Principal ponderings...
At this point, maybe you have already discovered the most amazing hotline ever. About two weeks ago, a kindergarten teacher from California, worked with her students to create something they are calling the "Peptoc Hotline."
There is a phone number and you can call and select a different number to get different versions of pep talks from 5 year olds. What a brilliant idea! I always say if you need to turn your day around, just walk into any of our kindergarten classrooms. Kindergarteners have a way of making people smile, being so honest, and helping people without even realizing it. Of course, K teachers may have very different thoughts about that!
A week ago I presented at the MSAA PK-8 Spring Conference. My presentation was titled "Books Make Us Better" and I shared how books and conversations around books can help us with social emotional learning. But I started the presentation by calling the Peptoc Hotline. If you press one of the numbers, you get to listen to "kids laughing with delight." And another number gives you life advice from kindergarteners. You can also press a number and get words of encouragement in Spanish. When my first few slides were about the uncomfortable statistic that "1 in 6 US children aged 2 to 8 years has a diagnosed mental, behavioral or developmental disorder," starting off by calling a hotline created by kids for everyone seemed like the absolute best way to begin my talk.
Working in an elementary school, we have a built in hotline in all of our classrooms. Kids have the ability to say just the right thing at just the right time. We have the chance to create opportunities everyday where kids are "laughing with delight." It's ok for adults to admit that we need words of encouragement from children. We all need pep talks. I know last week I definitely needed them. Thank you for the messages and texts and emails and videos of kids and cards. They all helped!
So this week...if you need a smile or a pick me up...just dial 707-998-8410. I am pretty sure I will be calling the hotline every day!
or
What sort of pep talks will you receive from your own students this week? Stop and think about those moments. Jot them down in a journal or on a sticky note. Share them with a friend or your team. Those pep talk moments are powerful and necessary and worth remembering and sharing.
Currently reading:
While I was sick, you would have thought that I would have spent a lot of time reading, but that just wasn't the case. I didn't have the energy or brain power to read. Slowly climbing out of the reading slump I was in. I have been finishing up reading the book She Leads: The Women's Guide to a Career in Educational Leadership. Definitely great to read stories from so many different female leaders across the country.
I am trying to get myself to finish reading Sticky Notes, but the subject of a parent suffering from Alzheimer's clearly hits close to home. Going to keep pushing through.
And I picked I Love You, Michael Collins back up to finish reading that book. It's a book that takes place in 1969 and the main character is the one who chose to write to the astronaut who has to stay on the ship instead of walking on the moon.
Events this week:
Monday - Book Fair set up all week in the library! Marvelous Monday - March Madness Fun!
Tuesday - CST Meeting @ 8:00, 2nd grade Enrichment - Physical Changes of Matter, 5th grade F&P training
Wednesday - Laura in virtual Team Chair Meeting from 8:15-10
Thursday - 5th Grade F&P training, Liz in virtual Curriculum Meeting from 8-10
Friday - Internet Safety Presentation w/Ellen Miller @ 10:15
Saturday - Book Fair open for families 5:00-7:00pm
Sunday - Book Fair open for families 9:00-11:00am
Great things I noticed last week:
I know I missed out on a lot of awesome things going on in your classrooms last week. Excited to be back in the building and back in classrooms this week!
Check it out:
Such an important reminder... as we enter spring...never stop planting...
