How did Mrs. Olinski pick her team in The View From Saturday?

Mrs. Olinski doesn't choose the students like most other teachers do. She doesn't hold a competition and pick her team based on the winners of the competition. She decides she will appoint them. When Mr. Singh asks her how she chose her team, she tells him she chose the members because she had watched them extend some act of kindness to another person. She had come back to teaching after a serious car accident had left her crippled. She's upset by the cruel actions of some of the students in her class, so it's more important for her to have kids on her team who are good and kind than to have the smartest kids who answer lots of questions quickly.