Hallway Compliments #awesometuesday

I love the Street Team that is part of SoulPancake (Kid President's YouTube Channel). They set up elaborate experiences on the street for random strangers. Today I shared the Street Compliments segment with my students. Pairs of strangers walked up to this telephone booth and giant set of headphones. The person in the booth told their friend/spouse/child/significant other why they loved them and why they were so special. It wasn't difficult to give the compliments but you could tell it was such a gift to the people receiving them.

 

Next I told my class that today we were going to write Hallway Compliment notes since I couldn't set up a giant pair of headphones in the hallway. For the next ten minutes my kids wrote specific notes of encouragement to anyone they wanted--friends, teachers, parents, coaches, siblings. I think they would have happily kept writing notes for 30 minutes if I let them.

The most fun part of this whole experience is that the notes had to be delivered in a sneaky way. You couldn't just hand the note to the person, but instead had to hide it for them to discover on their own. We brainstormed hiding them in friend's lockers, lunchboxes, pencil pouches or backpacks, on teacher's desks, in your sister's pillow case, or taped to the milk in the fridge for your parents to find. It didn't cross my mind at first that there would be kids hiding notes for me!

After each passing period I would come back into my room to find one or two notes hidden from the last set of students. They came up with some pretty creative spots to leave behind their notes. This early in the year I couldn't predict who would write notes to me so these really felt like a surprise. Words like these from students are like gold.

Several teachers came to ask me if the kids were writing notes in my class because they had received a couple hidden on their desks. I saw two girls run to hug their friend after finding a note. The video made a huge impact with only ten people giving and receiving the compliments. Today my 150 students secretly delivered compliments to about 400 people. That's an #awesometuesday.

 

 

My Tuesday was also awesome because I got to watch the last home volleyball games of the 7th and 8th grade girls. I loved getting to cheer them on this season. They should be so proud of their teamwork and effort. Maddy, Liz, Meghan and the rest of the girls have done a fabulous job.