Happy February; today I’m excited about and grateful for my visit to Howard Elementary in WI last week, to follow-up a virtual visit I’d had with these fourth-grade empathy heroes back on Kindness Day in November.
Mrs. VandeHei invited me back for an in-person visit when I got home, so on the Friday of this year’s Great Kindness Challenge, off I went, to meet them in person. Once there, I found a hand-colored sign Welcome Mrs. Gruener hanging on the shelves in their library; this S donned the keys to connection from Mr. Quigley’s Keys!
I introduced the three classes to my puppet Winthrop as we talked about what empathy is; how can they predict how Winthrop is feeling even though they don’t speak bird? Their answers were intuitive and inspiring.
Then, we looked at what it means to switch places with another, step into their story, and walk in their shoes for a spell. We practiced the Empathy Switch on our hands and paired it with this poem: E-M-P-A-T-H-Y; put yourself in my shoes and I think you will find; E-M-P-A-T-H-Y, you’re a superhero of the empathy KIND, adding the hand-jive movements to jazz it up.
Since I’d already read Mr. Quigley’s Keys to them, this visit lent itself to a debut of my new book, Birdie and Mipps! My sister and I acted it out; my Dad played the cameo role of the narrator.
After we read it aloud, one friend had a question that I wasn’t quite sure how to answer: Does our little brother, Mipps, know that I wrote a book about him? Sigh.
We had empaKEY necklaces for all of them, to remind them that they have the power to unlock doors with their kindness, that they surely hold the key to someone’s heart, that they are KEY to their school’s success. Before I laid my head on the pillow that night, this beautiful gift from one of my new fourth-grade friends seered itself on my heart.
What fun to make it a family affair, to get to share my story with Debra and Dad in tow. I’m so grateful for my continued partnership with this gifted teacher and her fourth-grade team!
Before I headed to WI, I led a workshop in TX; click {here] if you want to see those slides.
Now that I’m back in TX, I’m counting the days until I become a Grammy. Check back here for that exciting announcement in just a few weeks.
Barbara Gruener 