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RAK:
“Random Acts of Kindness” at the Junior High
By Chris Mortenson, Principal
Greenville Junior High School
It is often heard that each generation of students has flaws that make
them a poor representation for what our future has in store, as a
community, as a state and as a country. I am often asked how I
can work in education and routinely told by others that they could not
work in the education system and wonder why teachers would choose to do
this each day. My reply is that our students are really very good
and 98% of our students have little to no discipline concerns at
all. Our offenders, our real offenders, account for about 7-8
students total out of over 400 students. All of the other
students in the building that we work with daily are excellent students
with unique, individualized goals that they can certainly achieve if
they put their mind to it. Most of the students in this
group would help others and do this daily for their fellow classmates,
community members and family without thinking anything of it. For
all of those students and the thousands of others just like them, is
the reason that each teacher chooses to do this career daily.
Recently, the Junior High PTA discussed the students and staff taking
on a project to demonstrate kindness with and toward their fellow
classmates. The PTA requested that the Junior High participate in
a week long project with our students to help them see the difference
that acts of kindness can have on others and their own
self-image. After discussions with staff, PTA officers and some
conversation with students it was decided to implement a “Random Acts
of Kindness” week or what came to be referred to as RAK week. The
proposal was shared with the PTA and decided that costs should be
researched and reported back along with a basic plan that staff would
use with the students for each of the core content areas within the
building. After several meetings with the Teacher Based Teams
(TBT teams) for Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies, they
had developed some positive options for the promotion of RAC week at
the Junior High. The PTA will fund a small beatification project
at the Junior High during that week. We would like to thank the
PTA for their guidance and support for this project with our students.
This week, all of our students at the Junior High will be participating
by content area in a project associated with demonstrations of kindness
to either their fellow classmates, community members or just being kind
to the ecosystem itself. The project was selected by the
teams department and then details selected about how to allow for the
work to be completed, connected to the student learning standards, and
help shape students understanding of what being kind means, and its
impact on others touched by the kindness. Here is a little bit of
what is being done with our students throughout the building and in the
community.
The Language Arts department discussed that the students had struggled
with some writing prompts throughout the year and felt like the acts of
kindness in the community that had already taken place or that were
currently occurring should be recognized. The team discussed
contacting the local Chamber of Commerce or the welcome center and
finding out the groups that were instrumental in cleaning and
decorating the downtown area in the spring. Students had
commented on the picking up of trash and the planting of flowers by
these groups. They discussed that the class could look at these
groups and write thank you letters to those organizations for all of
their work. It was then expanded to possibly asking these groups
how others could get information on getting involved and helping out
around the community so that more could be done or the students
themselves could look to take on a project in the future.
The Math department discussed that students had worked with graphs and
charting data as one of their learning standards and commented that
students had difficulty reading these graphs and charting data when it
was given. The math team decided to have students collect data on
Acts of Kindness that they had seen or performed themselves. The
team discussed having students do correlations with data associated
with acts of violence that they witnessed either in their own lives
toward others or within even the video games that they play each
day. The math department would incorporate conversation with
students about how they believe that this violence could impact the way
people treat others and the impact that being kind by a group of people
could impact this same group.
The Social Studies Department discussed having students chart their
acts of kindness throughout the week. A list of kind acts was
generated for students to select from and students in the Social
Studies and History classes would select a predetermined amount of
these that they would have to perform for others either in the
building, at home or in the community. Students would then have
parents, teachers or community members sign off that they had performed
their act of kindness and this would be returned to the class for
credit on this assignment. These acts of kindness would be
documented and charted as part of the project and the students would
gain their own reward by reaching a predetermined number by Acts of
Kindness being fulfilled. One of the rewards would be an assembly
with a prominent community member to discuss Kindness in the community.
Finally, the science department decided to have their students do a
field trip where the students would pick up trash down a predetermined
number of streets. Each class would go down a different street
and collect the trash items in these areas. Students will be
discussing safe trash pickup and will then bring the trash collected
back to the school and compile a list of the trash that is found.
Students will analyze the trash data and the time it takes to breakdown
certain trash items that were discarded. Students will chart this
data and discuss the environmental impact of the trash discarded in
proportion to the population of the area covered by the students, local
community, and the world as a whole. Students will then discuss
the opportunities available in the community to get involved in larger
cleanup projects. Finally, a small group of students from the
science department will plan and complete a beatification project for
the junior high to end the school year with work being conducted during
the RAK week.
As can be seen by the projects being performed this week, students have
an opportunity to participate in some Random Acts of Kindness to not
only impact their school, but the community as a whole. I
will be excited to see how these projects turn out, but I think the
greater aspect will be to hear from the students about what they
learned regarding the impact of doing something for others. I
believe that they will see that these simple acts of kindness not only
bring joy to those who are receiving, but that those who do them feel
better about themselves as well. It is an opportunity to see
students learn the power of kindness. We hope that members of the
community will join us and make a goal to commit to each day performing
at least one Random Act of Kindness for someone else. If this
truly happened, then the impact of a simple project could be far
greater than just the walls of a school or the city limits of the
school district. We hope you find it in your heart to be Kind to
others this week.
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