#positivepostitday

Tuesday, March 31 was #positivepostitday. My colleague, Kim Fisher @Mrs_KFisher, motivated the staff of her elementary building to participate after seeing this post on Twitter about #postitivepostitday. I was in a different building that day so I decided to make post its for all of  the students at the school.  I bought two huge packages of post its and some new Sharpies. The school has about 340 students, so that seemed like a great weekend project. Then I started to think about my other schools (I travel between 4 elementary buildings) and decided to make post its for all of the kids and teachers and leave them on Monday night for a great surprise on Tuesday morning. Luckily, my partner in crime, Andrea Townsley (@townsleyaj), was willing to help me cover the schools with positive notes.

It didn't take long before I was found out. The first thing I learned is that there are some wonderful teachers in our buildings who work really late. They caught me coming into their buildings and were able to figure out who bombarded their building with positive notes. I cannot find the proper words to explain how happy it made me to put all of these notes on the student and teacher desks. I couldn't wait to get to work on Tuesday to finish placing a few notes and it was fun to see everyone's confusion and happiness over the notes that had miraculously appeared over night. It is rare that the teacher doesn't know what happened in their room throughout the night. Kids blamed the Easter Bunny and teachers accused other teachers. 

Here's what I learned from #positivepostitday

1. We don't compliment each other enough. It is not hard to tell people that they matter, but we simply don't take the time to do it. Our days are busy, there is much to teach and so little time to get through it all. Yet, taking that time can make such an impact on a person's day. A second grade teacher told me she wished I could have seen her students' faces when they read their notes. "They were all so happy."

2. Kids need to be told that they are important. Our students are not always kind to each other and they don't always get the encouragement they need at school or at home. I saw students walking around with their notes on their shirts and I was told another class got out the tape right away and taped their notes to their desks to keep them for the rest of the year.

Students came up to me today thanking me for their notes. I even got a few hugs. A third grader told me that their note made them feel so good. Kids need to be built up throughout the day and taking a few moments to tell them they matter can make all of the difference in the world. I also recommend you look into Angela Maiers' (@AngelaMaiers) #youmatter movement.

3. We need to be more positive. It is easy to be negative and sharp tongued at times. It is hard to always be positive, but we need to make an effort to be more upbeat and positive. I know my attitude is much better when I am positive. Being negative is a choice that only makes things harder and wears on you. Just last week I had a student ask me, "Why are you so happy all the time?" I hope that is what they see, though I know that I am not always happy. I told the student that I am happy because I have the best job in the world. And I do.