I started collaborating with five students who quickly reminded me I still have so much to learn.

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This week marks ten years since I retired from teaching. I was fortunate to be in the classroom for thirty-three years: middle school (2 years), high school (9 years), and on the college campus (the rest of the years).  While my “stage” has become smaller over the past decade, from the classroom and national speaking engagements to quieter activities in our beach community, my why remains to help forge connections, make a positive community difference, and continue to share and learn.

And that’s where the Little Pink Building and five remarkable third-grade students come into this story.

The Little Pink Building (aka, Atlantic Beach Elementary School) is down the street and around the corner from our home. In its 86^th year of operation, A.B.E. has become a community treasure. The energy level, classroom engagement, teacher creativity, and community support caught my attention the first day I entered the school’s front door.

Earlier this year, I connected with Kim Gallagher, Principal of Atlantic Beach Elementary School, and Kristen Edwards, an ABE third-grade reading teacher (and the school’s 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year), about volunteer opportunities. Within a week, I started collaborating with five students who quickly reminded me I still have so much to learn.

At our first meeting, THE FABULOUS FIVE  (the name I gave them 😊) introduced me to the energy level I seldom experienced in teaching older students. As one of my college friends might’ve said, “These students were on fire!” Every. Day!

They wanted to write a book about ABE. Yes, a book. Third-graders.

What evolved was a timeline of significant events (that they chose) in their school’s history. Over the next three months, we met once or twice weekly to work on their project. We walked through several steps of the book-writing process: brainstorming, researching, writing, editing, collaborating, disagreeing (respectfully), revising, proofreading, finishing, and learning. They conducted the research. We visited the local Beaches Museum to examine its archives for A.B.E. information. The students added more items and deleted others.

For the final product, each student chose a few of the agreed-upon events and wrote a three- or four-sentence description of them and why they were important. The final product reflected their thoughts, research, and creativity. While I established a few guardrails for the project, I left them to develop and bring it to fruition.

Eighteen pages and thirteen events later, they presented their timeline, Legacy of Learning: Fun Facts About Atlantic Beach Elementary School, to their principal and teacher. During this presentation, the students shared five key thoughts: 

They could teach us adults a few lessons. Are we paying attention?

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You will find more about me at www.stevepiscitelli.com.

And you can still order:

• My first novel, The Voice in Your Ear, was released on September 17, 2024. You can order the book (e-book or print copy) here. If you’d like to hear the song I wrote and recorded as the soundtrack for the book, click here. (P.S. Thank you for taking a chance on a “first-time” novelist.)
• Sharing Wisdom Across the Ages: From Elementary School to Retirement (eBook and paperback versions) was released on January 1, 2023. Click here for more information.
• Roxie Looks for Purpose Beyond the Biscuit (2020) is available in eBook and paperback formats. Click here.
• Community as a Safe Place to Land (2019, print and e-book) is available on Amazon. The above link provides more information (including seven free podcast episodes spotlighting the book’s seven core values).
• Stories about Teaching: No Need to be an Island (2017, print and e-book). Available on Amazon. One college’s new faculty onboarding program used the scenarios in this book. Contact me if you and your team are interested in doing the same. The accompanying videos (see the link above) could stimulate community-building conversations at the beginning of a meeting.

©2025. Steve Piscitelli
The Growth and Resilience Network®
Atlantic Beach, Florida