How Was Your Day?

"How was your day?"

This is a question I get from time to time...mostly from my wife, but sometimes from my colleagues and even students. As you might imagine, so many things happen during the course of a school day that it's not always easy to give a short answer.  Rather than give a detailed account of my last week, I thought I'd give you a snapshot...they are worth a thousand words, or so I'm told:

Eating Lunch with 1st Grade

In 1st grade, students earn "buckets" for positive behavior. This is based on the Carol McCloud book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? The premise being that each interaction we have with a person either adds happiness to someone's bucket or takes it away from it. The girls in the above picture saved up 40 buckets to earn the special treat of eating lunch with the Principal. Having three young boys, it was the quietest and most peaceful lunch I have had in a long time!

These students told me about summer plans, American Girl dolls and favorite foods. I would recommend that anyone who needs to have their buckets filled eat lunch with 1st graders.  We can all learn a lesson from them, especially about relationships with people. If we view each of our interactions with a person as a transaction, one in which we make either a withdrawal or a deposit, it can change our perspective. Personally, I would rather be considered a bucket filler than a bucket dipper.

Have a great final week of school and get to work filling those buckets.