Giving is a Good Thing

In Kudos Cards – Showing Appreciation – A Win-Win-Win Situation from Success In the Classroom, Sam shares,

“When we give to others, it not only makes the recipient happy, but research has confirmed what we’ve known all along – the giver gets a dose of happiness as well.”

Sam talks about giving kudos cards to faculty when he notices something good that they have done. It is a great way for an administrator to praise teachers. Like students, teachers like getting praise also. I had a principal who would send me an email and thank me for coming to an extracurricular activity. It made me feel good to know that he recognized I was spending my own time to support the students.

At one school, we had postcards from the school that we could send home praising a student for things such as good grades, good behavior, or anything extra we saw that the student did that was worthy of praise. The school paid for the postage. I know it made me feel good to praise my students and the students told me that they were happy when their parents got this. Some parents even saved every postcard that I sent home.

Many of my students came from low income families and were often on the receiving end of gift giving during holidays or the beginning of school. They felt good that someone cared enough to help them.

When I started doing some service learning activities with my class, the class was very excited. One year, we met flag pins that the students colored and then glued on a pin backing. On Veteran’s Day, my class went to the Veteran’s ceremony in our county and distributed the flag pins to everyone who showed up. Many of the veterans thanked my students and made them feel special for giving. After that activity, my students wanted to do more.

Another activity that my high school special education class did was to read Dr. Seuss books to a special education class at the elementary school once a month. Each of my students was paired with a young student and they went to a separate area to read together. We made cupcakes and brought some juice for after the activity. Many of the younger students bonded with the older students and their teacher said behavior improved tremendously in her classroom. Sometimes the younger students shared their “troubles” and my students could encourage them or make them feel cared for.

Once my students learned how good it felt to be giving, they were always looking for other activities that our class could get involved in. I think they liked doing it as a class activity because they felt “safe” doing it all together. There was less chance of feeling out of place or maybe being judged. Eventually some of my students would start learning to give to others on their own.

Hopefully, once my students left my classroom, they learned to continue to give in their own ways. I think they learned that even though it was great to receive from others, it also felt good to give to others.

How do you teach your students about giving? Please share.