Building a Village of Kindness in After-School

I am an After School Coordinator in Vallejo, CA. In this role, I organize and run my school’s expanded learning programming and oversee my after-school staff. The school is located in an area where children are lacking resources. I particularly connect with these children because I’ve lived in those areas throughout my life. With that said, I think it’s no coincidence that I am there.

This school year, during our monthly professional development and site coordinator inquiry with Lead by Learning I decided to focus on second graders in our program because of the transitions these students experienced starting at the beginning of school when a teacher they had become attached to in the previous school year left suddenly. They were placed with a school site-based substitute for a short period until a “permanent teacher” was assigned. By November, they had 3 different teachers.

I started to notice behaviors among students that created a hostile environment. There was bullying, fighting, and mean verbal words towards one another. We decided as a staff that we would focus on creating a Kindness Revolution to build our students’ SEL skills in after school. We started with these tools:

• Circle Up with Students & Staff: create a circle to talk about what kindness looks like with role plays & videos, as well as encourage students to share what they consider to be “acts of kindness.”  Students were given hearts & rays of sunshine on a board when they shared what acts of kindness they performed. Students with the most hearts or rays of sunshine were given nice prizes as an incentive.
• Student Leadership roles: students were assigned as snack leaders during meal times. As students received their meals from the leaders, they were encouraged to say “thank you”, and snack leaders were encouraged to respond with  “you’re welcome.”
• Student Acts of Kindness: students were encouraged to say “excuse me” as they transitioned to line up. They are also encouraged to offer others to go before them as an act of kindness.
• Peace Corner: students were offered the option of the peace corner (space in the classroom with comfy chairs,  reflective atmosphere, and “spots of feelings books”) when they were feeling frustrated, angry, etc.

During the Kindness Revolution, we collected data as site coordinators with Lead by Learning. What stood out for me in terms of street data was hearing the students say thank you and allowing others to go in front of them in lines. My favorite piece of street data was looking at Panorama Survey responses and seeing that they were using the word kind in their answers. For example, one of my focal students said, “I like that my school is kind.” And, as the school year came close to ending, the more acts of kindness we saw!

The Lead by Learning staff was instrumental in giving us the tools needed for success in our “Kindness Revolution.”  During our sessions I got ideas about using incentives to encourage acts of kindness, using the one mic rule during circle, and always being encouraging. Each session also had a warm welcome, and these icebreakers were very thoughtful and reflective for me. Lead by Learning was encouraging in a gentle, supportive manner, which worked perfectly for our goals.

I think my self-reflective moments came from my “think alone time” and also my time spent with my peers, the Lead by Learning staff, as well as my awesome district leader, Carol Lewis. I was able to hear things shared and apply them to our kindness journey. This fits into my mindset of “The Village.” I truly believe that “It takes a village to raise a child.” I remember a principal, Roxanne Tuggle telling me about an African village that would say “If the children are ok, the village is ok.” For the children to be ok, we have to collectively work together as a community.

My biggest takeaway from this Kindness Revolution is that with passion, commitment, and consistency, we can truly help children become loving, compassionate individuals. Also, while taking this journey, I myself became more aware of how to treat others.

By doing simple acts of kindness for others,

We can’t help but lift ourselves up,  too!

Diane Flowers is currently an Afterschool Coordinator with Vallejo City Unified School District. She has worked for children in different capacities since starting with a Head Start Program in Chicago when she was 14 years old. She is also retired from Oakland Unified School District after working in the district for 20 plus years. She will be 72 years old this September and can honestly say that she feels blessed to have been able to work for our most precious product, which is our children.

Interested in working with Lead by Learning to support professional learning for your Expanded Learning staff? Connect with a member of our team to learn more about our partnerships.