by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist How would you rate your school’s kindness culture? A question that I love to pose in my workshops and guidance lessons goes something like this: If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  Eric Hoffer said, “We are made kind by being kind.” As
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by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist Ah, December, the last month of the year, a time to gather friends and family and celebrate and reflect upon what the year brought and what the new year is likely to bring. What special promise does this month hold for you and your loved ones?

by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist It’s Election time again, the perfect opportunity to celebrate patriotism by exercising our civic right to vote and teaching our young citizens to do the same. Maybe you’ve already made your way to the polls to take advantage of early voting. It was extra special for our family because our
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by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist It’ll be twelve years next month since my daughter and I sat together, supplies in hand, looking for just the right combination of pictures and words to create our Character Collage. A college sophomore now, she was in second grade then, but I can still see us sitting on the
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  By Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist   Let’s face it; with increasingly difficult academic challenges and seemingly less time to fit it all in, there are fewer if any moments left over for meaningful movement. Some schools have even done away with recess (gasp!) and/or physical education classes (yikes!). And then students go home to
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    by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist   I just spent the most wonderful week teaching at my church’s summer Music Camp and you won’t believe what my assignment was: Recorder Class. I know, I know, that does NOT necessarily sound like your dream job, mid-July, trapped inside with fifty kindergarten-through-fifth-graders squeaking out notes on
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by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist Happy Summer! The Summer My Father Was Ten by Pat Brisson is one of my favorite summer sizzlers because it crosses cultures and generations to tell the story of foolishness, forgiveness, and friendship. As a father and his daughter plant their annual garden, he flashes back to a mistake he
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by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist The creative brainstorming technique SCAMPER, created by education administrator and author Robert Eberle in the early 1970s, is based on the thought that every new idea is simply an adaptation of something else. Have you used it with your little learners?  I’ve seen our GT classes learn how to use
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by Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist Though our hectic schedules usually keep us from even contemplating a Sunday drive, springtime in Texas beckons us to head out into the Hill Country to breathe in the beauty of the Wildflower explosion. Bluebonnets and paintbrushes coupled with square-bud primrose and winecups create a bloomin’ bonanza on hillsides, in
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By Barbara Gruener, Monthly Columnist I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a difficult time with certain conversations. Nose picking, for example. Surely I can not be the only one who thinks it’s just plain yucky. If I catch a pick and roll while kids are in my office, I quickly offer up
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