Notice It, Name It, and Nurture It
One strategy that we can use to fuel gratitude and appreciation within the classroom can be to notice the great things that are happening, to name the great things that are happening, and that helps you nurture this. Past guest Livia Chan discussed this and how she uses this to fuel gratitude and appreciation in our classroom. We can use this strategy for ourselves as well to help spark these positive feelings in our own lives as well. This episode discusses this.
What's going on everybody, I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. We all need reminders, right? Some days, we need those moments of inspiration to make us think, to snap us out of a funk. And to really remind us of the great things that are happening all around, because there's great things that are happening all around. And a few weeks ago, I had a wonderful conversation with Olivia Chang. And she was talking about the ways that she cultivates gratitude and appreciation in a classroom. And she said, one of the ways that she does this is that she's intentional about noticing those great things that she names, the great things that she sees. And through this, she's able to nurture those things within her class. And I think that we can take that on a personal level. And we can use this for ourselves. If we take time to notice the great things that are happening all around. And internally, we make it a point to name it, then we can nurture that within ourselves as well. And this past week, there's been two moments that happened. And they really inspired me to be a little better. One was inspiration from a colleague. And one was inspiration from one of my young students. And the first moment that happened in the morning, I pulled up to school, I get out of the car. And I started walking through the parking lot. And a few steps ahead of me, was a colleague of mine. And as she's walking, the phys ed teacher, who was working the student drop off, noticed her, and there was no students at the moment. So I see him race over to her. And as I'm watching this, I figured that he was going to talk about a change in schedule, or something that happened in class the day before. But what happened made me smile, he stopped her. And he said that he just wanted her to know that he thinks she's doing an amazing job, and to keep doing great things. And then as I walked by the two of them, I could feel her being touched by his comments. And that made me smile. And it filled me up with appreciation for the two of them. And it really made me want to share some kind words with others. And the next moment happened with a student, there was this student who had been having some issues with peers. And a young lady came up to me holding this note that this student had given her. And as I was thinking about what issue might be popping up, the young lady, she hands over the note, I opened it up, and what I read inside, it made me so proud. On this note, the student wrote, I'm sorry to hear that your pet passed away. I want you to know that I'm praying for you to such an unbelievable, kind gesture. It meant the world to this young lady. It helped build back the relationship between these two students. And we shared it with the class. And while it was a beautiful reminder for all of the students. It was a reminder to me as well. The power of a handwritten note, doing a small gesture, taking a moment to let someone know, I see you and I care about you. How powerful is that? And the truth is, we need these reminders. We need those little sparks of motivation. We need to notice it, to name it so that we can nurture it within ourselves. else. So I challenge you today. Be on the lookout, what good things are happening around you. What little moments of inspiration are there for you? We've been blessed with another sunrise. Have an awesome day.
