A quick dose of inspired creativity this morning – from my son’s class teacher. Harry’s teacher is the stuff storybook heroines are made of; beautiful and perennially cheerful, brave enough to scoop up giant spiders from the classroom without a tremor; kind enough to dispatch them gently out onto the windowsill. As ultimate proof of her greatness, I offer you the fact that she has an invisible pet unicorn that sits in the front of the classroom and can be petted at break. When you’re 7yrs old, teachers don’t come much better than that.
Last week she asked each child to label a cup with their name, and to line them up along her desk.
They waited, in hushed expectation.
Then she asked them each to fill in strips of paper with the very best thing about each other, picking five or six people. Slowly the cups filled up with touching affirmations, from the obvious to the surreal; ’Jake wants to be a cook when he grows up’, said Harry, ‘So I wrote: I BET YOU MAKE REALLY GOOD CAKES’.
And then the thrilling process of tipping out your own cup and reading through the statements. Harry came home that day lit up with happiness and still clutching his, and carefully showed me each one.
Such a simple thing, and yet so wonderful (I might try it at work..)
Happy Monday!
p.s. The one that no child received: ‘your so good at speling’
Lindsey Back
How lovely, I’ll bet Harry will remember her forever.
Michele
Heartwarming!
karen
A very inspirational post. Needed today. Thank you xx
Gilly
oh wow, had a couple of tears there. What a hero she is, I hope some of the kids she’s influenced go on to be brilliant teachers too!
Kate
Gilly, I felt exactly that way too; the moment when you think ‘yes! THIS is the person I want to be helping show my child how to go forward into the world’. Great teachers can truly make such an extraordinary impact.
violetannie63
My workplace actually did this one Christmas. It is just as nice for adults as little people
maria f.
Ah yes, good ole “you’re”. Beautiful idea.
Kate
I know; it’s so funny and sweet that the whole class clearly struggles with this – obviously the mastery of the apostrophe comes a bit later on in life!
Sonja
This is wonderful. Working as a warmhearted schoolsecretary I know quite a lot about cheering up students, but this is definitely better than smiles, comfort, a wastepaperbasket to puke into or a call to mummys Office.
cred25Cindy
Lovely! Practicing kindness reaps dividends, at all ages.
Margaret
Such a lovely, inspiring and positive activity. I work as a 1:1 teaching assistant in year 2 at my local primary school… I wish my teacher had an invisible pet unicorn! I think I might need to subtly pop this up on her laptop… Oh, enjoying that you’re on instagram now Kate!
Kate
Margaret, I smiled when I read this; I can absolutely imagine you as a wonderful teaching assistant; that makes so much sense! What lucky children to have you 1:1. And definitely see if you can work your powers of suggestion via her laptop…
Margaret
That is so very kind of you to say that, thank you.
Julie Snyder
I hope she made sure that the comments were stretched out to the whole class. I always hated valentines day as a teacher because there were some children who received very few.
Kate
It’s funny, I worried about that too; Harry said ‘we all got to choose who we wrote about but everyone had the same number of notes’. I have no idea how she managed that; clearly all part of the magic
Lorena
simple, sweet and oh so powerful. I love it. I love this teacher, especially because she has a magical invisible unicorn.
Mandy
I love this! Am definitely going to suggest it for our next staff meeting ❤️
gkgirl
oh….i love love love this!
Amy
Kate, I love your blog, and I want to thank you for sharing this lovely idea in particular! I have two boys in their early teens who are no longer so into exchanging Valentines with their mom. They agreed to try this idea, though, and it was a great success! We each made three strips for each other person in the family, all typed using the same computer font. We took turns pulling them out and reading them as we ate heart-shaped pizzas on Valentine’s Day. It turned out to be such a wonderful way to celebrate each person’s individuality, and to say loving things to each other that we might not otherwise find the time or inspiration to voice. Both boys wanted to keep their strips to tuck away (for future self-esteem boosts, I hope). I assembled mine on a piece of card stock that I can display when I need a reminder that my big, busy boys really do appreciate the things I do for them. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful, positive activity. I think this one will become a tradition in our house!
Kate
Amy, what a brilliant, brilliant idea!! It made me go all goose-bumpy; I am definitely saving this for when Harry’s a little older and too cool for all the overt love-stuff! I love the mystery of it too; the thoughtfulness about the typing and the same font.. just genius. Thanks so much for sharing x
Amy
Kate, I’m so glad you liked this riff on your idea! Thank you for your kind words, and for all the inspiration you share. . Warm wishes for a wonderful spring!