Pom-Pons

In all the red tape of behavioral referrals, , redline test scores, and red pen slashes for wrong answers, it's easy to get bogged down in the "what needs to be..." What needs to be fixed, corrected, admonished, and scolded. But what if we could look around and see red Pom-pons instead? What if we look for chances to cheer them on?

We are your cheerleaders as you cheerlead your students. You are a gift to your students and our community that is rarely celebrated. In the US, we tend to be known for our spirit of entitlement and complaint. But what if we could model for our kids a spirit of celebration and gratitude? Let's swim upstream this week!

For some of your students, you are their only advocate. The only one who might take a chance and believe they can truly be the best version of themselves. The one who holds that red pen, hoping not to have to mark wrong answers and hoping to put that %100 at the top of that paper. Rules in your classroom cheer them on to be a kinder, more generous, more loving generation. Just like on the homework, it's easy to focus on the wrong answers, the ones that need to be fixed. But this week, let's try to catch our kids doing something great. Shoot them some words of praise, cheer them on. Let them know we believe in them, care for them, and cheer from the sidelines that they can take that next step toward the best version of themselves. Each student is a gift to be celebrated.

The Pom-pon challenge: At home or at school, when you find yourself with a complaint on the tip of your tongue, try to say out loud something you're grateful for instead. A gift to be celebrated. Whether it's our students, administrators, support staff, spouses, kids, family members, or friends, what if we look for chances to cheer others on this week?


"Stay awake to the wonder of this world. Great thinkers are the grateful thankers— the real greats live gratefully... Love is the laying down of it’s own wants to lift up the will of another. Love let’s go of it’s plans — to hold on to a person." AnnVoskamp, One Thousand Gifts

"Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own." -- Nikos Kazantzakis

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of becoming." -- Goethe