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1,000 Acts of Kindness makes a change


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1,000 Acts of Kindness makes a change | Schools, RCS, Rockvale, Shawn Lee

RMS Shawn Lee encouraged her students to complete 1,097 Acts of Kindness. Front: Sunshine Scott. Second Row: Arron Doss, Savannah Bailey, Britni Barker, Justin Patel, Andrew Kilgour. Third Row: Cassandra Mihalko, Jasmin Harris, Keleah Clark and Shawn Le
Teenagers aren’t always the most polite and considerate people on the planet.

But one Rutherford County teacher is trying to change that.

Rockvale Middle School’s Teacher of the Year Shawn Lee embarked on an impressive project this winter: for her students to complete 1,000 Acts of Kindness.

“I just wanted to do something positive for this age group,” she said.

Lee teaches seventh-grade language arts at the school and during a discussion about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, her students said the man would not be happy with how people treat each other.

So on Tuesday, Jan. 19, her 106 students set a goal to reach 1,000 Acts of Kindness by Thursday, Feb. 11.

“They really started this,” Lee said. “They wanted to make a change.”

And change they did.

The students completed 1,097 Acts of Kindness in the three and a half week project with one doing almost 50 by herself.

Most of the students were more kind by helping out around the house and being more polite to their parents.

But a few decided to be nice to their fellow students.

Seventh graders Justin Patel, 13, and Jacob Whitehair reached out and made new friends because of the Acts of Kindness.

One of Jacob’s classmates was bullied by other students.

After learning of the student’s father is stationed in Afghanistan, Jacob stepped in and stopped other students from bullying the boy.

“I told everyone to stop picking on him … because I don’t know what it would be like to have my dad gone for that amount of time,” Jacob said. “It’s got to be hard because he looks like he needs help every day.”

Because of acts like Jacob’s, kindness is spread through the school like wildfire, Lee said.

“Even the comments in the hallway became positive and not negative,” she said. “It’s been quite amazing.”

The kind acts have spread outside of the school too, when students helped strangers.

Andrew Kilgour, 13, was kind to an elderly woman at the doctor’s office by helping her into a wheelchair.

“It makes me feel better to see someone else smile,” Andrew said. “It makes me smile.”

And that’s the biggest difference the Acts of Kindness has made.

The students feel better about themselves for being nice to each other, their parents and others.

“I changed the way I acted. It made me feel good about myself,” Jasmine Harris, 13, said, adding normally she wasn’t very helpful around the house or out in public.

The students also feel like they’re making the world a better place too.

“Now people make the world feel like an ugly place that’s full of hate,” Keleah Clark, 13, said, “and this project taught me that we can make a change to bring kindness into this world.”

The students aren’t ready to quit since they reached 1,000.

“They want to keep going and see what they could get to,” Lee said.

They’re shooting for 10,000 Acts of Kindness.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or at mwillard@ murfreesboropost.com
 
 
 
Tagged under  RCS, Rockvale, Schools, Shawn Lee


Member Opinions:
By: Arlan on 2/22/10
For your information, We, The World (www.wetheworld.org) will be giving our government a grant for $100 million dollars for online community service. The Pass It Forward Movement will be a government program!

The government has 5.6 billion dollars in 2010 designated for "Community Service" Rather than asking our government for $100 million of that money for "Online Community Service " www.onlinecommunityservice.org, WTW has decided to raise the $100 million instead, and give it to our government. This Pass It Forward Movement will be a government program!

I plan to have our 5 Presidents (Carter, the 2 Bush's, Clinton and Obama) setting up the 100 appointments for me with the 100 CEO's of the best companies to work for in the United States. I will not meet or talk to these 100 CEO's until I show up to treat them for a round of golf. I will present each of the 100 CEO's with a Presidential Citizen Medal.

Take a look at www.fundraisingforabetterworld.org and you will see 33 ways that 1.5 million nonprofits can raise money for their cause without it costing them any additional funds to do it. I especially like www.aunitedworld.org/funds.asp where a nonprofit will place a PIF link on their website for free and sponsors will go online to become the sponsor of the PIF Movement for that charity. Our government will receive 10% of all the money raised. Also take a look at www.aunitedworld.org/scan.asp - Our government will receive 10% of the money raised for that program too! PIF will take our country out of their trillions of dollars of debt!

The L.O.V.E. It Forward mentoring program is an online mentoring program where a mentor helps their protege (mentee) Learn their purpose, Organize their passion, Volunteer their gift, and Engage their heart. In the same 30 minutes the protege is also trained so that they can then do the same for others and L.O.V.E. It Forward too! See www.aunitedworld.org for the results!

As you can see, I am now mentoring over 1,600 people and organizations online. Best of all, everyone is 100% happy and fulfilled and in support of this movement! The Pass It Forward Movement asks people to mentor one person.

I am going to ask the 100 CEO's of the best companies to work for to mentor me for the "Sponsors Believe in America" program (www.aunitedworld.org/sponsors.asp), and give me ideas on how WTW should raise the $100 million dollars for online community service. We will put together a cost breakdown showing exactly how that $100 million will be spent. I do not want a sponsor, as I only want PIF to be a government program! PIF together in collaboration with hundreds of thousands of people and organizations can help make the world a better place by helping to make this PIF movement a government movement!

Currently Big Brothers Big Sisters is the largest mentoring organization in the United States. Their mission "One out of ten youth at risk have a mentor". The bottom line, we are ALL at risk! If a kid is walking to school and looks at someone the wrong way, he is at risk!

The Pass It Forward Movement's mission "Everybody have the opportunity to be a mentor and to have an online mentor to help them Pass The L.O.V.E. Forward. Best of all, it's all free!

The Pass It Forward Movement appeals to 100% of people and if it doesn't it's not part of the PIF movement. Every one of these 1,600+ programs appeals to 100% or people or it would have been removed from the website. The website is updated daily! It appeals to ALL democrats and ALL republicans. It appeals to ALL religions. As an example, take a look at all the world religions. Basically 90% of religions have the same values (respect, responsibility, sharing, caring, trustworthiness & citizenship) - Only 10% of religions are different. Well, you can take that 10% and throw it out the window because it has absolutely nothing to do with the PIF Movement.

To better understand what a PIF Mentor is, take a look at www.aunitedworld.org/mentor.asp. Their is a myth in the United States about mentoring. They say, "You have to mentor 2 hours per week or if you don't it won't be effective." This is not true anymore with the Internet! PIF Mentors can mentor a person in 30 minutes over the Internet and completely set their protege (mentee) in a direction in life they never dreamed possible. The PIF Mentor's job is to create a thought in each persons mind. The "thought" that they can take their gift (EVERYONE has a gift!) and make a positive difference in this world.

As an example, if a 5th grader is good in soccer and that 5th grader puts a sign up at school that they will mentor a 4th grader in soccer on Thursday afternoons from 3:00 - 3:30 - that qualifies! 90% of Americans have always wanted to be the boss, and they will never be the boss. However, the PIF Movement gives EVERYONE the opportunity to be the boss of their own 'something'. Their 'something' has to do with making a person, their classroom, their school, neighborhood, community, or world a better place!

A PIF Mentor will ask their protege to look at the 100 ways to PIF and pick one. The PIF mentor's job is to help their protege find 99 other like minded people to do the 99 things that they don't want to do and put everyone together. The concept is that EVERYONE is volunteering their time (making the world a better place) by doing exactly what they want to be doing, under their own terms and conditions, on their own time! As an example if a person lives in Pocatello, Idaho and they are passionate about cancer research and their gift is singing, they may sing at a benefit concert to help raise needed funds.

I have been doing this for over six years as I semi-retired on September 19, 2003. This movement does appeal to 100% of people! What else in this world appeals to 100% of people? It's about mentoring and helping others, it's about acts of kindness in ways that do not involve money. The main difference between Pay It Forward and Pass it Forward is that Pass it Forward has nothing to do with money. People think of Pay it Forward like "I buy you a cup of coffee and you buy someone else a cup of coffee". The difference is not everyone can afford to buy a cup of coffee. There is nowhere on this website that we ask for any money as everything is free. There are no affiliate programs either!

Imagine, our kids in America will be mentoring kids in 3rd world countries on their (soon to be) $100 laptops. This can all be made possible by turning the Pass It Forward Movement into a government program!

Did you know that We, The World gives everyone the opportunity to have their own 501 (c) (3) nonprofit program? For more information go to www.aunitedworld.org/wtwambassadors.asp and type in the name and password. This is the code page we give proteges as soon as they become mentors.

Name: World
Password: Peace

If a 5th grader went door to door to earn $50.00 for the right to mentor a 4th grader in soccer for example. That 5th grader would have to open a separate checking account for their nonprofit program They are only allowed to keep $4.50 for themselves, and they have to show that $45.50 went towards their cause. As an example with Akim www.aunitedworld.org/akim.asp he can now buy a soccer ball, ribbons, certificates, make fliers and have money to advertise his program. This program gives everyone the opportunity to create their own websites for free. As an example, www.neighborhoodlink.com, or www.meetup.com in addition to www.aunitedworld.org/youridea.asp.

We now have over 1,600 people and organizations that have created their own PIF program and with $100 million dollars the government will be able to create a website that will let us create 1,600 programs per day or even per hour! Talk about raising people's self esteem! Everyone is empowered!

Once this is a government program we will have Pass It Forward day - EVERY DAY!

By: Arlan on 2/22/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOJzKMZCdCA

By: Arlan on 2/22/10
The Pass It Forwrd Movement found this article to be so inspirational we have highlighted it on our website for your review - www.aunitedworld.org/shawnlee.asp

By: johncash on 2/22/10
awesome....good job kids


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