World Kindness Day!

Happy World Kindness Day! Let’s pause and think about this for a minute. This is a holiday for every single person in the entire world! Oh! I just love that. On this day, I’d like to remind you to do something kind for others, but also to do something kind for yourself.

This has been a date on my calendar for months, and honestly I have been emotional with the preparation of this day all week. Today is the day my debut picture book, The Kindness Machine, becomes available for pre-order on Amazon!

This week, teachers all over seemed to face extra challenges. Teaching is hard right now…not the actual academic instruction, that is what we have practiced for years. We are used to completing lessons where we feel like superheroes and then also completing lessons that are complete fails. We take what works, tweak it and move forward. This is a profession where we will never have all of the answers and we will constantly be learning. Students need us now more than ever. We are navigating ever changing scenarios, preparing for every possible outcome, boosting self-esteem, reducing anxiety, gap filling academics, reassuring parents, struggling to keep the building fully staffed, modeling how to be problem solvers….and ensuring that our little classroom family feels like a family. And is kind to one another. And is patient with each other. And ourselves.

I am so lucky to work with wonderful coworkers and an absolutely amazing team, see below. These ladies are hard working, positive and supportive. Even when things seem impossible, we have each other. It’s an amazing checks and balance system that is not only wonderful, but necessary. My wish is that every teacher can find their person/people to lean on, but also let others lean on you. A perfect give and take.

We have an incredible music teacher at our school and this week she taught special kindness themed songs to our students. When I picked up my students from music, I tried to sing along and got too choked up to finish! (I told you I was emotional, right?) I asked our amazing staff to have every student and every adult in our building complete a hand containing kindness ideas or drawings. (See the finished display below.) Throughout the week, while adding to the board in our lobby, I often found myself teary. The ideas were absolutely beautiful. The ideas were simple. Kindness is simple. However, kindness makes an incredible difference and unfortunately is easier to be seen when it is lacking. If we can complete even 1/3 of the kindness ideas listed by our students, oh my…what a beautiful world we will create.

I would love for you to take a minute to explore my website and read other blog posts, download kindness freebies and read about The Kindness Machine. https://christinadankert.com/
If you are interested in pre-ordering your own copy of The Kindness Machine, please use this link: https://amzn.to/2YK3kI4

As always, thank you for reading. What are you doing to celebrate World Kindness Day?