Infectious Optimism!

A happy classroom is a learning classroom.

Today I held the first meetings with the upper and lower elementary student leaders.
They have been given a special mission: to infect the school with happiness through their own optimism.

Here's a clip that demonstrates some great points on optimism (watch just from 2:50 onwards):




After the clip, we discussed what optimism is, and HOW to infect others with positive energy. In particular, how do you infect a "negative" person with optimism?
The video clip holds the key (last part) - that even the toughest/hardest person has a soft inner core.
Teaching the kids this important point, I saw a glimmer of hope and excitement in their eyes.
It's interesting to see how quickly they caught on to the idea that helping make other people happy might be fun and benefit them!

Many children enter school with an effervescent enthusiasm for learning, and a natural optimism towards life. However, somewhere along the way, that glimmer gets squashed.


I think that as educators, it is important for us to ask ourselves this question ever so often:
How do we nurture and keep those flames of enthusiasm burning?