They are spreading kindness and enhancing a positive culture at Daybreak Elementary School. The school even celebrates student kindness with a big parade through the happy halls of Daybreak once a month.

On this episode of the Supercast, find out how Isaac Broadbent, school counselor at Daybreak and a former Daybreak student himself, has stepped in, revamping school wide expectations, and together with the support of teachers, is making kindness rule number one. The work has earned Daybreak a national Kind School designation.

Audio Transcription

Isaac Broadbent:
Through this program, Teach Kind, we were able to go through each grade and teach a variety of lessons centered on kindness and how that looks like, how that sounds like, and how that feels, and the impact it can have.

Student:
I think kindness is important because it makes people feel noticed and wanted, and it just makes people feel like they're proud.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are spreading kindness and enhancing a positive culture at Daybreak Elementary School. The school even celebrates student kindness with a big parade through the happy halls of Daybreak once a month. On this episode of the Supercast, find out how Isaac Broadbent, school counselor at Daybreak and a former Daybreak student himself, has stepped in revamping schoolwide expectations and, together with the support of teachers, is making kindness rule number one. The work has earned Daybreak a national Kind School designation.

[Music]

Anthony Godfrey:
We are at Daybreak talking with the school counselor, Isaac Broadbent, about a kindness initiative that's been happening here at the school. But first, talk to us a little bit about yourself.

Isaac Broadbent:
My name is Isaac. I am a school counselor here and I've been a school counselor for about three or four years. I started here, and then I stayed because it's so amazing. And, fun fact, I actually used to attend the school when it was first built.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what grade did you... How old were you when you came?

Isaac Broadbent:
Fifth and sixth grade. So, when it first opened up, they pulled us from Rose Creek to help populate it a little bit because Daybreak wasn't as built out as it was back then.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. Yeah.

Isaac Broadbent:
And so, I was a student here and there were some familiar faces that were around as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Some of the teachers are still here that were there when you were in fifth grade.

Isaac Broadbent:
Correct. Yep, correct. There's actually, I think, four. Yeah. Four of them. So, it was kind of cool to have a full circle where I was a student. And then, lo and behold, I'm working here with some familiar faces from back then.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how has the school changed? First of all, it seems a lot smaller now, right?

Isaac Broadbent:
It's a lot smaller. I remember this was a gigantic place when I was a student.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right. That's right.

Isaac Broadbent:
But no, it's really great because obviously I'm biased. I really like this school because I used to go here. And it's great to be able to help it become a better place because the whole reason why we kind of want to focus on kindness is that in our MTSS meetings and leadership meetings, we were realizing that there's just a lot of meanness going on. Every school has their bullying instances, but there's just a lot of overall just meanness, just one-off jabs and things like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Isaac Broadbent:
And so, through a process, we revamped our entire school system with our big three rules and number one is being kind. And we really tried to push that as much as we could. And so, with this year particularly, we doubled down on kindness and through this program, Teach Kind, we were able to go through each grade and teach a multiple, I guess I should say, a variety of lessons centered on kindness and how that looks like, how that sounds like, and how that feels, and the impact it can have. And then we were able to wrap it all up with a huge school-wide initiative that included snowflakes, actually.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the snowflakes.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah. So, as part of this program and this designation, we had to, after we focused everything on kindness throughout the school year, we had to wrap it up with a school-wide project. And that project was, each student was able to get cutouts of a snowflake, and they would write down what they did as an act of kindness for someone else. And then I would periodically go by week after week and collect those and then hang them in a main hallway that we have.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, these how large are the snowflakes? About the size of the palm of your hand?

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Isaac Broadbent:And we had hundreds of them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Larger than actual size.

Isaac Broadbent:
Large, exactly. Yep. And we wanted to kind of have that visual effect so everyone in the school could see how kindness was falling over.

Anthony Godfrey:
Some things were snowballing.

Isaac Broadbent:
Exactly. And that's a good way to put it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Nice.

Isaac Broadbent:
And so, we had hundreds of those, right, get submitted throughout that time window, and they were all out there on display for a while. And then we were able to submit for the Kindness designation and luckily, we were able to get that award.

Anthony Godfrey:
What organization gave the award?

Isaac Broadbent:
Oh, yes. It's the Teach Kind program. And so, it's a national program and we were able to get nominated as a Teach Kind school, one out of 32 in the nation.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Isaac Broadbent:
And so, it was really cool.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic to have that designation. That's wonderful. So, what are some of the other things that you did with students to help motivate them and not just motivate, but to highlight the great things that they were doing to focus on kindness?

Isaac Broadbent:
Yeah, absolutely. So, what I would do is I would go in and push into every class, every grade level, and have different presentations and lessons based on kindness.

Anthony Godfrey:
So, it's not just, "Hey, everybody, be kind," but it's, "This is what kindness looks like. These are some specific things you can do to be kind and some things you can avoid in order to be kind."

Isaac Broadbent:
Yes, exactly. We did a deep dive. I even, with one of those lessons, shared the science behind kindness and the psychology that goes into that because it's the only thing in this world that doubles when you share it. And there's nothing else that does that in the economy, in the world, nothing like that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Isaac Broadbent:
We just really focused in on that. And since it was such a high priority, we had a lot of momentum going. And so, we had a lot of those students being kind and then filling out those snowflakes. And since we had so much momentum, we decided to keep it going even though the submission deadline had passed and we were waiting to see if we got the award or not. We moved forward with this kindness initiative with the challenge of looking for kindness or writing it down and sending that to those individuals who are being exceptional.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now, I've heard about a kindness parade. Is that right?

Isaac Broadbent:
Yes. Yeah, so we have, yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Explain that to the folks.

Isaac Broadbent:
Absolutely. Yes. So, that's actually one of the things that we revamped at our school with our leadership team is we have something called an MVP parade. And so, a teacher gets to nominate an MVP for the month who has shown exceptional kindness and looking out for others. Since then, we've actually modified it to match up with different elements of A Portrait of a Graduate to be aligned with the District.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, I love to hear that.

Isaac Broadbent:
And so, yeah, we've kind of modified it since then but initially, we were just focusing on kindness. And so, for a couple of the parades, it was just only kindness, who has been a leader and outstanding in kindness. And then, on the first Friday of the month, we would call all the families together of the MVP kids and they would re-line the halls of the school as well as the rest of the school and the students. And then, we would get them all together, we'd line them up in the office and then we would make a lap around the entire school while everyone's just cheering them on.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Isaac Broadbent:
For a good like 10, 15 solid minutes just like a huge spotlight on them.

Anthony Godfrey:
Great. So, the MVPs walk through all the halls, one from each class, with the entire school cheering them on.

Isaac Broadbent:
Yes. Lots of clapping, lots of cheering. Everyone's chanting, "MVP, MVP." So, it's really wonderful to have that spotlight on the students.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. I don't remember being cheered by 600 people in elementary school. That's got to be quite a good feeling and I love that this reaches students from five years old to 12 years old. This is a wide range, so you really have to adapt your kindness lesson to the classroom you're visiting.

I...