Starting the School Year with Kindness!

Starting the School Year with Kindness! What we need now more than ever is kindness. Kindness matters!  It can turn a child’s whole day around and when you have a classroom full of kind children the day is fun and productive.  We must treat each other with kindness, empathy, and compassion.  We say it, we know it, but often what we forget that kindness must be taught and practiced.   How often do we say to our students, “Be Respectful, Be Nice, Be Kind.” As teachers, we are examples to our students.  We are their role models for 180 days a year.  We know that it is unfair to expect them to know how to behave without actively teaching it, this includes positive character traits. We have the power to create and maintain routines of kindness through engaging our students in teambuilding activities.  We must ensure that together, teachers and students create a safe and effective learning environment.   “It’s not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world.  It’s our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.” -L.R. Knost Positive Classroom Culture, Effective Classroom Management How can we as teachers improve our students’ behavior and attitudes towards each other and create a supportive learning environment through teaching kindness? A positive mindset is key!  As a teacher at a PBIS school, I ensure that I provide positive classroom behavior support by modeling positive and proactive classroom management.  This system is based on teaching, modeling, practicing, and rewarding appropriate behavior and having clear consequences for targeted behaviors.  It’s about noticing the kind, respectful and responsible students and praising them.  It is my goal to get 100% of my students to be noticed for their positive behaviors.  How do I do that?  I build what I like to call my “Dream Team!”  I’ve started by incorporating the use of Kagan Team Building Structures.  Teambuilding is a way for kids to get to know, like, and respect each other.  It’s a way to teach kindness and acceptance while working as a team. My goal is to get kids to understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and interests and build upon them in a productive way.  I am really looking forward to this journey of shaping young minds together.   Teambuilding Activity Positively teaching, Randi Muehlen