How a “Food Fight” Inspires Leadership: YouGiveGoods
Ever get discouraged at the holidays? Does it seem like the real meaning gets lost? You’d like to give back but you barely have any energy left after the madness of Black Friday, the tension of Cyber Monday, the decorating, and the multiple trips to the grocery store. There’s no time to do good. You […]
Principals Have the Power to Encourage Leadership: The Anti-Bully
Leadership is not a rank or a position. Leadership is a service to be given. — Simon Sinek Leadership comes in all sizes, shapes, colors, and ages. That’s the message being given at P.S. 23, a wonderful elementary school on Staten Island that I recently had the privilege to visit.P.S. 23 takes leadership seriously. As […]
Cyberbullying: Why We Need to Start Raising Little Leaders Online
If I have one piece of advice for every single elementary school and every single parent, it is to make teaching leadership a priority offline…and ONLINE. Start early. Common sense says that if we wouldn’t let a child cross a street without holding their hand and teaching them the rules of the road, why would […]
What a Treat: A Lesson on Trust
Since the book, One, was the Book of the Month at a local elementary school, I was asked to come talk to Kindergarten through 5th grade about how One Can Count. In the course of the assembly, I asked “Why was it important for the other colors to step up with One?” Many hands went […]
One and Zero: Early Bullying Prevention
Dear Principals, Teachers, Superintendents, Parents and Anyone Interested in Children, My bullying prevention tip is very fitting for today’s date: 10/10, which coincidentally falls within National Bullying Prevention Month. If you have young children or you teach young children, you’ll love the award-winning book, One, and it’s companion book Zero, by Kathryn Otoshi. These books […]
Make Every Day A Better One!
Leadership is the act of doing good when no one is looking. But everyone likes to be recognized, including kids. It’s also leadership to recognize the good deeds of others. Here’s my hot tip for October, which happens to National Bullying Prevention Month. MEDABO cards. These little cards bring big smiles and inspire in countless […]
One Can Count Moment
I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody. — Lily Tomlin I’ve always thought that Lily Tomlin was hysterical…but now I also think of her as very wise.It’s that One Can Count moment when it dawns on you that you’re the person who could make a difference. […]
Mike Ollis: A Young Leader Who Gave His Life For Us
Time heals…but anniversaries trip us up and bring us back to that horrible day 12 years ago. This anniversary brings a new wound for one Staten Island family that may never heal. Today is the day their son’s body returned from Afghanistan. He was 24. Mike Ollis was a great kid. I mean really great. […]
Kindergarten: Good Time to Create Good School Relationship
There are four strings in the tangled ball of bullying that I think are really important: • Early Prevention • Parenting • Parent-School Relationship • Role of the Bystander (Upstander!) I thought of all four of these as I watched the first day of Kindergarten unfold at a school in my neighborhood. Kindergarten is such […]
For the Bullied and Beautiful: Shane Koyczan
I was just in Huntsville, Alabama. School started there on Monday. It always surprises me because living on the east coast, Labor Day weekend is cherished as the last weekend of freedom. August seems too unnatural to put on shoes and wrap your head around homework. For some kids, it’s really exciting to see friends […]
