Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

Well it is officially Week 3 of my internship, but today was only Day 3. After starting on a Friday, followed by the MLK holiday making a 3 day weekend, and a state mandated training session for 3 days; I came back in on one more Friday and officially began a full week today. Full speed ahead!

They were slightly confused when I was there this morning after my weekly Friday appearances. I was actually greeted by a little girl with "Miss Kinney it's Monday why you here?" You may be thinking "who is Miss Kinney?" Let me explain. Ever since I started my field experiences with the College of Education, my name has multiplied. The butchering my name has taken has been brutal. My whole life people have inserted Zs and Ls in my last name forming McKinzie and McKinley. I'm used to it now and usually don't correct someone unless it will ultimately have an affect on me. I feel bad correcting adults, can you see me correcting these precious children that can't even get the initial consonants? The most popular is Kinney. But I have been called Kinzey, Mackiny, Mackian, Mickney, Mickey, MK (for those who like to abbreviate?), and my new favorite as of today Mcnieey. Those are all real. I have documentation. It makes me laugh. It also makes me hope that maybe my future husband will come in and save the day with a kid-friendly last name.

Every couple of weeks the school counselor comes in and does a brief lesson for the class. It usually focuses on character building and other personal subjects. This morning she brought in a book titled "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" I had heard about this book before from my Education classes and was slightly excited myself to hear what it was all about.

The book conveys a message of positive behavior to children through illustrations and descriptions about "filling a bucket". Each of us have an invisible "bucket" that we carry around everyday. This bucket has the potential to be filled, but can also be emptied. The choices we make help us fill others' buckets or empty ours. The book expresses how we can share happiness with others and also bring it to ourselves. By using encouraging words and kindness towards others, we are filling their buckets with happiness. We are also filling our own because we feel good about ourselves when we are kind to others. But when we are negative or bully others, we are digging into their bucket and also emptying ours.

The whole concept is for children to use this metaphor and see how very easy and rewarding it is to express kindness towards others on a daily basis. Many teachers have used this "bucket" concept as a classroom management strategy. Every child has a bucket. When the teacher notices a student being kind or sees/hears that they have been helpful or positive, they receive a little something, usually a treat, to put in their bucket. Students can also write encouraging notes to each other and put them in their classmates' buckets. At the end of the week, the students get to retrieve their bucket. They get their treats and the notes from their classmates. This in turn fills their "invisible bucket" and rewards them for their behavior that week.

So after the counselor read this book to our class today, she presented two small buckets. One was labeled with their classroom teacher's name, the other with "Ms. McKinney". By the end of the day they were to write encouraging notes and "fill the buckets". After reading the kind words I can't help but become a strong supporter of this metaphoric classroom strategy. My bucket was definitely full after today, and so was my heart. Try and fill someone's bucket today. I promise you will be rewarded.