While WEB and Link Crew were not initially designed to be anti-bullying programs, lo and behold, we find ourselves in the midst of a society hyper focused on the need for anti-bullying efforts…and people are turning to the Boomerang Project for answers. Yes, you, as a WEB/Link Crew Coordinator are part of a zeitgeist. Welcome to the movement!
Whether you are a first time visitor or are one of our longtime Link Crew & WEB Coordinators, Administrators & Friends returning from summer, we are happy to see you.
This website has been a year in the making, indeed a few hiccups along the way and now, yes, you find us sitting on a pile of dirt... watch to find out why.
The great U2 lyrics… “But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” have always moved me, but not today. Why? Because I have come to believe that, in life, we do actually find exactly what we’re looking for, we just might not be aware of it. If we want to find love, it is right there. If we want to find hatred, it is right there. If we want to find joy, it is right there. If we want to find energy, it is right there. What we look for is exactly what we find. If what you are finding is harsh, it is what you were looking for. If what you are finding is uplifting, it is what you were looking for. I have been doing quite a few Boom Boom! Cards lately and I am impressed by how they have changed what I see. Because my focus has been on good, I am seeing more of it…all around me. When I start feeling that the world is not good I believe that what I am doing, albeit unconsciously, is looking for and finding the bad.
It has become hard to turn on the TV or radio these days without getting depressed pretty quickly. In dark times it can be difficult to see all the amazing things going on around us.
And yet there are world changing positive actions happening everyday if only we can see them. Our theme for the 2009 Refresher this year is “Celebrate What’s Right With The World”. As world renowned photographer Dewitt Jones said, “When we celebrate what’s right with the world, we can find the energy to fix what’s wrong”.
So here are some of the things going right in the world of Link Crew and WEB!
Seems like all around us people are trying to make some tough decisions. I was speaking with a Link coordinator recently who is trying to decide where to go with her career. She is in a graduate program and it looks like at her current pace it will take several years to complete. She is trying to decide whether or not to take a year’s leave of absence to become a full time student.
Another coordinator I spoke with recently is trying to decide whether to stay in teaching at all. With a department chair working to actively undermine her, a principal who, while supportive, continues to pile on additional responsibilities and a workload that is preventing genuine connection to family and self, she is wondering whether it is all worth it.
November 17th is World Peace Day and since the concept of peace is so abstract, we want to, just as Sadako Sasaki and millions of others after her, put together a physical representation of peace. The Boomerang Project challenge of the month is for Link Crew and WEB programs in the U.S. and Canada, to produce 500,000 cranes. We currently have 2401 schools with Link Crew and WEB at their schools so that means that each school would need to fold a mere 209 cranes in achieve the goal. We know that some schools will not contribute to the goal of 500,000 and we also know that some schools will contribute more. Can you school fold and string together 1000 like Sadako Sasaki did?
We so often expect or maybe at least hope for the easy way. Take losing weight and getting in shape...wouldn't it be great if it were easy? Or, turning around kids who are on a negative track...if only they would listen to people who are trying to do right by them! Properly funding schools...don't the politicians get that kids in today’s schools are tomorrow’s citizens and leaders?
Teenagers are supposed to turn away from adult influence…it is their job… they are literally designed for it. Instead, teens turn to each other to get the needed information on how to live life. And yet somehow, during that time in their lives, you are a chosen adult that they are listening and looking to for how to live life. What a privilege! Use that privilege to move their minds and hearts to places they didn’t even know existed. You are like the nightlight that they don’t even know helps them find their way down the long, sometimes very dark, hallway of their teenage years. Lead on!
2010 brought us 148 applicants. Hard as it is to decide, here are the top 10:
Welcome to the new year! For most of us in education, our year doesn’t begin January 1st, rather it starts sometime in August or early September when it’s back to school time. We hope you enjoyed a restful summer and that you are looking forward to a great school year.
As you all well know, the start of the school year is the most hectic time in the life of a Link Crew or WEB program. With so much going on, it is easy to let some of the little things slide. You might have noticed at your orientation how a few little things can really change the day. Did you have an organized VIP table or did it dissolve into chaos? How many of you discovered the value of walkie-talkies? Did your sound system perform the way you needed it to?
