Pockets Of Peace

Happy Labor Day; it has been a month since I've posted

and we already have three weeks of school behind us.

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Earth Squad Eco-Warriors

Today I'm thinking about how to warm up what feels quite cold right now.

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One Little Word, One Big Impact

Today I'm excited because of THIS, the visual that our friends at FJH created using the #oneword plates they designed in our training.

Imagine the incredible potential for its inspiration and influence.

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Living Mindfulness

Today I'm excited because I got this Mindful Breathing vision board done outside of my office in the hallway in time for our Spring Open House next week. I'm so eager to teach all of these options to help our learners stay in the moment, mindfully aware, breathing with intention. 

For the shapes breathing, click {here}.

For the five-finger breathing, {here}.

For the eight breathing cards, visit {here}.

For the labyrinth breathing, {here} and {here}.

For the flower and leaf breathing, click {here}.

I'm so grateful for my collaboration with Emily Rose, a counseling colleague in Wisconsin, as she shared many of these freebie resources with me.

Need a song to complement your mindfulness practice?

How about some apps to enrich your efforts?

Mindfulness books?

 And finally, some benefits of practicing mindfulness.

For my Mindfulness Pinterest collection, click {here}. 

How do you live mindfully?

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Sweet Student Sentiments

Today I'm feeling overwhelmed by the kindness, appreciation and love I feel as I savor these hand-made creations from my special friends during 

National School Counseling Week 2018. 

Each treasured card more creative than the next. 

Pop-up cards, pocket cards, hearts, flowers, rainbows.

It's so rewarding to see our core values and SEL messages

shine through their sweet sentiments.

This one was made by our AP's third-grade daughter.

Her teacher may have mentioned that my favorite football team is the Green Bay Packers, so they decorated their cards in green and gold.

They are all going into my Smile File; I wish that I could share each and every one with you. I truly am abundantly blessed.

This next week is Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Do you have any big celebration plans?

Here are some ideas for helping raise kind kids from Dr. Michele Borba.

Our character cam spied this board out in our third-grade area.

Have you seen the Band-Aid lesson? We decided to ask one of our 4th-grade classes role play this fairness lesson at our Character Ambassadors Assembly last week, to show our students the important distinction between equality and equity. 

Can you believe there were 550 people in that room?

I was so proud of how kind and attentive our students were

and how courage Mrs. Romolo's class was to perform like this.

What's your best practice for teaching this distinction?

My favorite new book to complement this lesson is 

Fair Is Fair by Sonny Varela. Be sure to check it out.

Off now to our High School Musical. 

Happy weekend.

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Mirroring Kindness

This was such a short week; because of a weird ice storm we only had two days of school. I used some of that time to cut out letters for this kindness display.

Got it up in time to kick off next week's Great Kindness Challenge.

We're super excited; the kind acts check lists went home today.

On the way out the door, one of our fifth-grade boys enthusiastically shared that he'd already completed seven of the suggestions! Have you signed up yet?

Those of you who know our school's story know that this year has been a difficult one for our district and town. Hurricane Harvey hit just seven days into the school year; 63 of our Bales students and eleven of our faculty and staff were displaced by those fierce flood waters. Life has been a challenge course for all of us as we recover, rebuild and restore from this trauma. 

But there have been some sun showers, too, like when the Kindness Team from Kids For Peace came to Friendswood to bring donations. They then chose Jet Stream Jax as their national spokesperson for this year's Kind Coins campaign and filmed him on location right here in town and at our school, 

to kick off their annual Kind Coins charitable collection. 

Right before the holidays, we got an email from Jill, co-founder of Kids For Peace, asking if they could build a play space to help our school family heal. Such a humbling, beautiful surprise; that virtual challenge course that we've been on in real life is going to be built in real life just outside our gymnasium, a generous gift.

For us. 

A rainbow in our cloud. 

To help us heal.

Here's a sneak peek. 

Weather permitting, the ribbon cutting will be Wednesday, January 31st. I can't wait for the Kindness Team to come back to Texas and help us put the finishing touches on the Peace Garden that's adjacent to the challenge course. 

Good Morning America plans to feature Kids For Peace this coming Thursday to showcase the Great Kindness Challenge family edition, so be sure to tune in. Additionally, Hasbro Children's Fund will be matching all #KindCoins donations up to $100K, so if you haven't donated yet, now's a great time.

Incredible kindness of epic proportions, just because they can;

A brilliant Sketchnote from Julie Woodard.  

that's the kind of kindness that I promise to always intentionally mirror. 

  

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Vulnerability: What's Trust Got To Do With It?

Today I'm excited because Free Spirit has released its top blog posts for 2017 and two of mine are on this list; I'm so grateful to be a guest author for them.

I've been fighting a chest cold, which has given me a lot of time for reflection. During my couch coma and more Hallmark movies than I ever thought possible, one thing I kept thinking about is trust.

Maybe it's because my one little word for 2018 is vulnerable.

Vulnerability.

It makes me a little nervous, to dig deeper into the concept

behind that word and its connection to the word trust.

Trusting can be unnerving.

And yet we're called to trust all the time. 

The other day, for example, when I needed my bangs trimmed.

My regular stylist is on recovery from knee surgery,

so I phoned my former stylist,

who scheduled me with her new coworker.

I sat there in her chair so vulnerable

as she took her scissors to my hair.

Trust.

There was nothing else I could do, but trust.

She seemed to understand what I wanted, 

but I was a nervous wreck,

holding my breath as locks of hair fell from my forehead.

It can be so hard to trust.

And that's just a small thing, like bangs.

What about when the stakes are bigger,

like in a relationship.

At home.

At work.

With students, neighbors, friends.

With strangers, even.

It begs the question:

Does trust always have to be earned

or is it possible to take a leap of faith

and just trust?

Dr. Brené Brown says this about trust and vulnerability:

Trust is a product of vulnerability that grows over time

 and requires work, attention and full engagement.

Trust.

It takes work.

It needs attention.

And it requires full engagement.

It's so important.

And really worthwhile.

I'm told there's a certain strength in vulnerability.

So here we go, head first into 2018.

I'm ready and eager to learn more about being vulnerable.

I can't wait to see what happens to my willingness to trust.

What's your one word for the upcoming year?

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Seeds Of Compassion, Kindness & Care

Today I'm excited because one of our teachers made this beauty for me.

It's true, you know, about kindness being contagious.

Look at the homemade cards that came in today's mail,

from Bridget, a school counselor in IN, and her school family.

I joyfully added their school to our kindness map.

Doesn't this just make your heart smile?

We are so grateful for all of these seeds of kindness

and we promise to harvest them all and pay it forward.

Click the image for freebie printables by Shannon.

One of the seeds on our map comes from the author of 

one of my favorite (new-to-me) titles with a fairness theme.

Do you know about Fair Is Fair by Sonny Varela?

Click the image for a You Tube read-aloud.

Fair doesn't always mean equal. This is the picture perfect tale to help our learners understand the difference between equality and equity. In this story, the animals don't understand how it can be that Zookeeper loves them equally if she doesn't feed them equal amounts? 

After trying to figure that out and in an attempt to make it more fair, Hare, Giraffe, and Elephant decide to take matters into their own tummies and equalize their piles of food once Zookeeper leaves. And as you can imagine, Hare and Giraffe can't possibly eat all of the food on their newly-portioned piles and their bellies are full while Elephant is left wanting (and needing) more. Food is getting wasted while Elephant is wasting away. Now that's a problem. But will it help them understand that fair does not always mean equal?

Click the image for more goodness from Sweet Blessings!

Check out this fairly-new book; 

it'll be a fantastic addition to your character collection.

Need some intriguing ideas for enriching this read-aloud?

Teaching Kids The Importance Of Fairness 

The Fairness Freeway 

Justice & Fairness

Equity v. Equality 

That's Not Fair!

What's Fair?

What is your favorite way to teach this tricky concept?

We are thankful to the Varela family for sharing this treasure with us and for supporting one of our families that was flooded. Life isn't always fair, but it is easier with generous people planting seeds of compassion, kindness and care.

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Unlimited Kindness & Gratitude

Today I'm excited because my guest post on Mindfulness Strategies For Educators (and other caregivers!) is now live at Free Spirit Press.

Click to image to read the post.

I am challenged by, but also really enjoy, assignment writing;

hopefully you'll find some useful suggestions.

I'm also tickled pink by how this mindset visual turned out.

Not only because our SEARCH students helped fill it up

by sharing their fixed and growth mindset thoughts,

but because of how I got ahold of the brain.

A year or so ago, this board I'd seen on Twitter really caught my eye. I liked it so much, in fact, that I asked Amanda Mann, the educator who posted it, for permission to share it in my presentations and on the blog. Doesn't it just pop?

Fast forward to a month or so ago, when out of the blue I got an email from Mr. Green, a second grade teacher in PA, asking me if the brain on this board was hand-drawn or purchased. I wrote back that I didn't know, but that I could find out. So off to Twitter I went; it wasn't long before Amanda put me in touch with Michele Gallagher, the artist behind this amazing brain. I offered to trade a copy of my book for a copy of that brain; she did me one better and sent the entire board.

I traced the brain before sending the package on to Pennsylvania
and my friend Caryn kindly colored it for us.

Click image for source: www.charactercounts.org

That's how kindness and gratitude work. When we live generously and give lavishly, kindness and gratitude always make their way back because they are in unlimited supply.

Two other cyberspace collaborators recently gave copies of the book away at their Professional Development learning sessions.

 Look at how happy it makes people to receive a kindness!

Here, Amy, another teacher in PA, is getting a copy from Lisa,

author of A Case For Kindness. More gratitude and happiness.

If you're looking for a new book about kindness,

to put an exclamation point on its importance,

you must check out Alexis Bloomer's Kindness Is Key.

It tackles the topic of bullying from a kindness vantage point, prompting students to look outside of themselves and appreciate and celebrate our uniqueness.

Encourage your students to take the kindness pact in the back,

or write one of their own based on this brilliant addition to the text.

Kindness, now that looks AmAzInG on you! 

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Superheroes Like Jax

Today I'm over the moon because our friend Jet Stream Jax is at it again, 

working with intention and purpose to be the rainbow in someone's storm.

Photo courtesy of Kids For Peace

This morning we set our alarm a little bit early to catch him 

on the Channel 13 ABC Houston morning news. 

With so much bad press looming in our world today, I am grateful that this reporter came to Bales Intermediate to let Jax share our story of restoration and recovery, of healing and of hope. It's fun, too, that they filmed in our Leadership Central learning space and enjoyed an impromptu jam session in our ukulele lab.

It makes my soul sing knowing that our world has

superheroes like Jax.

And while I feel Jax has a special and rare quality about him, I also tend to think that there are more superheroes like him than we might ever imagine, 

on the periphery, just waiting to be discovered,

SUPERHEROES on display in the front office at Landolt Elementary.

to be given a voice,

to be empowered to cape up, and

and to be afforded opportunities to come to the rescue.

Tonight I'm going to sleep with a hugely happy heart,

filled with hope for a better tomorrow 

because of superhero helpers like Jax. 

Thank you, Jax, for spraying a high-level jet of 

kindness, compassion and care wherever you go

and for taking the world by storm to make it better.

You are my hero.

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Taking Back To School By Storm

Today I'm excited because we had seven amazing back-to-school days before Hurricane Harvey stalled school for a spell and gave us today off.

Our staff did some team-building before the students showed up; check out this coverage of our Spot It! circle game that our character cam caught. 
Super fun to watch them laugh, connect, and reflect.

On Monday, we viewed the eclipse in our NASA-approved solar shades.

We spent the week reconnecting and getting to know one another better. 

I put one of these treats in each staff member's box ... 

 and got this bulletin board up inside of our learning space.

I received a beautiful note pad from my friend Tanya in Montana,

 so I used it to write these lunch invitations to our new students.

It's optional so I told their teachers to let them choose, because I get it if they'd rather stay in the cafeteria and eat lunch with their new class family friends. It was supposed to be today, so we'll be rescheduling for one day next week.

One of my superheroes brought me this bouquet of flowers, to cheer me up as I adjust to our empty nest. Won't they look pretty on our new-students lunch table?

And in the back-to-school mail this week, two special deliveries of thoughtfulness, one from a Twitter connection, a card thanking me for my inspiration, the other from my friend Maria, a note with prayers for comfort and strength as we make the transition to our new season at home by ourselves, with no kids living there. 

Small acts of kindness that made a big difference to my heart.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried using Zoom to go live with on We Are Teachers and give a tour of our learning space. A colleague of John's at NASA helped me so much the day prior by doing a practice chat with me and help allay a few of my fears as I stepped out of my comfort zone and used my iPad to connect and grow. 

It was a blast; thank you, We Are Teachers, for that fun opportunity.

On Twitter, one of our friends piggybacked our YET-goals idea; 

isn't it going to look amazingly colorful when it's up?

Speaking of colorful, check out this gem that a Bales alumni created at the end of May in her sixth-grade Language Arts class at Friendswood Junior High.

Using our Bales school True Colors theme, 

Caley wrote about a town that had lost its color, 

only to find it again when once they restored their core values.

Isn't it breath-taking? Thank you, Caley, for living your true colors!

Finally, we got three of these Gaga Ball Pits on our recess grounds.

I'm wondering as I type if they're mini-swimming pools right now.

So tonight, we stay inside while Harvey blows through.

Hopefully, we're back to class on Monday.

Then, on Tuesday night, join us to discuss these questions

on the #teacherfriends Twitter chat.

Happy 2017-2018; how will you take the new year by storm?

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