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Goal

The KINDNESS PROJECT began last year as a school wide program that would impact every single student in our ENM community. I was awarded a 2015-2016 grant to fund the birth of the project. now, that the program has been implemented, my goal is to continue it every year and our administration has agreed to make it a part of our EAST Naples philosophy.
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this project is to bring an awareness of “kindness” to all our students. Kindness is defined as “the practice of being or tendency to be sympathetic and compassionate.” This program will support students in acquiring the skills to understand and incorporate kindness in daily life. Based on research, students who acquire this skill will be more successful in a multitude of areas of their life. The results will positively affect our school environment, our community and our families.
 

What will be done with my students

IMPLEMENTATION:
• SIGNS -will be placed at entrances of our school declaring our campus a “KINDNESS ZONE”
• SIGNS -will be placed in classrooms as a point of positive dialogue between teachers and their students, as well as peer to peer
• WALL OF KINDNESS - will be created in the cafeteria to serve as a display of different expressions of kindness and pledges; created by students
• GROUPS: Small groups meetings with school counselor discussing kindness (6-7-8)
• KINDNESS CARDS - are given by students when they see someone doing an act of kindness – these cards can then be placed in “Kindness Jars” placed in various locations (cafeteria, front office, media center, guidance office)
1. Distributed by: HEROS of Kindness – (ESE students and 504)
2. Different design card distributed by: “CHAMPIONS of Kindness” -(ELL students)
3. Different design card distributed by: “CAPTAINS of Kindness” –(students, teachers and staff)
• CELEBRATION - a student who performed an act of kindness will be made by selecting a card from the Kindness Jar - weekly
1. Student will receive a positive phone call home
2. Student will receive a special “YOU ARE AWESOME” card
3. Student will receive gator bucks
4. Student’s name will be announced on a morning broadcast
• KINDNESS LESSONS - will be seen once a week on morning TV news
• TIP SHEETS - with ideas for conversations will be given to the case managers of all ESE, Gifted and 504 students; they will distribute the cards to the students
• ELL tutors and teachers of ELL students will also receive Tip Sheets with ideas for conversations and will distribute cards to the students
• MONTHLY - brightly colored half sheets of paper will be distributed to teachers, on a rotation basis. During one “GATOR TIME”, teachers will ask students to write “MESSAGES OF KINDNESS” on those sheets. These will be posted on the Wall of Kindness, in the cafeteria. This panel will change once a month.
• PLEDGE of KINDNESS – Students will be asked to be a part of our school wide KINDNESS program by signing a pledge to commit to being kind. Our goal is to get all 1,100 students, all teachers and staff to sign the pledge. An announcement will be made on the morning news.
• ACTS OF KINDNESS IDEAS - Throughout the year, tip sheets with ideas for various acts of kindness, will be distributed to teachers for them to share and open a dialogue with their students.
• KINDNESS VOCABULARY - and their application will be distributed to teachers as a TIP SHEET to share with their students.
• MINI LESSON- As, school counselor, I will offer myself to all teachers to visit their class, by invitation. I will be happy to offer a short conversation about KINDNESS and its importance with their students.
~ School Wide Kindness Pledge - posted on the WALL OF KINDNESS in the cafeteria
~ Faculty Kindness committee will be formed with monthly meetings to brainstorm ideas to keep KINDNESS as a daily part of our school climate.
~ New ideas this year:
1. Kindness writing assignment in conjunction with our Reading Coach and recognitions
2. Kindness Poetry assignment
3. Kindness skits performed by Journalism and Theater students
4. Kindness Art assignment with recognitions 

Benefits to my students

OBJECTIVES:
• To improve the overall school climate
• Students will increase their EQ and improve social skills
• Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the correlation between kindness and overall achievement
• Students will be able to describe and demonstrate words that are caring words
• Students will learn the effects of kindness and the positive chemical changes that can occur within the body
• To reduce rude, mean and/or bullying behavior
• To improve the teacher /student relationship in order to create a positive learning environment
• Ownership of the Kindness movement will be done by training various groups of students to recognize an act of kindness and celebrate it
~ Informative power point will be given to every teacher and staff member for their use to show to students as a talking point about kindness, its importance and how it affects all members of the act of kindness
~ During this PHASE TWO of the Kindness Project, more rewards will be issued for acts of kindness, as seen through the KINDNESS CARDS and teacher/staff nominations:
1. Ice pops during lunch times
2. Special classroom passes
3. Random KINDNESS nominations by teachers
4. Special privilege passes
East Naples continues to be the only middle school in Collier County with a school wide Kindness program. We were the first to pioneer this initiative and we will continue to set the trends in making KINDNESS a part of our school day. Kindness plays a positive role in the academic and social development of our students.

 

Budget Narrative

From my experience with the KINDNESS Project last year, I learned some important lessons. After doing research with groups of students at the end of the year, I learned that our students are still in the "learning" process of the act of kindness. I learned that we are still at the level of having to reward students for doing an act of kindness, until it feels so good that they will not need an actual material reward for their action. My budget this year is based on providing more instant rewards for their ability to preform an act of kindness. 

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