Kindness Week

It's been a rough one in Vegas this past week.

However, it was also kindness week.

Here were some of our activities:

We made a kindness chain.  I modeled a sentence stem:

 
Gave them the time and space to discuss kindness:

Then hung it outside our door.

We took those same ideas to create leaves, which went on our school kindness tree:

(Our art teacher made this because she's amazing.)

We read:

We made:

They wrote compliments to one another to be bucket fillers:

I took home enough to make each kid a compliment from me:

We dedicated an entire bulletin board to our bucket filling:

It will stay up for about a month.

We watched this {Respect Rap} and made posters for Friday's respect march and pep assembly.

We all wore blue on Friday.  Not only did it symbolize our grief over the last weekend's events, it also serves as a stand up to bullies color and helped our school feel unified.  This was a district wide spirit day.

Kindness Week and Healing

I'm not sure if it was solely for our school district or a national event, but we celebrated Kindness Week.  It was pre-planned, but coincided with our local tragedy last week.  There is a lot of frustration surrounding conspiracy theories (which don't help the healing process), but there has been an amazing outpouring of love and support from people all around the world.  I truly hope no other city has to experience the hysteria, grief, chaos, and raw emotions that follow a mass shooting, but until gun reforms and mental health reforms are in allowed to occur, I fear Vegas won't be the last.

Unrelated to our tragedy, a mile from my house three teenagers were killed walking down the street when a car was racing another, lost control, and hit them.  There is a growing memorial on the sidewalk and these were innocent children who were doing nothing wrong.  As a teacher, that eats me up inside. These weren't my students, but they were neighborhood kids who went to the middle school across the street from my elementary school.  It hit far too close to home.

However, like many, I was in a unique bind.  I was processing my own emotions, but needed to put on a brave and stabilizing face for my students.  All but one showed up on Monday.  We discussed the event, focusing on the healing efforts and the actions of the heroes (not the murderers).  I did not allow space or time for discussion on the terrorist or his actions.  That is glorifying the madman.  I reiterated that they were safe and loved.

 We made cards for first responders and victims:

They've been delivered to the local fire station, police headquarters, and UMC hospital.

Wednesday night, social media exploded with rumors of shootings that were set to occur on Thursday.  The school district released this statement:

A 18 year old was found to have been making the threats and was arrested.

I had three kids miss on Thursday. I reassured their parents that I understood and respected their concerns.

We keep our doors locked at all times now.  Granted, they are propped open and I have a magnet in the door so it doesn't fully shut, but can be quickly removed in if necessary.  Part of our back to school teacher training was on active shooter protocol.  I'd hope we never have to use it.  After this week, everything feels so personal and too close to home.

We gather as a school on Friday mornings to do the pledge, hear announcements, and sing the monthly song.  In honor of Nevada Day, October's song has always been "Home Means Nevada."  This week it took on a very different meaning.

Many of the teachers, myself included, choked back tears.

I'm glad it was kindness week.  Having several pre-planned activities that focused on spreading love was needed to survive this difficult week.

Random Acts of Kindness

Rule 11: 

Surprise others by performing random acts of kindness.  Go out of your way to do something surprisingly kind and generous for someone at least once a month.

(Ron Clark's Essential 55)

My skills are not found in the kitchen, so baking goods for others is out of the question. I'd rather not poison loved ones.  That kind of defeats the whole random acts of kindness plan.  Instead, I'd rather spend my time creating something.

The premise is simple. With a $20 budget, I'll select one person each month to surprise with some sort of craft project.  I won't just be selecting my friends but rather try to truly tune into all the events at school.  I've got the first three planned out and a few other possibilities swirling around my brain.

August's candidate: Mrs. A

Mrs. A works at my school site but isn't a classroom teacher.  She's our speech pathologist and doesn't always feel like part of a team.  It's got to be hard essentially being a one person department.  Her oldest is starting kindergarten (at our school) and a close work wife abruptly retired at the end of the school year for a continent move.  Plus she's a super awesome person.

She likes lady bugs, so I decided to make a wreath incorporating one.  To keep within my self-imposed budget, I went with a smaller sized frame and waited until burlap was on sale.

The supplies:

Wire frame 

1 roll of tan wired burlap (it holds the shape better) 

2 mini rolls of patterned burlap (chevron maroon and black)

1 wooden lady bug

Floral wire

hot glue gun 

The crafting itself was rather quick because of the size, my procrastination (I don't want to label any more books right now), and that I've done a good dozen of these wreaths by now. 

I also included a small note explaining the gift.

 

I made the base of solid burlap first and then wove in the patterned parts.  I used a hot glue gun to attach the lady bug and let the wreath sit overnight.

 

I'll be keying into her room this morning and leaving it on her desk. I'm fairly certain she'll be in today but all teachers in our district must report back tomorrow.  

What small gestures can you do to spread #rule11?

The kindness of others

A few days ago, a fellow former TFA-er posted in a teacher Facebook group that she had books she was looking to get rid of.  She accepted a teaching position in Washington and didn't want to haul all of these books up to her classroom since she was switching grade levels anyway.

I posted that I'd love to get my hands on them, especially since they were already AR leveled (HUGE time saver) and were within my students' reading ranges.

She texted and we arranged a time to meet.  She brought them to my house and when I tried to pay her, she refused.  She said she was glad they were going to be well loved in another classroom and didn't want money.

I insisted she take a Jamberry wrap as a thank you, which she happily agreed to.  I'm all about bartering!  I'm so appreciative of her generosity.  

Thank you Ms. T!

Peace Week Challenge One

It's Peace Week at our school and our awesome counselor posted her first challenge!

Students had to brainstorm a list of all the ways they could be kind to others in the upcoming week.

Here's our list:

I'm going to really focus on "catching" kids being kind and giving them that positive reinforcement!

random acts of kindness

It's been a frustrating week.

It's hard to maintain a positive attitude when things keep getting broken or stolen.  It's getting expensive to replace hard cover books and most recently, my personal laminator.  I understand that accidents happen, but I'd just love if my students listened more when I told them not touch things and gave explicit instructions.  It's not a secret that teachers are underpaid and the cost of supplies is rising :(

However, I'm trying really hard to focus on the small, positive moments.

We had an awesome training by our counselor on 3 words.  We had to pick 3 words and mine were "appreciate the positive".  That's what I'm trying to do!

(Those of you at my school site, I promise I am trying...even though I may be grumpy...)

So here is my positive note:

One of my students was out last week because he had a family vacation in Washington.  I appreciate the family scheduling the trip around our weird fall break (staff developoment and Nevada day) so the student only missed one day of school--and a field trip day at that.  

This student is in RTI, very quiet, frequently wiggly and needs a lot of reminders to be on task.  I'm inclusion and have been for years, so I'm used to this behavior.  Heck, I'm not able to sit still for more than twenty minutes without trying to multi-task, so I can't hold it against them.

He was back on Monday and surprised me with this magnet:

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but my awesome magnet is mostly pink and sparkly :)

Clearly he understands my preferences in life!  If only it was polka dotted...