Coyote Kindness

GWCS Coyotes celebrated Valentine's Day all week by actively participating in a game we like to call "Catch a Coyote Being Kind."  Any time a student or teacher noticed someone being KIND, they wrote it down on one of the poster boards hanging around school. 

"Kindness begets kindness." ~Greek Proverb

Kindness is one of the eight GWCS Values and as a small, tight-knit community, we recognize it is one of our most important values!  GWCS Advisors devoted some of their morning time this week to talking about the importance of kindness and students shared their experiences on how being the recipient as well as the giver of kindness affects how they feel.  

THE IMPORTANCE OF KINDNESS
Psychology Today by Karyn Hall, Ph.D.

(Excerpt)
     "There are different ways to practice kindness. One way to be kind is to open your eyes and be active when you see people in need. Do you notice when people could use a helping hand? A sense of community is created when people are kind to those who need help.

Opening your eyes means noticing when others are suffering. A kind word, a smile, opening a door, or helping carry a heavy load can all be acts of kindness. Celebrating someone you love, giving honest compliments, sending an email thanking someone, telling someone how s/he is special to you, helping an elderly neighbor with yard work or food, taking a photo of someone and sending it to the person, sharing homemade food, refusing to gossip, and donating old clothing and things you don't need are all ideas about how to practice kindness. 

Kindness is a willingness to full-heartedly celebrate someone else's successes. Gottman's work shows that your response to someone's successes may determine more about your relationship than how you respond when times are difficult. Do you minimize the success, not pay attention to it, or bring up all the problems with the success? Kindness is to be openly happy for the other person.

Kindness is also about telling the truth in a gentle way when doing so is helpful to the other person. Receiving accurate feedback in a loving and caring way is an important part of a trusted relationship. The courage to give and receive truthful feedback is a key component of growth and flexible thinking.

Kindness includes being kind to yourself. Do you treat yourself kindly? Do you speak gently and kindly to yourself and take good care of yourself?"

Hall, Karyn. The Importance of Kindness. Psychology Today. 2017. Web. February 14, 2017.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/pieces-mind/201712/the-importance-kindness

GW Community School
Catch a Coyote Being Kind
Cassie Sinichko
February 14, 2018