“Our students’ behavior will begin to reflect these positive assumptions. What shifts is the how-the manner in which we communicate”.

We recite little empty sentences to ourselves and repeat them to our kids everyday: “you can do anything you want to do”, “you can be who you want to be”, “search your goal and seize it”, “you can change the world”, “all it takes is perseverance (grit)”. These are like the no-words: important, difficult, thing, some, …. little fillers we like to fabricate to stop voids from expanding and lies to unfold. The movement from the ethereal of these words and expressions toward the hands on dough mixing deal, now that’s tough. The strategies in this reading do exactly that. They fill the void with yummy Nutella, meaning actual meaning, actual doing, actual actions. These practical guidelines as well as the focal learner project, are exactly what teachers need to see and live in their process of learning and becoming school community builders. This is me looking at their humanity and therefore mine in the face, accepting that we have a purpose that shares the same space and we should therefore care for each other every second until dismissal and beyond. That’s the life skill that should be modeled, concluded and practiced daily.