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!

Secret Kindness Agents

Have you ever heard of Secret Kindness Agents? I hadn't either until an article on Teaching Tolerance one day. What a treat to learn about a twist on paying it forward! And to top that off, my leadership group students are super excited about this initiative. But, SHHH.... it's a secret! Hope you like it!

First day back!

Wow! Another year is underway and so many things have happened since the end of last year. What a summer. Time to get back in gear, and I'm so ready!

Here's the breakdown: My first day of my 8th year as a school counselor. I am 32 years old. My favorite color is green. I want to be inspirational when I grow up. In no particular order, my favorite things are: laughing, lounging with coffee, dancing in the kitchen, "ah-ha" moments, my dog and learning!

It's been a "Pay it Forward" kind of week...

Sunday, the beginning of the week, happened to be my brothers birthday. My brother, who passed away almost five years ago now (is it really that long ago!?), was a neat guy. On his birthday, we would have chatted about life, maybe analyzed the latest in the news, and then we would have laughed about something stupid he did. Typical. So, Sunday passed without that conversation for the 5th time in a row. 

Once the week got underway at work, it was a bit of a blur. The end of the school year always is that way. On Wednesday morning, a colleague walked in to tell me a story. By the way, she is the greatest human I know. No one works harder than her and is more positive. Anyway, she told me about how when she was in her 20's with one daughter, she worked 2 jobs in order to help pay bills. They had bad insurance and her young daughter was in the hospital a lot in the beginning. She would have to eat just blueberries or not pay a certain bill to get by. 

So... she waitressed. One night a guy was there who she was jabbering with and he left her $100...she told him she could not take it, no way. His response was just, "if you don't, you'll have $200 to take." So she took it, and she couldn't believe it because she really, really needed it. She said she knew that she would someday be able to pay it back. 

She stood in my office Wednesday morning, telling me this, and then telling me how much she loves me. She said that she just knew, some how, that she wanted to pay it back to me so I could pay it forward... she said it was just like heaven telling her so. She wouldn't let me not take the $100.... even though I insisted she be the one to pay it forward somewhere. 

And then... then I cried. I finally let it out. Not on his birthday, or any time after, but the moment I heard the story. These stories, and I've heard hundreds of them since Dylan died, are motivators. They are reasons to get up, reasons to smile and reasons to cry. When I hear them, I get to be that "proud sister" again... Heck, I get to be a SISTER again, and it feels so good. 

Ending my week with gratitude. Lots and lots of it. People are good. 

Make someone's day...

Sometimes a simple statement can strike you differently, even if you have read it hundreds of times already. That is what happened when this little note popped up on my screen yesterday. My thought was, "Oh, really? Okay. I can ACTUALLY do that today." So I did. Well, kind of. Though it is such a simple statement and simple act, it can be forgotten easily... I mean actually doing it can get lost in the happenings of the day. So let's just do it. Let's go out and ACTUALLY make someone's day. What will you do?