What We Plant Will Grow

Happy new year!

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PPBF: My Strong Mind

Happy Friday; are you on Spring Break this coming week?
The sun has finally peeked out and we've got a garden to plant.
It's always fun to revive this plot for another giving garden.

It calls us to be outside more, and gives us something to do,

to plant, to weed, to cultivate, to grow, to harvest, to share.

It serves as a strong metaphor for life, too: 

What we plant will grow.

5

Fostering A Can-Do Spirit

Today I'm excited because I was invited to talk about empathy, compassion and kindness on this Kindsight 101 Podcast. It was such a delight to visit with Morgane, the interviewer, who crafted insightful inquiries and totally knew her stuff. Grab some coffee or tea and click the image below to listen in.

I'm also tickled because my stuff is almost completely out of boxes from my move out of our Leadership Central learning lab. True story, it's very hard for me to let go of things, especially the hand-made cards of gratitude and love in my Smile File from my superheroes and ideas I thought I might need one day, like this ring that we picked up over a decade ago, when the kids and I took a Developmental Assets Walk with the Bay Area Alliance through Challenger Park. 

I'm pretty sure there were eight beads, because the idea was to stop at eight stations along the way, one for each of the Asset categories, and collect beads while talking with the person at that station about that Asset. I figured we could easily adapt this to our six-pillars framework, so I saved the beads that most closely aligned with our true colors and put it in a box with so many other treasured ideas, to try it one day. I advocated for a Pillar Power Walk many times, but to no avail. Still I kept this idea, perhaps for such a time as this. 

How would you use it in your character building? Could you give out beads as students go through your core values lessons? Could you host a Family Character Night and give families an opportunity to make these together? Could students collect beads with every stop on campus (classroom, library, music room, STEAM lab, etc) that they visit at Open House? Could there be a certain colored bead to align with the emotions or skills they've attained? Unlimited possibilities for these colorful rings that students can hang on their backpacks or use as a keychain. 

Today's picture book pick of the week by Julia Finley Mosca and Daniel Rieley came in the mail yesterday and I'm pretty jazzed about it, possibly since I always figured I wasn't a math person. {Turns out there's no such thing.} 

And probably because it's such an inspirational read.

Meet Raye Montague.

She's a woman.

She has dark skin.

And she's a whiz at math.

Back when she was growing up, 

those three things didn't add up.

It was during a time when inequality was amped up.

In fact, her genius was over and over again passed up.

But this can-doer never gave up.

This is her success story, spotlighting her big big dreams, how hard she worked to become an engineer, and what she endured and overcame to get the recognition she'd earned as the first person to design a ship using a computer. Check out this growth-mindset title; it'll inspire your can-doers to reach higher and never give up.

Our chapter book of the week was buried in my boxes

of stuff because I'd taken it to school to share it with

a few of my students and suggest it as a summer sizzler.

I even had this bookmark that my friend Paisley made for me

hanging out on the title page, to remind me

to share it with you, dear reader.

  But it got lost in the move, until yesterday.

It's a Fantástico race in a Grand Prix of the Food Truck kind,

which I struggled a little bit to explain to one of my

students on the autism spectrum as I was recommending it.

He couldn't understand how Food Trucks could go fast. At all.

Anyway, in this tasty treasure by Richie Frieman, 

Maddy dreams of buying herself a bike

and sees entering the Food Truck competition

with her brother Cole and her grandfather Pop Pops 

as an avenue to make that dream come true. 

This savory intergenerational tale finds the trio overcoming incredible odds and slowing down to go fast over 

those proverbial speed bumps in the road of life

to reach the finish line and realize those dreams.

Maddy finds out that it's going to take 

a can-do attitude,

a whole lot of perseverance and grit, 

and a little bit of magic.

Even unkind Kenny, one of Maddy's obstacles,

 might soften and sweeten a bit on the Prix path.

Check out this book; I predict it'll win a spot on your heart.

What are you go-to strategies for helping cut through I can't

and fostering a can-do spirit in your learners?

  

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Unleashing The Power Of Growth Mindsets

Today I'm excited because of this newcomer Nothing You Can't Do! The Secret Power Of Growth Mindsets by Mary Cay Ricci in our growth-mindset arsenal.

Click image to go to the publisher's page.

 It's an interactive handbook written with our intermediate-aged learners in mind. From the moment I opened the front cover, the counselor in me kept thinking that my students are going to connect with and love this book; the mom in me wished I'd have had it when my own now-adult children were in their middle years.

The author's playful voice is sure to grab her readers like it did me. Before we start reading, she asks us to consider some things, one of which is the book's title, Nothing You Can't Do. Using humor, she admits that it isn't entirely true that there's nothing you can't do, because, she explains, there will be things in life which we may not be able to accomplish. Growth mindset, she tells us, is more about our effort and hard work during the journey than it is the end game or destination. I thought about my husband, whose poor vision got in his way and squelched his dream to become a pilot and then an astronaut. It didn't stop him, however, from becoming an aerospace engineer and securing work in space exploration and planetary science at NASA.  

Ms. Ricci invites her reader to answer a few reflection questions (in the book if it's ours; on paper if it's not!) before launching in to the book's eight engaging chapters about the secret power of growth mindsets. 

The rich text is littered with extras like cartoon illustrations, QR codes connecting to supporting resources, journal-entry activities, and brain-stretching reflections to hook its readers, help them understand the ins and outs of unlocking fixed mindsets, and encourage them to challenge themselves and dig deeper neural pathways. And though my aging eyes found the light blue and orange font a little tricky to read, unlocking the 26 growth-mindset secrets embedded throughout intrigued and interested me immensely. 

If you've been looking for innovative ways to help your learners 

know more about how their brain works,

set goals for themselves, 

embrace grit and growth in new ways,

welcome the productive struggle, 

see mistakes as learning opportunities,

persevere through tough times,

practice resiliency and bouncing forward,

keep an optimistic attitude,

and unleash the power of words like yet,

I enthusiastically recommend that you check out this treasure trove.

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The Law Of Attraction

Today I'm reflecting on this thought:

I've heard it said a few other ways as well;

no matter how we say it, it rings true.

What we appreciate appreciates.

Consider the day I went for a test drive in that light blue Odyssey.

I'd never seen one that color before.

In fact, I thought it might well be one-of-a-kind.

I was so excited for our unique, pretty find.

Imagine my shock to see three vans that exact same color

on our drive home from the dealership.

Perhaps something like this has happened to you, too.

It's called the Law of Attraction.

And if it works when we're not intentionally looking for it, 

just imagine how much better it could work when we are.

What we focus on, we get more of.

What if we focused on our strengths instead of our weaknesses?

What if we focused on our blessings instead of our burdens?

What if we focused on what we have instead of what we lack?

Energy flows where attention goes.

What if, for example, we focused on the graduates at Notre Dame who did stay for their Commencement speech instead of those who walked out? What difference might that make in how we feel about that event, that college, that school family, and maybe even other college-aged millennials? 

I'm not suggesting we pretend that bad stuff doesn't happen. But if we were to harness the power of positivity to promote what's good in our families, in our schools, in our communities, and in our country, our world could be a better place.

How might a Law of Attraction reframe help you?

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Life's GPS

Today I'm still thinking about that student who called me his map. On a follow-up conversation Friday morning, he said that I was his GPS. His Gruener Positioning System. Isn't that so sweet? When he realized his name also starts with a G, he said it should really be called a G2PS.

What he doesn't know is that on Friday, shortly after that fun conversation, I was having a little full-blown meltdown over something that today seems really insignificant and small. And you know why? 

Because I was letting some trivial small stuff overwhelm me and

overshadow the awesomeness 

that should have been looming larger than life, 

like the fact that The Giving Tree at our Book Fair

was picked clean so that our friends who might not

have gotten a new book this time around did,

the fact that to keep up with our bigger class sizes this year,

 three ukuleles that were donated to our Lab on Friday

just in time for Social Stations to start on Monday,

and the fact that our upcoming SOCKtober collection will allow us to celebrate our riches by helping warm up the homeless.

These things matter so much more than that pesky tough stuff.

How quickly we can descend from the mountaintop into the valley

 and how difficult it can be to get back up.

But get back up we must.

And I have an idea how my student's G2PS idea can help.

What if G2PS stood for a Gratitude & Goodness Positioning System, if in the tough times we were grateful for the good things.

Intentionally.

On purpose.

With resolve.

What if we took a page out of the Scott Hamilton book of life

and embraced challenges as opportunities to get up and grow?

Just recently diagnosed with his third brain tumor, 

he's choosing to focus on celebrating life,

and he's grateful to have been 

"blessed beyond my wildest imagination."

Or a page from the book of our favorite ventriloquist Dennis Lee.

He had a horrible car collision this past spring that left his left side broken from head to toe. He still uses crutches to get from pillar to post.

But it didn't break his spirit. 

As he gets up and continues his trek around the globe, 

his motivational message doesn't focus on asking why?, 

but instead, why not? 

Why not try? 

Why not use tragedy to triumph? 

Why not find the blessings in the burden?

So vulnerable.

So inspiring.

So real.

On the mountaintop.

And in the valley. 

Gratitude and goodness.

In all things.

How much better could life be if we would all get back up

and forge forward into our new normal fueled by 

 hearts full of overwhelming gratitude and goodness.

Talk about your road map to success ... 

6

Happiness Is ...

Get your happy on, because not only is it the official first day of spring, but it's also International Day of Happiness.

Our friends at the Joy Team are at it again, celebrating with 252 positively uplifting billboards across America. Have you seen one in your area yet? 
Remember last year when we partnered to create this one?

That made me so happy.

So today, I'm thinking about happiness,

and what that looks like, sounds like, and feels like in my Corner.

Happiness is being a mom, a wife, a school counselor.

Happiness is spending time together with family.

Happiness is a check-in text or email from a friend.

Happiness is a smile given, received and returned.

Happiness is doing, receiving, or watching a kind act.

Happiness is having good friends to share my story.

Happiness is solving (and surviving!) a conflict.

Happiness is getting lost in a good movie or book.

Happiness is a finishing a big task, like calculating taxes.

Happiness is baking up some goodness to share.

Happiness is being thankful and showing gratitude.

Happiness is soaking up some Vitamin D outdoors.

Happiness is helping or mentoring someone.

Happiness is gardening, knitting, writing.

Happiness is being understood.

Happiness is passion.

Happiness is peace. 

Happiness is grace.

Happiness is forgiving and being forgiven.

Happiness is feeling positively joyful.

And praying for that for our loved ones.

Clearly my cup runneth over.
ps. Today would have also been Mr. Rogers' 88th birthday.
We are all connected!
Here's to making it a cheerfully happy day.

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Intentional Optimism & Love

Happy Valentine's Day.

Today, I'm thinking about the choice {and power!} of 

positive {and non-negative} thinking and attitude.

That insight came from this little treasure:

If you check out this short, simple inspirational read, 

I predict that you will be positively supercharged!

I'm on a team of Public School Ambassadors in our district who is reading this book, and we decided to see what our stakeholders feel about our school. We sent home a blank heart with the question: What do you love about our school? 

The individual hearts are hanging in our school's front hallway way in the shape of a huge heart that's growing bigger day by day. 

If you're in the Houston area, come on by and read their 

heartfelt, heartwarming reflections and sentiments.

It has been said that we get more of what we focus on. Why not test out that theory with a daily dose of intentional optimism and love?

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Because Of Carlos

It has been forty years since he stepped into my story on my family's farm, that young man from Mexico who traveled to the frozen tundra to learn alongside of us how to farm the Wisconsin way, forty years since I signed up for Spanish as a high school freshman so that I could speak his language and help him better understand and be understood, forty years since he helped me become a global citizen who would wholeheartedly connect to and fall in love with another culture and its beautiful people. Four decades; that's a very long time. 

I joke that he stole my heart; truth is I did have a little crush on him. 

And though it has been forty years, I firmly believe that it's because of Carlos that I just spent four glorious days with some of the kindest, gracious, and most passionate people around. 

Here's how it worked:

Carlos moved to our place right before I registered for high school; I decided to learn Spanish, because of Carlos. And even though the winter was too harsh and he returned to his home down south before I could say much more than Hola and Me llamo Barbara, it's because of Carlos that I was determined to master the language. Because of Carlos, I crossed the border as a sophomore, traveling to Mexico City, Guadalajara and Guanajuato and racing up the pyramids of Teotihuacan with a small group from my high school. Because of Carlos, I continued my studies in college and, after ten years of studying the language, I earned a minor in Spanish. And because of Carlos, I taught Spanish for ten years.

Flash forward twenty years; if Carlos hadn't taken that step into my story, I'm not sure I'd have even learned Spanish, much less moved to Texas to teach it. From there, who knows if I'd have studied counseling and become so interested in character education. And if not, then I likely wouldn't have given the keynote address in D.C. at last year's Forum, where members of the Secundaria Tec de Monterrey school family first met me and extended the invitation to join them as a presenter this past weekend at their Character Congress in Juarez.

Because of Carlos, I said yes to Juarez ...

where I left a huge piece of my heart yesterday.

When I was in Mexico, this ad came across my Twitter feed.

It basically says, "After they washed me, nothing was the same."

It gave me the idea to turn the dial slightly and change it from a negative experience to a positive one, from a fixed to a growth mindset. 

I closed my presentation with this photo from Friday night's dance:

After the 5th Character Education Congress, nothing was the same.

I am not the same ... 

I am better ... because of Juarez ... 

and because of Carlos.

And whose Carlos will I be?

So today I'm wondering this: 

Who in the world is your Carlos? Who has taken a significant step into your story and made it better? Do they know just how far their influence has positively rippled? Have you thanked them? And how will you repay the favor?

6

Raise A Hand For Teachers

It's mid-July, and you know what that means.

We'll be headed back to school {gasp} before we know it.

That's why today I'm excited to announce that 

ThredUP (my favorite online like-new clothing stop)

is celebrating by honoring our favorite teachers.

Why? From our friends at ThredUP:

According to AdoptAClassroom.org, teachers spend an average of $500 of their own money each year to equip their classrooms. 70% of teachers have even purchased apparel items like jackets, socks and shoes for their students. Teachers are extremely generous with their time as well as their money.

How? From today until August 23rd, nominate a teacher who has positively impacted your world. Then go back every day to vote!

Who am I nominating? you ask.
Well, that's a tough one!
We have been blessed with great teachers too numerous to count,

both with our own children and in my Westwood family.

But for this #raiseahand campaign, 

I've selected first-grade teacher Jennifer Quigley.

Mrs. Quigley truly has a heart of gold.

I know this because I have been blessed with an office right across the hall and, for fourteen years, I've watched in awe as she nurtures hearts while stretching minds and sparking curiosity and creativity.

I've stopped in to sing along as she and her firsties proudly proclaim what they firmly believe, that they've got the power to change the world. 

And I've experienced the warm and welcoming climate in which her can-doers plant, blossom, bloom, grow and thrive. 

Moment by moment,

year after year. 

Like magic. 

Only better.
Because it's real.

Thank you, Jennifer, for using your superpowers

to change the world ... for good!

Now, it's your turn. 
Go ahead; pick someone.
That favorite teacher.
The one who changed your world ... forever.
Click the graphic above to nominate him or her. 

Then join me in sharing the good news about this #raiseahand campaign with all of your social media connections so that we can honor and celebrate the world's 
amazing superheroes, our teachers.

2

It's About Heartset

Today I am super grateful for summertime.

My day started at Starbucks with my friend Deanna. Then we did some yard work before lunch at the German Restaurant. After a really good nap, I read and relaxed some more and we just got back from an icy treat, shaved ice at SnoBeach. Summertime sure tastes good.

While I was with Deanna, she let me tell her all about my presentation at NAESP yesterday. Every detail. Like how I woke up at 4 am and shuttled from LA to Long Beach at 6 am and got to the Convention Center at 6:30 for my 9 am center. How I got it all set up and put a book on each of the tables as a door prize for the one brave soul who would volunteer . . .

for the uplifting balloon activity we'd be starting with.

I also told her how I was greeting guests in the hallway when a man stopped by to tell me that I'd have a better chance of filling the room if I had a better title for my session. In his defense, it was 20 minutes to start time and there was only one participant in the room so far. His advice caught me by surprise, because I thought my title was pretty good, albeit a little long in comparison to the others.

Empathy, Compassion & Kindness:

Success Skills That Will Change School Climate For Good.

It wasn't the length that he was referring to; his suggestion was that I choose my words more carefully, to draw more people in. He said words like grit, motivation, or mindset would be better. I'll be honest; it hurt my feelings a little bit.

As I was sharing that with Deanna, she wondered out loud, 

But what you do is more about heartset than mindset, right?

That's it! YES. It's about the 4-Hs.

My session was about how 

head (empathy), 

heart (compassion), 

hands (kindness) and 

health (culture and climate).

Just like in the Pledge I learned when I was 9.

To a counselor, the heart piece is pretty important, for sure.

But mindset, grit, motivation and lots of inspiration 

were definitely woven in. I promise!

It occurred to me while he was mentoring me that I could flip through my slides and show him that I love mindset and grit, that it's totally in there. At least three times, including the info on this slide from Sylvia Duckworth,

on this slide that I created, 

and on this one from Andrea Stephan (click it for source).

But I didn't. I just listened, and thanked him. He asked me for a business card, and we ended up trading books. Do you know his book? It's definitely got mindset written all over it. Click the picture for a You Tube read-aloud.

I've thought a lot about what he said and I feel blessed that he would take the time to stop by and connect with me before the room started filling up.

And out of my processing and reflecting, I learned the word

 heartset. 

From Deanna. Because I have the summer off. 

And the luxury of meeting my friends for coffee and conversation.

What did you do today that grew your heartset?

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