Board

Cassi Mackey
My name is Cassie, and I am going to be your host today for this leadership forum. And I’m really honored to be here with you today. It’s one of my favorite things to do during the week. Before I begin, I want to take a moment to say how much we appreciate you being here, taking the time out of your busy day. We know your days are full, and we really appreciate you making the space for all of us. Kathy Leach, our IMC executive director, is not with us this week, but she’ll be back next week. And today’s session, we are going to be recording, and so it’ll be available to IMC members for you. Let me just make sure. 

Kitty Bravo
Recording. It says it’s on. 

Cassi Mackey
Okay. Okay. So we’re still Recording just a couple of logistics. We really want these sessions to be engaging and interactive as possible. And I know so does Kitty. So if you have a question, use your reaction hand that’s down below. Or you can just wave and I’ll keep my eyes on you. Since we’re all in the same frame, you can also just, you know, put your thoughts or your questions in the chat as well. We usually have a lot going on in our chat, so we’re going to begin because we want to utilize all our time with Kitty. Today we have Kitty Bravo and her talk to us is set your 2026 G. It’s your gratitude positioning. And I just want to read a little bit. We all know Kitty Bravo, but I just wanted to read a little bio for her. 

Cassi Mackey
She has been in Montessori education for over 40 years. She’s an experienced teacher and administrator and teacher educator, consultant and board member. She holds a AMI primary diploma and she has a BA in Human Development, which tracks. I didn’t know that. Kitty founded New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida in 1984 and she later served as the director of Newgate center for Montessori Studies. So more than two decades she has worked internationally as a consultant instructor in Montessori teacher education programs. And so we’re so lucky to have her today. I first saw or met or heard of Kitty Bravo at an AMS conference and I was with a friend and were at one of their dance parties. I don’t know if I ever told you this, Kitty and. And you were just dancing like nobody was watching. And I just loved it. 

Cassi Mackey
And my friend said, oh my gosh, look how joyful Kitty Bravo is. And I said, first of all, yes. And second of all, I love that name. And so then I was able to meet her at a later date and she’s become one of my favorite people and great mentor. So Kitty Bravo, please take it away. 

Kitty Bravo
Thank you, Cassie. 

Kitty Bravo
And I often say that, you know, I’ve really not done anything important. It’s just with a name like Kitty Bravo, nobody ever forgets it. So I became famous just by name alone. So thank you and welcome. And today’s topic is gps, your gratitude Positioning System. And I hope to while we’ll talk about gratitude and why it’s valuable and all those kinds of things which you’ve probably talked about a lot. And if you guys don’t talk, then we’re going to just hear me pull up my slides and talk about that kind of stuff. But I hope that we’ll just Share and talk together. Because I was already thinking about this being a lot about how do we cope and how do we have gratitude when the world is so crazy? And in the last couple of weeks. 

Kitty Bravo
I have felt a heaviness because of. 

Kitty Bravo
So much going on and really said, can I even talk about gratitude? And decided probably it’s more important to. 

Kitty Bravo
Talk about gratitude now than at any other time. 

Kitty Bravo
So one of the things I really want to talk about is how do. 

Kitty Bravo
We make it real? 

Kitty Bravo
And when I say your gratitude positioning system, if you think about a gps, you need to know how to get somewhere. You put in the coordinates and it shows you how to get there. And if you’re smart, you follow those directions, because even though sometimes it will look like it’s taking you out of the way, it’s only doing that because there’s a wreck or there’s a traffic problem or there’s some reason why it’s. 

Kitty Bravo
Taking you out of the way. 

Kitty Bravo
And so I want us to think about gratitude in the same way that gratitude and stretching that definition to really encompass all positivity is what needs to be the coordinates that we’re going for, that we are. We are working towards keeping that gratitude and that positivity at the center at all times so that we can get through these troubled times. And so that’s kind of the preamble to what I want to talk about. And I’m going to pull up some slides just for a little bit of the background and. 

Kitty Bravo
And then we’ll go from there. 

Kitty Bravo
All right, so our gratitude positioning system. And it, you know, came across my. Hold on a minute. 

Kitty Bravo
I’m trying to get rid of something here. Never mind there. 

Kitty Bravo
It came up in my Facebook the other day story about this woman, Gladys west, who. It happened, probably why she came up in Facebook. 

Kitty Bravo
She died this past week. 

Kitty Bravo
And Gladys west was one of the women that we called the hidden figures from the movie who that. One of the amazing black mathematicians women. 

Kitty Bravo
Who, you know, both being women and. 

Kitty Bravo
Being black, and at a time when they were so seldom had opportunities and they made such a huge difference in the space program. And as it turns out, Gladys oversaw a team of five people who worked on the computer that calculated. 

Kitty Bravo
The model. 

Kitty Bravo
Of the earth and made it possible for gps. So we could say she is one of the inventors of gps. So let’s honor her as we’re thinking about having a positioning system in this case, though, one for gratitude. So this quote, I believe, actually comes from John Wolfe, because a few years ago, we did a workshop together on gratitude. And some of the things that I have will come from that. 

Kitty Bravo
And. 

Kitty Bravo
Then a few additional things as well. In times of stress, the human brains tends to focus first on what is painful and problematic. This is a natural and self protective response. Safety and survival always comes first. But when a Montessori community becomes too. 

Kitty Bravo
Problem oriented, too mindful of what’s not working, people begin to lose sight of what is working, what is valued and who is making key contributions to the lives and learning of children, families and staff. So practicing a daily interdiscipline of gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
Accompanied by outer expressions of appreciation and celebration can help us create a community. 

Kitty Bravo
Strengthening atmosphere in which people feel safe, honored and supported. 

Kitty Bravo
So I think that kind of really helps to shape my thoughts for today. This idea that if we’re too focused in the problem, that in the problems that we can’t even see solutions and we lose sight of the great contributions. You know, there’s the wonderful and I don’t know the actual quote, but the wonderful saying from Fred Rogers that when there’s a disaster, look for the helpers, look for the people who are out there doing good. And we need to put more energy into that and to really express appreciation and celebration. I meant to also tell you as were getting started that I had the great fortune to spend three weeks at a retreat india. Cassie asked me, knowing I went before we started, what was, you know, one of my main takeaways was gps. And that GPS is gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
Be present and practice stillness. And I think those are great words to live by. So here we are in a time that those seeds are rough. 

Kitty Bravo
People are struggling financially, people are afraid. They’re afraid of what’s happening in our politics. They’re afraid of conflict happening all over the world. I got a again, you’re going to think I live on Facebook and actually I don’t, but I saw Facebook post from a Montessori school in Minneapolis looking for funds because a high percentage of their families are afraid to come out. 

Kitty Bravo
And go to work and go to school and they needed help to pay. 

Kitty Bravo
The rent and buy food. It’s rough times and the children in our classrooms show the results of that. Our teachers show the symptoms. 

Kitty Bravo
Of that we do and the stress. 

Kitty Bravo
That we hold because of all that’s. 

Kitty Bravo
Going on in the world. So gratitude is more important than other. 

Kitty Bravo
This quote I loved comes from Brene Brown. The dark does not destroy. 

Kitty Bravo
The light it defines is our fear of the dark that casts our joy into Shadows. So. 

Kitty Bravo
This is going to sound really. 

Kitty Bravo
Crazy, but can we be grateful for the darkness? Can we be grateful for the challenges? Because without them, we don’t appreciate the light. I just have to believe that with where we are right now in the world that we’re, you know, this is the darkness before the light and that. 

Kitty Bravo
We all need to hold that light. 

Kitty Bravo
So that we get to a new place. And let’s see. And so be grateful and breathe. 

Kitty Bravo
So we often start IMC forum with silence. 

Kitty Bravo
And so at this point, I’d like. 

Kitty Bravo
Us to take a moment and breathe and be silent. And I’m going to lead you through a little gratitude visualization. 

Kitty Bravo
So get comfortable and breathe. 

Kitty Bravo
And I want you to think of. 

Kitty Bravo
Someone or something that truly brings your heart to gratitude and get a visual picture of that in your mind and in your heart. And just breathe. Let the memory of that person or. 

Kitty Bravo
Situation, a place that you are grateful. 

Kitty Bravo
For, bring a smile to your face and feel that smile. 

Kitty Bravo
Feel it. A big smile from grinning from ear to ear. 

Kitty Bravo
Feel your eyes smile. Gratitude. You know how your eyes kind of. 

Kitty Bravo
Get kind of small and squinty almost. 

Kitty Bravo
With in point upwards, almost like your lips in a smile and feel your eyes smile and feel the warmth of your smile. Go down through your body and stop at your heart and hold your hand over your heart and breathe and feel the love, the gratitude. Now let that gratitude wash through your body and feel the energy and the joy of being grateful. And breathe. And bring your energy back to your eyes and your smile and open your eyes and see everyone else smiling. And I’m going to come out of the screen share for just a minute. So I hope you enjoyed that. I enjoyed it. 

Kitty Bravo
So that brings us to that point that I was talking about in the GPS I learned at the retreat about. 

Kitty Bravo
Being present and being still taking little moments, I call them little. Nothing breaks, you know, throughout the day. Can you take a minute, just a minute and breathe and be grateful and be in the present moment. That’s really valuable. So now I have a question for you. What is the opposite? Being grateful? 

Kitty Bravo
Because I think if we’re gonna really work on letting gratitude guide us and be our positioning system, we need to realize what is it not. 

Kitty Bravo
And of course the first thing that. 

Kitty Bravo
Comes to mind will being as antonym of gratitude or gratefulness is being. 

Kitty Bravo
Ungrateful and being thankless. 

Kitty Bravo
But let’s see if we can come up with some other words. 

Kitty Bravo
Can anybody think of anything that they would think is an opposite of being grateful? Margaret? 

Margaret Combs
I would Say either blame or a victim mindset. 

Kitty Bravo
Absolutely. 

Kitty Bravo
Anybody else? 

Cassi Mackey
You could also put it in the chat if you’d like. Ginger, I saw your hand picking up. 

Ginger Chavis
Yeah, I’m just thinking resentful. I think that sometimes we can be resentful for things that. The way they’re done, maybe. But the positive intention that or seeing the positive piece of why that was done, I think is something that I’ve been dealing with recently. So I thought I’d share. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah. 

Kitty Bravo
And I’ll tell you that years ago I had fortunately caught very early. I had a cancerous polyp in my uterus and they did a whole hysterectomy. But in my. I was reading Louise Hay, if you know her, and she said that cancer comes from resentment. So I started a practice of when I felt resentful about something. I put all of that. Visually put all of that resentment in a basket and put flowers in the. 

Kitty Bravo
Basket and then send it down the river. So we have to work on getting rid of that resentment. Because you’re right, it doesn’t do anything any good. And it’s so not. 

Kitty Bravo
It is so not grateful. 

Kitty Bravo
It is so ungrateful to be resentful of somebody. 

Kitty Bravo
Anybody have any other thoughts? Cassie, you want to read the things coming up in the chat? 

Cassi Mackey
Yeah, we just from Frizda, I hope. I’m sorry if I’m not pronouncing your name correctly. She says always pause and reflect. Ginger said she loved your last statement. And Jill says entitlement. And Adele says being complacent. 

Kitty Bravo
Well, I asked the Google and what the opposite of thankful is, and there are a number of different, you know, sites came up, but one of them has 50 antonyms of thankful or gratitude. And some of the ones that you haven’t covered, critical, desolate. 

Kitty Bravo
Unpleased, unsatisfied, inappreciative, aggrieved, anguished, brokenhearted. 

Kitty Bravo
And you know, here’s the thing, folks. 

Kitty Bravo
These are all normal feelings and it’s. 

Kitty Bravo
Okay to have them. Circumstances in life are going to bring you these feelings. It’s important to take those moments of. 

Kitty Bravo
Stillness, be present in the feelings and let them go. Be aware of them and let them go. 

Kitty Bravo
And then forgive yourself if it takes a little longer to let them go than usual. One of the sayings I’ve had for. 

Kitty Bravo
Years is I have to forgive myself for being human. 

Kitty Bravo
You know, sometimes I’m just, you know, I am human. Well, actually, you know, I believe and you may have heard this statement, and it’s attributed to a lot of different. 

Kitty Bravo
People, I believe we’re spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience or seeking a spiritual experience. We are already the spiritual beings, but. 

Kitty Bravo
Sometimes here we are on planet Earth. 

Kitty Bravo
We’Re just a little too human. And we have to be willing to let that go and be grateful because being human gives us many opportunities as well. 

Kitty Bravo
So let me come back to my. 

Kitty Bravo
Screen share and we’ll talk about this. 

Kitty Bravo
Next point, which is kind of, I’ve already talked about it a little bit. But it’s easy to be grateful for the positives in life, but there’s great. 

Kitty Bravo
Value and seeking the positives even in the most challenging situations. Gratitude amidst challenging experiences can retrain the brain and can be a major and interrupter of neural pathways resulting from negative experiences. 

Kitty Bravo
So this is an important concept. A lot of what I’m talking about today are concepts. 

Kitty Bravo
So the question is, how do you make this real? 

Kitty Bravo
And so I’m hoping that you guys. 

Kitty Bravo
Are going to have some ideas, you know, how do we make this real? 

Kitty Bravo
Think for a moment about a challenge. 

Kitty Bravo
That something that’s really been hard for you in life or something that’s hard in your school right now, a child, that’s a challenge. 

Kitty Bravo
A teacher, that’s a challenge. 

Kitty Bravo
A parent, that’s a challenge. 

Kitty Bravo
How do you, how can you be grateful for that? 

Kitty Bravo
How can you find the positives in that? Does anybody have any thoughts? 

Cassi Mackey
Well, Kitty, I, you know, some of you guys know I’ve been take. Helping take care of my dad who’s in heart failure and my mom just got recently, just got diagnosed with cancer. And so they live in another state. And so we’ve been, my sister and I and my nieces and my husband being caretaking. And so I call it heartbreakingly beautiful time. And it’s it. We really had to wrap our heads around finding the positive, else we would all fall apart. And there’s no time for falling apart. There’s just too much to do. And so just being able to spend this quality time with both my parents and it was forced upon us. I mean, we would always visit, but it wasn’t this consistent and for long periods of time. 

Cassi Mackey
And so we always look for the moments to tell stories and hear their stories and write down their stories and laugh about it and pull out the pictures and pull out the videos and so really finding those moments of celebrating our family, the experiences we’ve had, but also really living in the moment and enjoying the time we have together now. And this has really forced me not to Live in that why us? Why me? That negativity of it and just be grateful. And also that I have a job and my husband has a job, my sister has a job, my nieces have jobs that we’re able to spend this time with my parents. So there’s a lot to be grateful for. You just have to dig for it. 

Kitty Bravo
That’s right. 

Kitty Bravo
And I can so relate to that because I spent two years taking care. 

Kitty Bravo
Of my parents, nine months intensely taking. 

Kitty Bravo
Care of my father. 

Kitty Bravo
And it was such a precious time. 

Kitty Bravo
But sometimes when you’re in the middle of something like that, you don’t see it as precious. It’s not until you look back. So I really. I’m so happy for you. 

Kitty Bravo
That you can find the positive in that and be grateful for it. Margaret. 

Margaret Combs
First of all, Cassie, I’m sorry to hear. I know about your father. I’m sorry to hear about your mother. And I’ve been in those shoes of one was long and one was short for my parents illnesses. One of my kind of guiding lights, my grounding. I literally have grounding and gratitude in my daily plan just before I journal trying to. Ten minutes at least. But where I sit with gratitude or with a conflict, Kitty, as you asked, is I try to respond to when I’m having, like I’m having that sensation in my body or the resistance or the frustration. Thank you for the opportunity to. So if it’s a conflict with another human, thank you for the opportunity to go deeper and learn more how to share my needs, whatever the situation is. 

Margaret Combs
I was laughing with my partner one day, I was driving and somebody cut me off. And in the middle of a sentence I go, thank you for the opportunity to practice patience. 

Kitty Bravo
But it’s kind of. 

Margaret Combs
But you can grow through these moments if you want to, if you put yourself in that framework. And I do think that gratitude forces us to be present. 

Kitty Bravo
It’s. 

Margaret Combs
It’s not. And I. I understand, Kitty, what you’re saying is positivity is different, but it’s not just be positive, it’ll be okay. And kind of surpass the emotion. Gratitude is actually being in the emotion awareness of the reality and making a really conscious choice to find meaning in this alone. 

Kitty Bravo
Beautifully said. 

Kitty Bravo
Thank you, Margaret. Thank you. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah. It occurred to me in thinking about this that recently I was sick and I had, you know, a cough and a cold. And you know how. I’m sure you all know how that is. 

Kitty Bravo
You just feel miserable and you think. 

Kitty Bravo
Will I ever feel good again? And the same thing happens when we’re going through those really challenging situations, we wonder, will I ever feel good again? 

Kitty Bravo
Will this end? 

Kitty Bravo
So if nothing else, we can be grateful because we do know it will end. We may not know when. We may not know how it will end. 

Kitty Bravo
And if we’re open to it, we’ll learn a lot from it. 

Kitty Bravo
Anybody else have any other thoughts about how do we get through these challenges with some positivity, with some gratitude? 

Cassi Mackey
So, Kitty, I just wanted to bring something up that friends and I were discussing just the other day about contentment. And so there was kind of, you know, back and forth about, you know, people don’t want to be content. And. And I was saying that contentment, I don’t think is a dirty word, but I really believe that gratitude is the. How like Margaret was saying is it’s the act of practice, kind of a noticing where you’re at that moment. And. And contentment, I think, is the state of being, and it’s just being present and being in that moment and not reaching for the next thing or reaching for, why me? Why me? Or being that victim or being negative. It’s just being content in the moment. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah. 

Kitty Bravo
And Lolita says that her savior is connecting in the higher power and asking for guidance. So whatever that is for you. One of my spiritual teachers at the retreat talks about, even if you’re atheist. 

Kitty Bravo
You believe in energy. 

Kitty Bravo
So if nothing else, believe in the. 

Kitty Bravo
Creative energy that surrounds us all. You know, find something that, I mean. 

Kitty Bravo
That can give you comfort. I know some years ago, when I was going through a really challenging time, and somebody who was just becoming a. 

Kitty Bravo
Friend said to me, because she knew. 

Kitty Bravo
A lot of what was going on. 

Kitty Bravo
And she said, how. 

Kitty Bravo
I don’t understand. How are you getting through this? How are you so positive? And I said, because I have absolute. 

Kitty Bravo
Faith that this is exactly what’s supposed to happen. And it may not be easy, and it may be painful, but because I. 

Kitty Bravo
Trust that it’s what’s supposed to be. 

Kitty Bravo
Happening, then I can get through this, and I think that really can help make a difference. Yes. And Lolita says you get answers if you have faith. 

Kitty Bravo
And, you know, those answers come from within us. And Fazida says I always have to remember these. These phrases. 

Kitty Bravo
Oh, I lost it. 

Kitty Bravo
It was popped up. 

Cassi Mackey
I always have to remember these phrases in my faith. With hardship, there is ease, and if you are grateful, I will give you more. I try to take at least five reset opportunities in a day to feel grounded and reflect. 

Kitty Bravo
And, you know, everybody can have your own way to do. 

Kitty Bravo
That, you know, I mean, it’s. 

Kitty Bravo
It may be you go outside and take some deep breaths. Maybe you will go out and take your shoes off and put your feet in the grass. Maybe not right now where it’s snowy in so many parts of the world, but I’m here in Florida. I could go out and do earthing, you know, put my feet on the ground just about every day. Maybe it’s that you want to sit quiet and read an inspirational quote, whatever. 

Kitty Bravo
It is, but something that grounds you. 

Kitty Bravo
That centers you, that brings you back to the positive, no matter what else is going on. 

Kitty Bravo
And, you know, that’s just critical for. 

Kitty Bravo
Us getting through and for setting that tone. Because one of the things I wanted to say about this idea of a gratitude positioning system is that we as leaders in our organizations, in our schools or in our classrooms, if you’re a teacher and your family as leaders, we set the tone. So if your position is gratitude, that’s going to make a huge difference in. 

Kitty Bravo
Your environment, in your situation. 

Kitty Bravo
And so when problems occur, we can either get caught in the negativities. Cassie was saying all the what ifs. And, you know, what if I’d done something different? And we can focus on the negative. 

Kitty Bravo
Or we can look for the solutions. 

Kitty Bravo
And if you focus on the solution. And I say that all the time now. Somebody said it at the retreat I. 

Kitty Bravo
Was at, focus on the solution. And, you know, so, you know, my. 

Kitty Bravo
Kids or somebody is talking about some problem. 

Kitty Bravo
I said, what’s the solution? Focus on the solution. I have a friend who’s moving. 

Kitty Bravo
She’s 77. She’s lived in the place for a long time. She’s got a lot of stuff. 

Kitty Bravo
She’s in panic because she doesn’t think. 

Kitty Bravo
She’S going to be able to get it all done. 

Kitty Bravo
I said, you’re focusing on the negative. What’s the solution? The solution is you just keep working at it steady. You get help, and you get it done. Focus on the solution and be grateful. 

Kitty Bravo
So one of the things I was thinking about with the importance of being present as part of our gratitude positioning. 

Kitty Bravo
System, what gets in the way? 

Kitty Bravo
And we’ve kind of talked about the things that get in the way. But does anybody have any other thoughts of what keeps us out of the present? Because it’s pretty amazing that we can walk through life day after day and. 

Kitty Bravo
Not even be where we are mentally. You know. 

Kitty Bravo
Does anybody have any thoughts about that? So I think, again, Cassie touched on that. 

Kitty Bravo
But I think if you really think. 

Kitty Bravo
About what are we doing in the present that’s not in the present. We’re either grousing and feeling guilty and wishing we could change what happened. 

Kitty Bravo
The past, the if only this could have happened, or we are stuck in. 

Kitty Bravo
The what ifs, planning for some future. 

Kitty Bravo
That will never come. 

Kitty Bravo
The future you are planning will never. 

Kitty Bravo
Come because when we get there’s always surprises. It’s not the future you planned. 

Kitty Bravo
Now please get me right here. 

Kitty Bravo
I’m not saying don’t plan. 

Kitty Bravo
And planning is something that you do in the present and you do it much better if you really are present. 

Kitty Bravo
If you’re clear minded and you can plan, but you always have to plan knowing you can’t. 

Kitty Bravo
I guess my point is don’t obsess. 

Kitty Bravo
Over it because all those things you’re obsessing over are likely not to happen or to be different. And those are the things that keep. 

Kitty Bravo
Us out of the present. Ha ha, good point. We are on our phones immediate get away and it gets us out of the present. I have started a practice that when I reach for my phone I try. I can’t say I do this every time, but I try at least some of the time. 

Kitty Bravo
I to stop myself. 

Kitty Bravo
And instead I have a mantra that I do as part of my meditation. 

Kitty Bravo
And so my plan is when I. 

Kitty Bravo
Feel myself reaching for the phone because we do it out of habit, there’s nothing else going on. You’re watching television, you get a little bored with the show, you reach for the phone. You’re at a stoplight, you reach for the phone. And yet we shame on us. And I don’t believe in shaming people, but shame on us because we’re the ones saying kids need to be off screens. And yet what do we model? Constantly being on screens. And so I’ve got this practice that I’m working on as part of my gratitude plan for 2026 to take a. 

Kitty Bravo
Moment of silence, be grateful and look within instead of picking up that phone. And then maybe I won’t even pick it up. Then maybe I’ll just say no, never mind, let me do something else. Yeah. 

Kitty Bravo
Okay, let’s see. 

Kitty Bravo
I have other things and to share what and I don’t remember what. I don’t remember what is next in my slides. So that makes it interesting for me. So oops, I lost it. 

Kitty Bravo
I’ve got to get the people out of the way. So there’s a few slots slides here just for fun about what gratitude does for us. So gratitude enhances our well being. Gratitude heals one pts study Found gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
Plays a key role in overcoming trauma. 

Kitty Bravo
And I’m going to put a PDF of this presentation in the chat before we leave. And so if you want like there’s the URL for the studies and the quotes that I’ve used so you can see that and gratitude, it all. 

Kitty Bravo
Begins in our head with thankful thinking, practicing thankful thinking. 

Kitty Bravo
And so I, you know, I always like to think of our triad that we Montessori triad. And I’m often, I was thinking about this because I was thinking GPS as a triad and thinking the triangle is such a strong. 

Kitty Bravo
Force, it’s such a. 

Kitty Bravo
Strong, you know, if you’re building. 

Kitty Bravo
With triangles is, it gives strength. 

Kitty Bravo
So so often we have these triads. And so the benefit of gratitude is both in psychological well being, a happier you, it actually can help you better physically fit. You’ll be more likely to exercise, to get up and walk, to do healthy. 

Kitty Bravo
Things if you are grateful and then your emotional well being. 

Kitty Bravo
I’ll take a moment here since we’re looking at a triad, to tell you again something from my retreat. And one of the teachers used the analogy, only he being Indian, said the. 

Kitty Bravo
Analogy, the. 

Kitty Bravo
Analogy of a three wheeled vehicle. 

Kitty Bravo
He said, for balance and equipoise in. 

Kitty Bravo
Life that think of your life as a three wheel vehicle. The front wheel is your spiritual life. 

Kitty Bravo
And don’t we know that. 

Kitty Bravo
Montessori emphasized that importance of the spiritual preparation. It can be religious and your faith, as some of you mentioned, if that’s who you are and how you relate, but it can also be your inner guidance. So the front wheel is your spiritual life. The back two wheels are your personal. 

Kitty Bravo
Life, your relationships, your family, your close friends. And the other wheel is your work, whether it’s an actual job or for. 

Kitty Bravo
People like Nancy, who’s retired. 

Kitty Bravo
Your, you know, the things you do. 

Kitty Bravo
Outside of family and you know that is to give you purpose and meaning. 

Kitty Bravo
And make a contribution. 

Kitty Bravo
And he said that you need all three of those wheels and you operate. 

Kitty Bravo
Best if they’re in balance, but you want the spiritual wheel at the front, guiding, setting the course. 

Kitty Bravo
And then he said now sometimes in life one of those other two wheels. 

Kitty Bravo
Might need a little more attention than the others. One might be a little wobbly and. 

Kitty Bravo
The vehicle will still work if it’s. 

Kitty Bravo
Wobbly, but if one of them is flat, one of the wheel tires is flat, you’re not going anywhere. So we need balance and we need. 

Kitty Bravo
To take care of all three of. 

Kitty Bravo
These aspects of our life, which even. 

Kitty Bravo
Is represented to a Certain degree here our psychological, our physical, our emotional, spiritual, our physical life and how we sustain ourselves with work and sustain ourselves mentally. 

Kitty Bravo
And our emotional well being, which could also include our social connections. 

Kitty Bravo
Again, about the benefits of gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
Your. 

Kitty Bravo
Brain on gratitude wires and fires. 

Kitty Bravo
New neural connections to the Bliss Center. 

Kitty Bravo
It fosters cognitive restructuring by evoking positive thinking. 

Kitty Bravo
It enhances dopamine, serotonin and neurotransmitters responsible for happiness. And it reduces fear and anxiety by regulating the stress hormones. 

Kitty Bravo
And there is an intimate connection between. 

Kitty Bravo
The heart and the brain. 

Kitty Bravo
This isn’t just the heart as in metaphorically speaking, the actual physical heart. 

Kitty Bravo
There is a neuro, neural, super power superhighway connecting the brain and the heart. 

Kitty Bravo
This comes from the Institute of Heart Math and I have the URL here. Really cool research and information if you haven’t ever visited their site before. And there are thousands of neurons that go from the heart to the brain. 

Kitty Bravo
In this superhighway, sending signals for higher. 

Kitty Bravo
Cognition affecting our emotional centers and our well being. And one of the first things I ever heard of years and years ago from the Institute of Heart Math was a study they did on brain heart transplants. And people waking up from a heart. 

Kitty Bravo
Transplant with memories and ideas that they had never had before. And when they learn about their heart recipient, they find out that these were characteristics of that person the heart remembers. The heart has intelligence, the heart has much more to it. There’s that connection between the heart and brain is so important. 

Kitty Bravo
So we have to nurture the heart. 

Kitty Bravo
And gratitude does that. 

Kitty Bravo
So the Heart Math Institute talks about something called heartbeat variability and heart coherence. 

Kitty Bravo
And that’s the steady rhythm, the kind. 

Kitty Bravo
Of that comes in that focused moment. 

Kitty Bravo
In that quiet, focused moment. 

Kitty Bravo
And it helps to create that positive emotion and generates what they call heart coherence. And that activity we did a little. 

Kitty Bravo
While ago while we and I took. 

Kitty Bravo
It a little farther with smiling the heart through your body. But you can take just that 60 second moment. And I think last week, Margaret, you. 

Kitty Bravo
Were talking about taking a moment to be grateful. 

Kitty Bravo
So just taking 60 seconds, breathing deeply and remembering someone or something you’re grateful. 

Kitty Bravo
For helps bring that heart to that. 

Kitty Bravo
Calm place, that same calm place that. 

Kitty Bravo
Meditation and contemplation and prayer takes us to. And it’s extremely helpful to us and our bodies. 

Kitty Bravo
And then the research also suggests that people who practice gratitude have a lower risk of depression and anxiety. There’s less abuse of all types. They have better coping and management strategies. 

Kitty Bravo
In major illness and recover faster their. 

Kitty Bravo
Immune system is stronger. They have more physical and mental vigor. 

Kitty Bravo
And vitality and it makes them more likely to exercise. 

Kitty Bravo
So, hey, this gratitude thing I think is kind of valuable. Now I’m gonna skip through. Oh, it’s also a relationship energizer. I can’t talk. I’m gonna skip through a few things. I’m gonna let you know what’s there so you can go through and see it on your own. There’s a definition of institutional gratitude, which I think is really cool. And that’s when it’s culturally embedded in. 

Kitty Bravo
Your organization and where you consciously, the. 

Kitty Bravo
People, the policies, the practices are consciously. 

Kitty Bravo
Focused around thankfulness and appreciation and that becomes a habit and a custom in your work. 

Kitty Bravo
And then I wanted to point this out. We’re not going to spend time on. 

Kitty Bravo
It, but if you want to go. 

Kitty Bravo
Back to it later, if you’re familiar. 

Kitty Bravo
With the book and the work on. 

Kitty Bravo
The five Love Languages by Gary Chapman, he has a whole book on appreciation and that there are five avenues of. 

Kitty Bravo
Appreciation and they dovetail the five love languages. And so you can read more about those and it’ll give you more ideas about how to be grateful and how to practice gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
And we’ve already talked about being present. 

Kitty Bravo
But that power of being in the. 

Kitty Bravo
Now, the gratitude really can only happen. 

Kitty Bravo
When you’re truly present. 

Kitty Bravo
And then compassion, we’re not going to talk about that. But I have to read this quote because it’s one of my all time favorites. It comes from Elizabeth Gilbert, the Eat, Love, Pray person. She says if we try to see. 

Kitty Bravo
With the most generous eyes, searching for the truth. 

Kitty Bravo
Yes. 

Kitty Bravo
But then bestowing upon the truth the brightest and kindest interpretation, we can learn how to perceive a more beautiful world. Do that and I promise you this, you will get to live in one. I love that. 

Kitty Bravo
All right, I’m gonna stop screen sharing again. Well, this one you’re familiar with from Montessori. Concentrate on strengthening and helping the development of what is good in the child. 

Kitty Bravo
And then there’s less and less room for, she says, the evil, you know, for the bad. And this is true with adults. It’s true with your situations in life. If you concentrate on the positive, there’ll be less and less room for the negative. And that’s, you know, where we need to be. And now I totally forgot I was. 

Kitty Bravo
Going to come off of this so we could talk about something and I. 

Kitty Bravo
My mind’s just gone blank. So I guess we’ll just, you know, be blank. 

Kitty Bravo
And that’s a Positive thing. Anybody have any thoughts? Because we’re going to be wrapping up. 

Kitty Bravo
Real soon about how to practice this and make it real in your lives. 

Kitty Bravo
One of the things that I thought. 

Kitty Bravo
About in thinking about getting through those negative situations is that if we can. 

Kitty Bravo
Try to practice gratitude and look for. 

Kitty Bravo
The positive, we’ll begin to see the silver threads, you know, the silver threads of hope that come through everything, come from with everything. And we. We need more hope, and we need. 

Kitty Bravo
To be hopeful in creating those positive. 

Kitty Bravo
Environments because our children need that. You know, we’re going to make the changes that need to be made. 

Kitty Bravo
It begins with us having our gratitude positioning system in place so that we. 

Kitty Bravo
Can bring that to the classrooms. 

Kitty Bravo
That reminds me what I was going to tell you about. You know, I love it when I’m working on something like this, and it just seems the synergy, you know, what the universe provides. All of a sudden, almost everything I pick up to read or I turn on NPR yesterday in the car, and there’s a segment and they were talking about protest. 

Kitty Bravo
And the person. 

Kitty Bravo
And I never did get who they were interviewing, the person that they were interviewing was talking about the protests of. 

Kitty Bravo
The civil rights movement. And she said something really amazing. 

Kitty Bravo
She said that between protests, because these were people committed to protesting peacefully. 

Kitty Bravo
Of course, not all of them, but the majority. 

Kitty Bravo
And she said between the protests, they didn’t stop working. 

Kitty Bravo
They worked on their spiritual hygiene. 

Kitty Bravo
Isn’t that a great term? And I invite you to Google it, because I had to look it up. And I always like to find a definition. I’m not going to take the time to share it, but the actual definition. But what I get from it, we think about hygiene. We take time to, you know, wash our hair and clean our body, make sure we smell good, and, you know, we dress for the occasion. All those things we do to have. 

Kitty Bravo
Good hygiene and a good appearance, how. 

Kitty Bravo
Do we do that spiritually? 

Kitty Bravo
And what she said, which was so. 

Kitty Bravo
Powerful, is that they did this because. 

Kitty Bravo
They knew that when they went back. 

Kitty Bravo
To the protest, if they had done this spiritual work, they would be able to see the people they were protesting against, the things they were protesting to change. Change. The people who were causing so much. 

Kitty Bravo
Harm, they would be able to see them with compassion and love. 

Kitty Bravo
So this work we do for our. 

Kitty Bravo
Spiritual hygiene isn’t that. 

Kitty Bravo
And when you see the definition that came up for me, you know, AI these days provides us lots of nice definitions. And it was like, clearly the definition of what the spiritual preparation of the. 

Kitty Bravo
Adult is that working on our mindfulness, working on understanding who we are, reflecting on what we’re bringing to situations. And are we bringing our presence? Are we bringing gratitude or are we fueling the fires? And I know again, we have. 

Kitty Bravo
We’re getting close to the end. I want to get to the last couple of slides, so I’m going to scoot through. 

Cassi Mackey
And. 

Kitty Bravo
This is a slide about getting through the difficult times. Again, you can read the quote later, but I put the image of the. 

Kitty Bravo
Rose with the thorns. 

Kitty Bravo
You know that the thorns are there for a reason. 

Kitty Bravo
They protect the rose. The difficult times help us grow and maybe protect us some. 

Kitty Bravo
So years ago, a friend of mine, we gave a talk, and in it. 

Kitty Bravo
She talked about gratefulness. And she said with practice, we can change thinking from something we do to a quality, a characteristic of who we are. 

Kitty Bravo
Living in a perpetual state of gratitude. 

Kitty Bravo
Recognizing every moment, every breath is a gift. So instead of being thankful, we are thankful. Instead of working towards being thankful, instead of just thinking of being thankful, it. 

Kitty Bravo
Becomes a habit of who. 

Kitty Bravo
And it becomes who we are. We really will be thankful and grateful. And so if I can get this to turn to the last one. 

Kitty Bravo
So our Gratitude positioning system. 

Kitty Bravo
Oops, did I. 

Kitty Bravo
Did we lose the. Did you lose the picture? Okay. What that. 

Cassi Mackey
He lost it. 

Kitty Bravo
All right, let me try again. 

Cassi Mackey
Okay. 

Kitty Bravo
Down to the end. There we go. 

Kitty Bravo
I’m not going to make it full screen. But our Gratitude positioning system is about gratitude presence, stillness. But I made the S this time, Self care. 

Kitty Bravo
Because if we’re not taking care of ourselves, it’s really, we’re not going to get anywhere. 

Kitty Bravo
And so I invite you to practice. 

Kitty Bravo
This GPS and to look for gps, which I’m calling your Gratitude partner for Self Care. 

Kitty Bravo
Look for a partner. Look for somebody who you can go to and talk about what you’re grateful for. 

Kitty Bravo
You can talk about how to look. 

Kitty Bravo
For the positives in life, how to be present. Many, many years ago, Kathy Leach and I, were at an IMC conference. 

Kitty Bravo
And it was the end of the. 

Kitty Bravo
Conference, and we’re sitting in a little cafe having breakfast, and we’re talking about the things that we’re hoping to do to take better care of ourselves. And we decided to become what I’m calling now, Gratitude Partners for Self Care. And we would call each other once. 

Kitty Bravo
A week and tell each other what we had done to take care of ourselves. 

Kitty Bravo
So I invite you to do that because taking care of yourself is something. 

Kitty Bravo
To really be grateful for and will help you to get your Gratitude positioning system working at Its optimum. 

Kitty Bravo
So that’s all I have and I’m going to take a moment if anybody has any comments. 

Kitty Bravo
I’m going to find the PowerPoint presentation. 

Kitty Bravo
The, the PDF of the presentation and see if I can put it in the chat. 

Kitty Bravo
I don’t know if I can or not. I’m gonna try. 

Cassi Mackey
Okay. While you do that, I just wanted to thank all of you for joining us today. And we hope that this conversation will continue to resonate and percolate in your heart and inspire you to remember to turn on your gps. I just want to remind you that this session has been recorded and will be available for IMC members on their website. I also put a link in the very beginning of IMCs learning and enrichment platform. So please go check that out because they have a lot of great things on there for you to become involved in. Next week, Kathy will be back and we are so excited to have Ann Epstein and she’s going to be speaking about supporting young children through trauma informed teaching, which is going to be extraordinary. 

Cassi Mackey
And if you can, you know, get some teachers to join, that would be great. I know they’ll be in class or make sure you at least get the recordings so that they can share in what we learned next week. And we look forward to seeing you then. Anybody have any last words for Kitty? You’re getting a lot of thank yous, Kitty, and Kitty was able to get into get her PDF into the chat, so make sure you pull that up. Anybody have any last minute words? 

Kitty Bravo
I want to just put a plug in. I hope you all know about the IMC retreat, leadership retreat coming up in April and it’s in Catskills. It’s at an absolutely beautiful school in. 

Kitty Bravo
The mountains and it’s going to be. 

Kitty Bravo
A wonderful weekend. If you go to the IMC website. 

Kitty Bravo
Website imc montessori.org you can get information about that. I hope that you’ll come. It’s going to be a really special time. 

Cassi Mackey
Well, I am grateful to you, Kitty, for spending your morning with us and I’m grateful for all of you for being in communion with us today. It always fills the heart and the soul. So I am grateful to all of you. So have a wonderful rest of your week and we’ll see you next Wednesday. 

Kitty Bravo
Yes. 

Cassi Mackey
Bye everyone. Thanks, Miss Kitty. Wonderful as always. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah, it was fun. 

Cassi Mackey
Hi, Nancy. Hi. 

Nancy Smith
I had to come late. I’m sorry. I had another meeting. But I’m glad. I’m very grateful I got the last part of it. So thanks, Kitty. 

Kitty Bravo
You’re welcome. 

Cassi Mackey
All right, see you guys. 

Kitty Bravo
Bye, Cassie. Thank you for hosting. 

Cassi Mackey
Of course. I love it. Bye. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Hello, everyone. Happy New Year. Great to see you all here. We’re very happy to have our first 2026 and leadership forum here. And I have some fabulous ladies here. I love to see a lot of familiar faces and some that I don’t know. I am Mali Pena. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I am the IMC Chief Operating officer. 

Maly Pena, IMC
And I was like, what is my title now? And I’m here hosting a good crowd of our amazing board ladies because we. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Have, like, good revolutions, good inspiration, and we want to talk about how do we inspire our teams throughout the beginning of this year to make good and substantial change. 

Patty Sobelman
Let me. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I’m gonna start the recording. And I’m gonna start introducing. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So I have here. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I’m going to introduce them as I see them on my grid. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So first, Patty Sobelman. She is the head of Pines Montessori School in Texas and one of our board members. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Then there’s Martha Carver here as well from Rock Prairie Montessori, head of Rock. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Prairie Montessori and another board member. And here we have as well, Kitty Bravo, the director. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Never know your title. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Director of Education for CGMS and also a board member. And I see three people that are always with us here. Cassie Maki in Phoenix, Renee Shane park is in Boston, and Nancy Smith here. 

Maly Pena, IMC
That is a regular for all of us. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So welcome everyone. And I’m going to immediately pass it to Kitty because I think this is a topic that is going to bring. 

Maly Pena, IMC
In a lot of discussion and I don’t want to spend any time with anything else before you. 

Kitty Bravo
Before I. I give you a quote for the day. Molly, will you read the title again of this one? Because the title, as were talking about it, that’ll take half the meeting. Actually. It’s a long title. 

Maly Pena, IMC
It is. 

Kitty Bravo
I think it, you know, kind of remind us what we’re talking about here today. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Absolutely. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I can do that. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So the title is, can Montessori Learning Communities make New Year’s Resolutions that inspire. 

Maly Pena, IMC
People to think interact and work in new and better ways. How leaders guide staff to repurpose their organizations. There you go. 

Kitty Bravo
Thank you, Molly. So with that in mind, and also kind of keeping in mind that possibly, maybe some of you don’t agree with me, but possibly the world needs some repurposing and the world needs some inspiration right now. So let’s, in the spirit of IMC tradition, take a moment of silence to breathe in some peace for ourselves and for the world. Okay, so I have a quote from Brene Brown and she always has Some good wisdom for us. And I thought this was a good quote when we’re thinking about inspiration for the new year, and it says, don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because the world needs its people who have come alive. 

Kitty Bravo
And I liked that because that idea of we’re going to initiate change in the world or in our schools, you know, first we have to ignite passion, you know, which is what coming alive means to me. You know, get that spark going. And hopefully our faculties come back from breaks, refreshed, not too frazzled, from maybe a lot of crazy things in their lives around the holidays, but hopefully with some refreshment and coming in refreshed if we can remind them why we do this work. 

Margaret Combs
And. 

Kitty Bravo
You know, I just think that inspiration goes a long way, keeping ourselves inspired and finding those things we love. This past year, I read a book called Love and Work, and I can’t remember who wrote it. I’ll have to go look it up. And one of the things it talks about is if we really find real, specifically what are the things that we love, then we do those things. We’ll be happier in our work. Our faculty will be happier if, you know, if it’s that they love. They really love that connection with children and showing them the new lessons, or maybe it’s that they love their communication skills with parents, kids, faculty, whatever. I mean, if we really highlight what people love and what they’re good at, inspire them, that goes a long way. So that’s my 2 cents worth right now. Maybe. 

Kitty Bravo
We’ll see if anybody has any comments right away to the quote or what I’ve said or the thoughts of the day. And then I know Martha has something to share and remember. You can raise your hand electronically or just like, wave frantically at us if you have something to say. And if nobody has anything to say. Martha, you want to share? 

Patty Sobelman
Yeah, sure. 

Martha Carver
Thanks, Kitty. It’s always timely to think at this time of year about our communities and ourselves. And it’s a time of reflection, historically, with many cultures over. Over this time, of what they might call darkness, meaning winter, that sort of thing wherever you live. And one of the things I think is valuable is in our world keeping an eye on the keepers of the light and looking at our schools and seeing who could use some inspiration, some ignition in their careers. And this is the time when I’m normally starting to look at where we’re reconnecting with staff and talking about plans for next year inspiration. What more do they Want to learn, professional development goals, etc. 

Martha Carver
And I was just talking with my assistant principal director of education about an individual that we think needs some spark, that some of the light has gone out, that it is just plain hard. And so were looking for where can that inspiration come from? And sometimes it is from quotes and sometimes it is from opportunities. So know that there are opportunities out there that might be a little different from what that person normally may do or may dovetail. One of the guides I was talking to that has been struggling with a rather active toddler class. And she’s been doing this for a long time, but you can tell it’s starting to wear on her and you have all kinds of decisions to make at that time and supports. 

Martha Carver
But what I found valuable today because I sent out a reflection form and, you know, on what are your goals and where do you see yourself in five years? And many other things. She came forward to say, I want to learn more about occupational therapy and toddler. I want to know more about the why, which was a huge instead of just a. This is overwhelming to me. So that’s something in this time of year to celebrate and that spark and do so to me, even not knowing Kitty’s quote, I circle back to that is something I will share with her and say, you know, let’s look for what you can do instead of always what is happening or I can’t control. Where can I go further to learn more about my craft? 

Martha Carver
And that dovetails into what I like to do as a head of school is I actually like being with children the most out of everything I do. And that is limited, but I do make time for it. And so one of the gifts I gave myself to stir that passion years ago was to have a regular class with lower L and upper L. And we called it peace class. And it’s mostly social, emotional learning. And it’s. I take a varied amount of resources to put the class together. And sometimes it’s the menu of the day, knowing enough of what’s going on the playground or with the family or with the region, and the children want to talk about it and talk about it. 

Martha Carver
And obviously there’s a big developmental difference between lower L and upper L. Sometimes the same tenants apply of talking about attributes like compassion or generosity or pride. And recently I’ve been feeling that heavy feeling of what in God’s name is this world coming to and how are we going to. How are we going to get ahead in some way, shape or form? And that feeling of this isn’t what I signed up for, what’s going on in our world. And I have to watch that in my own mental and physical health to not have it take you down, to not dwell on it too much. But then what is the action? And so I’m more determined than ever to have action, to try to affect change of what’s going on in the world. But I also need something to help me with that inspiration. 

Martha Carver
And I found it online. I think it was before. It was certainly before the holidays, and it was on social media, but I found it out in other sites. And it’s called Walk for Peace. And it is a group of monks that venerable monks that left are walking from Texas to Washington, D.C. and following their journey has been fascinating. They walk silently. They eat one meal a day. They are put up by whomever is local. In the beginning, they also camped. They had some tragedy along the way. One of their members was injured in a car accident which required an amputation. And yet the monks keep walking. They have chosen a route, working with local authorities that is safe, but is also intentional, as venerable monks would be intentional in their one foot in front of another. As they walk for peace. 

Martha Carver
They’ve been greeted by communities who have been so moved by their silence and their sacrifice. And where it has been warm, they have walked barefoot where they could. They have worn shoes when they can. I’ve noticed today as they go into North Carolina, they have cats, they have a dog. The dog just had surgery. It’s very interesting and it’s very interesting and moving to see the reactions of others. And yes, they have run into some hate along the way as well. However, they persevere, they keep going. And so with my peace class, I thought, how do I share that not knowing? You know, this is kind of your. Your leap of faith, not knowing if there’s going to be anything, any political ramifications with this group. I can’t guarantee what they’re doing or not doing or anything that could be difficult. 

Martha Carver
And yet I found it is worth sharing. And so I shared. I thought about how to share it first with the upper L. And usually I mill things around in my head for a little while and then just do. And that’s what I did. And so I walked into the room and asked if they would get some dictionaries. And the students did. And I said, and we need an atlas. And they had an atlas. And one said, can’t we just, you know, I could get one of the Chromebooks, of which there’s not many in that room and I could look it up. And I said, well, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this the old school way. 

Martha Carver
And it was fascinating to me to watch the executive function skills of a group of children looking up, what is the word monk mean? What is venerable mean? What does Buddhism mean? And they looked up those three terms with the having help from each other, naturally, which was delightful to watch, and then shared the meaning. And then the students with the atlas said, how can you find a route between Texas and Washington, D.C. and they scurried around and got their atlas and then moved their fingers and said, we think it’s this. And then went through the States. They thought I didn’t know that the week before, the upper L teachers were really pushing dictionary skills. So it was like our brains were aligned, which was a lot of fun. But it added such a warm component to and a valuable component to the story. 

Martha Carver
And then I told the story with just a picture that they walked around in. And every week when I have this class, we talk about the progress. And I’ve had students in the hallway say, I had my mom look it up and she showed me and we’re really excited. But Ms. Martha, do you know that there’s a monk that has black blisters on his feet? And my mom’s a nurse and she’s worried about that. And so it was delightful how it came about and we’re on that journey. So I welcome you all to consider and spread the word that sometimes involving children in something that is going to be uncertain, that is going to have ups and downs, but is real and inspiring and fitting for peace in Montessori is valuable and delightful and it is warmed my soul and many of theirs. 

Martha Carver
So that’s what I have to share. Any comments or questions or thoughts. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I see here? Cindy Curry says that her school. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Some of our lower elementary students are on a. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Are going out today to see the Walk for Peace. 

Martha Carver
Wow. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yeah. And I know as well that I. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Don’T know if you remember Anna Robbie Shaw from Harbor Oaks. She was also hosting the monks. They were. They went to see them and they brought them food and everything. So it. It’s so aligned with Montessori. Right. That I think it helps. 

Patty Sobelman
Yeah. 

Martha Carver
Delightful. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yes. Anybody wants to. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I have here another comment going back to Alfonso says, as a leader, I think the first reflections is how the. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Montessori core values were shared with our family during the holidays and how these reflections help us reconnect with our community. Does anybody want to give some examples. 

Maly Pena, IMC
About that, Alfonso, do you want to say something? 

Alfonso Omana
Yeah, absolutely. 

Cassi Mackey
Yeah. 

Alfonso Omana
How we share all those core values for our family. How can you align our family values and Montessori values? Because finally, we are part of family. We’re a Montessori family. And it’s important to involve all our family in the same role in our society. Finally, we need to change in a minimal impact in our community, but we can change different spaces, that we can change the world if we act locally. And it’s important. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Beautifully said, Alfonso. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Anybody else has some comments do we want to have. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I had prepared some questions for us to reflect and discuss on. Let me find them. 

Maly Pena, IMC
My 3000 tabs. 

Patty Sobelman
Here they are. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So I wanted to ask you, and it has to do with what Martha. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Was mentioning as well with what Kitty was mentioning, how can we help staff repurpose their daily work so they doesn’t feel that it’s just busy, but rather meaningful work? How can we help them repurpose that at this time, right? When it becomes. The year becomes. And then everything starts happening and everybody just goes back to the wheel. If anybody has, like, any idea of how can we do that, how can we inspire them? 

Patty Sobelman
One of the things that we’re exploring over here at Pines is that busy is not your friend. That sometimes we. So one of the conversations was about, you know, would you hang out with busy if busy was a person, would you want to best friends with busy? Because they. They’re toxic. It’s a toxic friendship. They. They want from you time that you don’t have. And they. They suck The. The life out of you. So why. Why do we choose busy? And sometimes some of the answers we got where we choose busy because. Makes us feel like we’re. That we’re useful, right? If I’m just busy, then no one can tap me on the shoulder to do something different, right? If I’m busy, then it’s like when you don’t make eye contact because you don’t want to get called on. 

Patty Sobelman
If you’re busy, then you won’t be asked to change. And, and change is hard, right? Or you won’t be asked to grow, or you won’t be asked to sit still, because if you’re busy, you can’t find me. My, My husband worked at an office that had thousands of cubicles once, and a guy always hung his. His coat on his chair, and he said, you never wear your coat. And he goes, well, if my coat’s on my chair, it looks like I’m here. And I’m busy. But if. If I’m not, then I thought, oh, my gosh, he worked so hard to demonstrate that he has value. Like, I’m always there. This guy’s here before the office opens, and he’s here when the office closes because his coat is always on his chair. So sometimes we hide behind dizzy. 

Patty Sobelman
And then that took us to this thing of. And I wrote it down because I knew I’d forget it. You lose your way when you lose your why. And so the. The question is, you know, if. If you’re busy, you’re avoiding your why, and then you lose your way. And so just spending. Spending time. What is our why? And most of us are heading into the season of. We called it continued enrollment as opposed to re. Because we’re just assuming you’re coming back, but continued enrollment and teachers are already going down the list. Well, I know they’re not coming back, and they want this, and they’re leaving. And it’s hard because we come back slightly refreshed and excited about the next semester. And then our hearts just get broken as one after another, people just start flying away. 

Patty Sobelman
And to me, it always seems a bit like that scene in Charlotte’s Web, the cartoon when all the little spiders start going, bye, Mom. Bye, bye. They all fly away, and you’re like, no, stay. But we reframed it by saying, you know what? As humans, we tend to only focus on the negative and not the preponderance of positive. So we spent time talking about, why do people stay? A lot of HR people talk about exit interviews. You know, people are leaving. Why did they leave? What could we have done better? At my daughter’s employment, they actually have stay interviews. And stay interviews are, you know, how are we doing? And what can get you to be here another three to five years? Like, what other things can we provide for you? 

Patty Sobelman
And so we’re kind of playing in that field of what, why do people stay? And. And you’re going to get some of those uncomfortable answers like, well, the school is close and our fees aren’t that expensive, but it might be that they love us. And. And that was like the very last answer that came out of People was, what if we’re really awesome and they love us, but so what is the why? And just kind of keep washing over that. And. And because we kept doing the why. It was, well, that actually is just busy work, and that isn’t who we are. And so we kind of start dismissing that. And the word we use at Pines is Uncomplicating things. It’s just uncomplicating things and just asking the why under the question until we get to just the one point. 

Patty Sobelman
So we feel right now, what, week two of the new year, a bit lighter and a bit more positive because we’re now kind of exploring, you know what, that’s busy knocking on our door, and we’re going to say, no, we don’t need that. So that’s my two and a half cents for what’s got us through two and a half weeks of the new year. 

Kitty Bravo
Your comments about busy reminds me that we do not give ourselves permission to do nothing. And we need to give ourselves permission to do nothing. And there, you know, there’s wonderful power and renewal and stillness and quiet. And yet we think we need to be doing something all the time. And of course, that’s really not what we want our teachers to be doing. And I don’t know how many teachers I have heard, when asked, asking them, why are you not observing more? Many will tell you they’re so concerned administration or parents are going to come by and see that I’m just sitting here and think I’m not doing my job. 

Kitty Bravo
But our job is sometimes to do nothing, both in doing that important work of observing, but also maybe we can turn that around and say that doing nothing, taking a nothing break in the middle of the day just to sit and breathe, and then you observe yourself and giving our teachers permission to do that and time to do that, I mean, I think, you know, Patty’s saying, don’t, you know, let’s don’t focus on busy, but do we fill their schedules with so much that they don’t have time to breathe? 

Cassi Mackey
Cassie so one thing that when I was a principal of a school or when I was actually a 9 to 12 teacher and I felt that disconnect or that my spirit was waning or I need it to be rejuvenated, I always turn to reconnecting with the students. And so that always came in the form of fun and play and sometimes all morning long. And sometimes we would invite parents to come and play kickball with us for the day or dodgeball. They love playing dodgeball, but I think it’s really important. And then I took that into my greater staff and it was an invitation. And it kind of goes back to what you’re saying, Kitty, about afraid to observe or afraid to take a moment because people will think something of you. 

Cassi Mackey
And I think leadership needs to remind teachers and Educators to connect with their children in that fun, joyful. And I love Martha always using the word delightful way. And make that part of the culture of your school. Because there is nothing better than being outside or playing board games or just laughing with your students. And it, you know, it’s, it’s. It signals readiness, it signals connection. It, it’s purposeful. And I think that it is something that needs to be integrated. And I’ve often heard people say that they love to go to the toddler classroom or to an infant classroom just to kind of get re. Regulated or to experience that joy. And so being able to create that in our own classrooms and leaders, being able to make that something that is expected or invited to, I think is really important. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I love that idea, Cassie. I think it’s so important people to be able to pause and have fun together. That creates community immediately. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Anybody else has an idea of how to do this. Anybody has a policy that they want to share about this. 

Patty Sobelman
I know one thing that I love to do is, because we do spend a lot of time like this, right, Is to get your eyes to focus on distance, right? Which also gets your brain to follow and think bigger. So I deliberately sit in our peace garden every day. We’re Houston, so the weather pretty much allows that and read. And what it does is it’s at an intersection at our school where all of the students walk by and they’re like, Ms. Patty, what are you reading? But they see that reading is important. But I’m also taking time to just, you know, change the direction that my brain is going in for the day. 

Patty Sobelman
But I think it also, to your point of what does administration expect from teachers, if when teachers see me stop doing the day job to read, then they know it’s okay for them to stop. And then I’m not going to jump to any conclusions that because they’re not doing something, you know, that they’re not doing something. And so I’ve just found that teachers will even like walk by me quietly and not interrupt me to ask me that one thing because I seem vulnerable and available, but they know that this is kind of my sacred time. And I think that we lead by example. So if you can do something that your faculty can see and that gives them permission to do that. 

Patty Sobelman
And I’ve been surprised to see teachers just at a picnic table on the other side of the campus with a book or crocheting someplace or doing some kind of activity that fuels them and gives them the energy to go back in for kind of the second half of the day. But I think they need to see us participate in that. And, and it’s hard. You almost have to schedule it. And when I walk out of the office with a book in my hand and say, okay, I’m going to go read, everything melts away. Like people will help you protect it if you make it important. And if you make it important for your teachers, then it’ll happen for them. I, I think that’s. And it costs no money. You know, this is a way to really, you know, help people out. 

Martha Carver
And. 

Patty Sobelman
Yeah, that’s that one. I got my book right here. It’s an old book, but it’s really fun. It’s called French Kids Eat Everything. And it’s, it’s really, it talks a lot about just different cultures and how people approach food. And so it’s been a really interesting topic for our families. And we’re kind of reading it together right now. So. Anyway, cute book, Martha. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I saw that you had your hand up. 

Martha Carver
I didn’t catch the beginning because as anything else, you got to answer the phones and run a message here or there. But when you were talking about doing something for yourself and giving a permission structure, one thing I, I, and I have not gotten back to it, except in the evenings before break, which is reminding me to do it, is I would stop about 1 o’ clock when the toddlers are just all about asleep there. I would go in one of their rooms where there is a foyer and it’s quiet, but I can still hear their beautiful toddler nap music. And I would do yoga, about 20 minutes of yoga. And so I had a mat and a stretchy band and some other things. And I was, I offered that if you all want that. It’s a beautiful way to stretch it. 

Martha Carver
It’s a beautiful way to meditate a little bit, you know, so anything, whether it’s walking in the woods or whatever, you have to sometimes feed that spiritual self. And so by saying this is okay during work and I don’t have to be busy and I actually can dawdle and observe some more, which is so valuable. 

Patty Sobelman
That’s beautiful. 

Kitty Bravo
Well, it occurs to me as I hear you and Martha and Patty talking about these wonderful breaks that you’re taking, that I’m thinking about our faculty and sometimes it’s hard for them because they are on duty with the children. And so, you know, Martha, you talked about how much it feeds your soul to be in the classroom. So One of the things you can do as an administrator to feed your soul is go to a classroom and give that teacher a break and tell them, go off and do something, you know, for yourself. Go take 15 minutes, breathe, read, walk, do yoga, whatever it is. And just, you know, maybe, you know, a couple of times a week you do that and rotate through your faculty. 

Kitty Bravo
And it also gets you in the classroom, which I think is so important that administrators get time and in the classroom. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I have here a comment from Lisa Reiner as well that says, I got. 

Maly Pena, IMC
An app that one of my, that one of my daughters in college told me about that includes a check off for rest and doing nothing, which I needed as a reminder. So, you know, Lisa, if you can. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Add the name of the app in. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Case anybody else is interested in getting it, that’d be lovely. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Thank you. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Margaret. 

Cassi Mackey
Hi everybody. 

Martha Carver
Good to see you. 

Margaret Combs
Happy New Year. I’ve been working on a lot of this stuff as well, and I agree. I don’t feel like a good administrator if I haven’t been in the classrooms frequently to observe, to connect with both the teachers and the children. 

Martha Carver
For about the last four or five. 

Margaret Combs
Months, I’ve been working on creating a better system for myself and reflective of what a number of the comments have been. While I have my big planner and my Google calendar, I have created a written, handwritten daily planner. And the first two items, actually the first three, the first one is grounding. So I won’t even start my day till I’ve had that quiet moment. And it’s very satisfying to check it off, much like maybe on the app, but that’s how I start. I then move into gratitude. I try to send a note, an acknowledgement, whether it be somebody here at the school or someone else. Gratitude changes your whole perspective. And then three to four times a week, whether I’m at work or at home, I try to set a 10 minute journal timer and I AI generated tons of questions. 

Margaret Combs
And so I just scroll through it and I hit one and wherever I land, that’s what I journal on. And then I do that again at noon. Not the journal part, but at noontime I ground myself. I give myself that quiet meditation, another gratitude, and then keep going. It changes the course of my day. We had a snowstorm today. I was putting rock salt out. I didn’t start my day the same way and I didn’t feel centered. So I literally build. You have to, but you have to make it happen. And then I share it with my team. This and people have like I’ve, you know, like, take my planner. Make it your own. But it also has priorities. And there’s only three in the morning, so I can’t over busy myself. 

Margaret Combs
There’s a lot more listed on the back, but three at a time is enough. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I love that. Thank you, Margaret. And we have now the name of the app. It’s called Finch and it’s too cute. 

Maly Pena, IMC
For whoever wants to use it. Okay. I think we’ve covered almost everything that I had on my questions, but other ways that you can think of keeping. 

Maly Pena, IMC
The holiday energy alive, keep the inspiration going. Oh, and I have Nancy as well. Nancy, if you want to say something, I was. 

Nancy Smith
I was just thinking, listening to everybody talk about what they’re doing to create a sense of peace and harmony and attention to themselves and their needs. And as leaders of schools. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I think. 

Nancy Smith
It’S so important that we do this and that we let the staff know that we’re doing this and that we’re as Patty is just opening things up for everybody to do it in a way that fits them. Because I just. I remember the difference in being a teacher and being a director or a head of school. And the difference is as a teacher, I always felt like I needed permission to do the things that I wanted to do for myself, for my class or whatever. As a head of school, I had that permission. And now it seems to me we’re in this process of allowing ourselves to give that permission to other people, to the staff, which to me is world opening, just world opening. I mean, the possibilities that creates for people to become themselves and to reach their own destiny. It’s huge. 

Nancy Smith
So I say we just keep doing this, but start with ourselves. What’s important to us? What do we want to do? What is that? What is that passion that we are going to hold on to? And then what’s the next passion? There’s going to be another spark. What’s that? So it just keeps going and going as long as we realize we’re worth it and the world needs it. And who are we to keep it. 

Patty Sobelman
Away from the world? 

Nancy Smith
So that’s what I’m getting from this conversation. And you’re all great. It’s just all great. 

Maly Pena, IMC
That was beautifully put, Nancy. Thank you so much. Cassie, do you want to go next? 

Cassi Mackey
Nancy, you’re always so full of wisdom. I just wanted us to remember, though, when we are working with our faculty staff is to we can come up with, you know, ideas and plans and how to create and, you know, cultivate our culture. But I think when we are trying to help them rejuvenate or find their purpose is we need to ask them, because things that we think might be something that will help them, they might just need. When I’ve done this with my faculty and staff, you know, I’ve had teachers say I just need an hour to organize my records and paperwork and then I’m like done. I can come in, you know, and watch your class for that time. 

Cassi Mackey
Or, you know, they come up with things that I would have never known that is what they need, because I’m deciding what they need or what I think they need. And so just having that question, especially at the beginning of the year or, you know, after holiday breaks, is, you know, what is it that you need to be your best or rejuvenate yourself or to reignite your spirit? And then how can I support you in that? I think that’s really important question. And you can always send that out like you’re going to come around and talk to them so they have some time to think about it. So that when you do just have that one one conversation with them, then they’ve already thought about what is it they exactly need and what support they could use from you. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yes, indeed, Kitty. 

Kitty Bravo
Well, that just about, is just about what I was going to say, only I was going to put it in the words of the first thing we need to do as leaders is see them, see who they really are. And you do that by observing them, by listening to them, by asking the questions and acknowledging what we see so that they feel appreciated, they feel understood, and you know, working with them from where they are right now, that’s it. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Patty? 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yeah. 

Patty Sobelman
Going back to what you guys were saying about listening and hearing and seeing. When we build our professional development, when the teachers build their own, we created this chart. I could give it to somebody who could get it to you, but it’s a percentage of it. It’s the types of things that you want to learn that will help a particular child in your classroom than a percentage of things that help the whole community. But for the, this part of the conversation is what do you want to do for yourself? And what are some stretch goals for you, things that are uncomfortable for you that you’re willing to learn and step out of yourself. So they’re identifying it for themselves. 

Patty Sobelman
Nine times out of ten when I read them, it’s either it’s something I really wished for them, but it is more important to Cassie’s point, that they wish it for themselves. Right. But they tend to identify the same things that we know. But if they self identify, then they have more skin in the game. 

Martha Carver
So. 

Patty Sobelman
So this percentage of it’s, you know, things that I need to do intrinsically, things I want to learn to give back to the whole community. And. But I’ve heard, like, from some young faculty. I was really blown away from this. She said, I’m a student of COVID She goes, I. I missed public speaking. I missed my sensitive period for being social. I want to learn how to do that. And I would. I kind of blew over that. Like, to me, you know, but she’s 20, and five years ago, she was 15. And, you know, so hearing from them, where do they think their deficits are? And then it was, what. What fuels you? Them telling me what. What is it that refills you? 

Patty Sobelman
Because again, me assuming that what I do for me is what they do for them and then helping them find their tribe. You know what I notice there’s 12 of you who like to walk on the green belt, and I bet you didn’t know that about each other here. 12 of you really like to do yoga. Like, I would not be standing behind you, Martha, for your yoga mat, but I would love to find people who would. Right. So it’s. It’s letting people have the space to self identify. But I think because Montessori schools are safe places for people to risk, to say things about themselves that maybe other employers, you know, wouldn’t give them a safe place. I just, I feel like it’s. We, you know, we. We have already the environment ready for that. But. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah, well, and we know that fits with adult learning theory that adults need to have autonomy and independence. They need to feel really motivated and feel what they’re doing is relevant to them. And so what you’re saying fits. It checks all those boxes for somebody to have growth and transformation. Martha, you were going to say something and I jumped in. 

Martha Carver
No, you were fine. It pinged in my mind when Patti was talking that I had a group of teachers and I wouldn’t have thought of doing this. They thought on their own, which is zillion times better. They just put out a message out on the staff whiteboard, who’s interested in doing crafting and when do you want to do it? Do you want to do it in the evening or do you want to do it in the weekend? Now, no different than Patty may not join me in yoga. I will shovel sidewalks before I do crafting. So we have our differences, but I love that they found their tribe and they have been together. They usually choose a Saturday morning and they. But they. They do all kinds of things. 

Martha Carver
Fiber arts, all these things that I would have a quite a learning deficit in trying to do. But they pull it off beautifully and they’re from all different levels and people that kind of pass in the night in the building and not necessarily know that they have commonality and I think it’s just beautiful. So you never know what sometimes that generative just suggestion if there’s a group of you that want to do something can come up with all. All beautifully on their own and that they kept it sustainable all year. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Very nice. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I hear alons. So just before leaving he left us this really cool Core values the draft. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Or not Core values focusing on teachers perspectives to better understand the environment. So this is from his school, from Newgate School. And it’s basically. 

Martha Carver
Sorry. 

Kitty Bravo
If you right click on it, you can copy it and paste it into a word doc and keep it. I saw it and said oh, I like that. And I hadn’t seen it even though I’m a board member of Newgate. 

Martha Carver
Yeah. 

Patty Sobelman
Yeah. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I’m sharing it here so that everybody can see it. But it’s very interesting to see this from the teacher’s perspective. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Right. 

Maly Pena, IMC
From what we tell them. Which I think it’s always important see where. Where they’re at. 

Kitty Bravo
That’s really nice. 

Maly Pena, IMC
It’s nice. 

Maly Pena, IMC
So you might want to do something like this as well in your schools. 

Maly Pena, IMC
And see what comes about. 

Kitty Bravo
Always a great exercise with any group that you’re working with and with your faculty to explore what your core values. 

Cassi Mackey
Are. 

Kitty Bravo
Which is really basically what this is. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Thank you. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yeah. Any thoughts, any comments, anything extra that we want to talk. 

Kitty Bravo
Being very reflective, I think. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Yeah. 

Maly Pena, IMC
I feel that this is. 

Maly Pena, IMC
This is the beginning of the conversation. As you know, we gather every Wednesday to talk about different things and this was just. We wanted to have everybody just start the year inspired. Think about how do we make this year a little bit more meaningful and insightful than the past one. 

Maly Pena, IMC
And yeah, I think that the only things left then for us to discuss is Kitty will be presented next week. Kitty, do you want to tell us about your topic? 

Patty Sobelman
Yes. 

Kitty Bravo
We’re going to talk about a GPS system but not your usual one. We’re going to talk about your Glo. Your gratitude positional system which Margaret, be sure to come and share. And also GPS stands for I’ve got about a million things it stands for. It stands for gratitude Present Being present and Stillness So we’re going to talk some more about some of this reflective work that we can do for ourselves and how we can share that with our schools to really work from a place of positivity and strength rather than getting sucked into the challenges and negativity we’re experiencing right now in the world. So join me. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Thank you so much. 

Kitty Bravo
Yeah, bring your ideas. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Well, so then I’m gonna let everybody go, I think. And thank you so much for being here with us today. 

Patty Sobelman
Bye, everyone. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Thank you, everyone. 

Cassi Mackey
Good to see everyone. Happy New Year. 

Nancy Smith
Thank you. See you soon. 

Kitty Bravo
Thank you so much. 

Maly Pena, IMC
Thank you.