If more and more people are seeing and saying positives, what might happen? Yes. Challenge accepted. After all, the kids did name me, "Agent Short Stack."

P.S. - I never even realized I was almost the only short one in the group!