Tag: children's books

Inspiring School Visits

Barbara Gruener

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.

It’s EmpaKEY

Barbara Gruener

This morning as I packed for my final visit of 2023, a funny thought occurred to me: What if I changed the word empathy to empaKEY?

And what an incredible day it was. I got to visit with about 700 students at North Pointe Elementary, read them my book and share the quiet echo of Mr. Quigley’s Keys with them. Their librarian, Becky, was an incredible hostess; I’d never have known it was her first author visit in that position had she not told me. Look at the adorable flyer she made.

I even got to sign a couple dozen books and it’s always a gift to run into young people I’ve known since their childhood who are now rockin’ it as passionate educators!

They had vintage keys on a string for all of the kids to take with them, which were a huge hit. It’s so fun for me to see them wearing them around school and hearing them say, “I still have my key!”

I savored every second of blasting off with these Rockets; it was a bit like coming back home since I had the pleasure of being their National Schools of Character site visitor years ago. This NSOC is an incredible place to be and I could feel the fruits of their HEART work as I roamed the halls and shared my story with their superhero students.

I pray this finds you thriving as we head into the most wonderful time of the year. If you are looking for an author visit in 2024, I am scheduling those now. I’m already booked for a return visit to my home state of Wisconsin and I’m so SO eager and blessed.

Huge holiday hugs and heaps of hygge, Barbara

Say “KEYS!”

Barbara Gruener

Today I’m grateful for the many recent opportunities I’ve had to share that empathy, compassion and kindness are KEY; my most recent visit found me coming home to Westwood Elementary, where I was a school counselor for 14 years. Book? Check. Ukulele? Yep! Puppet? Got him. Antique key ring and large kindness key? Ready to unlock the magic.

So I got to lead ten 30-minute sessions and I left there exhausted but exhilarated.

What fun to teach them about empathy, sing with them, read to them and laugh with them as we discovered all about Mr. Quigley and the story of his keys to connection, then leave them with a kindness key and a challenge for them to unlock hearts, their imaginations, the future.

When I posted online that I was putting yarn onto the kindness keys for our preK kiddos, the mom of one of the 5th graders that I subbed for reached out with the kindest offer; she asked if she and her family could sponsor the keys for my next few growth sessions. I sent her a link sharing what I typically purchase and voila, by Friday morning, sweet Cecily was delivering 1K keys for my upcoming visits in this beautiful blue Mustang bag. Be still my beating heart.

Isn’t that the most thoughtful thing? Turns out that we go way back, because I was her brother’s school counselor 8 years ago when her family first came to town. You just never know when a kindness shared will boomerang its way back to you.

Do a kind act; it’ll boomerang back! Give kind, get kind, just like that.

I also got to visit this sweet class virtually in Clifton, TX recently; they had some amazing questions for me as they were digging into author’s purpose, illustrator’s purpose, literary elements, editing and more. I reminded them that an author’s work might have a due date, but it’s actually never done because we can always make it better and I encouraged them to hoard words like a coin collector treasures his/her coins, something my 8th grade teacher taught me that I’ve never forgotten.

Finally, I got to spend some time encouraging and loving on some mentors in a neighboring town, super fun for me because I reconnected with Keri, the teacher whom I actually started my Character Counts! journey with back in the year 2000.

I will always cherish the connection we had and the opportunities that came our way to present the six pillars of charACTer together. She is a spark plug of compassion, joy and hope.

I’ll leave you with this footprint: The writing’s on the wall in the Westwood cafeteria in the shape of a shoe; this visual display just begged me to teach the learners this little ditty about empathy. Try it with a snap, pat, clap rhythm or use the motions to the hand-jive song. Invite them to jazz it up or rock it out to seal the deal on just how important it is that we make walking in someone else’s shoes a daily ritual until it becomes a life-long habit.

Happy November, dear reader.

Something So Magical

Barbara Gruener

What a delightful trip home, to take in some Fall foliage and spend some quality time with family. While there, I was blessed by three opportunities to share my book and make some new friends. The first visit was to these two incredible young learners who are homeschooled.

Their favorite takeaways were the antique key necklaces we made, searching for the camouflaged keys throughout the book, and finding someone in Ms. Pittman’s class that looks like them.

They stole my heart as I got to sign, sing, and search with them. In the end, my second-grade friend even made a treasure map for me, complete with a key, of course, to find a special treasure chest hidden in his garage. Don’t you love extension activities?

Then it was off to Racine, WI, for a vist at both schools where my incredibly thoughtful friend Trish is the amazing school counselor.

Our friend Julia joined us and shared this beautiful reflection later that afternoon.

Look at how heartwarming this is, the Principal at Red Apple Elementary handing out keys to his kids. I love how he let them decide which key fit them.

I feel so blessed to have visited these two beautiful school families and shared our story. It happened to be World Smile Day, so I also got to challenge a few friends to a smile off. It was a fun way for a student to win a signed copy of our book for one of their teachers. Then it was time to head to the family farm, where I captured Autumn in all of its splendor.

We picked up my mom so she could go along on the third author visit.

She really appreciated how beautiful it was outside. The trees were so vibrant and the weather was absolutely perfect for this visit to a parochial grade school like the one I attended during my formative years.

It was extra-special because my invitation came from a 5th-grade student, a nephew of my brother on his wife’s side.

What joy to watch young leaders take the initiative and make something so magical happen.

Happy October, dear reader; I pray many KEY cotton-candy sunsets, like this one that I captured over our family farm, on the horizon for you as we head toward the most wonderful time of the year.

Distracted By A Connection

Barbara Gruener

Today I’m grateful because I got to be a guest teacher on day 3 of school so that my friend Melissa could take her son Jacob off to college without a worry. She asked what read-aloud I’d like to use during Morning Meeting time and I pitched this idea: I would read my book and bring a key for each of her students, to remind them that they hold the key to compassion and kindness, which will unlock doors for them.

But here’s the twist: I decided not to tell them that I was the author. Instead, I shared that if they went to Bales Intermediate last year, then they know the illustrator because she was their art teacher. And, if they were at Windsong, then they know the mom of the illustrator because she was their art teacher. They were SO distracted by that connection that they totally missed who the author was.

One boy did ask how did I read the book without looking at the words? I told him that I’ve read it so much that I totally have it memorized. Ok, maybe he was on to me.

Anyway, if I could bottle the gasp of excitement that I heard when they figured out that Mr. Quigley was a real guy and that I actually knew it … and then that I actually wrote the story? Sigh. Be still my beating heart.

They all got a KEYpsake to either put in their pockets or on a string, to remember our time together.

And then, this beautiful feedback on Facebook.

Am I not just the luckiest author and guest teacher ever? Happy new {school} year!

Our Book’s 2nd Birthday

Barbara Gruener

Our picture book, Mr. Quigley’s Keys, turned two on June 1st, so my beautiful mother-in-law took her copy to her social sorority for a read-aloud with her sisters.

Doesn’t it look incredible in her hands? At 88, Ruby has suffered a lot of losses, both of her sisters, many of her friends, even a son, and yet she’s still out and about, serving others and mobilizing compassion. When she told me of her plans to share our story at their monthly meeting, I offered to send along an antique key for each of them, to remind them that they hold the key to empathy, compassion and kindness, and to encourage them to KEYp on telling their stories, because they have much to teach us about connections, life and love.

I’ve been thinking a lot about LOVE lately, about what it means not only to love, but to BE love. I came up with this acrostic for the #leadlap Twitter chat I led this past Saturday:

If you put LOVE into an acrostic, which four words would you choose?

And how do you make sure to love yourself well enough that you have something left to give to others? What does that look like? Sound like? Feel like?

I always have more questions than answers when I get to thinking, but I think if I’ve written a book that addresses love, then I’d best keep reflecting on what love means and how it becomes us.

Here are the other questions, in case you want to ponder with me.

So while I work on BEing LOVE, happy summertime, dear reader.

What’s YOUR favorite song about love?

The Right Key

Barbara Gruener

Today I’m grateful for so many things, but first let me start with this story. A few years ago, while Mr. Quigley’s Keys was still in the editing stages, my Dad and I were visiting his cousin Ronnie. An entertaining storyteller, Ron was showing us that his curio cabinet got locked during their move and that he couldn’t open it now because they didn’t have the key. So he got on Amazon and bought a hundred or so antique skeleton keys to see if one of them would do the trick. No such luck, he told us, so I asked him what he was going to do with all of those keys.

He asked if I wanted to buy them, and I chuckled before mentioning that I was writing a book about about keys and that his story and those keys had intrigued me. At church that next morning, he brought me a baggie of about fifty of these tiny treasures and said that he was still searching for the right key to unlock that cabinet. As an aside, he mentioned that, since his last name is Kiekhaefer, his nickname was KieKie in his younger days.

Since that serendipitous encounter, I have purchased thousands of these keys because I take them with me to speaking engagements and keep them handy for impromptu book readings or signings. The other day, my auto mechanic asked if I’d be willing to sign the book for his daughter while I waited for my car horn repair, so I put together a little ring of keys for her and headed over to Friendswood Auto.

This pre-K reader was so excited to get a key ring of her own. Not only did I get to sign her book but we also spelled her name and phone number in ASL before my car was ready to go. Oh, and as an act of kindness, there was no charge for the repairs that day, two reasons why I left the shop that day with an extra spring in my step.

Earlier this week, I got to visit my Ross Elementary school family and sign books for their passionate educators during Character Week. Such a gift, to reconnect with my Roadrunners and sit with them for a spell.

This week I get to do back-to-back author visits on Tuesday and Wednesday, then I get to lead a parenting night in partnership with the Alliance on Thursday night. We’re going to discuss how Empathy, Compassion and Kindness are KEY to connecting by HEART and I can’t wait!

Then on the 16th, I’ll be facilitating our #TXCharacterWeek Twitter Chat.

Won’t you join us? I’m grateful for you, dear reader; happy November.

Coloring With Kindness

Barbara Gruener

Happy October! I pray things are going well in your corner of our world. It’s not really a colorful Autumn in Texas yet, but my sister sent me this colorful booster shot of joy from Northern Wisconsin and it absolutely makes me happy, albeit homesick.

Another thing that makes my soul sing is finding posts like this sharing ways in which educators from all over have used Mr. Quigley’s Keys to inspire gratitude, connection and love in their students, staff and stakeholders for our unsung heroes who serve tirelessly and wholeheartedly behind the scenes. Look what I found when I jumped on IG this morning, from Kindness And Krayons.

I recently made a header for a coloring sheet that students can use to draw or write about their KEYS to connection; click {here} to download the template and encourage your students to reflect on how they use key principles to connect by heart with their family, their friends, and maybe even people whose paths they cross who aren’t necessarily their friends …. yet.

Happy connecting by heart as you and your learners color our world with kindness.

#Kindness Is KEY

Barbara Gruener

Happy new {school} year! Today I’m grateful because of a very special delivery that came my way recently from Sarah T. in Wisconsin; look at that gorgeous antique key on the right that perfectly complements our tiny tribute table.

It just arrived one day, this priority mail, out of the blue, and it made my heart soar. When I texted to thank her, she said when you see a key and it screams your friend’s name, you just have to buy it and ship it south. Her words of affirmation on the note read: Saw this while shopping and immediately thought about you. You’ve made a difference in more lives than you’ll ever know. Keep being YOU. Her thoughtfulness made my day, week, month summer brighter.

I’m spending my Labor Day signing a few books, more joy to fuel my journey.

Then, another blessing, this picture from a family that I babysat for when I was in college; it’s the then-father, now grandfather, sharing our story with his grandchildren at their Grand Camp retreat. Be still my soul.

I’ve gone back to school to teach 8th graders again this year; we have completed 3 weeks already and are having a blast learning Spanish while sharpening our social and emotional learning skills. Here’s this year’s Esquina de Paz (Peace Corner):

They’re getting more and more comfortable using the calming resources in the area to help center them and get them ready to learn. Yay!

Finally, after talking with some friends over at Applied EQ Group about something I tried last year to assess what kind of SEL skills my students were acquiring, Elizabeth asked if she could blog about it, so here’s a link to that post, which came out yesterday.

Ours really is more of a Leadership Lab than your ordinary classroom, and mutual respect and kindness is certainly key when it comes to getting 8th-graders to try partner yoga on their own and then ask you to take their picture for Open House. It’s just one of the reasons that I truly believe that the BEST is yet to come.

Here’s to an incredible 2022-2023 school year that’s one-of-a-KIND.

Her Hand On Mine

Barbara Gruener

Today my soul is still singing from a private reading with a four-year-old birthday girl who my sister knows and loves. I put four keys on a key ring for her and grabbed an extra copy of the book not really sure how well it would go to read a book, written for children in the age group 6-10, to such a young girl. I encouraged her to jingle her keys when she saw Mr. Quigley on a page; at the part about him being deaf, we stopped and shook the keys while holding them tight, to help her understand what his keys sounded like to him. It makes me happy to report that she was with me for the entire book, and I got the BEST feedback when she asked me to read it again.

Hoping to engage her in the author signing, I asked her to help me spell her name. Without skipping a beat, Zoe put her hand on mine, to help me with her name, literally and figuratively. It was a magical moment that I wished could last forever.

This morning I led a growth session, Building Equity By The Book, at the Character Conference in WI; click {here} if you’re interested in seeing those slides.