In 8 Keys to End Bullying: Strategies for Parents & Schools, I tell a real-life story of a 9-year old student who came to me on her second day of school and told me, in a voice that I can only describe as gleeful, that her teacher really liked her.  When I asked her how she could tell, she explained:

She smiles at me every day when I walk into her room. It’s so different from my teacher last year.  She was always doing work and never even looked up before the second bell, except to remind us of anything we were doing wrong. I think the teacher this year really likes me!

A series of twirls and joyful shrieks later, it was plain to see how something as simple and brief as a warm acknowledgement from a teacher meant the world to that student.  To quote Jerry Maguire, the teacher “had her at hello.”

Connections heal and more times that I can count, it is the “little things” like the personal greeting at the door or the smile across the lunch room that go the longest way in making kids feel valued in a school setting.

That’s why this story, featured yesterday on ABC’s Good Morning America, really caught my eye.  Please watch and enjoy!

https://gma.yahoo.com/teacher-personalized-handshakes-every-one-students-200526323–abc-news-topstories.html?cid=social_fb_gma#