I read an interesting article the other day titled “Why I Told My Daughter about My Bullying Past.” The author describes how she told her six year old daughter about the bullying she received after gaining 15 pounds at summer camp, and how mean her friends were to her. Her daughter had recently been reported for excluding another little girl, …
Kill Them With Kindness
I recently did a school talk to a group of 4th graders in honor of October being National Anti-Bully Awareness month. I have taught hundreds of children over the years and it never ceases to amaze me how the kids think I am there to show them how to fight a bully. But, in fact, it’s the total opposite. I say, “Kill …
Kindness is Contagious: Ideas for Teachers and the Rest of Us
Kindness is contagious. You see it all around with an act of kindness spreading at a coffee shop or with children on a mission for random acts of kindness at school. People like to be seen as good people. We like to feel like a good person. And very little can make us feel as good as performing acts of …
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Programs Encourage Kindness in the Classroom
As a child I was painfully shy. And when I hit high school I was riddled with social anxiety. If it were not for my outgoing best friend who “had my back” during social events, I don’t know how I would have made it through my high school years. Not all shy adolescents are as lucky as I was. Those who don’t have a …
Sticky Note Kindness
I’m just going to come out and say it– sticky notes are best invention ever. Period. My life would spiral out of control without the help of colorful little pieces of paper decorating my office space at home. Believe it or not, sticky notes can be used to create a culture change right in the classroom. I preface this blog …
Rocking Kindness in the Classroom and Beyond
When celebrities “rock” the latest fashions, they look good. When rocks are dropped into water, they create ripples that extend outward from their point of entry. What do these two observations have to do with one another? By merging these two concepts, and encouraging our children to start “rocking kindness,” by doing good deeds and including others whenever they see …
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
When I was growing up, our family knew our neighbors well, and they felt like extended family. As a child, I always knew that I could go to the neighbor’s house if I ever needed help, and as a teenager, I also knew those neighbors were watching to make sure I wasn’t getting into trouble when my parents weren’t around. …
Kindness in the Classroom: Keeping it Simple
Laughter and shouts ring out from all corners of the playground, children are climbing, jumping, swinging, and chasing each other with abandon. With such light and carefree hearts, children – like wind sprites – seem to reflect all that is good in the world as they chase autumn leaves, roll down a grassy hill, follow their curiosity along the path …
In Support of Halloween
My neighborhood is full of senior citizens, many wealthy, retired folks who enjoy living in the shadow of Job’s Peak and Heavenly Valley in Douglas County. We love our neighborhood too, in fact, we chose it specifically for its big, wide streets with sidewalks and school busses when our son was seven years old. In the beginning, it was …
The Kindness Experiment
When my brother was about three, my Dad found him pouring water from one cup to another with careful and deliberate concentration. He looked up at my Dad and said, “Careful Dad! I’m doing an experience.” We still laugh about that to this day. Even my six-year-old often confuses the terms experience and experiment interchangeably. And if you think about …