A charitable & foundational partnerships to ensure that portions of proceeds and/or profits are channeled to organizations dedicated to building better lives for underprivileged kids.
Our resident character expert, Dr. Philip Brown is the founder and president of the New Jersey Alliance for Social, Emotional and Character Development. For the past ……years, the NJASEC has held a conference at Rider University in Lawrencville, NJ, for anti-bullying coordinators, teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, and parents.
This year, Wear the Cape was chosen to present at the NJASEC conference. It was a privilege to share our mission with our fellow educators. Those who attended our break out session, “Practical Anti-bullying Strategies” were delighted to learn about the Cape, our “Better Than That™ tagline, and our Hero Strategies directly from our Cape Kids, through our assembly videos.
We received such wonderful feedback from those who in attendance. They said our assembly videos were captivating and motivating. When discussing our Hero Strategies, we were told they were practical and effective.
From that moment, I knew that showing kindness at school, at home, and in our community would be our “Superhero Mission.”
In the Fall of 2015, I embarked on teaching my second graders the value of kindness. As I searched for motivational ways to inspire their hearts and minds, I stumbled across a video about Leigh Ann Errico and her foundation. As I shared the video with my students, I watched their eyes light up as they embraced the connection between kindness and superheroes.
I reached out to parents and requested that my students complete “acts of kindness” at home or in the community.
From that moment, I knew that showing kindness at school, at home, and in our community would be our “Superhero Mission.” Therefore, I reached out to parents and requested that my students complete “acts of kindness” at home or in the community. My students were so pleased and proud to share how they had shown kindness to others. This inspired me to visit wearthecapekids.com to purchase superhero capes and other products to foster kindness in my classroom. My students and I were delighted when our special delivery arrived! The capes were hand-wrapped with care. In addition, we received a few extra Wear the Cape surprises with our purchases. My students were so appreciative and inspired to wear the capes.
As we became experts at showing kindness, our class chose to rotate a “super-boy” and “super-girl” of the day to wear the capes.
Initially, my students nominated peers who demonstrated acts of kindness to wear the capes each day. However, as we became experts at showing kindness, our class chose to rotate a “super-boy” and “super-girl” of the day to wear the capes. Superheroes searched for acts of kindness throughout each school day. By the end of the day, superheroes looked forward to writing and posting an act of kindness which they observed during the day.
After receiving and using our Wear the Cape products, my students and I decided to write, revise, edit, and publish a thank you email to the founder, Leigh Ann Errico, on the Wear the Cape “Connect with Us” website page. My superheroes couldn’t have been prouder that we did it as a class. Thus, they were so excited when we received a response from the Wear the Cape foundation. Thank you for making my students feel like “real” superheroes!
Our Acts of Kindness Wall
In the words of my second grade superheroes…
“Wearing the cape is an honor. You have lots of glory wearing it.”
“When I wear the cape, it helps me be kind. We can save the world with kindness.”
“Kindness is a big responsibility. I know that. Please be kind to others. You have to stop, think,
help, or hurt. Stop, you are better than that!”
“You can show kindness whoever you are. It doesn’t matter what your skin color is or if you are 50 or 21. You can still be kind!”
“When you wear the cape you feel good. You can be a hero wearing the cape.”
“We need kindness! I think that Wear the Cape can help hundreds of kids be kind. The things that they sell can make a difference in our world. Everybody needs kindness in their lives.”
It’s the final week of Anti-bullying month, yet, with regret, we know that it’s not the end of bullying. What can we do to help our children live a better life where we promote kindness and battle bad behavior?
Fortunately, we have an excellent resource by our resident expert on character, Dr. Philip Brown, “5 Ways to Battle Bullying” which was featured in the Washington Family Journal E-news website. In this article, below, Dr. Brown lists the specific ways a child is known to bully and the difference between conflict and bullying. After each point, Dr. Brown follows with suggestions of how we can model, enforce, correct, and prevents such behavior.
This article is a must read! Please join me in this battle to make a change for our children and bring back kindness and goodness to not only their lives, but to our society as a whole. The time is now. Will you join me in this important mission?
