Thursday, April 2, 2015

Spreading Positivity




We recently had the most awesome day at Cantiague as we celebrated Positive Post-It Day. As you may have read in a recent blog post I wrote, Positive Post-It Day was born from an idea shared by a student from another school who decided to reframe a bullying situation in a much more positive way; instead of responding with negativity, this student went the route of kindness and plastered the walls of her school with positive post-its. Well, after viewing the video it was clear that we wanted to celebrate something similar here at Cantiague and thus the idea for Positive Post-It Day was born. 




On #PositivePostItDay, our children and staff members filled the walls, doors and desks in our school with some of the most incredibly kind and positive notes (there were literally hundreds of notes all over the school) I have ever seen in my career. Additionally, each child wrote themselves a positive note celebrating something they are proud of within themselves – kindness can really spread when we recognize the positivity within ourselves! In the end, it was a pretty awesome day and I invite you all to click on the following link to check out some of the highlights from #PositivePostItDay…






The Positive Post-It Day experience was one of the proudest moments in my educational career because we celebrated everything that is good and right about education and recognized all the awesomeness of our children and the educators who are dedicated to making a difference! So, if you haven't done it yet, I suggest you try #PositiveItPostDay in your school... and maybe it doesn't just happen once a year... maybe it happens once a month because when you get notes like these (see below) you quickly become re-energized in your dedicated efforts to inspire students through dedication, compassion and positivity!



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1 comment:

  1. Tony, this is great! We will need to have a #PositivePostItDay at our school. Some of our teachers will give "I noticed" notes during the day - How it works: Simply place post-it notes on student’s desk when they least expect it!

    I noticed you finished your project today… nice work with great detail!
    I noticed you are being a good friend to Johnny… you are kind!
    I noticed you helping Sally with her math at lunch… you are a good friend!
    I noticed you put great voice in your writing today… nice focus on our target learning!
    I noticed you being a good listener… you rock!
    I noticed you asking for help on your assignment… way to take charge of your learning!
    I noticed you using "active listening" strategies with Sally during turn and talk… keep it up!

    I love this strategy because it provides encouragement and accolades to support a positive relationship between teacher-students. It also helps students to self-regulate their behaviors, assuming responsibility to academic and social learning. Students love it and so do the teachers who utilize! - See more at: http://principalhowell.blogspot.com/2014/08/school-starts-tuesday-we-look-forward.html#sthash.xwGnBDGf.dpuf

    Thanks for sharing the great things that are happening at Cantiague Elementary! Enjoy the week!

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