It takes a lot to impress a 16 year old boy. But boy, did Keith Hawkins do just that. Keith is a professional speaker dedicated to making the world a place where we understand and value all people by building meaningful relationships. Both of my sons (one junior, one freshman, pictured below) we’re moved and inspired by Keith’s visit to their high school, and talked about nothing else at dinner that night. One of the things we discussed, that really caught my attention, was the concept of student “empowerment” … by being positive, expressing kindness, appreciation and love on a daily basis.
This reminded me of our “bucket filler” BragTag™. It’s never too early to empower students with the knowledge that positive actions fill their own bucket as much as they fill the bucket of others. The bucket filling concept works very well in elementary schools! Read the book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today” to your students, as the pages turn, children learn the meaning of the terms, bucket filling and bucket dipping and discover that when they fill someone’s bucket, they fill their own. These cute tags serve as effective reminders to fill buckets, or give them as rewards after students fill bucket.
Jennifer Bolger
September 28, 2011 at 8:57 pm
Loved this post. Reminded me of my college coach repeatedly asking us, “what have you done for others today?”
Clyde Wriss
September 30, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I am on board with the “brag tag” concept. You are not bragging when you have something positive to share, and in today’s world it is truly about providing support and building self-esteem to our kids (and yes at 16 they are still very much kids). I will pass the “bucket book” along to Mitchell’s 3rd/4th grade teacher.