PPBF: Yazzy's Amazing Yarn

Today's I'm excited and grateful for this hand-knit colt,

something I ordered from my friend Audrye for the classroom but

think now that I might just have to keep for our Texas room at home.

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PPBF: The Tallest Tree House

Do you ever feel like this as you slide into summertime?

What are your go-to strategies

to prevent this from happening?

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Making Something Spectacular

Today I'm thinking about how cool it is when parts come together 

to make something whole.

About how seemingly small pieces quickly combine 

to create something really special.

About how every little contribution

makes a big difference.

It's something that has been on my mind for a while now, something that came to the forefront today as our fifth graders started to paint their mosaic mural.

Each student paints their portion of the mural, whose theme this year depicts how our school and community came together to help one another recover and restore after hurricane Harvey blew through.

UPDATE: After day 2.

Finished masterpiece: Restoration

We actually once made a rainstorm five-hundred-students strong at one of our character assemblies, to illustrate what happens when we all do something small to create something big.

In unity, strength.

I love experiencing the magic when parts of the whole 
unify to make something spectacular.

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When Life Gets Dicey

Today I'm excited because yesterday I saw the most beautiful light in this child's eyes. Meet Bella, one of my fifth-grade girls. I can't remember if I shared her story yet or not, but we snapped this picture in our Clothing Exchange, shortly after Hurricane Harvey took everything but her clothes away. She wanted to donate these beautiful items, some that still had price tags on them, because the flood made her realize that she didn't need so much stuff. She said she knew that there would be someone who did lose their clothes and needs it more than she did. 

And she was right.

Just to give you a frame of reference, this is Bella's house during

 Hurricane Harvey.

Please don't misunderstand; Bella smiles every day. In fact, she's one of the sweetest children I know. In kindergarten and first, she used to draw me these beautiful pictures and write me these heartwarming love notes. It was clear early on that Bella has a heart bigger than the flood that would one day destroy her living quarters. {I'm pretty sure she gets it from her mom!}

So why was Bella's smile extra big yesterday?

Because today is move-in day, to their new house.

She was simply giddy with joy as she told me the good news and added that the move would be pretty easy, too, since all they have to move is their clothes.

Can you imagine?

Life has been really dicey for Bella and her family and their neighbors. But she has managed to find a silver lining along with a way to hang on to her joy and to 

be the rainbow in someone else's storm.

Bella, your school counselor is so proud of you

and grateful for the impact your kindness footprint is making.

We're so happy that you'll be home for the holidays!

Speaking of dicey, have you heard the great news?

Our friends Susan Ragsdale and Ann Saylor

have published the Dice Edition of Great Group Games 

just in time for your holiday gift-giving.

Click the image to purchase it on Amazon.

I've already read through it and earmarked the games

that I want to try with my superheroes:

My favorite part has to be that all of the games include a Going Deeper section to help sustain the activities and make them more meaningful.

 And since we all know that play heals,

this will be a great resource to keep next to that

favorite pair of dice for when life gets dicey

and you need a play break.

Click image to download and share with family and friends.

Who's ready to roll? 

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The Wednesday Surprise

Happy Wednesday. Can it really be mid-July already?

I've been waiting for tomorrow night for quite some time now 

because I've been invited to host #EduAR on Twitter.

Here are the details . . .

Click the graphic to read the transcript of the July 20th chat.

and a sample teaser question.

You'll have to join us to share your answer

and read all about what other people are doing to

supercharge the habit of collaboration.

When I saw Dr. Borba's keynote in Austin this summer, she recommended 

The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting as a must-have to give our learners the empathy advantage. So I ordered a copy, and she was right. With empathy to spare, this little superhero collaborates with her Grandmother to give her Dad 

a very special gift.

Click the image to hear Debbie Schatteman read this gem aloud.

I'm not going to spoil the surprise, so give it a listen.

Then order a copy or two for your character building.

It makes me think about this character clip, a powerful story about a grown man who works diligently to learn to read to make his adult author son proud, but beware: It's a commercial for Bell's Whiskey, so share it responsibly.

That reminds me of this funny shirt with a serious message. 

But I digress. My idea is to share it with the educators in my learning session audiences, making sure to stop the clip right before the son buys his Dad that celebratory shot of Bell's. And, just like I wouldn't wear this t-shirt to school, I won't be sharing the clip with my intermediate students. Would I share it with tweens or teens? Maybe so, but only along with a stakeholders discussion about responsible decision-making. What are your thoughts about sharing the clip?

Don't forget; set an alarm to set sail on the 7 Cs with us

tomorrow night, July 20th, at 8:30 pm {CST}.

Haven't used TweetDeck yet? Click {here} for a tutorial.

It will be a real tweet to see you there. 

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Compassionate Conversions

Oh, how I love learning.

I am so on fire for new ideas

and eager to grow and be better!

Conferences do that for me;

so do conversations with colleagues.

And I've had both this week.

First, I went to Austin to speak at TEPSA. 
We started with a riveting game of my favorite icebreaker.
Click the image to watch for a few seconds.

We had a blast in this learning session and I was delighted to grow alongside one hundred elementary school leaders while we worked on inspiring grit, perseverance, resilience and a growth mindset.

Equally as amazing later that morning was seeing my friend and edu-hero Michelle Borba on stage doing what she does best:

Elevating empathy!

She shared so many strong ideas for infusing that glorious virtue into the heads and hearts as well as routines and rituals of our students and staff. The one that resonated with me was having students in conflict write down on their think-sheet reflections what they think the other person will say about what happened. Brilliant, right?

After she walked us through the 9 habits of empathic children

from her book UnSelfie, I asked talented teacher Julie Woodard if she'd make a Sketchnote. And she did.

Isn't it fantastic?

A cellfie of Dr. Borba's suggestions.

My suggestion is that this be a poster. 

In every school.

In every state.

In every country.

To help our selfie-absorbed world come back.

But Michele is quick to remind us that

empathy by itself doesn't do much good.

She urged us to work to intentionally mobilize it to become

compassion which in turn turns into actionable kindness.

Click image for a transcript of our #FamiliesOfCharacter Twitter chat.

She shared several examples of compassionate conversions,

when children who have been hardened by life

are tenderized with empathy

 so that they embrace compassionate

and show kindness despite life's hard knocks.

Each one more poignant than the next.

Each one bringing us close to tears.

I truly feel like I could listen to her all day!

So I came home excited to collaborate at our Poolside PD event.

Check out the alternative seating options:

a wobble seat,

lounge chairs,

camp chairs,

towel mats,

pool noodles,

floaties.

Each counselor made a Sensory bottle as a take-away,

a metaphor for how we need to hydrate to grow.

We swapped ideas and shared goals, dreams and plans

for the 2017-2018 school year.

It was so refreshing to sit with those passionate colleagues

and soak up their compassionate ideals.

We even role played an activity that I picked up from Kevin Tutt. It's called The Hitchhiker. Here's how to play.

Set four chairs side by side and round up four volunteers. Ask one of the volunteers to take a seat in the first chair and pretend she's driving to her dream location. Have the other three stand off to the side. Ask the driver to think of their dream car. Ask the audience to name four emotions that they see every day at school. Say the emotions are happy, scared, angry and sad; each player will own one of those emotions. The objective is for the driver to start with her emotion then each time she picks up a hitchhiker, she picks up his her her emotion. At the end of the role play, they all exit one-by-one and go back to the emotion of the last person in. How could you use this in your professional development to raise emotional literacy with your staff? With your students? With their parents? How could it be a springboard for embracing empathy?

I can't wait to try it with my school family
and see how many compassionate conversions we can spark.
Happy weekend.

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Inspiring Collaboration Guest Post

Today I'm overjoyed because one of my cyberspace counseling colleagues has agreed to tell us about a strong cross-curricular collaboration that resulted in an assembly idea that I predict will be music to your ears. Please give a warm Corner welcome to School Psychologist (and my friend!) Julie Gordon-Buccitti.

****************************** 

Hello from Overbrook Elementary!                                                                                           

We were so delighted to be invited by Barbara to share with you about our special whole-school collaborative project that we initiated this year. Our collaboration is a unique one, since we’re not aware of any other school psychologist and music teacher collaboratives in our area. Bringing our disciplines together made sense though, as music is a wonderful therapeutic medium and avenue for self-expression!

 

Overbrook is a kindergarten through grade 2 school, that has been distinguished as a PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) Model Demonstration School. It was one of just two schools in the state of Connecticut last year to receive this honor!

With the support of our amazing principal, Diane MacKinnon, and our wonderful staff at Overbrook, we were able to create such excitement throughout our school. We began with a series of co-taught lessons that took place during our music classes and focused on the work of Carol McCloud, author of Have You Filled a BucketToday? We included read-alouds, hands-on interactive tasks, written activities, songs, and instrumental music. My friend and colleague, Denise Martino, even wrote an original song that was perfect for our bucket-filling endeavor. With the help of some local businesses, who were kind enough to donate buckets to our project, the children used buckets as drums as they sang Denise’s beautiful and very catchy tune. We even caught children singing this tune at various times and locations throughout the day!

I also purchased the book in Spanish, as we have a large population of bilingual students at our school, and, with the help of our kind ELL Aide, Miss Claudia, I was able to co-teach a lesson in Spanish. I was so touched as our bilingual students helped me, as I was attempting to read and communicate! This was a good empathy lesson for me as I took on the challenges of using a language that I am not as familiar with.

In our school, there have been many social-emotional learning initiatives. Some of these initiatives have included whole group and small group lessons in classrooms and centers, whole group lunch lessons in the cafeteria, and co-teaching in our music classes. In addition, there are now plans underway for bringing social-emotional learning into gym class. It was my hope that by bringing social-emotional learning to our students across a variety of settings, that we would see carry-over of the skills taught into multiple settings throughout the school. Based on feedback I have received from students, staff, and parents, this is exactly what is happening.

Recently, Denise and I had the pleasure of putting together a Bucket-Filling assembly. This assembly was attended by our entire school, as well as community stakeholders like our Superintendent of Schools, Pupil Services Staff, and our local newspaper, The New Haven Register. During our assembly, we incorporated a number of activities, making sure to include variety and opportunities for movement, in order to keep our little ones actively engaged. Our students performed Denise’s original song, there was a read-aloud, we all took a bucket-filling pledge together, and acted out some skits and asked our students to identify whether we were bucket filling or bucket dipping. Our students have become quite the bucket filling experts! We also made some special edition bucket filling PBIS tickets, to tie in bucket filling with our Model PBIS program already in place.

Click to download these special-edition tickets.

At the end of our assembly, we wrapped up with a bucket filling music video and our students and staff had so much fun singing and dancing. Both music teacher and school psychologist are being asked when the next bucket filling lesson will be taking place. I wonder if our littles know how much they fill our buckets each day.

Our assembly was also written up in our support staff and specialists’ newsletters to parents, so now our parents can use similar bucket filling terminology, and together we can reinforce the importance of being a bucket filler at school and at home.

It was truly heartwarming working together to make this project a success. So many staff members helped in so many ways. I owe a huge thank you to my wonderful collaborating partner Denise, too; our buckets are overflowing!

Thank you for allowing us to share our story and our excitement about this project with you. We look forward to continuing with our bucket filling work, and encouraging kindness throughout our school and community!

Julie Gordon-Buccitti, School Psychologist  jgordon@east-haven.k12.ct.us

Denise Martino, Music Teacher dmartino@east-haven.k12.ct.us

Overbrook Elementary School 

A K-2 PBIS Model Demonstration School
East Haven, CT

 Thank you, Julie & Denise, for sharing your heartbeat with us;
we are positively inspired by your bucket-filling collaboration.

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The Dew Drop Inn

Today marks the final day of our spring break. 

Wait, what? How did that happen?

Yesterday the Spring showers that bring May flowers threatened to come right on in through the back door ... check out Lake Gruener.

But it was worth it, to wake up to 

these Texas beauties on my morning walk!

Don't you love how those raindrops are clinging on for dear life?

So I spent most of yesterday inside, reading and thinking.

After my jaunt to the grocery store, I did a little baking, too. 

This old-fashioned strawberry shortcake was delicious:

I also spent a lot of time online, collaborating and learning.

When I made this bulletin board two years ago, never could I have imagined how Twitter would transform me and my teaching.

In fact, having a Twitter account wasn't even on my radar back then.

But here we are, in 2015, and I was able to virtually attend ASCD15 from my couch thanks to Twitter feed yesterday.

Incredible!

Twitter chats remind me of a place we used to pass on our way up north called the Dew Drop Inn. The chats are a gathering place {kind of like in the sitcom Cheers} where you can drop in to quench your thirst for learning, enjoy some food for thought, and satisfy your hunger for collaboration with other educators. A place to come hungry for innovative ideas and leave full of inspiration and intrigue. A place to connect.

And just like that clever name that has two meanings, Twitter has provided a platform where I'm challenged to reframe my thinking.

It's about perspective.

It's about point of view.

And it's about looking at things through another's lens.

Stretching. Growing. Learning to fail forward.

And my brain is firing dendrites like never before.

Twitter is a tool of transformation that has introduced me to some amazing educators from all over the world. I have expanded my Professional Learning Network (PLN) not only beyond Friendswood and Texas, but beyond America and out into the world. One PLN, a few hashtags {also known as the pound sign and the number sign}, endless growth possibilities. The world is at our fingertips.

Can you feel the spark? Want to know more?

Click {here} to read yesterday's archives from our #nt2t chat about 

the power of the hashtag. 

And if you're online next Saturday morning at 8 am {CST}, do drop in!

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Loving Compassion, 1000 Voices Strong

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be unplugged digitally and plugged in to the great outdoors. It's what I said I was going to do for a few weeks, take a break from blogging. And I promise I resisted joining #1000speak ALL day yesterday, but I just couldn't ignore that one final plea to collaborate with these 
amazingly-compassionate cyberspace colleagues.
To make the world better. 

So today while John's out with friends and Joshua's competing at Science Fair, I'm delighted to be linking up to bring some thoughts about compassion your way. Click the graphic to read what others know, feel, and are doing to create compassion ripples in their respective corners of the world.

So what do I know about compassion? The way I see it, compassion nicely parallels the affective domain of character:

First, we must know the good, and that starts with an understanding which, to me, parallels that glorious virtue of empathy. If we can know what one another is going through, know what they need, know how they want to be treated, or know how certain values look, sound, and feel, then we're well on our way to cognitively getting character.

Compassion is the piece that allows us to move from the brain to the heart, to embrace what we understand and know. It allows us to feel the good. An online definition that I found says that compassion is concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others; a second source added that this concern is accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. That's where love comes in, it's that strong desire to take away the pain, to share the burden, to make things better.

And when we love or embrace something, we want more of it. So we intentionally seek it out. From the affective, then, we move forward then to the behavioral so compassion becomes more than just a feeling, it becomes an action, one that we call kindness.

And when kindness ripples ... prepare to get wet!

That's what the #1000speak campaign is all about, that ripple effect. A combined effort, 1000-plus bloggers strong. Writers who are passionate about changing the world, working together to make it happen, one drop at a time. To create an awareness that will ripple goodness out and make life better, 

for today and for all of our tomorrows. 

This Steven Caldwell compassion clip really spoke to me:

Source: You Tube

Lean on me, when you're not strong.

I like that.

Because together is better.

If you want more info on being intentional about compassion, check out Making Compassion A Verb. Read about how compassion helps healing in Mogie: The Heart of the House {here}. Watch Knit One, Save One and experience my third-grade knitters sharing compassion one stitch at a time as they craft to help reduce the infant mortality rate. Check out the Foundation For A Better Life's Pinterest page. And take care to always avoid Compassion Fatigue by being kind to yourself, too.

Imagine if you can a life of compassionate connections ...

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S Is For Service

It's heeeeeeeeere. The big day. Time to dig into the book with my beautiful blogging buddies. I woke up early to find this online; click it to read Lorraine's teaser. You're sure to be tickled and touched by her words about what she wants for the 
superheroes in her life.

Then Sheila shared this, the perfect complement.

Acts of kindness don't have to be huge to provide a service

to someone in need.

Jennifer from the Good Long Road posted this opp yesterday so we can help our immigrant children during these difficult days:

How will you color the world today by serving?

That's a guiding question in Chapter One.

Lynda at Curls and a Smile and 

Melissa at Transitional Kinder with Mrs. O 

are sharing their ideas and guess what?

Our friend Jana has helped them set it up as a Linky Party, which means if you've blogged about the book, you can join in our cyberspace collaboration. 

Just this morning, Dr. Susan Fuller posted a rave review at Entirely Elementary School Counseling {here}. Turns out, she was also a 4-H member, but her furry friends weren't Holsteins like mine ... they were Seeing Eye Puppies. Isn't that a cool connection!

What? What?? You're not a blogger? No worries.

Once you've hopped from pillar to post, come back here or visit the book's Facebook page to reflect and share.

That being said, as we blossom into more ... 

we must keep in mind that we become kind by being kind.

Then we can live what Gandhi suggested long ago, and 

Find ourselves in the service of others.

Happy serving!

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