One of my favorite bloggers, Kozo over at Everyday Gurus, recently started a group called Bloggers for Peace. The first challenge, pick a daily or weekly act of kindness for January and blog about it. I knew instantly what I needed to do.
All kids need love and special attention, but the reality is that in a room full of 30 students, some receive more than others. For my daily act of kindness, I am going to pick a different kid each day to go out of my way to make feel special. An instructional coach suggested I do this with my most behaviorally challenging kids, but I want to take it a step further and include all my students. Even the most outspoken could use a little extra love, and it has always bothered me that the quietest students go less noticed, especially if they do not act out or struggle academically.
So, each day in January, I will pick one student to quietly receive my attention. At a minimum, I will:
1. Write him/her a kind note, (this may be small, but I often notice that students keep my little notes in their pencil boxes or taped to the corner of their desks for months).
2. I ask students I see before school, “What is one good thing about today?” I will ask my student of the day this question because it forces students to be grateful and see their lives through a different lens. Often they shrug when I ask this question, but then we talk and they end up smiling as they realize they ate breakfast, hugged their dad goodbye, or have a nice warm place to come to school. One of my students now runs up to me every morning to tell me his one good thing. I want to make sure every student in my class reflects on this question at least once and gets more one-on-one conversation/attention for the day.
So, there you have it. 30 students means my little acts of kindness will carry me through to February, but it is a worthy cause and one I have been wanting to pursue for months. I already have a husky of the day who gets to help out, but I like that this will be a quieter, unexpected source of kindness. We go back to school January 8, so I will start with student number 8 and work my way through.
Hope you join Bloggers for Peace and find your own way to do something kind in January! I’ll report back on how my little experiment turns out.
Proof I won’t forget. Post-it on my work laptop.
oliviaobryon 
Olivia,
You brought a tear to my eye. I love this. Maybe because I was a student that craved this personal attention. Who am I kidding? I am a human being that craves this personal attention. Your students will be thrilled.
I also love the idea of asking them what is a good thing about today. Every night before dinner, I ask my sons what is the best thing that happened today. I also want them to be grateful, so they say, “thank you, thank you, thank you” after. I’m so grateful to have met you in the blogosphere. We share a similar energy that flows stronger in each others’ presence. {{{Hugs}}}
P.S.
I am working on the pitch. I also discovered that we need to turn in the full manuscript to Amazon this month!!! I’m not done yet. Have you done this contest before? Does it usually fill up quickly?
Yes, I think you’re right– we share a similar energy! Excited to give a little extra attention to one kid a day 🙂
I haven’t entered the Amazon contest before, but just read the rules:
“Entries may be edited until the above stated entry deadline or until a category has reached the maximum number of allowed entries, whichever first occurs.”
Sounds like you can at least put in what you have on the 14th and continue update edited manuscripts and/or pitches until the contest fills up. Not sure I will be 100% ready by then, but I’m still going to do it anyway, figure there is no downside to push myself to put it out there.
Look forward to your pitch! Mine is still evolving… As always.
Happy New Year!