The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs III: Character Building

Showing posts with label Character Building. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2017

Lighting the World with Kindness

Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

Did you know that there is a Random Acts of Kindness Week? It runs from February 12 through the 18th. Actually, this is the first I’ve heard of it, but what a groovy way for all of us to unite by being kind to each other. It begins with one simple act - one hello to a stranger, a simple smile, a pat on the back, a cup of coffee for someone you don’t know. This is a chance for participating individuals to make our world a better one and inspire others to follow suit.

FREEBIE from Socrates Lantern

Random Acts of Kindness (RAC) is an international non profit foundation that believes a little kindness is the key to helping people make the world a better place to live. Their goal is to remind people that kindness is a choice. In light of this, they have free tools to help make kindness a part of our everyday lives.

https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/

Learning about kindness in the classroom is one of the most essential things for children to understand. Scientific studies have shown that it improves our self-worth and helps us feel that we belong to a group. It improves our health by lowering blood pressure, while decreasing depression and anxiety. This not only helps the receiver, but it REALLY helps the giver. It’s such a wonderful feeling when you know you’ve done something to make another person feel happier.

When a child is happier and more content, grades will improve, attention span will increase, students will be better able to remain calm during stressful situations, there will be less bullying, drug use, violence and school drop outs.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if your classroom and school participated in kindness week. Here’s a video with a link for you to sign up.

https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/rakweekpartners

http://www.discoverkindnessintheclassroom.com/

Here are a few ideas that you can use to get your charges thinking about kindness.

1. Introduce the concept that kindness begins with ONE person.

If every ONE person does ONE kind thing for someone else, it

would make the world a better place.

2. Set up a kindness bulletin board and whenever a child does something kind for someone, add their name and what they did. You can cut out large hearts to use for your valentine bulletin board.

3. Have students participate in a game where they say kind things to each other. You can then discuss how they felt about receiving a compliment, and how it felt to give one. Later they can write a paper about this.

4. Write this phrase on the board..."Walk a mile in my shoes." Ask what it means and discuss it. Introduce the subject of bullying and pose this question...Have you ever been bullied, or do you know anyone who was bullied. When someone answers, Have a different child view the situation and share what they might have done to defend the person being bullied. Also ask how the bully may have felt. They can then write about this experience.

5. Role play different situations that show random acts of kindness. The children can work in groups to write short skits about this.

You may be interested in this resource entitled Caught in the Act of Being Kind.

Caught in the Act of Being Kind @ Socrates Lantern

**********************************

Please Visit my Social Media Sites

*********************************

This is part of our Teacher Talk Monthly Blog Link-up. Please read what the rest of the teachers have to say for the month of February...

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Kindness and Digital Citizenship

By Deann Marin of Socrates Lantern

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to help bring empathy, empowerment and equity to every classroom out there. With that in mind, I’ve joined a group of compassionate, caring, and creative educators to bring you monthly posts highlighting ideas for developing the 3 E's in your classroom and school community. Our goal is to make it easier for you to include these values in your every day teaching by offering ideas and free materials to support your teaching endeavors. Now, more than ever, nurturing EQUITY, EMPATHY & student EMPOWERMENT is crucial for all our students.

Years ago, before the onset of digital technology, an educator’s job

basically consisted of teaching academics. Social Skills were learned at home. It was the job of the parents to teach their child to say please and thank you, to respect adults, to treat others the way they would like to be treated, not to talk to strangers and so on. Now-a-days, a teacher’s job has changed in so many ways. A large amount of our charges have not learned how to relate to others in the world around them. So we’ve had to set up Character Building lessons to help them learn empathy for others, how to deal with that bully, to wait their turn, and so much more.

I can only speak for myself, but I bet that many of us have not even thought about speaking with our students concerning using good manners when commenting on that blog post, or stating opinions on social media sites. Not only do our classes need to be educated about online etiquette, or netiquette, but they have to learn to be careful about what kind of information they share online, there are many predators. It is important for them to understand that they should never give out personal information, unless they know who they are talking to and it is someone that they can trust. It’s a scary world out there and now it is getting smaller due to the world wide web. Say hello to Digital Citizenship.

Topics to be stressed when teaching Digital Citizenship or (Netiquette)

1. Before you post a blog, or a comment, read it out loud, see how it sounds. Remember that you are communicating with another person who cannot see your face, or read your visual clues. What you mean to say may not always come across the way you meant it. So you need to be careful of the tone that you’re using. Remember, treat others the way you want to be treated, with compassion, generosity, kindness and a spirit that shows forgiveness..

2. Don’t type in all capital letters, it looks like you’re yelling and you will turn people off.

3. Remember that whatever you say online will be there forever. This is known as your digital footprint. You don’t want something that you’ve written online to come and haunt you years later. If you're not sure about what you've written, ask yourself how you'd feel if someone said that to you.

4. If you’re posting facts about something, make sure that it is

accurate.

5. Make sure that what you write is your own. If not, give credit

to where you got it from.

6. Be safe, don’t give out personal information.

7. Whatever you write online is subject to criticism, there are people who may not agree with you and wil say so, and sometimes not in a nice way. Try not to get offended by what they say. If you reply back, do it constructively and with kindness.

8. Be careful when you post a selfie, you could get negative

comments, there are many cyber-bullies out there.

9. If you come across a cyber-bully, stand up to him/her,
don't let the things they say frighten you. Do report this
activity to an adult

10. Bullies are not happy people and they want to scare you

and or make you feel bad. Help them by showing compassion,

they may not get it from anyone else.Think about how good

you'll feel by not sinking to their level.

*************************************************************

There is a wealth of information on the net to help improve digital citizenship. I'd like to share a simple acronym that I found online which your students should learn to ask themselves befoe postng on the web. The acronym is THINK....which many people do not do.

T...Is it true?
H...Is it hurtful?
I....Is it illegal?
N...Is it Necessary?
K...Is it kind?

***************************************************************

An instructional technology coordinator, Jay Sonnenberg, in Katy,TX, came up with a wonderful way to teach empathy to his students through the use of cell phone text messaging. He created a "Text it Forward," initiative in which students were to text positive affirmations, and encouraging messages to their friends. This was done through a text messaging service called "Remind." As you can well imagine this worked like a charm bringing everyone closer and created a more caring environment. This is what Sonnenberg said about the program, "It really helps our students see that our entire district is in this together and we have a common goal of being productive members of our online community.” His students created this video that I'd like to share with you.

*****************************************************************
Here's a poster that you can use in your classroom to remind your students that they should always strive to be a positive and empathetic digital citizen.