Cultivating Kindness With Global Connections

Purpose & objective

How can we empower students to recognize the strengths they have to make the world a better place? This presentation showcases Kindness Passion Projects, a unique learning experience where students create their own service learning project, designed with a simple budget of $10. Using G Suite tools such as Google Chrome, Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sites, students research, plan, implement, and share their projects with local stakeholders and the global community at large.

In addition, Mystery Meet-and-Greets will be spotlighted, showcasing students connecting with other students and adults around the world to learn more about cultures, traditions, and humanity while collaborating on a variety of lessons together.

The purpose of this presentation is to inspire coaches and classroom teachers to create unique learning experiences that integrate technology with digital citizenship skills while also exemplifying the joys of kind acts for others. All participants will receive a bookmark leading to the website "A Passion for Kindness" which showcases more than 100 student projects through the past four years. With the resources provided, attendees will be able to replicate this learning experience to fit their own classroom dynamics, inspiring a new generation of kindness cultivators to "Be the Good" for others.

While these service-learning experiences were created for elementary-aged students, they can easily be adapted to fit the academic and social constructs of any class grades PK-12.

Supporting research

Websites:

The Random Act of Kindness Foundation https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/
The Great Kindness Challenge
https://thegreatkindnesschallenge.com/
Make Caring Common (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/
The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (Stanford Medicine)
http://ccare.stanford.edu/
CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning)
https://casel.org/
Sustainable Development Goals
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

Books:

A Passion for Kindness by Tamara Letter, M.Ed.
Lisa Goes to Australia by Pat Adams
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Day by Emily Pearson
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson & Sean Qualls
Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller
Hair Love by Matthew A Cherry & Vashti Harrison
Same, Same, but Different by Jenny Kostecki Shaw