I have so much I want to say tonight. I’m honestly overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude. I’m feeling so lucky to work with amazing people. Today we had a cultural food extravaganza. One of our paraprofessionals suggested the idea during a professional development session focused on how to develop spaces of belonging. The group of people in the meeting loved the idea. I asked our principal (fellow Slicer, BTW) and she embraced it. Our paraprofessional team set to work. They invited the staff to bring in food from their culture or country of origin, coordinated dishes and decorations, set up tables with tablecloths and flags for each country, and created a spectacular event for the entire staff. We all ate, learned about different countries and ingredients, we celebrated differences and found connections. We gathered. We ate. We laughed. We celebrated. We were part of something bigger. We belonged. I have so much I could write, so many foods to describe, so many feelings to capture.
Instead of writing a lot, I’m going to try to capture this big feeling in a one short sentence. Here we go:
Foods from far and wide bring us so close.
Writing to Learn, Learning to Write 
What a great way to come together! It sounds like this afternoon’s pd filled a lot of buckets!
What a wise celebration! To live the value of giving everybody a seat at the table, of sharing, of belonging. Can I tell you what a wise principal of mine did for a large multi-school staff meeting? Put out boxes of cereal (and milks, etc.) Lots and lots of different kinds, and brand names, and “bad” sugary ones. It was amazing how chatting about breakfast cereals from your youth broke the ice between people, it was so fun.
Such a cool idea! Thanks for sharing. I used to LOVE Rice Krispies! You?
It was a great day. Your short sentence sums it up perfectly.
The best part was that it was their idea! I felt a sense of community today. I think I might write about it, too!
It was an amazing celebration!
So true. So lovely.
What a treat it was on Wednesday in every sense of the word.