Always a New Adventure

      A few weeks ago, Jamal suggested  that we go away for the weekend. I am so glad we did. I had spring break a couple weeks ago for school and Jamal had some PTO he could use. We decided to go to St. George for the weekend since I had never been there and there is a lot to do.        For our first stop we went to Snow Canyon State Park. We enjoyed hiking around the park, getting tons of sand in our shoes, and  finding little slot canyons and caves to crawl and sit in. The best thing about it was that there was no one there, so it seemed like we had the whole park to ourselves. Below are some pictures of our adventures.      Next, we went to Zion's National Park. It was amazing! I've never seen so much red rock in my life! We hiked lower, middle, and upper emerald pools. All the trails lead to one another. After hiking lower and middle, we started to hike upper. It was SUPER steep! The trial information guide had...

    A couple of weeks ago, I made a post about kindness. I talked about a lesson I was going to teach my kids about why we should be kind and how our words can change the world. To read more of that post, click here .     As part of the lesson, I talked about this phrase. I gave my students the challenge to think about the effect of their words for a full week. I put a giant piece of paper on my door that read, "My words healed today when..." I asked my students to write when their words healed someone, or when someone else's words healed them. It took a while for the first courageous soul to write, but it has been amazing watching them as they write. Multiple comments are put up each day. Phrases are written such as, "Tony told me good job when I struck out at recess." "Joe cheered me on when I was the last one running the mile." "I helped someone feel better when they were sad." I have been so impressed by the effect of their words o...

     This week I've been thinking a lot about kindness. As I've watched my students interact and as I have paid attention to the YW, I have been thinking about what it means to be kind. The dictionary defines kindness as "the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate." It sounds so simple, doesn't it? How many times as leaders, adults, teachers, friends, do we say to other people or kids, "Just be nice", "Be kind" as if kids really understand what that means.      Kindness encompasses a lot of qualities. It means being nice to someone no matter what they say or do to you. It means, treating others like you want to be treated. Kindness is being respectful even when you don't agree with someone's opinion or what they are asking you to do. It's categorized by speaking kind words about someone, even when people tell you rumors. Kindness is not talking behind others backs about someone, even when what you're saying might ...