Do you know that song about the hole in the bucket...dear Liza, dear Liza? And now you probably have it stuck in your head. You're welcome and I'm sorry. For some reason that popped into my head when I was trying to decide what to write about this week. Last week, kindergarteners were talking about being bucket fillers. You know what a bucket filler is right? When we do kind things to each other, we are filling buckets. But these days, considering what is going on with people all over the world, it seems as if there are holes in our buckets. We need more and more bucket filling to happen to keep our buckets from draining out.
Today, November 13, is World Kindness Day. What better day than today to make sure that we are trying to plug up the holes in everyone's buckets. What can we be doing to fill our students' buckets? What can we be doing to fill each other's buckets? What can we be doing to fill our students' family buckets? What can we do to fill our own buckets? There is a lot of bucket filling that needs to be happening. Here and all over the world.
But let's start here first. If we start with filling buckets for our school and community...just maybe we can spread out to the rest of the world. Check out this video that shows the ripple effect that one act of kindness can start:
Did you know that there are several organizations that are all about bucket filling and acts of kindness? Here is one site that has several blog posts about kindness: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/the-kindness-blog
And locally, many of you know Scott and Kate Middlemiss and their organization and message of "All You Need is Love": https://www.jmbigheart.org/
This week, we start off with World Kindness Day and then end the week with the opening of the movie "Wonder," based off of the amazing book by RJ Palacio. And then next week we have time to spend with our families where we will stop and think about what we are thankful for. So these next two weeks are certainly optimal bucket filling weeks.
How will you fill someone's bucket?
How will you feel when you fill someone's bucket?
How will you will your own bucket?
How will you let other's fill your bucket?
That song that is still stuck in my head...the one about the hole in the bucket...I can't help but think of it and feel this sense of urgency. We need to fill buckets. We need to plug the holes that keep forming in our buckets. And yes, we need to do this especially on World Kindness Day. But we need to also remember to fill buckets on every other day of the year too.
I know all of you will do acts of kindness today for World Kindness Day.
But the question is...will you promise to do them when it's not World Kindness Day?
Currently reading:
I am still really enjoying listening to The Gift of Failure on Audible during my commute. But I just added two new books to my audio book collection and plan on mixing it up during my drive. The first book has been recommended by a few of my principal friends. It's called The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact.
The other book that I downloaded and have started listening to is called When Breath Becomes Air. I picked this book up in a bookstore recently but then put it back down because I have too many books in my house that I need to read first. But that doesn't mean I can't listen to it on my commute! I know this is going to be tear jerker because it's a memoir about a doctor who battles stage IV lung cancer.
Monday - Elementary Curriculum Leadership Mtg @ 2:45
Tuesday - 4th grade Around Town Geology Field Trip
Wednesday - SST meeting at 8:45, Staff meeting @ 3:30
Thursday - Grade 2 Peacock Players field trip
Friday - Half day, 12:15 dismissal, parent conferences
Great things I noticed last week:
- I listened in to a quick video and conversation with Ms. Kinneen about what it means to show good sportsmanship. The 3rd graders shared many examples of how to demonstrate these important social skills.
- I was lucky enough to be the one helping cover part of a kindergarten wellness class. The students were talking about what it meant to be a bucket filler and then we all practiced giving each other specific compliments. When there was a little time at the end, they got to color in a bucket filler page, announcing that they were all bucket fillers!
- I was excited to get an invite into Mrs. Wilkins' 1st grade classroom where the students were sharing their published stories with each other. They were complimenting each other about how they were unfreezing characters, writing great blurbs, using pop out words, and adding in speech bubbles in their illustrations.
- Have you had a chance to peek into MakerSpace? The students are starting a unit all about deconstruction. Looks like some intense work about to happen. Can't wait to see how they repurpose the materials into something totally new.
- After school one day, I got to watch Mrs. Wallace do her teaching thing, working with 4th grade teachers to practice organizing their Google drive folders.
- Thursday afternoon and evening was filled with lots of parent conferences. I brought along my "assistant" and she found a coloring friend who was waiting patiently for her parents. Thanks to the PTA for feeding everyone during the evening!
Check it out:
I know I have shared some posts before and written my own, but here is another recent post about rethinking things like clip charts, marble jars and stickers for behavior: https://community.theeducatorcollaborative.com/goodbye-clip-charts-marble-jars-and-stickers-for-behavior/
And who is excited about the movie "Wonder" coming out at the end of the week?!
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