Gratitude and generosity are two important things that I hope to model and teach each day to my first graders. They are two important pieces related to being kind to one another. I chose these two because my goal this year has been to teach my students how to be kind and accepting of one another, no matter our differences. Today, we live in a world where so much hate occurs and I hope to help edge out the violence that occurs in our society. 

This school year my class has participated in doing Random Acts of Kindness. I make sure that when we do these acts of kindness that we not only complete them but also talk about how they make us feel. My goal is to teach the students how good we feel when we are generous and help others. I believe this also makes them grateful for the people and things in their life. 

From doing acts of kindness in school and at home, I have seen and received feedback from parents about how their child is focused on being kind and wanting to continue doing small acts. I believe my students have gained the understanding that helping others can provide us happiness, satisfaction and a sense of purpose. This has taught me how important implementing Random Acts of Kindness into my teaching has been. I will continue to do this each year and find other ways to incorporate gratitude, generosity and kindness into our school day. 

"Don't wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly... lead the way!" - Steve Maraboli