Wake Up and Dream Catalyst: Short inspirational thoughts for the day. Raising questions & hopefully opening a dialogue with people interested in learning how to turn their dreams into plans and start navigating their way towards them.
Parenting Between 11 and 14
Photo from http://www.wtcmhmr.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=4747
Thought for the Day: The week has flown by with spring flirting with us for a couple of days and then the winter deep freeze returned to taunt us. It seems that spring is on it's way. Although the snow is still not quite melted, I can see some grass which is a good sign! I hope you are all faring well as we anxiously await warmer weather. Today's Fabulous Finds range from the cute comic above which could have been an illustration for the article on digital devices and generational abyss, to seven habits of emotionally healthy people, to building boys self esteem, and a free mobile app which is helping people with PTSD around the world. I hope you enjoy them and have a great weekend!
Thought for the Day: TGIF! It's time for my Friday's Fabulous Finds. I am loving the wide array of topics I can cover in one post on Fridays & hope you like my selections, too. Today, I bring you a wonderful post by a beautiful teenager who went out of her way to try to help all the students in her school; a working mother who shares her frustration with the bickering that arises at the end of her "professsional" work day and the beginning of her private work day with her children bickering on the way home; recognition and call for support of a great nonprofit organization that helps create jobs, and the film Les Miserables. Let me know your thoughts & have a great weekend!
1) This week's first #FF Friday's Fabulous Find was written by a sixteen year old, Ashley Monroe, from Massachussetts. Her post is featured in a blog on the Huffington Post Teen. Ashley was upset last year when she kept hearing her peers put themselves down & decided to do something about it. She "wrote out 1,986 sticky notes. Each said, "You're beautiful," and (she) stuck one to every locker in (her) entire school." I applaud Ashley for taking the time to help her peers feel better about themselves, in a world filled with stories of bullying and prejudice, this post is a breath of fresh air, a innovative positive psychology experiment by a teen! Take a look & see the reactions to her efforts.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ashley-monroe/my-message-to-everyone-at_b_2563941.html
2) The 2nd Fabulous find of the week is a post from a blog called Stickers, Stars & Smiles by Helen Neale who describes her job as "professional juggling - well sort of." She is the "mum of two minis who inspired her business, PT analyst helper, FT chaos avoider... (who) runs the printable reward charts and chore charts business from home in her *spare* time." This post describes the witching hour when tired working mothers leave work and pick up their kids who start to bicker. I commented that, "I love this post, since it is so brazenly honest." The trials &
tribulations of working parents trying to transition from “work” to
their second job, parenting, are also spelled out clear as day. I also like the way that the font, even on the comments has the look & feel of writing in a daily journal. If you are a working parent & want to feel understood & get some tips from parents in the same boat, take a look at Helen's blog. http://www.stickersstarsandsmiles.com/child-behaviour/its-all-bickering-and-no-chocolate-cake-sniff/#comment-855
3) My third Fabulous Find is about an issue that our nation needs all the help it can get: job creation. The news came to me an e-mail from Martha Rollins, founder of Boaz & Ruth, a nonprofit organizations featured in my book. (I have written about & posted a video (see above) of one of the graduates of their program in previous blog posts.) Martha told me that Boaz & Ruth, based in Richmond VA, has been noticed nationally and has been selected as a finalist in the JobRaising Challenge, "an innovative competition to help job-creating nonprofits raise money and publicity. The Skoll Foundation, The Huffington Post, and knowledge partner McKinsey & Company have selected the most innovative, feasible, and scalable candidates of the 210 applicants representing 31 states and 110 cities across America." Boaz & Ruth has been invited to share in a national 'harvest." The organization that raises the most will receive an additional $150,000. I hope you will read more & help Boaz & Ruth win that prize. http://www.crowdrise.com/boazandruth-jr/fundraiser/martharollins
4) I'm adding a fourth Fabulous Find today. Yesterday, I went to see Les Miserables. I had seen the musical years ago and although I love to see Broadway musicals, I often do not like the movie versions. I had heard good things about Anne Hathaway's performance & like to see films that have been nominated for the Oscars before the awards are doled out. If you have been reluctant to see this film, do not miss it. The first scene was the only one that did not work well for me, from then on in, it was amazing. I have a feeling that it will not only have a long run in theaters, but will become one of the greatest classic films ever made. The acting is superb and hard to believe given that the characters are singing, not speaking. I have not seen all the nominees, but I believe there will be several Oscars given to this film.
Thought for the Day: Instead of writing a post today, I decided to start a new type of article on the blog. Every week, on Fridays, I'd like to bring you some of the best articles I have found this week on current topics. I read a wide variety of articles every week. Therefore, my #FF Friday's Fabulous Finds will be a mixed bag and may range from psychology, self-help, social media, & inspirational articles. The articles will be connected to things that interest me or which I may have written about in the past. I hope you will find them helpful & informative. Please feel free to forward & share them with others. Let me know your thoughts & comments on this approach & on the articles which I bring to you.
#FF Friday's Fabulous Finds:
1) The first find: Three Ways to Help 'Loners' and Improve School Safety,
2) Would Gandhi Use Social Media? is my second find by Nipun Mehta, a UC Berkeley graduate, left Silicon Valley and founded a non-profit that builds free websites for nonprofits. His offers an interesting analysis of social media & how it can lead to social change. Since I have been using social media for social change, I find his perspective to be interesting & enlightening.
3) My third find is by a colleague who is also one of my facebook fans Dr. Craig Malkin. Dr. Craig Malkin is an author, clinical psychologist, and Instructor of Psychology for Harvard Medical School (HMS) who writes for the Huffington Post. This article presents a very interesting question: Can Acting in Love Help You Stay in Love? His findings may help couples who have found that their relationships have lost some of their luster.
Thought for the Day: You be the judge. What grade would you give to this school system's handling of a report of bullying of a special needs student on a school bus? Today I saw yet another Huffington Post news story that raises serious questions about what is happening in our schools. Click on the link above, to view a 3 minute video news story about a student who has been punished for taking a stand against bullying. Stormy Rich, an 18 year old honors student from Umatilla High School in Florida, reported daily bullying of a special needs student that was occurring on a middle school bus. Stormy was on the bus as a special privilege to miss the first period of her high school classes. The Middle School special needs student, according to Stormy Rich, "couldn't comprehend what was being done to her. "Just because she doesn't understand doesn't mean that should be happening to her," Rich told WOFL-TV." Stormy complained to the bus driver & reported the abuse to the High School authorities, but nothing was done to stop the bullying. Finally, the teen stood up to the bullies & told them to stop. In response, the school district revoked Rich's bus-riding privileges, saying Rich exhibited bullying behavior. School officials are standing behind their response, telling WOFL-TV
that "two wrongs don't make a right." Rich says she's being punished for following school policy, which calls on students to report any
bullying they witness.
How can we expect students to come forward & take a stand against bullies when nothing is done to stop the bullying & they then become targets for punishment? Although the school says this is just one side of the story, it seems that if the bus driver or the school system had intervened, Rich would not have needed to take a stand. Post a comment & I will make sure your comments are forwarded to Lake County Schools communications officer Christopher Patton.
Thought for the day: I made a one minute video for today's blog. It is a poem written by Lynn Frederick. If you are a parent, please share it with your children & speak with them about bullying. If you are a teacher consider sharing it with your classroom & start a discussion about bullying & how it hurts children who may already be suffering. If you ever bullied anyone, think about finding them & apologizing. It took 25 years for Lynn Frederick to share this with her classmates who were brought to tears & apologized (See the story in a Huffington Post article). It should not take 25 years to stop the epidemic of bullying. We must teach our children, parents, teachers & our broader communities to be caring & supportive of one another. To eliminate prejudice & bullying, we are all responsible for making respect & tolerance for differences a priority.
I hope this will help you ask & answer some difficult questions. Start the discussion. Please share this with parents, teachers, students & friends.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts & comments on this post & how it helped you open up this difficult, important discussion.
