Da piccola chi è stato il tuo “insegnante” di gentilezza?

My “kindness” teacher as a child was definitely my father. He always used to tell me that “Kind people are the best kind of people”. He taught me compassion gratitude and mostly to respect all humans.

Come insegni agli alunni la gentilezza?

Respect can be taught at any age, from simple polite requests and answers to discussions with students in class, role-play activities, watching videos and films and then debate the acts of respects we watched. Teenagers love being engaged on collaborative projects, where they work interdependently to solve problems. So I try to offer them many opportunities that can make them grow into innovators and kind people.

Una parola gentile che usi sovente con i tuoi alunni?

I only have one rule for all my students and that is respect. I respect them, they respect me and they respect themselves.

Come può la gentilezza aiutare bambini e ragazzi a vivere la scuola più serenamente?

These days the school environment can sometimes stressful for children. In addition to the problems they bring from home and their social background, students can have problems making friends or they struggle to perform in class.

Being a loving, respectful and empathic teacher helped me a lot in my profession and it also made it easier for me to interact with children.

Teaching children to be kind has many advantages. To start with, I can say that being kind always makes them feel good about themselves and their self-esteem is rising. Secondly, by being kind to the other classmates they might grow more friendships in the classroom. And one of the most important aspects is that kindness challenges them to be more creative, to work harder, be more ambitious and they feel good at school

Quando un alunno sbaglia, come lo correggi con la gentilezza?

A new student at our school recently noted that “Teacher” never gets upset with us when we make something wrong. Just by taking to that student and giving him/her the opportunity to explain his/her mistake is the best solution. I try to be there for my students, to guide them through obstacles and to support them.

Cosa significa per te essere costruttore di gentilezza?

I am so happy that I was given this opportunity to be part of an International Movement of Kindness at home, at school and in the community. As for myself kindness can happen anywhere and by doing this the world would be a completely different place.