I’ve been thinking a lot about teachers as in person school starts back in the US. Teachers have a lot to deal with. Today, I’m highlighting two examples (there are many) of teachers doing good work.
Erin Castillo became famous two years ago with her mental health check in chart for students. This year, she’s added an Affirmation Station where students can recognized other students strengths and good works. Erin also encouarages teachers to set a good example by taking care of themselves and showing kids that it’s okay to take a breath and ask for help. You can read more about Erin Castillo in this article from Good Morning America.
Kristen Driemeier and Heather Steighorst, two fourth grade teachers from Missouri, have implemented a simple but great idea for students who might be struggling. They sent a note home encouraging parents to text them, “Handle with Care.” This story also comes from Good Morning America. Thanks GMA for recongizing teachers.
Thank you to all teachers everywhere.
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Airbnb to Provide Temporary Housing to Afghan Refugees
Bryson Byrd of New Orleans was out on a food run when he saw a crowd of people looking at the water. It turns out an elderly man had driven his truck into the bayou. Bryson jumped in and pulled the man out of the water. Here’s more of the story from nola.com/news.
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Edible Coffee Cup
A Scottish company called BioBite, makes an edible coffee cupt. It’s a 100-calorie vegan biscuit made with wafer and will stay leak-proof for 12 hours and crunchy for a full 45 minutes. I think they’d be great for smoothies, too. Here’s more from the Good News Network and a short video.
Got good news?
Please share your good news stories and links in the comments!
Affirm. That’s today’s Stream of Consciousness prompt. It’s a good one – that I can affirm. In my counseling career, I was big on affirmations, partly because they felt good to me, but also because I heard so many people putting themselves or others down. The brain makes pathways that are easier to go down the more we go down them, or up them. Negative thoughts repeated enough become ruts hard to get out of. But we CAN get out of them. We can train our brains and our mouths to state positives affirmatively. Whatever we practice, we get better at.
I had a boyfriend a bunch of years ago who said if you give too many affirmations, kids will come to depend on them. I suppose that’s possible since the name of this blog is “Anything is Possible,” I have to affirm that possibility. However, most people don’t get enough affirmation. Most people I know, and certainly myself included, tend to criticize ourselves enough that we need affirmations for balance. It’s like the news, but don’t get me started on the media. To affirm, they are trying to do better and have more good news in some special places.
“Words of affirmation” is one of The Five Love Languages. It’s one of my favorite. Is it my primary love language? I don’t know. I don’t usually or consciously think of “acts of service” as a way to express love, though I do appreciate it when my husband helps with the housework. I like doing things together as a team. I think that’s “quality time,” another love language. What’s left? “Physical touch” is a good one, especially caresses. I think there must be dialects within each love language. There are probably more than five anyway. The last one is giving or receiving gifts. If we’re talking about material gifts, this is the least important one to me. But if someone wanted to give me a gift that is material, DARK chocolate would be okay. I can always use some dark chocolate.
It’s been a while since I looked in the mirror and said, “I love you.” I got past the awkwardness of doing that years ago, but I’m out of practice. Here are some I might try:
You are doing a good job on the house.
You will get back to your art and painting.
You can stretch every day. You DO stretch every day!
You deserve to take good care of yourself.
You are worthy of good, healthy love.
You are deeply and profoundly loved by your Creator.
A lot of affirmations start with “I.” “I can…” “I am…”, but if you’re doing the mirror thing, it can be I or you.
I’m in good shape for 63. Maybe that’s not PC, but it helps me, because my weight is up from age 25 or 35 and my muscle tone is down. That’s a fact. But it’s okay. I’m more aware of so many things. Like they say in That 70s Show, “We’re all alright! We’re all okay!” Hello (whoever!)
Oh. It goes, we’re all Aright! We’re all Alright! Well, that’s okay. Here it is from my stream of consciousness to you.
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The Stream of Consciousness Saturday post is brought to you by our way more than alright host, Linda Hill. You can find her and more information about SoCS at the link below:
1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.
2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.
3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.
4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.
5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.
6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!
7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.
Anything is Possible! 