Random Acts of Kindness

With all the nasty, horrible things happening lately along with the stress of the end of the year to-do's piling up,  I've seen even some pretty unhappy teachers lately.  One of my friends in particular has just had the most horrendous year. On top of some heath problems, she just seems to be the one 'on the wheel' as we say. It's like every bad thing that can happen to her professionally has happened. I hate seeing what it's doing to her spirit and she so doesn't deserve it {I should add that I know she's not one to read blogs, so we're safe...} So, I wanted to do something nice for her but I didn't necessarily want her to know it was from me.

I hit upon the idea of a Random Act of Kindess, which I'm sure you've all heard of before. I bought a gift card to her favorite restaurant and looked for a cute tag to attach to it. I found a bunch online, but they all seemed to add a line about paying it forward. I was really afraid that she'd take it literally and feel obligated to spend money on something for someone else. So after searching high and low I decided to just make my own little tag that said exactly what I wanted it to, leaving off the line about paying it forward. This is what I left in her mailbox:

I started to think about other random acts that I could do for friends that would be of little or no cost, where I wouldn't mind leaving on that part about paying it forward - like taking their dismissal duty for the day or leaving them a favorite candy bar. So I created some extra tags that could be used for all sorts of things. I've actually had two different RAK's done to me. Once someone in front of me paid my tolls on the way to work and another time someone else paid for my coffee at a drive through. I felt such gratitude and joy both times, so for me it's high time to pay it forward.

If this sounds like something you might like to do, I made a whole set of little tags you can use. Download them for free right here.

With Teacher Appreciation right around the corner, this is perfect time to spread some happy! My husband had a great idea about leaving some tags in a basket in the front office to encourage other people to do it too. Is he awesome or what? I think I might do just that.