Hi Team!
Well, the 2024-2025 school year is up and running! Many of you are settling in and getting to know your students. Hopefully you had a refreshing and relaxing summer, and you are energized and ready for an incredible year!
In 2024, I was lucky to do work in many locations. I provided conference workshops, keynotes, full district training, coaching and consultation, leadership workshops, small group training, book study sessions, and parent nights. I was fortunate to work directly in buildings supporting education professionals supporting our amazing youth! I did in person work in the states of Illinois, Florida, Washington, California, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, and Maine. I did virtual support to provinces in Canada, and the states of California, Nebraska, Maryland, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, and Washington. It has been an incredible year so far and I got to meet some pretty incredible humans!
On one of my trips this summer, I met a former school bus driver. She was incredible and such a joy to meet. We got to talking about the work I do with school districts. She shared her love of being a bus driver and how important it was to her that each and every one of her students felt cared about and supported by her. I was so impressed with her humor, her wisdom and most especially, her heart.
As a bus driver, she was able to see things that many of the people working in the buildings did not. She talked about how much she valued her job and how she wanted each and every student she drove to know she cared about them. She had funny sayings, sang songs at times, and greeted each student with a smile. She shared many of the funny things she did to make her riders feel safe and cared for. I was amazed by her.
She shared a story about a student she drove to and from school for several years. He apparently lived in a home where trauma was prevalent, and he was often tired and dysregulated in the mornings when she picked him up. In the beginning, he was grumpy and kept to himself. Eventually he started to sit closer to her and on occasion she could even get him to smile. She soon became his “safe” person. He would sit behind her each day on the bus, and she would provide him kindness, care, a little humor, and reassurance. They became quite close. Several years later, after he had graduated, he looked her up and paid her a visit. He thanked her for being his safe person and credited her for his ability to stay in school and graduate. A tear shed down her face as she shared that story with me. She said, “I wish I could’ve done more for him knowing all that he was going through.” I felt honored to reassure her that she did in fact do A LOT for this young man. Her safety, predictability, consistency, acceptance and kindness helped him to believe enough in himself to be resilient and manage in the midst of the mess he was experiencing. Talk about a trauma invested example!
This reinforced to me how important each and every one of you are to the work we do with students. We need to remember the value and importance of each of our employees and make efforts to include them in our conversations, appreciate them for the work they do, and involve them in the work that we do with youth.
If you are reading this, and you are losing sight of the important role you play, I hope you hear her story and remember that it’s on all of us, not just teachers to make an impact in a student's life. And if you’re a teacher, or someone with more prolonged direct contact with students, please make the effort to include and encourage others working with youth to keep kindness at the forefront. Take time to honor and appreciate all that they do for our youth. Bus drivers, along with all employees, hold great value. Bus drivers, like all of us, can “make or break” a kid’s day. We can influence their experiences and do things that either contribute to the solution, or the problem. You all have such influence and knowledge that can help us to better help our students. I know of several school districts that are including their bus drivers and other support staff in my trainings and are involving them in student discussions. Cheers to you who are doing this! Keep it up! The more we work together collaboratively as a team, the better it will be for our students and families!
Let’s remember to include ALL of our staff: Certified and Non-Certified staff, custodians, maintenance, cafeteria workers, nurses, front office personnel, administrators, district office staff, specialists, special education staff, counselors, psychologists, behavior interventionists, coaches, volunteers, after school support staff, families, and many more who support our youth! I challenge you to make it a point to thank a colleague, praise a moment of kindness you witness, and make extra effort to include all who have a heart for students. They truly need us, and we must all work together to ensure that 100% of our youth get the support and the skills necessary to grow and become healthy contributors to our communities. Let’s also remember that when we are interacting with another human being, we must always work towards contribution to solution! Kindness must be at the forefront!
Cheers to a fantastic school year!
