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. 

Giving to Children

In Mark Zuckerberg Vows to Donate 99% of His Facebook Shares for Charity, the author shares,

“Yet they are entering largely uncharted waters with a charity effort of such scale. They have not yet detailed how the money will be spent and the pace at which the money will be given out indicates they plan to take their time.”

I think this is a commendable action to take but I hope that the money is actually used how they intend for it to be used. I wish that someday I could be in the position to do something like this. 

It scares me when I see this and think of how much of the money will be wasted on the trickle-down process. A lot of it will be spent on administration costs and other fees. I picture the money at the top of the tree and children at the bottom of the tree. All of the branches at near the top are like hands from others who want a piece of the share before it ever reaches the bottom where it was intended.

I see that his wife is a pediatrician and I hope that she will be a hands-on philanthropist and not just an armchair one.

I see this attitude shift when I see teachers who become administrators and then move on to school boards. They get so far removed from the classroom that they lose sight of what it is actually like to work with the children. Things that look good on paper, TV, or the public spotlight look good but not all of these things actually are effective in the real situations.

When I mentioned my concerns to my husband, he asked me how could it be done. How could the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative make the money actually reach the ones that it is intended for? This initiative will focus on health and education. 

I would like to see teachers submit proposals for research-based practices that would work in their classroom. Maybe they don’t have the money for the materials and equipment to follow through with this strategy.  Some of the situations may not even call for tons of money but the money would have to be used for the items in the proposal (proof of purchase and documentation of student progress would have to be sent in).  Maybe there would be a limit to the number of proposals sent in each year. But I think the proposals should be sent to a committee representing the Initiative and chosen from them. The less administrative steps involved, the less loss of revenue would occur during the process.  As a former teacher, I would love to be on this committee and inspired by the ideas of practicing teachers who love their students so much that they are willing to take the time and energy to try to advocate for their needs.

I’m not sure this is the best way but it was the first one that I could think of.  Do you have any other ideas on how the charity could be implemented? Please share.