Known. Loved. Inspired Kindness -- the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.  We embody kindness through smiles, handshakes, considering other people’s needs, stepping aside when someone needs space, and paying attention to one another. In the mornings, when shaking hands, I try to get each student to pause for a moment, make eye contact, shake my hand or wave, and say good morning or hello. I want them to know that, even in the midst of trying to get somewhere, there is always time to stop and acknowledge another person. I want every student to REALLY know they are Known [...]

50 Golden Days This Wednesday marks the 50th day of the school year. 50 times shaking hands at the door in the morning.  50 days of Math instruction and Literacy Centers.  50 recesses. 50 lunches. 50 evenings preparing for school the next day. In marriage, the 50th anniversary is the Golden Anniversary.  I like to think of this time of year as the golden period.  We are deep into instruction, well developed with relationships, out in the world doing fieldwork -- everything is moving along smoothly. Next week, our Family Arts Night marks the culmination of our golden work so far [...]

A 25-Hour Day What did you do with your extra hour this weekend? Did you sleep a little longer, snuggle with a loved one, get extra work done, finally clean your house, or something else equally titillating? I wonder if we chose one hour per normal day and treated it like it was a special extra hour, how it might feel? How might we make special out of the ordinary and tune our focus a little differently?  I challenge you, in this 10th week of the year, to find a little extra special in one hour each day. Enjoy!   Happy Week [...]

Gratitude I sat in a Math class recently, observing students be successful, collaborative, and positive with one another.  They were diving into Math concepts that stretched their thinking and supported each other in the work. I was overcome with a sense of gratitude for the ways in which teachers at this school spend countless extra hours planning multiple lessons for the same hour of instruction.  Using the workshop model, teachers group students by their strengths and needs, and have them rotate through centers to work on different skills in each center. This means that teachers plan often three to four different [...]

Networks of Support I used to believe that trees fought one another to reach the sun, get nutrients, and simply to thrive. The smallest tree in a forest was doomed from the start. A few years ago, I learned about a secret communication that exists between trees that tells quite the opposite story. The gigantic trees that we admire above ground are connected through a network of teeny tiny fungi that communicate between trees of all species. If one tree is aware of drought or of an insect manifestation, it sends messages to other trees in the area through these fungi.  [...]