This article was written by Charlotte Quigley, School Based Technology Specialist at Little Run Elementary School in Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax, Virginia. Charlotte taught in the classroom for eight years, using The Positivity Project to support her students' social-emotional learning, and now applies P2 to the school's digital citizenship instruction. Little Run serves roughly 280 students in grades PreK–6 and is one of 168 elementary schools in Fairfax County Public Schools.
After the whirlwind of the 2020-2021 school year we, at Little Run Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia, are excited to have students back in our classrooms! This year, Little Run is focusing heavily on the Social Emotional Learning of all of our students. While this is not the first year Little Run has implemented The Positivity Project in our school, this year has served as a “reboot” of sorts!
Student News Anchors Introducing Weekly Character Strengths
Students at Little Run start each Monday morning with an introduction to the weekly character traits. Our student news anchors share the trait, discuss how they see it in themselves, and share a quote about it. After the news, students in all grade levels participate in a P2 focused morning meeting to dig deeper into the weekly traits and ground them in the #PositivityinAction mindset before they begin their day. Teachers love the structure of the slideshows. In addition, the extra activities give teachers the autonomy of finding the best way to work the lessons and conversations into their days. Our teachers intentionally carry the messages from morning meetings throughout their lessons to remind students that positivity happens all day, not just in the morning.
Connecting Literacy and Character
New this year, teachers are being encouraged to use the P2 booklist to help support their student’s reading comprehension. In addition, our students have access to these stories in our library. We have found that they are checking them out and exploring them at home with their families.
Engagement from the Youngest Learners
As we welcomed a new class of kindergarten students this year, our kindergarten teachers have been very impressed with the engagement level of their students. Many kindergarteners can be seen not only exhibiting the #PositivityInAction mindset but also openly communicating their strengths to those around them. Angela K, a Kindergarten teacher at Little Run says, “I love how ‘kid-friendly' the language and videos are in the slide shows! Many of the video clips are from things our students are familiar with, which makes it awesome for engaging little ones. The questions that go along with each clip help guide deeper thinking in our students and that is really cool to see. We love P2 in Kinder.”
