Unless ...

Today, I'm super giddy about this visual display that my creativity guru put the finishing touches on in our Character Cafe this afternoon. Thank you, Terri, for gracing us with your presence, time and talents. You help make us shine!

Unless ... 

It challenges us to be intentional, doesn't it?

So that's what we're doing in peace class.

We're intentionally talking fairness in kind of a round-about way, under the guise of the wow awards. I wrote about this once before a few years back {here}. This time around, our wow awards are taking a new twist because after the puppet picks a nominee for all the wrong reasons, and shouts of "that's not fair" ensue and die down, I'm asking the students what they think the right reasons to be nominated for and receive a wow award might be. Then, I'm taking it a step further and asking whom they would nominate for a wow award. 

It is heartwarming to hear them describe the kindness, respect, empathy and love that they're looking for in a recipient for this award friend. And it leads directly into a discussion about how we need the rules & criteria up front in order to make things fair. It's also launching us into a discussion about what's important, outside stuff like hair bows, a certain color of clothing, sparkly boots, hats, glasses, hair or eye color that we can't control or the inside stuff, like our character, that we can control. 

Nothing is sweeter than listening to the innocent yet insistent voice of a child trying to explain that distinction to a puppet who doesn't get it. One second grader even added, "Mrs. Gruener, are you actually going to do a lesson? Because if you are, then maybe you could let Fred listen in and come back at the end of the lesson to give out the wow award." How cute and spot on is that?

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Unless.

WoW.