Janitor leaves inspiring messages for elementary students each day
Updated: 6:52 AM EDT Jun 27, 2022
before students here in wa ki arrive at school every morning. Something magical and mysterious happens here every night. Every morning at Woodland Hills elementary first graders and Katie Becker’s class. Can’t wait to get to school as the lights turn on their faces light up, giddy to be greeted by *** mysterious, simple surprise. It’s the first thing they look for *** message or work of art left every morning by *** man the night before. They only know him as mr josh. And this is what I think Mr josh looks like. We know who Mr josh is, but we’ve never meet him in real life. He draws so good things and I would want to draw him. We wanted to meet the mystery man who works at night to add excitement to the school day. I kind of like the mystery aspect. So who is Mr josh? We found the school janitor alone in the evening vacuuming floors, disinfecting desks. For the most part, they don’t know who I am, which is kind of cool, adds to the mystery. While he is cleaning the classroom, josh Samuelson is pondering how to paint smiles on the faces of Children. He imagined sitting in these little chairs. I was just in here vacuuming like I usually do and notice that whenever I drag my vacuum. One way the carpet would get lighter and if I drag it the other way it gets darker, the custodian in *** learning environment teaches *** lesson of his own cleanliness and creativity go hand in hand. His ideas are not swept under the rug, but in the rug, *** carpet in the corner is his canvas. His bare hands. His brush. It started with *** smiley face one day last fall than *** pig with an oink. *** bumblebee with *** buzz *** bat with *** batman. I usually just write the word days on this night. *** countdown to the last day of school. Samuelson scans the room for clues to see what the kids are studying, kind of just whatever they were learning about that day, I tried to incorporate into the art. He wanted to add detail and color. So he moved to the white board when he saw *** polygon there, he drew pokemons on this night he spotted charlotte’s web and pulls out his toolkit of markers to make his magic. These are just going to be like pieces of wood were there the next morning as kids make *** beeline to the board. I’m delighted to find *** message from their mystery man. I hope you have *** fantastic friday Mr josh charlotte wrote something in her web. So when I saw that thing, I thought I thought it was really cool that he tried to copy what was in there and it said wooden hills and this morning before summer break. The greatest surprise of the whole school year. Yeah. Oh my God, Hello, everyone. It’s mr josh. Yes, I finally get to meet everyone. It’s very nice to meet you. The invisible artist appears. What’s up Mr josh showed up like mr Rogers, you lost *** tooth. There’s so many lost teeth in here. The kids scribbled, You’re awesome and you’re great, and the best way of first grader can spell. I love all of these. And finally answered the one question they all had. How do you draw good smiley faces? Lots of practice showing them how it’s done. If you do one direction, it’s one kind of light color. I could do *** flower with *** smiley face inside. I got to go Downward with Brush. Samuelson has inspired 20 young artists and has posted their thank you notes in his Janitor’s closet next to his brooms. The icing on the cake. Yes. The highlight of my week was to finally get to meet all you wonderful kids that I’ve been drawn for all year, custodians kind of get the short end of the stick *** lot. So when we have this much support for doing stuff like that, it definitely makes *** difference. Absolutely. The custodian who didn’t like school as *** kid now loves it. I didn’t get anything like this when I was in school, it was basically just you’re here to learn, not *** whole lot of fun stuff like this, like, I couldn’t tell you the name of my janitors when I was in school. Very cool. All alone at night. The janitor brings joy in the morning. You can definitely see the excitement on their faces. Something new in the classroom is always fun and it always sparks some sort of imaginative process. Anything that’s not *** typical school day kids really love perhaps the most important lesson learned in this classroom this year, one small, simple effort can make *** big difference. No matter where you are in life, you can find *** way to leave your mark and from your little corner of the world, make the world *** happier place. He’s like *** really nice straw and I can’t believe he’s actually jane, you’re not an artist. I feel like his news job should be an artist. It’s fun. It excites the kids. They love seeing it and that’s enough for me. As long as it keeps making the kids smile when they come into class to see something new that I’m doing, I’ll keep doing it in case you’re wondering. The mystery artist will likely appear again when school begins this fall.
Janitor leaves inspiring messages for elementary students each day
Updated: 6:52 AM EDT Jun 27, 2022
Students at Woodland Hills Elementary in Waukee, Iowa, arrive to class each morning to unravel a mystery.Each night, custodian Josh Samuelson creates art for the students to find inspiration the next morning.In the video above, watch KCCI reporter Cynthia Fodor’s final news report before she retired from the Hearst-owned station. More This is Iowa stories:
Students at Woodland Hills Elementary in Waukee, Iowa, arrive to class each morning to unravel a mystery.
Each night, custodian Josh Samuelson creates art for the students to find inspiration the next morning.
In the video above, watch KCCI reporter Cynthia Fodor’s final news report before she retired from the Hearst-owned station.
