Our Stories

At my house, we read all the time. I push my foster daughters, who are teen moms, to read to their children. While we might grow frustrated with the accumulation of toys to trip over, we are always excited for new books to read. It’s the best part of our daily bedtime routine. Imagine my […]

As a little girl, my mother and grandmother taught me to treat people how I wanted to be treated. I think most of us have someone special in our lives who taught us that lesson. As a teacher at Carver Elementary School in Chicago, I try to model that lesson and pass it down to […]

I often find that some of the best lessons for my students are the ones that build upon each other and are built into our daily lives. That’s definitely the case with the lessons in Teach Kindness, a program we implemented at Fiske Elementary School in Chicago. As the school year progressed, the lessons on […]

Everyone loves a good shout out, right? Especially when it’s for something that makes our community a better place. That’s why I love the special Kindness Shout Outs we have at Beard Elementary on Chicago’s Northwest Side. When a student gets “caught being kind” we recognize them for that wonderful act and put it on […]

With all the news and the disruption we’ve experienced these past 20 months, one simple but powerful thing helped students at Palmer Elementary make it through remote learning and return safely to classrooms: kindness. And while things are getting better, both in our school buildings and in many of our communities, the effects of the […]

“Coming to Wagoner is like coming to a Grand Opening!” When a new student told me they felt that way walking into school each day, it stopped me in my tracks and reaffirmed my commitment to making our school community a kind place. As the principal at Wagoner Elementary, I can say that kindness is […]