True Acts of Kindness Week
This week, April 15-20th, is Random Acts of Kindness Week in our Istituto Comprensivo. It is an activity for Comenius Project but certainly needed for all our school.
This activity has been, at first, suggested by Mrs Jenny Poletti to other Italian teachers, who got involved at once in the project and to which all nursery and primary schools of the Institute participated. There's a wonderful coordinating team: Mrs Rossella Sansone, Mr Emilio Turci, Mr Marco Caiffa who, supported by our Principal Mr Attilio Desiderio, managed to organize the week.
Before explaining all steps of this activity, it is important to underline its motivations
Why such a week?
The main purpose of the week is to sensitize students to the importance of free and selfless acts of altruism, which can bring a different view of the relationship with others and life in society
Of course we don’t need a reason or a special week to perform small random acts of kindness and would certainly benefit from practicing regularly throughout the year, but having a few days set aside with this intention can be a wonderful community motivation towards taking better care of one another and widening our sometimes, maybe usually, self-involved state of mind.
When we take care of others we are also taking care of ourselves and when we take care of ourselves we are also taking care of others. This is the heart of the teaching on interbeing. This would like to be the " heart of this week".
It is easy to think that small acts cannot possibly add up to much and that it takes grand gestures to affect change. Just like a bucket sitting out in a drizzle gets filled up to its brim one drop at a time our seemingly small acts of kindness are not only extremely significant they ripple out much further then we might think.
Activities
Before starting the week, a competion for the best logo was held in all schools of the Institute. The winner was a logo created by Sara, a girl from class 1 G.
During that week, all teachers explained the aim and the activities of the following week, the True Acts of Kindness Week; every class had a large paper thermometer in class on which students had to write all their acts of kindness; the same was done on a logbook on which students could write acts and reflections.
Many activities will take place during the week:
- activities for discussion and reflection among students that will be included into a logbook written by all classes of the Institute.
- meetings with local voluntary associations.
- some middle school classes will participate in "Volunteers are growing: at school of solidarity": a project carried out by the service centre for volunteering.
- On Saturday 20 th some classes will carry out the activities of planting and clean-up of the green and courtyard area.
- At the same time parents who are available will start preparation and painting of classrooms and common areas of our school.
- At 11 am the same classes will participate to meeting with the band "Ladri di Carrozzelle"
- At the end of the day all classes of the Institute will meet in the volleyball ground for the awards ceremony of the students creators of the logo of the week of kindness and classes that, according to the logbooks will be more worthy (1st, 2nd, 3rd year Middle School).
Activities at the Centre for Volunteering