Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me".

Ok...seriously? That has to be the lamest quote ever! I mean who even coined that? They obviously were never the victim of an overzealous playground bully or the butt of someone's cruel joke. As a teacher, I witness first hand every day just how much words really can hurt and the deep wounds that they can cause.

A while back, I was in a workshop where we were introduced to the book "How Full Is Your Bucket" by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton. Don, who is considered the Grandfather of Positive Psychology, spent years studying people's interaction with one another and through this developed the theory of the bucket and the dipper. The premise behind the theory is that we each have an invisible bucket that is emptied or filled depending on what other people say or do to us. When our bucket is full we feel great. It gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. On the other hand, when our bucket is empty we feel horrible. It saps our energy and makes us feel defeated. The theory goes on to say that we also have an invisible dipper that we can use to either fill or dip from other people's buckets. Each of us has a choice to make every day. We can choose to fill one another's buckets or we can choose to dip from then. This choice ulitmately influences our realtionships, productivity, health and happiness.*
(*How Full Is Your Bucket- Positive Strategies for Work and Life by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton Ph.D.)

Carol McCloud took this theory and developed an anti-bullying program for educators that I use in my classroom. It includes a great book that puts the concept of bucket filling into "kid language". At the beginning of the year, I spend time talking with my students about the characteristics of bucket fillers and bucket dippers. Then we create a bulletin board on which each student puts their bucket. Throughout the year the students can fill each other's buckets by leaving positive notes in them. It has worked really well in our classroom and the students enjoy reading the notes that their classmates leave.
















www.bucketfillers101.com
www.bucketfillersforlife.com

So I had to ask myself....am I a bucket filler or a bucket dipper? Do my words build people up or tear them down? My prayer is this..."Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.: Psalm 19:14