“Don’t give in to negativity and let it harden you. Be the coffee bean and transform your environment no matter what hand life deals you.”
-Jon Gordon and Damon West/ The Coffee Bean

If you haven’t read The Coffee Bean by bestselling author Jon Gordon and the amazing Damon West, you MUST. It is a short book with a very powerful and much needed message. It’s all about how the environments we find ourselves in can change, weaken, or harden us, and also help us to find out who we really are inside.

I recently read it, was truly inspired, and found out that there is a version for kids too!

Before I get into that, I have to share what I found out some principals have been doing with the original ( for adults) coffee bean book to help create and maintain positive cultures within their schools.

As some of you might know, I’m studying to be a principal and I’m fortunate enough to be allowed in an awesome group on Facebook where educational leaders can ask questions share ideas. One day, right after I read The Coffee Bean Book ( for adults!) someone in that group asked if anyone had used it with their staff. The response was awesome and I saved the post so that someday hopefully when I am a principal I could go back and try some of the suggestions. Here are some of the great ideas people shared:

Deanna Beck made a PowerPoint out of the story for visuals as she read the book to her staff, gave them a glad coffee bean to keep to always be reminded of the message, and of course, gave them coffee. ☕️

Kibbee Lewis bought six copies of it and randomly put them in six teacher’s mailboxes. She asked them to read it, write a message in the book and then pass it on, anonymously, to another teacher. Unfortunately, she started it right before the buildings closed last March, so the books only got to about 13/100 staff members, but she said the ones who did get the book talked favorably about it.

Dr. Avril El Amin even made shirts with one of the quotes from the book when she presented it to her staff!

Lori Gonzalez bought the book for everyone on he staff last year, and also made tiny little containers with coffee beans in them as a keepsake.

Liann Hanson is using it this year. Each teacher in her school got a copy of the book. Her staff discussed the concept in small groups and she had each teacher fill out a paper coffee bean about how they are going to make magic (rather than soften or harden the environment) from inside of the building.

Lori Cox has a coffee bar for teachers on Fridays with quotes from the book. She also has paper available for people to write how a colleague is a coffee bean and then they can put it in their mailbox!

Ok! Aren’t those ideas so great? And you can also use this coffee bean concept with children because the authors wrote the most beautiful, engaging, and meaningful version that all kids will love! It’s called The Coffee Bean for Kids.

I was planning on creating extension activities for this book, and making this blog post be all about them, but then I realized the authors had already done this. When you purchase the book, you can send them a message here with your confirmation information, and they will send you an AMAZING selection of resources! There are also videos for educators and kids, and information and a link to a kit that allows you to set up a Coffee Bean Club for Kids, similar to what the kids in the story do!

My entire school is going to be reading this book during our third quarter. Every quarter we have been choosing one book that the whole school reads and then each grade works on a literary standard based project to celebrate the story as a school. The first quarter we all read One Drop of Kindness and the second quarter we read Salt in His Shoes. I’m super excited to see the impact The Coffee Bean For Kids has on our school.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read the blog today. I hope you found this post worthwhile.

Yours truly,

Jennifer

ps. Happy Valentine’s Day!

pps. Maybe you could try this concept with a cocoa bean/ hot chocolate too ;)