In February...Take Yourself to the Edge

Descriptor:
  • Give your best effort, challenge yourself
  • Any job that is worth doing is worth doing well
  • Positive risk taking
  • Quality
Public Service Announcement:
We encourage each of us to venture to our own edges, allow ourselves to be our best; to take risks and give everything we’ve got to the tasks before us.
Thought for the Month:
  • “The edge: in yoga, it’s defined as the point of intensity before pain.  The point of maximum of aliveness and attention.” - Dewitt Jones
  • “People can be geniuses – create the conditions necessary.” - Anonymous
  • “I am the cause of my own experience.” - Anonymous
  • “Every action, thought and feeling contributes to the sum of the planet.” - Anonymous
  • “For things to change I must change.” - Anonymous
  • “I make a difference in the world.” - Anonymous
  • “Trust yourself.  Create the kind of life you will be happy to live with all your life.  Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”-Foster C. McClellan
Suggested Whole School Events/Activities:
  • Participate in Random Acts of Kindness.  (Document found in Additional Resources or online at www.randomactsofkindness.org).
  • Give out positive tickets to people caught doing something right.
  • Host a Coffee House using the Celebrate theme. 
  • Bring in Guest speaker(s) who demonstrate the quality of giving their best effort.
Classroom Activities:
  • Participate in Random Acts of Kindness.  (Document found in Additional Resources or online at www.randomactsofkindness.org).
  • Give out positive tickets to people caught doing something right.
  • If students are not familiar with the 8 keys of excellence share them with them: integrity, failure leads to success, speak with good purpose, this is it, commitment, ownership, flexibility and balance (Quantum Teaching Orchestrating Student Success by Bobbi Porter, Mark Reardon, Sara Singer-Nourie, Allyn and Bacon).
Suggested Reading:
  • Stargirl (M/H)*** - Jerry Spinelli
  • Jeremiah Learns To Read (E)*** - Jo Ellen Bogart
  • Hoot (M/H)*** - Carl Hiaasen
  • Some Things Are Scary (E)*** - Florence Parry Heide
  • How to Take the GRR Out of Anger (E)** - Elizabeth Verdick & Marjarie Lisovskis
  • What to Do When You Are Scared and Worried: A Guide for Kids (E)** - James J. Crist
*Available in the Provincial Library System http://vision.gnb.ca/welcome.html
**Available at Benjamin Books
Resources:
  • Quantum Teaching Orchestrating Student Success by Bobbi Porter, Mark Reardon, Sara Singer-Nourie, Allyn and Bacon).
  • For a special collection of health care resources available through the NB Public Library System you may go to http://www.mindcare.ca/MindCareBibliography5thedition.pdf
Supplementary Resources (found in the green hanging file folder):
  • Teachers Guide from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation (see attached)
  • Mental Health Fitness Tips
  • Celebrate What’s Right with the World DVD by Dewitt Jones & Leader’s Guide (elementary schools may borrow a copy by contacting Sandi McQuinnsandi.mcquinn@gnb.ca or 848-6684).
  • List of Other Recommended Literature
  • Information on 40 Developmental Assets
Web Sites: