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Random Acts Of Kindness
"It doesn't cost anything to be Nice"
Cards For Lunch Ladies,As this quarter comes to an end, we had down time and wanted to thank the lunch ladies for making sure students have had food, both during quarantine and now as well. We went to the office and gathered the names of the lunch ladies. After getting back in class, our teacher had encouraging cards that we paper clipped into each note. We delivered these in person. What I've LearnedThrough making notes, I have learned to put myself aside to help others. There were days where I had certain situations I was going through, and I was discouraged. I found out by helping encourage others, in return, I was encouraged. In the end, this was only time consuming for each step, but it was manageable. I'm so glad I got to help encourage students and staff for all that they do.
While this quarter is wrapping up, we are going to put a temporary hold on the notes. We will for sure make more cards fourth quarter, and possibly before then. We will decide, if we want to open the cards back up, by reevaluating not only the need for more encouragement. Because in the end of the day, "It doesn't cost anything to be nice."
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After about a week of starting the teacher cards, Teacher Appreciation Week approached. We decided this, of all times, was the perfect opportunity to finish all the cards to the teachers. Each day we came in and began our assembly line to mass produce these cards. It was tiring, but also so rewarding to know that we took time to thank those that help us every day. We completed all the cards for the teachers and administrators, along with the ladies in the office. From hereFrom here, I am going to continue with the remind along. We have stopped production of cards as of right now, but am hoping to at least make cards for the lunch ladies in our building.
Because of the gratitude shown by teachers towards this project, I'm looking for ways to continue on this project as we wrap up this class in the next two weeks. Although I won't have this class everyday, I am going to look for ways that I can continue this on outside of the classroom. After receiving 42 student responses, we gladly finished all of them. Our assembly line became more efficient in the way that Lucy cut the cards and Kendall glued on a piece of paper saying to join our kindness remind. I would paint and write quotes. We hand delivered the notes to the students that are in school, and mailed the notes to those that are virtual students. After finishing all of the students cards, we moved on to the teacher cards. In these, I drew the teachers' interests on the front of the card, as well as with a quote from Pinterest on the inside above the note. We have finished half of the teacher list. After teachers we will expand to bus drivers, lunch ladies, custodians, etc. For delivering the teachers cards, we originally hand delivered. After realizing that it takes away from it being anonymous, we decided to place the cards in the teachers' mailbox. This way the teachers can have a true random act of kindness, without knowing who did this. The Remind MessageI have continually been sending quotes every morning. We have also had 25 people join the remind, with a combination of students and teachers.
This project has been a legacy project for the past few years. Lucy Miller, Kendall Mann, and I decided to carry on this year. This project in the past has been a way to encourage students who need it. We figured this year, with everything being different due to Covid-19 it's a time that needs encouragement more than ever. Priya Chidambaram wrote in the article 'The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use' that 53% of adults reported their mental health being affected negatively due to Covid-19 in mid-July which is just about 20% higher than the reported 32% in March. I love art, and encouraging others so I knew this project was perfect for me. This year we are changing the project a little, in the fact that we are broadening the audience who we send the encouraging notes. In the past, this was just for encouraging fellow students, emphasising on the freshmen. Our goal this year is to not only help encourage all the students, but also expand to all the staff and faculty here at the high school. Pitch DayPitch day was August 14, 2020. This day was meant for presenting our project to the class along with members of the administration. It took only a few days to get ready, merely because we started the process of making encouraging notes on August 11th. It felt good to be able to share how we wanted to bring light. A counselor from our school suggested making a place to recommend people who need encouragement. Since then, we have been looking into ways of making this happen and help promote that as well. The ProcessWe started this project by making a student questionnaire and having Mr. Large, our teacher, send it out to all the students. Within this questionnaire we asked multiple questions. We asked questions such as 'What is your favorite color?' 'What hobbies and activities are you in?' to get to know them, followed by asking them what they need encouragement from. Within one week of having the form being opened, we have had 42 student responses. We started out, where I would paint paper with what the students liked and gluing that on the cards. After doing approximately just about seven, we realized the time taxation of that. They were very personable to each student, but with only me painting it was very overwhelming (especially with the 42 student responses). We changed the way we went about the card making process, where I carved some designs into the stamp pads and also used some of the left over designs from the past. We form and assembly line where Lucy cuts the cards, Kendall rolled the stamp pad and then pressed it on the card, and I would write the names in calligraphy. We all wrote on the notes. We have the system where Lucy and Kendall write the letters to the student, and I am working on writing the notes to the staff and faculty. We also hand deliver these during homeroom, with the help of Mr. Large we are able to find out the homerooms. For students who are doing school virtually or are in quarantine, we have been lucky enough to be able to send them their card we make. I also decided to make a remind where we send out daily encouragement and have been writing this in all the cards we hand out. I send out an initial welcome message to whoever joins, and every morning will send out a quote I get from Pinterest We are going to continue to send out reminds and notes and look into making a place for people to recommend people who need encouragement, for those who don't want to ask for encouragement.
We are also looking into more ways to make the notes more anonymously. |
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