Chain Reaction

Hi Everyone!

My name is Olivia and my blog is Liv to Teach. I am so excited that Primary Possibilities  arranged this great blog hop and that I get to guest blog for 1..2..3 Teach with me!

With the recent events in Connecticut and with Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this month, I wanted to share a wonderful program my school has used for the last few years. It is called “Rachel’s Challenge.” It is a program used to inspire kids to “start a chain reaction” of kindness and compassion. It is named after its founder, Rachel Scott, who cared about everyone and made it her life’s mission to touch the lives of everyone she came in contact with. She would go out of her way to help and encourage others.  She believed in finding the best and beauty in everyone!
 

Sadly, Rachel was one of the 13 people killed in the shooting of Columbine. After her death, her father was cleaning her room and found her hand traced on the back of her dresser. Inside the hand she wrote “These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will someday touch millions of people’s hearts.” Her father wanted to see his daughters' mission continue, so he began “Rachel's Challenge.” The program inspires and encourages acceptance, unity, and random acts of kindness. It is so amazing to see our kids motivated to do kind acts for others and over the last few years we have seen how these kind acts inspire others to pay it forward, which starts a chain reaction…which could change the World.

 

Rachel and Martin were a lot alike. They both had big dreams, they both stood up for what they believed, they both believed that only love could concur hate, and they both had their lives taken much too young. But most importantly, they both made a huge impact and truly touched millions of people’s hearts! Their dreams came true!

Every kind act earns a chain link!

This month my students and I are going to discuss and reflect upon our dreams. We are going to talk about what it takes to accomplish dreams, how we can make change happen, and what they can do to one day touch millions of lives ourselves. We will also talk once again about how our differences make us special and discuss how boring the world would be if we were all exactly the same. Then, we will end on a high note by celebrating the lives of Rachel and Martin with “I have a dream day.” This day is always very special to the kids. They are able to get out of their school uniforms and dress up as what they want to be when they get older.

Official Rachel's Challenge Site