Tag: Educators

It’s one thing to talk about kindness and the need to treat others with dignity and respect, but it’s another thing to practice kindness in our daily lives. It’s clear that the lessons and activities in Teach Kindness have resonated with students and staff based on what I see unfold at our school every day.

Just recently, I witnessed firsthand one of the most unbelievable acts of kindness, shown by three young students in the 4th grade. One young girl had an accident, and her three friends immediately came to the office to let us know so we could get her fresh clothes. These girls were so sweet and kind. They took the clothes back to their friend and waited as she changed and then went and got her lunch.

Any time we catch students being kind, we celebrate their powerful act by acknowledging it on our kindness tree. I wrote on there, “Thank you for being a very kind friend.”

Pearlena Mitchell, Fiske’s parent worker, told me that we often catch students doing the wrong thing. If we catch them doing the right thing, we say, “We caught you being kind,” so that the students understand what kindness is and they can continue to demonstrate that throughout their day.

Making kindness a part of our everyday routine at school has changed students’ behavior, but it’s also spread to educators and other staff members.

Kelli Charles, head teacher of the Child Parent Center, and other educators were recently talking about plans to thank the school’s unsung heroes. They’re planning a surprise party for Fiske’s maintenance and cafeteria workers to show how much they appreciate all their hard work.

If you’re an educator, I encourage you to partner with Stand for Children and check out Teach Kindness. You’ll see how it can benefit your school. By getting everyone involved — from students to parents to the entire school staff — you can make kindness a core part of your school’s culture, too.

This school year finally feels like a return to normal for many families and educators in Chicago Public Schools, but there is no glossing over how much has changed due to COVID-19, especially for Beard Elementary.

Beard Elementary is a specialty school within the Chicago Public School system, and staff were required to come back to in person learning in January 2021, before most of CPS was scheduled to return. Staff met this mandate with ease and grace. The staff at Beard were able to come back to in person learning with the accommodations and safety precautions put in place to teach students and assist them with adjusting to in-person academic and social emotional learning which included incorporating the Teach Kindness curriculum.

At Beard Elementary, over 50% of our student population receives special education support. Teach Kindness offers accessible activities that resonate with every age and academic level, from pre-K to 3rd grade, including our diverse learners.

There were several key factors to why a focus on kindness was paramount for the 2022-23 academic year. In tandem with returning back to in-person learning, there was the expansion of our school with the addition of a 10-classroom annex and new staff. The staff needed to find ways to build community and rapport with each other. Teach Kindness helped us do just that.

With the return to in person learning, and the focus on kindness to each other, the following activities were completed:

● Mirroring My Feelings – Our students enjoyed the “Mirror My Feelings” activity, where they looked at pictures and studied each other’s facial expressions and body language to decipher how someone might be feeling.

● Acts of Kindness – Students drew pictures of what they thought were acts of kindness and within the diverse learner population they were given a choice board to detail what their acts of kindness were.

● Personal Slogan – The preschool classrooms sang songs and created word clouds that described themselves and recognized their own personal strengths. You have to be kind to yourself before you can show kindness to others. This helped boost their self-confidence within the classroom. Kindergarten through 3^rd grade classrooms developed choice boards about positive statements of themselves.

● Art of Apology – Through the “Art of Apology” activity, our 2nd and 3rd graders learned how to say, “I’m sorry” and mean it.

A special education teacher here at Beard, Jamie Chiostri, mentioned that a lot of times, kids become so rote in saying “I’m sorry” because that’s what they think we want to hear. This activity gave them a chance to put a meaning behind those words by first trying to understand what makes a person feel hurt in the first place.

The school counselor, Andrea Patrinos, noted that despite all the changes in the world and at school, one quality remained steadfast: kindness to others. While facilitating the engaging lessons and activities for our students, she noticed our staff started to practice kindness in our everyday interactions at school — and our students noticed.

We’ve used Teach Kindness for several years now, and each year we’ve grown and really taken the mission of the program to heart. Teaching kindness is not a single lesson. Kindness is taught throughout the school day and embedded into all of our daily activities. We have witnessed the benefits of modeling kindness to our students and the ‘ah-ha’ moments when they extend and experience kindness to their peers. We have noticed the palpable sense of community in our school, both among students and staff. It’s a big and welcome change to see how far we’ve come since the pandemic.

Our school’s story proves that every school can — and should — Teach Kindness.

In my role as principal, I often meet with students who are having issues navigating friendships or having conflict with their peers. When a serious dispute occurs, I’ll often invite the involved parties to my office so we can discuss what happened and work toward a resolution.

Since our school began participating in Teach Kindness, I’ve noticed that our students have not only become more adept at expressing their feelings in these meetings, but also at listening attentively to their peers and working together to find ways to move forward peacefully.

From our oldest 8^th graders to our youngest preschoolers, our students know that when they make a mistake and hurt someone’s feelings, they can apologize and work to make the situation right. Admitting mistakes and resolving differences are crucial life skills, and I largely credit this ability in our students to our commitment to making kindness a cornerstone of our culture.

Our teachers were introduced to Teach Kindness during the pandemic. During remote learning, the program helped everyone feel connected and boosted morale. Since returning to in-person learning, Teach Kindness has helped to address the increase of anxiety, depression, and concern for social issues we’ve seen in our students.

The lessons that you get when participating in Teach Kindness help students develop skills that you really need for a successful life.

If there’s anything we’ve all learned from living through the pandemic, it’s that your relationships with people matter more than anything. Teach Kindness has given our school the opportunity to strengthen students’ emotional well-being while we simultaneously focus on academic recovery.

My best advice to other schools and educators: Building an equitable and inclusive school is a journey, not a destination. You don’t wake up one day and suddenly everyone loves each other and respects one another’s differences. You can do this work and issues will still arise — but the skills taught in the Teach Kindness lessons help turn those issues into learning opportunities.

Making a commitment to teach kindness will strengthen your school so that when conflict does inevitably occur, everyone is prepared to address it, learn from it, and move forward to continue cultivating a school environment that serves all students and supports all educators.