The kind acts keep adding up in 2020.
Nearly four years ago, OCDE launched its One Billion Acts of Kindness project to promote civility, boost character and create positive school climates. The idea was to collect and count as many kind acts as possible, and so far more than 14.5 million good deeds have been registered at kindness1billion.org and through our free app for smartphones and tablets.
One of the more recent submissions came from Laguna Road Elementary School in Fullerton, where the student service group Friday Night Live organized a handful of campus events last week in conjunction with the Great Kindness Challenge.
Teacher Angela Platon was inspired to turn kindness into a weeklong assignment for her sixth-grade class. For homework, she asked students to perform and document one act of kindness on Monday, two on Tuesday, three on Wednesday, and so on.
“I explained that by increasing the number of random acts each day, that hopefully, it will become a habit to be kind to others,” Platon said. “I have them post to a (Google Classroom) thread about their random acts.”
One boy posted a video of him reading to his little sister. Another student complimented a younger brother on his performance. A girl wrote a note to her mom, thanking her for all of the sacrifices she makes for her children.
And then there was this example.
“I came home after school to find a chocolate rose at my door and a sweet note from one of my dear students,” Platon said. “She decided I would be the recipient of one of her daily random acts.”
“I feel all warm and fuzzy reading all of the great things my students are doing for others, which isn’t taking much time at all,” she said. “I think my students are truly understanding what it means to be kind and what a tremendous impact it can make on others.”
And here are some of the other kind acts that have been shared with us recently:
- “I bought a can of coke at the store for the woman ahead of me who didn’t have the money for it.”
- “I pledged to help my dad with the chores and help his knee. And he was very proud of me. So he took me to the bookstore called Barnes & Noble.”
- “I wanted to help my mom so I helped her carry in groceries to make her happy.”
- “I went to the store and got a coffee for my Mom.”
- “Well yesterday I helped someone face their fears in the playground, and I also helped pick up trash.”
- “I helped my mom by washing the dishes and I also cleaned them. I hope I can wash the dishes again for mom.”
- “I was kind to my closest friend Khoa and his brother. I won’t make fun of his name ever again.”
- “I helped my mom with the dishes.”
- “OCDE’s ACCESS program held a kindness sick drive for the holidays, and staff collected 47 wonderfully warm and soft pairs of socks. These socks were then donated to the Huntington Beach Youth Shelter allowing for the kindness to continue to flow.”
- “I helped my brother do his homework. I helped my other brother take out the trash. I helped my oldest brother paint a picture.”
- “I gave my milk to my friend.”
- “Helped my brother go to school.”
- “We had an Academic Decathlon competition that was held at Tustin High School and had over 152 volunteers spend their day with us listening to speeches that were prepared by our Decathletes, and also judges interviewed our Decathletes.”
Don’t forget to log your kind acts on the kindness1billion.org website, or download our free app for iOS and Android devices. For more on kindness, check out these stories we’ve shared on the OCDE Newsroom, including the “Exploring Kindness” episode of The Deeper Learning Podcast, hosted by Orange County Superintendent Dr. Al Mijares.