A guest blog by Anna Hildebrandt Mrozek
The National Happiness Week at School is an annual event taking place in the third week of September, during the International Week of Happiness at Work. This year we are celebrating for the third time, on September 19-25, 2022. We invite all kindergartens and schools to join our celebration.
Details and registration are available at: www.happinessatschool.pl
The aim of the National School of Happiness Week is to draw attention to happiness and well-being and their relationship with learning outcomes. Research shows that people who are happy at school and at work live healthier, longer and better lives. Happiness promotes resilience, creativity, commitment, building relationships, and friendships. It is a real prophylaxis of mental and physical health, especially in such a difficult, post-pandemic and wartime.
Therefore, the slogan for this year is: LET’S TAKE CARE OF GOOD RELATIONS.
This week, you can plan many activities, or one – for each day or several. It is important to raise the issue of happiness and well-being in the narrative and in various dimensions – emotions, sense of meaning, commitment, closeness with others, discovering your strengths and positives in others, health, rest or commitment. It is about taking up the topic of happiness at this time, which is manifested, according to Martin Seligman, in:
- experiencing positive emotions – various, because it is both joy and pride, gratitude, delight,
- triggering involvement, experiencing FLOW
- strengthening relationships
- giving meaning and meaning to events and situations
- discovering and putting into practice strengths and talents and using them for the good of the community – friends, school, neighborhood, and family. We
We Finally, please prepare a short artistic form (genre scene, sketch, pantomime, live painting, etc. on the topic:
“GOOD RELATIONS IN SCHOOL IS …”
and publishing the recorded scene by September 23 (Friday) on YouTube with the hashtag: #tydzienszczesciawszkole2022 #happinessatschool
Below are examples of activities that can be used as part of the celebrations, but we trust that your creativity will not disappoint us
- Feast of Good Relations – about the importance of good relationships: friends, friends, school, teachers, family, and neighbors (eg in the light of the war in Ukraine). The celebration of good relationships can be extended to the entire Happiness Week at School, you can devote one day to it.
- Empathy Day – what is empathy? How can we develop it at school? What exactly do I do to be an empathetic person?
- Peace Day – what is peace? What kind of feeling is it? What are the conditions when I am calm at school? With whom do I experience peace at school? How does this strengthen our relationship?
- Feast of Trust – who do I trust? When does the school feel safe/secure? Places, spaces, people, topics discussed.
- Good Humor Day – how does humor help us in difficult situations, how does it buffer stress?
- Feast of the Good Word – about the importance of a good word, which builds up self-esteem and does not ruin it
- Friend’s Day – my friend – what qualities do I value most about him and why? What is friendship today, what was it once? Conversations between generations😊
- Inspiration Day – what inspires me at school? Who is my Inspirer? How does this affect our relationship?
- Pride Day – how often do I experience pride at school? What is that feeling?
- Feast of Talents and Strengths – what are our talents and strengths? When do we use them most often and how do we feel about it? What helps us develop them?
- Dream Festival – how often do my dreams remain in the sphere of fleeting thoughts, and how often can I turn my dreams into specific goals, even distant ones, to be realized? What encourages me to do so? What are the benefits of making a dream come true?
- Day Close to Nature – how does contact with nature strengthen us and put us in a positive mood? What are the benefits of communing with nature?
The forms of these activities can be any kind. Let us involve children, adolescents, and adults. The whole school, kindergarten, but also people who are friends with our facility. Because school and kindergarten are places of lifelong learning.
I join cordial and sunny greetings,
Anna Hildebrandt-Mrozek
Initiator of the National Week of Happiness at School
