I have a new habit: every time I go down to the office, I read the announcement board. This board always shares absences for the day, but it also shares other important events. Today’s board contained this information: It’s National Banana Day. When I read this news, I was almost doubled over from laughing so hard. Bananas make me think of monkeys, and as far as I’m concerned, there’s no funnier animal than a monkey. Since everything on this announcement board makes it on the announcements, I just knew that this news would be shared with everyone. This got me wondering how many other schools would be celebrating National Banana Day. I couldn’t resist sending out this tweet trying to find out what other schools would do.
Within minutes, I started getting replies: many explaining why they couldn’t celebrate this day or didn’t already know about it. And that’s when I decided to do what I should have done first: I Googled to find out about National Banana Day. Here’s the interesting thing: depending on your source, today may or may not be National Banana Day. Depending on the website, this special day goes from being celebrated today to sometime in August. However, today could be National Take A Wild Guess Day (maybe I could guess that it’s National Banana Day) or National Glazed Spiral Ham Day (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spiral ham before). 🙂 It was at this point that this funny holiday that made me giggle, provided me with some important reminders.
- With social media, news travels fast. There’s tremendous value in checking sources and proofreading before sharing information.
- Questions are good. Not only should we encourage students to ask thoughtful questions, but we should ask them as well. Why do we have these national holidays? Why do the dates change depending on the source? How do people celebrate these holidays? How do we decide if we have too many holidays, and if we do, how do we determine which ones get cut?
- Laugh lots and laugh often. This makes me think of Sue Dunlop‘s recent post about laughter. I always feel better when I laugh, and starting off the school day with a hearty chuckle, put me in a positive mood for the rest of the day.
- Celebrate the little things. This isn’t about Banana Day or Take A Wild Guess Day or Spiral Ham Day: it’s about looking beyond the “big goal” to those small successes along the way. We all need reasons to celebrate. We all need reasons to persevere.
- Share. Okay, maybe it isn’t National Banana Day, or then again, maybe it is … but either way, don’t keep this news item to yourself. Sharing allows others to think, learn, celebrate, and laugh.
National Banana Day was a lot more appealing than I thought, and way more informative too. I see that tomorrow is National Eggs Benedict Day and the Day of the Mushroom. I wonder if these two holidays could be combined. How will you celebrate? 🙂 Maybe every day is worth a celebration … or at least the thinking and learning that comes from one.
Aviva