[9 Weeks] Who I Am Makes A Difference Ceremony

Dear Difference Maker,

My second year as a high school guidance counselor, there was a suicide epidemic happening in a neighboring school district.

I was asked to join the Suicide Task Force to develop and implement suicide prevention, intervention, education and postvention strategies. As it turned out, I needed to use the suicide protocol we created far too many times while I worked there.

Depression and the lack of social interaction has been soul crushing for our youth this past year, and as you already know, suicides have been on the rise.

You also know that getting students back in school is certainly going to help, but students who have been experiencing COVID related trauma in their lives, pressing on with a deep dive into academics, may not boost them up.

It may seem unorthodox to you to put social emotional engagement as a necessary first step before diving into academics when you have so very much you are required to cover to prepare your students for their annual standardized tests.

For 9 weeks I was vigilant about calling out (privately with my WIW Technique) every single hurtful interaction happening between students in my classroom, every school year. For whatever reason, after 9 weeks, things had leveled out and learning took off.

The results? My students standardized tests results came in with a class average of 2.5-3 years of academic growth every single year. Why? How can that be so? Because every single student got to be 100% safe in my classroom no matter what.  Their minds were relaxed enough for accelerated learning to occur. Period.

By now, you have most likely learned about the brain science that explains how this can happen.  If not, I recommend Eric Jensen’s, The Poverty Mind.

My 9 Week Curriculum focuses on specific unifying social topics for group conversations which will help students know that they aren’t the only ones thinking and feeling the way that they do.

While learning how to take turns, i.e., passing the talking stick, everyone gets to fill their cup by being listened to, and with time and repetition, they will begin to feel heard.

Feeling safe with their fellow classmates does miraculous things for their minds, body and spirits.  It has been my experience, and the experiences of the educators taking my courses and applying my strategies, that it does in fact, accelerate learning in all students, including students who are always behind.

There’s no better time than the present to experience the healing power of inclusion through team building.  The last 9-Weeks of any school year are pivotal in creating the excitement and expectancy of getting on with the next school year.

Learn more about how to make your classroom safe, all-inclusive and hum with academic productivity with my “9 Weeks to A Make A Difference Year” program.

Click the link for more information and be the one to set the tone!

Reaching out …

Founder of Heart Productions & Publishing, the Pacific Northwest

Who I Am Makes A Difference 
Excerpt from 9 Weeks to a Make A Difference Year Curriculum

Have you ever wondered why we don’t acknowledge each other more?

Here are the Top 7 Reasons (students have shared) as to why they don’t acknowledge one another:

1. Jealousy and envy; fear of being seen as insincere flattery, fake.
2. Speechless; as in “ah, don’t know what to say,” can’t find the words.
3. I’ll do it tomorrow; tomorrow never comes.
4. That person is so great they don’t need it or it’ll give them a big (or bigger)
head.
5. If you do it too much it will lose its impact/importance.
6. Fear of being rejected; blown off.  Ghosted.
7. Don’t belong, so why bother.

Scarcity mentality is the fear-based, negative belief that “more for you” means “less for me.”  The term, “zero-sum” means that “there’s not enough pie for everyone.” And so, we think that by withholding acknowledgment we are somehow preserving something for ourselves!

Interestingly enough, science has measured an increase in a person’s endorphins just after offering acknowledgment or appreciation to another.  When we express acknowledgment our brain releases dopamine and serotonin, the two crucial neurotransmitters responsible for our emotions, and they make us feel good.  They enhance our mood immediately, making us feel happy from the inside.

People who feel better, do better!

This week, students will experience how to reach out to acknowledge others because we just don’t know whose life we may be saving or making a difference in.  The life we may be saving may be someone we are very close to, someone we hardly know, a stranger, or even our own!

Week 4 of my 9 Week program focuses on the Acknowledgment Story, a true story of a class that learned to make a difference in the lives of others—which ended up saving the life of a teen.

You may already know that there are 7 Hardwired Emotions that we are born with:  sadness, joy, disgust, anger, fear, surprise and contempt.  Emotions like compassion, empathy, optimism, kindness, appreciation, etc. must be taught.

Because learning how to acknowledge one another is not something we are born knowing how to do, we are going to devote three weeks to this.

What I’ve seen happen with the Acknowledgment Ceremony is that students, faculty and staff experience an emotional high, which is a wonderful thing.  And, as with any uplifting experience, if we don’t make the new experience that comes with reaching out to acknowledge others a new practice, it will fade away.

It’s as simple as making a deal with yourself that if you are thinking good thoughts about someone, when you realize that you are, you simply say it out loud to them in the moment.

Don’t over think it.  Just say it!  Don’t be put off by their response to your acknowledgment of them.  What I’ve also found is that most people don’t know how to receive appreciation, acknowledgement or high praise.  It may seem like what you said to them just didn’t matter.

Trust me on this, it mattered.  It matters more deeply for most people than we can ever realize.  That look in their eyes, like they are a deer caught in the headlights is really their minds trying to compute what has just happened.  I can’t tell you the number of people who have said to me, “No one has ever acknowledged me before.” So, just say it and feel good about yourself because you did it.

The main purpose of these nine weeks is to cultivate a new way of being in the world by getting out of our heads and into our hearts via heart touching movies, fun, unifying activities and group discussions between students and teachers.

There’s no better time than the present.

Here’s your Road Map:  1) one class period a week for nine weeks: play a heart connecting movie and/or engage students in a team building activity which you will then use to, 2) direct the conversation using my “done for you” questions to, 3) explore what is really on in your students’ hearts and minds.

When you follow my 9-Week Make A Difference Year Curriculum you will …

• slow everything down and breathe a collective breath.
• ease your students into constructive and productive social emotional engagement with “done for you” activities and discussion questions.
• learn deeper levels about each student by listening to them discuss “what came up” for them about the movie or activity.
• start tuning-in to your students’ “hidden stressors” that each of them is struggling with daily, not just academically, but socially and emotionally to build a common bond.
• experience the transformational power of my WIW – “What, If, When” – technique, to shift the energy of the room in 30 seconds or less as intense situations come up (and they will come up)!
• see unskillful behaviors with new eyes of understanding, hear with healing ears.
• be thrilled at how a safe, inclusive and caring community will yield calm minds and accelerate learning.
• marvel at how quickly students – particularly those who are normally behind – are able to catch up and even pull ahead.

Click the link for more information and get started now!