Friday, February 28, 2014

The Positive Dog

Good Morning on this very chilly last day of February.  I hope this is winter's last gasp and that we can start to see warmer temperatures in March!  On twitter this week, I came across some tweets from the author, Jon Gordon. Jon Gordon has written multiple books and speaks on being positive and optimistic.  This week in my staff newsletter, I shared a video from Jon Gordon.  You can watch that video below.  His talk was based on his book, The Positive Dog. This is wonderful read and would encourage you to read it and even share it with your children.

From my experiences, I have really tried to live with a sense of positivity and optimism.  A lot of our day can be determined by our attitudes and how we face the unexpected events in our lives.  I believe that students can feel this positive energy and their days will be brightened as well.


In talking with students, I often use the quote, "In order to have a rainbow, you need some rain."  This positive message applies seamlessly to our Stand Up campaign where we work to support students’ ability to be resilient.  Our students will face different obstacles during the day and how they respond to them can determine the level of success they experience.  By keeping positive and feeding their "Positive Dog," students will be able to handle anything that happens!






Sunday, February 9, 2014

Spring Training

Today at breakfast, we were talking about the upcoming week.  This week marks the start of spring training for the Detroit Tigers.  Pitchers and catchers report on Thursday with position players reporting on Monday, February 17.  Since our family lived in the Detroit area for the last ten years, we became big Detroit Tiger fans!  We have been to opening day games, playoff games (we were there to watch Magglio Ordonez hit the series clinching home run in the 2006 ALCS), and many games in between.  I have even flown to Florida to watch the Tigers play in spring training!

Growing up, the Tigers were not a good team.  However, spring training would bring a level of optimism in hopes that this would be their year!  This optimism is one reason I love working with the age group at Central Woodlands.  I have had the opportunity to work with students in grades 5-12.  One big difference I have observed between high school students and 5th and 6th grade students is the ability to start each day anew!

Even for adults, it is sometimes hard to put the events of yesterday behind us and partner with someone we may have disagreed with the day before.  Our children are blessed with a sense of pure optimism that every day is brand new day.  After having a bad day, I love how our students at Central Woodlands often can arrive the next day without even a thought about their previous day.  I love that our children do not hold grudges.  They truly see the best in all of us...classmates, staff, and others.  

It feels like everyday is the start of spring training for our students.  Each day starts as it could be the best one in their lives!  The positivity that our children have is something I aspire to everyday.  Thank you to all of our families for sharing their positive children with us!