When I think about our world, so many questions and thoughts run through my head. Questions such as, “what has our world come to? Why do we judge our worth and each other on likes and followers? Has everyone thought of everything? Is this it? Are we missing something?” These questions often swim through the depths of my mind and I find myself sifting through the weeds, trying to grasp onto something that might just help our world a little more. My mind often settles on the kids. I spend my days with the students and I know that we have a fighting chance if we can educate them and inspire them to make good choices and stand up for our world.
With these thoughts, I decided to start a student wellness team in our school. This team consists of student leaders who are dedicated every day to trying to educate their peers on healthy habits, making good choices, finances, getting along, and how what they do today can be a step towards what they want to become in the future. We are in the midst of starting our very own podcast and have started researching, writing and recording short motivational messages in hopes to reach a wider audience. We also have the students do parts of the podcasts over the announcements. We have also begun a recess club in which the students open it up to anyone who wants to come and learn new games, skills to get along, and hang out.
The students have also come up with ideas to help our teachers such as putting together a health food cart in which they will wheel around from class to class to surprise our teachers with a healthy treat. The little things they have thought of have also lit up our school. Each week, they write motivational messages and quotes all over our mirrors and hallway whiteboards in hopes of making someone’s day a little better.
It started as the students wanting to inspire other kids in our school but my own heart strings took a hit as well. Their passion and dedication to service and influencing others has been powerful. Peers teaching peers and being consistent with our message every day has been a difference maker. Our kids will listen to each other and I believe we have a fighting chance if we can expose kids to wellness and growth minded information on a consistent basis. But we can’t stop there. We have to get our students to pass it on to their friends because the peer relationship is the most influential at these ages. I often think if only I knew this information back when I was a kid. So why are we not giving them this education in order for them to start being world changers right now? We can teach them about finances and we can talk to them about building healthy morning habits and time management at the youngest of ages. They really are amazing little humans!
Instead of letting them hang out on snapchat or tik tok all day, why not introduce them to the world of wellness podcasts? Can we get them writing blogs instead of hurtful texts? Could we get them to inspire each other with inspirational messages on their instagram accounts instead of taking selfies? I believe we can. However, we need to model this as well. We, as leaders in the school, as parents, as coaches have to walk the walk constantly and persistently. If we do this, maybe, just maybe we can shift our world from the zombie like, cell phone addicted humans we are becoming to humans who connect with each other once again.
Even If You Miss..... 