While on my #vanlife adventure with mom, I learned about big accomplishments in her life that I never knew about.  It was so inspiring to hear these and I felt so proud of the impact she’s made on so many kid’s lives, fully living in her purpose as a teacher.

What sparked this was a question I asked her to learn more about her work, “what was something from your career that you are proud of that maybe I don’t know about?”.  Wow.  I could never have imagined the story that she shared and the depth of the unbelievable impact she made in her work over the years. I knew this to a certain extent, but not the specifics of how innovative, creative, and what a leader she was in her school. She had sought out many different ways of learning from outside resources and different institutes and programs. She attended University classes and institutes and brought many profound and forward-thinking learnings into her classroom.  She recognized that it wasn’t typical for young students to learn, mindfulness, and social interaction skills, but it was so impactful in children’s development.  So rather than just going through the typical school curriculum, she took action and created multiple programs to enable this.  One was called Quiet Time, in which she guided a meditation-like peaceful break for first and second graders which taught them to be calm and compassionate towards each other.

To teach social interaction skills she implemented an Open Circle program, which was a circle experience, like a sacred circle, in which everyone in the classroom would sit around in a circle to talk about anything, such as a conflict or something bothering them.  And in this circle there was always one extra seat that was placed that wasn’t taken every time they had a circle so that if someone came into the classroom that was new, or a principal walked into the classroom, there was always one extra chair for someone to them be able to be included. And through these circles, her students they learned to listen and really create a sense of belonging and inclusion.

And then there was a conflict in the playground, where the kids were constantly fighting, or bullying, and many teachers were frustrated at the kids. In a faculty meeting my mother paused and said, “rather than looking at the kids, we should be looking at ourselves, what we are we doing, or what we could do differently to enable different behavior.”  This is a powerful coachable moment my mom had and rather than projecting blame, the teachers started to look at themselves it led to her co-creating a program called the Peaceful Playground, where a structure of games such as hopscotch and jump rope was created. This gave the kids a different focus, and the result was a significantly reduced the level of conflict.

And all these programs were so successful that they were rolled out to other schools in her district! And soon enough every school was doing Open Circles. And when bigger crisis situations arose, the teachers were already prepared with a foundation for how to handle them because they had been implementing this along the way.  And my mother went on to be more of a seeker and a learner, continuing her learning journey and got a Fulbright Scholarship and traveled to Asia to learn about Japanese schools and to a Native American reservation to learn about how they teach.  All of these lessons she was able to continue to bring these new ways of thinking into her classroom.

It was so incredible to me to hear such impact that my mom had made in her work which was always a huge passion or hers. It was powerful to hear the proactive action he took that permeated throughout her school system for greater impact. I was so surprised that I had never really heard these stories in this way. And when I asked my mom why she had never shared them, it went back to what I shared in a previous post that when she had shared them with others (even her partner), it was not met with excitement, or championship, or celebration. And so, she kept them more to herself.  All of this to me is a lesson in how we show up for other people:

We need to celebrate others’ success and amplify it. Doing so creates a deeper connection, because people want to be celebrated. And that positive energy, prevents someone from feeling deflated and softened and instead, breeds more positive energy and momentum.  And people want to be more open and share with people who support them.

Every single day we have wins, sometimes they are big and sometime small.  Who are you championing in your life and how are you celebrating them? Drop me a comment below as I’d love to hear! 👇