The ASK: Thank a custodian for all of the work they do!
I am partial to this one because my dad is a custodian! I still think it's a great ASK though. We have been having midterms at my high school, so I have only been seeing my middle school students. This leaves some free time to get things done in my office! I ran a stress relief fair last May, and I had a big box filled with supplies from that. I was able to condense the boxes down into a filing cabinet drawer! It cleared out my room a lot, but that meant I had several boxes to throw out. Then, one of those big boxes had a lot of used paper that someone had sent over. So, again, I put out a ton of trash.
When I put the trash out, I left a note on it (I really enjoy the sticky notes!):
It might not be much, but I hope it helped him to not feel like he is taken for granted. So often, we ignore the people that keep our worlds running smoothly. Take a few minutes to acknowledge that without your school or office custodian, there would be trash all over the place. I've always been aware that I am grateful to my school's custodian - now he knows too!
Considerations for Schools:
- As with any note-leaving ASK, make sure students have access to sticky notes and don't deface property
- Students can also go up to a custodian and thank him or her in person
- Students should not just leave sticky notes randomly around - then they are creating more work! Putting it on a garbage can shouldn't create any more work!
The ASK: Leave the restroom better than you found it.
This ASK was completely spontaneous. That's the beauty of a project like this - you start spotting ASK opportunities everywhere! I was in the restroom at Target and noticed that someone had put a new outfit right away. How did I know? They left their tags all over the place - on the floor, on the top of the toilet paper dispenser, and on top of the sanitary receptacle. Now, let's make one thing clear. I was certainly not scrounging around on the floor to pick up garbage. That would be disgusting. However, the tags on top of the toilet paper dispenser and sanitary receptacle - that I could handle! I gathered them up and tossed them out. It was just a little thing, but it was definitely a kindness for the people that would use that bathroom in the future and the employees that would have to clean it.
Obviously, this will be a bit different when it's for school. The ASK is "leave the restroom better than you found it.." How can students do this? Students can flush a toilet with their foot when they notice that someone else didn't, wipe up water that spilled on the counter or sink, or throw some garbage away (not anything potentially hazardous!).
Considerations for Schools:
- I can't say this enough - students should NOT touch anything potentially dangerous or hazardous
- Hopefully, students will never have the opportunity to do this ASK because students will always clean up after themselves.
