Take Time To Be Kind-- RAK 2013

Last year I didn't have a clue when RAK week was, not to mention that I was so swamped with starting a new position in January, that I didn't even try to make it work.  However, I LOVE the idea of random acts of kindness week and I was determined to NOT let this week go by again uncelebrated.  :)  I introduced the week and what it meant on the news show on the last day of Nat'l School Counseling Week.  Each morning of RAK week, our anchors have been reminding our students to do random acts of kindness for each other.   I've also had so much help from our awesome news show coordinator filming random students talking about ways they've shown kindness.  I've been on a couple times as well to introduce a youtube video of a RAK and share kindness ideas with everyone at school.

I got some great ideas by following many different RAK boards on pinterest.  I created this bulletin board from an awesome example on pinterest.

At the beginning of the week, I I emailed teachers a few ideas they could use in their class and attached this RAK board that I saw on The Inspired Counselor and know that a few classes have been using it! (I modified a couple of the RAKs to make them make sense at my school)

I printed and laminated these wallet-sized printable quotes about kindness and put them in our staff "buckets" that we usually fill for each other with positive notes.

There is one class in particular that needed an extra boost of kindness, so after school on Monday, I placed "secret kindness missions" on each of their desks.  Their teacher told me that there was a lot of excitement on Tuesday morning when they came into school and found out that they were on a secret mission.

 

We've also been selling Valentine's Day suckers for .25 cents to go to our beautification committee and have been promoting kindness through that. (Help make our school a place we all enjoy being; Be kind this Valentine's and surprise your friend with a sucker, ect.)  I made some of the tags for the suckers that said to: You, From: Random Act of Kindness so that teachers and students could leave suckers as surprises for each other.  

It has been such a fun and exciting week!  Kids are stopping me in the hallway every day to share the kind things they've been doing for their friends, teacher and family.  Helping kids learn kindness is a part of my vision and mission here at my school and I am thankful for a week that gives me a reason to promote and encourage it!  Happy RAK week to you!

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." -Aesop