More of us will be out shopping in the next few weeks than normal and so in our Be Safe Annapolis we have put together a few safety tips. More will be coming as we work on helping Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to be safe.
Acts of Kindness
We reached our goal of 1000 Acts of Kindness and surpassed it. At the end of the day on last Saturday we had accumulated from our students, parents and friends.
1825 Acts of Kindness
Now the question is, Can we do more? I believe that as a community we could become known as one of the kndenst communities in the nation. It does us and our kids so much good to think about the act of being kind. I am going to leave our form up for you to fill in your act of kindness.
Just think if you did one act per week that would be 52 acts of kindness in a year. What if your family of 4 each did the same? In one year you would accumulate 208 acts of kindness. If you got 4 of your friends families to do the same that would be 1040 Acts in one year. If they each got 4 friends families to do the same we now have an additional 3328 acts and the numbers keep growing.
Would you do an act of kindness each week? each day? Lets do this together and have an impact on our community!
Help a Teacher new request
Hilltop Elementary School has a need for some art supplies. Now while the list is long, is it possible for us to fill a small part of the need? This would be a great act of kindness to this school and teacher. If you are able to fill a part of these needs please just let me know and we can up date the request.
Here is the link to find out what we can do.
Art supplies for Hilltop Elementary.
For more information about the Help a Teacher project please go to our website.
Rain Barrel awareness at Leadership AA
Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of sharing a few minutes with Leadership Anne Arundel Flagship class of 2009 at their Environmental Day. It was being held at Arlington Echo with the wonderful staff there helping out and some great speakers. One of the artist who has participated in our Rain Barrel event from the very beginning had provided us with a beautiful painted barrel that we auctioned off.
We were able to announce the following:
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In 2009 we are expanding our program to involve more schools including Rolling Knolls Elementary.
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Our auction and awareness day will be held at Arlington Echo.
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All of the proceeds of the auction will benefit Arlington Echo and their education efforts.
One more note on this project. Recently we were able to assist the Children’s Museum of Washington DC to do some painted barrels that were part of the Green Expo on November 8,9 at the convention center in DC. They have offered to partner with us on creating barrels in 2009 and we will be working together on bringing this program to Prince George’s County Schools.
Winning or losing reactions
We all know that when we play a game that it is more fun and fair when everyone follows the rules, without having to be reminded and told to do so. But when the game is over how we react to the winning or losing of the game also has an affect on us and those that we played with.
Even though losing is never fun and winning does make us feel good there are ways of handling this that are fair to other and demonstrate good sportsmanship. But first we need to get past the question about is it fair if someone wins or loses. In todays world of children, there are parents and teachers that believe that it will hurt the self esteem of the child if they lose in a game or competition and so they have all sorts of ways of no one having lost, including not playing games that there are obvious winners.
Well the fact is that if we play a game and everyone plays by the rules – then it is fair if someone wins and others do not win. The question that needs to be addressed is how do we react? We can teach our children that it is great to desire to win – that is healthy. In fact for me to want to be the best is healthy. What is not healthy is when we get down on ourselves, when we decide that we are not good enough or when we cry, pout, throw a tantrum because we did not win. Thats not fair to others and especially to those that did better on that particular day and time. And it is not heathy for us, because those types of feelings and reactions do not allow us to go back to work on our game.
These questions are so important for everyone to discuss with their children and think about themselves before we face that situation. We are not going to win all of the time / nor are we going to lose all of the time, even if it feels that way when we do. So what is an appropriate reaction?
What is fairness?
Fairness is something that we talk about throughout our lives. When we are young it is about someone taking a toy or doesn’t let us play or not getting the same size piece of cake. When we get older it may be about tests, sports, chores and privileges at home. With us adults we talk about fairness too. Unfortunately many times when it does not seem ‘fair’ it ends up in court.
What does fairness mean to you? When is it fair for everyone to get the do the same amount?
Is there ever a time when individuals get a different amount?
What would happen if we treated everyone the same no matter what? What would that look like and is it fair?
I will discuss what it means to be fair and unfair later this week here, as we discuss it with all of our students in their classes.