Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

This year, my school is using the saying, "Have you filled a bucket today?" This saying basically means that in order to fill someones "bucket" you do something nice for someone: help them, say something nice, just being friendly. By implementing this strategy as a behavioral management aspect into the classroom, I have seen the students really respond. If I brag on someone for filling someone else's bucket, the other students go out of their way to be kind to someone else. This community building activity has helped our classroom form bonds with others in the classroom, and even with the teachers. Today, my mentor teacher bragged on a student for filling her bucket by helping clean the classroom while we were transitioning, and you could see how proud he was of himself just by looking at his face. Not only is this helping the students build relationships with others, but it is helping students boost their self-confidence. The school has also carried this over into the faculty meetings and various other staff-related activities where faculty members can report when someone has "filled their bucket" and the teacher gets the recognition that what they do does not go unnoticed! 

I thoroughly agree with the idea of creating a program that boosts students' self-esteems and their relationships with each other. By seeing how this one has helped, it makes me want to be looking into other ideas. I am aware that programs sometimes wear off and the students become unmotivated by this, so any suggestions would be great :)