This week I met with all 650 students and we wrote and decorated Thanksgiving letters to our troops; what a treat! They turned out great. When I asked Kindergarten to remind me what we were putting in the boxes with our letters, one little friend said, "love!" I will certainly ship them overseas to our troops with love as well as with cookies and with a humble pride mid-next week.
During my time with second graders, a guest teacher said that she needed to tell me something. She went on to say that I probably don't remember her but that she remembers me. Turns out that 12 years ago, on January 5th, she attended a character education workshop down the road in Pearland ISD that my friend Keri and I were conducting. At lunch, she'd gotten word that her first grandson was about to be born, so she asked me if she could be excused to go and be there with her family. She says that I excused her from the last part of the training but still gave her the certificate of completion for credit. And then, she thanked me. For that gift of understanding and time. You just never know ...
Today I'm grateful for an entire day with nothing on the calendar. That's right ... not. a. thing!
During my time with second graders, a guest teacher said that she needed to tell me something. She went on to say that I probably don't remember her but that she remembers me. Turns out that 12 years ago, on January 5th, she attended a character education workshop down the road in Pearland ISD that my friend Keri and I were conducting. At lunch, she'd gotten word that her first grandson was about to be born, so she asked me if she could be excused to go and be there with her family. She says that I excused her from the last part of the training but still gave her the certificate of completion for credit. And then, she thanked me. For that gift of understanding and time. You just never know ...
Today I'm grateful for an entire day with nothing on the calendar. That's right ... not. a. thing!
It doesn't mean I won't do anything, necessarily.
But it'll be a treat to have the gift of time.
To do what I want to. At my leisure.
If this tree of Thanks-giving were in my house,
that's what I'd be writing on one of its leaves today.
Instead, it's in our cafeteria and, though it's the season when leaves typically fall off the tree, we're going to be filling it up with our leaves of blessings and gratitude.
Here's a link to the note that the leaders from our Good News Club created to share with our staff for this interactive masterpiece.
Can gratitude lead to happiness? Research says it does.
Read about some other therapeutic benefits of gratitude {here}.
And a little more gratitude research {here}.
And still more {here}.
Then read The Appreciate Heart {here}.
So I'll leaf you with this visual;
isn't this board going to look treemendous!
What would you write on your leaf today?
Awesome! I love seeing humans laugh and cry all at the same time. It means something really good is happening. It's beautiful!
ReplyDeletep.s. I'm grateful for your stats! I'm going to include them for my parents...I've noticed my kiddos having much better attitudes. Also, we focus on the word JOY a lot...Kids' attitudes turn around quickly singing JOY JOY JOY! Thank you also for your posts...you are inspiring!
ReplyDelete