A Little Positivity Goes A Long Way!

Along with many other goals of mine this year, I’ve also tried to be more positive. Please don’t get me wrong: I don’t consider myself a negative person, but I don’t always think that I always remember to celebrate the positives. My principal and vice principal reminded me about the importance of attitude, and I must say that a few extra smiles and a few more good thoughts make me happy!

Do I always remember to stay positive? No. But I’m trying to be more aware of when the negatives creep in, and I’m really trying to turn things around. And in the spirit of working on this positive goal, I was thrilled last night when I saw my vice principal‘s blog post about her 30 Day Challenge.

Here’s an opportunity to focus on the positives in education for thirty days. At the time of the year in schools when the staffing process is beginning, people are thinking ahead to next year, and it’s easy to feel stressed out and resort to negativity, Kristi is giving us a reason to think positively. I’m in!

It’s hard to know what the next 30 days will bring, but I will say that when I went to bed last night and saw the start of the positive tweets, I was smiling! Then I woke up this morning, saw some more, and again felt genuinely happy. It’s nice to start a day this way! Here’s to making the 30 days of positives so ingrained in us that we can keep adding 30 more!

I’d also like to extend this challenge a bit: I wonder if students and parents would also chime in with thoughts of #gratitude. I’ve added the hashtag to my whiteboard, and I’m going to explain Kristi’s challenge to my class today. I’m also going to email out this blog post tonight to my parents, so that they see what we’re doing. Will everyone chime in every day? Maybe not. But I’m hoping that “student voices” and “parent voices” will also grace this hashtag, and give all of us another reason to be very grateful. What do you think? Will you join us on this 30 day challenge?

Aviva

15 thoughts on “A Little Positivity Goes A Long Way!”

Way to go – I really like the extension! I will pop it into my blog to parents next week, and ask them to take part if they like. The other thing I wondered about is opening up a Padlet (and maybe, eventually, a physical bulletin board) for kids to share theirs (en francais in my class, of course) – they could add photos, etc.

Gratitude is so much a part of my being – just commented on Kristi’s blog.

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adunsige on March 26, 2014 at 3:18 pm said:

Thanks for the comment, Lisa! What a great extension. As we start poetry now, I’m thinking about the connection between emotions and poems. I wonder if students might want to add some gratitude poems: maybe pictures of ones on Twitter or written ones on Padlet. Do you want to start a combined wall? I wonder if other classes might want to join in. Maybe each day, we take a few minutes to reflect on learning and think of the positives: this sounds like a perfect metacognitive activity. What do you think?

Aviva

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- Lisa NOble on March 26, 2014 at 3:28 pm said:
  
  I am so there, and I love the idea of the shared wall. I’ll talk to my Grade 5/6 group, as they’re the closest to yours in age. Will try and get that going in the next few days. Be sure to share lots of poetry out loud, okay? I think sometimes we’re scared to read poetry- ’cause we’ll do it wrong or something. I always read this one on the first day it snows (I actually stop French class, and we go to the window and look out, and then I share the poem) http://www.taylormali.com/poems-online/undivided-attention/
  
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  - adunsige on March 26, 2014 at 4:25 pm said:
    
    Thanks for the reply, Lisa! If the 5/6’s are interested, let me know, and we can set something up. I absolutely agree with you about reading poetry out loud. My student teacher is actually doing this unit, and she’s already looked at different ways to share poetry aloud. I can’t wait!
    
    Aviva
    
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    - Lisa NOble on March 27, 2014 at 12:40 pm said:
      
      Your kids could totally do a poetry slam – I know they could!
    - adunsige on March 27, 2014 at 5:58 pm said:
      
      Thanks Lisa! I totally love the idea too, as does my student teacher. We definitely plan on making this happen!
      
      Aviva

Wow! What a great, positive ( 🙂 ) challenge!
It’s really neat how positive thinking can lead into education. Maybe positive thinking can help with learning. This is definitely a time for parents to get involved, as Lisa Noble says.
Positive can be used in many different ways, and for educators this is your time to tell students to stay positive as well! Read poems, do activities, take perspectives… these are all parts of how we can definitely pass this challenge.
So take a long, positive look at the next 30 days.
Yusra

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adunsige on March 26, 2014 at 4:26 pm said:

Thanks for the comment, Yusra! I love all of your positive points. Since you’re such a prolific blogger yourself, I hope that you blog about some “positives” in the next 30 days. Please let me know if you do, and I’ll definitely spread the word.

Miss Dunsiger

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- yimran0639 on March 26, 2014 at 4:30 pm said:
  
  I will definitely try my bestest to take a positive into my blog!
  Yusra
  
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  - adunsige on March 26, 2014 at 4:31 pm said:
    
    Great to hear, Yusra! I’d love to read your positive posts!
    
    Miss Dunsiger
    
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