Our school, Arlene Lissner High School in Marienville, PA, only has a little over 40 students. Our students have been court placed here or have been placed here for mental health treatment. In April we celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Week. My partner in the guidance office and I had two AWBW workshops, a Thank You Note Station and a Kindness Rocks Workshop.

Over 50 thank you notes were written at this station. Students also drew pictures for teachers and staff to express their gratitude for their favorite teacher or staff person. The students really enjoyed this activity, and they drew some nice pictures. Some of the thank you notes were beautiful expressions of kindness and gratitude.

The Kindness Rocks Workshop was a variation of the Creating a Safer/Braver Place workshop. Above is a picture of the rocks that our students painted and placed in a community garden for people to find. Our goal was to encourage students to express kindness towards others and talk about ways that people have been kind to them. 

This workshop benefits the students who placed the rocks and members of the community who find them by sharing joy, reducing stress and fostering connections with community members.