It’s the end of the year and you are counting down the days left right along with the students! It seems as though the entire class has forgotten every rule and routine that was put into place (and seemed to be working). Now the kids are antsy and acting more like brothers and sisters at each other all the time. The lack of kindness is taking over…
I was recently reading a question about this in one of the Facebook groups I belong to. It made me think about how I handle “unkindness in the classroom” during the school year, especially when things start to break down. Here is the question posed in the group:
I know the end of the year is upon us, but my class is crazy with unkindness, unfriendliness, unhelpfulness…. etc! They’ve gone insane with how rude they are to each other. I’m looking for a few quick ideas to build back up the class community because I don’t want them to leave with this attitude/atmosphere as their last memories of 4th grade. Anyone have any ideas, technology based or otherwise, that I can do with them in these last few weeks?
I responded to the person who asked the question, telling them about how I battle unkindness in my own classroom. I have a secret weapon for these scenarios! The Kindness Club…I created it out of sheer necessity and desperation!
Several years ago, I had a student who had been through a lot in her short 8 years of life. She was new to the school due to some tough circumstances and she was acting out. She was the quiet, cutting, kind of unkind…the kind that is SO HARD for teachers to pinpoint and create a consequence. Her unkindness was leaching out into the other girls in the classroom and it was really killing my “happy little classroom” vibes.
One morning I packed my school bag with some fruit, a few packets of juice mix, and a table cloth. When I got to school that morning, I cut some hearts out of construction paper and wrote:
“Secret Kindness Club Meeting Today at Lunch…Bring your lunch and shhhh don’t tell any other students. Love, Mrs. Johnson”
I placed 6 hearts upside-down on 6 desks…my 4 most
unkind students and 2 students who are kind to others all the time. Later that morning, I watched the kids come in and flip over the hearts, read them, and then quickly tuck them away for later. It was cute, how secretive they were being. We have recess before lunch, so I set up the room to make it look like a legit club meeting. I put out the table cloth, the bowl of cut up fruit, paper goods, and a pitcher of juice. I also put out paper and markers. When the students arrived, they were ALL IN. This was the first of the weekly “Kindness Club” meetings.
We spent the meetings brainstorming random acts of kindness we could do for classmates and adults in our school as well as sharing things we had done that week to be kind to others. Students brought lists of concerns as well as compliments. We also used the time to put some of their kindness plans into action. They made cards for other teachers and slipped them into their mailboxes, wrote notes and put them in other students’ cubbies, thought about who could use some extra kindness, made Valentines, and we even baked brownies one week and made chocolate covered pretzels for our office staff and to bring home to be kind to their families.
The kindness club was a success in more ways than I had imagined. It was a success, in that it helped the students to have a common purpose and a place that they belonged. This worked wonders with their attitudes. It was also a great because there were still times when certain members were being unkind. I could pull them aside and have a discussion with them and just mention the Kindness Club. This was so powerful and since the club was a secret, they wanted to continue to be involved. It also helped me to be able to have extra time with these students and build stronger relationships with them.
Now tell me: How do you combat kids who are not being kind in class?
