I discovered this father-son duo who plays music using band instruments and an oven door. I thought it was inspiring because they reminded me of how fun music can be, and that music is everywhere!

The weather isn't as nice today so we decided to visit museums. I managed to go to 2 museums despite carrying a 20-pound basketball!

I hope you all had a good Wednesday! After enjoying a red-eye flight watching Toy Story 4 and Men in Black, I landed in Washington, D.C. The weather here is fantastic, and I hope tomorrow the sun will shine for you too!

​Here are some pictures that I took on my first day:

I apologize for the lack of updates in the Agenda Items tab. It's easy to forget when there are so many things happening!

One of the big discussions we had this week was looking at each other from a positive light. I find that sometimes the negatives of individuals can shine more brightly than the positives, and that's probably because it's human nature to see negatives more for our own protection. To help students see each other in a more positive light, we discussed how to compliment each other. A very good compliment has the following elements:

• Specific: Give details and examples. For example: You were kind when you...
• Truthful: The other person will know if what you're saying is not true, then your compliment is not heart-felt.
• Are not superficial: Compliment on things that the person chose to do. There's no point in complimenting someone on something they were born with or had nothing to do with, for example, their eye colour or how tall they are. But there's a lot to be said on the positive things that a person chooses to do even though he or she doesn't have to.

Students were all given a piece of paper with the name of another individual from this class on it, and they have until the end of the week to write something positive about the person. I hope this will change the classroom dynamic in how we see each other, and students can focus their energy on learning rather than on dealing with social anxiety.