Several years ago, the apartment building I was living in had a fire in the middle of the night. I woke up to a firefighter banging on my door telling me to leave the building now. I was teaching kindergarten at the time, and so of course I knew that I should immediately leave the…
Character Education
Gone Fishin’
I recently read an article that began with the age-old saying “Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.” The author used this saying to separate good teachers from excellent ones. Her point was that excellent teachers teach a child…
Acts of Kindness
I receive emails in the morning that give me the current news headlines. They’re always depressing. Sometimes, they’re deeply depressing! This has not been a week filled with lots of positive news, which makes me more sure than ever that we need to emphasize kindness, caring, and other positive personality traits throughout students’ education. That’s…
Teaching Character
Do you know adults who lack perseverance? I do. And sometimes, I can count myself in that number. (For proof, just take a look at the partially finished cross-stitch projects in my closet.) So I decided to tackle this important character trait for a feature in The Mailbox magazine Preschool edition. There’s research that says…