You are What You Celebrate - Second Edition

If you are an educator of any kind, you have to be very proud of the effort you have made for your kids in recent weeks.  A while back I wrote about our BETA Club and how proud we were of them.  I celebrated the way we were celebrating the right things together.  I wrote, "You are what you celebrate. If you celebrate mediocrity, that's what you will get.  If you celebrate reaching a low level goal repeatedly, there will be no motivation to go further."  My basic message was that if we celebrate the great things we have in our buildings, we will always seek out greatness.

There has been no shortage of this during the COVID-19 shutdown.  All across our state, teachers and admins are stepping up to show how special their students are to them.  I was slow to this work mostly because like many, I was paralyzed by the situation and spent to much time over analyzing how to help.  Here is what I think I have and all of us have come to understand. Schools are like good churches. A good church is not confined to its own walls. The church is everywhere it needs to be.  Schools are no different. When school buildings have no students in them, the school goes to them and they serve them in any way they know how.

Need to see this in action?  Search #ilschoolsstepup on Twitter.  You will see countless tales of how school families are always in tact even if the school is empty.  Watch a student get a happy birthday celebration at his house by his classmates.  How about a kindergartner doing a science experiment from her kitchen table.  What about donating PPE items to local health professionals?  I think we are all finding creative ways to deliver meals to students and those meals mean more than just a full belly.  Just ask the kitchen staff in my district when they got thank you notes from students returned to them.

In short, teachers miss their students.  Sharing this activity is not showing off.  It is an act of perpetuating excellence. These stories must be told to remind us of how special our work is.  We are what we celebrate. Don't stop showing people how much we care, how much we do for them and how ready we are for them to come back.  These are the bricks that build a great school climate and school family. Keep celebrating through these tough and uncertain times and tell your stories of excellence. They will not be forgotten.

Our staff made a quick video for our parents and kids with more on the way.