"Our kindness wall is an essential part of our school culture. Students daily send kind words to each other and teachers share students' success through this process. These are on screens throughout our school and student sit in between classes and watch the words come up. What's more, we have been working to improve our students' sense of belonging at SLMS and I love that while I am walking through the buildings I see a student notice their own name up on the screen. Although I can't fully capture this in data form, common sense indicates that when a student sees their name in writing they feel as though they matter. Furthermore, middle school students often will focus on negative comments they hear and perceive that this is what kids say to each other. With this Kindness Wall, students consistently share positive and only positive words about each other. I share this often with students and staff alike furthering the notion that kind words far outweigh the negative. Again, this is such a fantastic tool in our school that directly benefits students."