Teacher: Here we go.

Student: I like to dedicate this class to my grandfather who was a professional soccer player in Northern Ireland. He was the only Catholic on an all Protestant team and at first was discriminated against and all the fans–

Teacher: The daily dedication is a very simple activity, but brings a lot of powerful results. It’s basically thirty seconds a day, it can be right at the start of class, it could build trust, to build community, to set a positive warm classroom culture.

Student: So, he inspires me every day to just not give up.

Teacher: All right, everyone, I want to share with you all something we’re going to be doing on many days this year to start classes, it’s something called a daily dedication.

Teacher: So, usually on the first or second day of school, I model the daily dedication ritual myself and I do a dedication about my father.

Teacher: When he was your age, he had to look after his mother who was dying of cancer. He often had to feed her, had to bathe her.

Teacher: It’s hopefully modeling vulnerability and I think it’s a great moment for students to start seeing me as a human being and set the example for what I’m going to be expecting of them later.

Teacher: And today he’s a cancer doctor, just a super hard-working, humble guy.

Student: The daily dedication brings like a good vibe to the class. I hear different perspectives, who that person is, what they did, and how their struggles or successes got them there.

Teacher: Come on up, Sam.

Teacher: One student a day comes up, they say, “I want to dedicate class to ‘blank.’” I strongly encourage students to bring in a photo.

Students: I would like to dedicate this class to my grandpa, he’s an immigrant and he knew very little English.

Students: You could pick anybody, basically, like a real person, it could be a celebrity, it could be fictional, someone you admire, and someone who has a true impact on your life and like how you live.

Student: I’d like to dedicate this class to Mahatma Gandhi. He was a really big inspiration to me, he would take care of others before himself.

Teacher: It starts often a little bit safer, but it rapidly becomes very real and the vulnerability kind of comes on its own over time.

Student: I’d like to dedicate this class to my brother, Gaetano, he has Down’s Syndrome and he’s nine years old.

Student: I picked my little brother Gaetano. He teaches me to be perseverant through the challenges that I face in my life, because he overcomes his every day.

Teacher: It’s a quick reminder during those teenage years that that classmate sitting next to you may seem like they have everything together, but often, you know, all of us are carrying a lot as secret burdens and secret struggles.

Student: It’s kind of cool to see how, like, each kid lives with, like, all these things that you wouldn’t even know if it weren’t for the daily dedication. It opens views and, like, respect for people.

Teacher: The snapping component is a way to just gently affirm one another after they’ve been so vulnerable.

Student: I would like to dedicate this class to my mom, who I think is a very hard worker, and I really respect her.

Teacher: All right, so, let’s just get started with some homework review.

Teacher: We as teachers are very tight for time and this is one of those activities where it pays dividends the whole year. It helps bring a tighter, more warm classroom culture, more intentional focus time once we return to academic work. It helps bring trust, it helps bring laughter sometimes. So, it really helps build camaraderie in the classroom.

Christian Brothers Academy School