I really loved this :) When I was teaching 4th grade one of my classes (I had two core classes) really struggled. They were hard to manage, there was bullying and lots of cliques. I knew we had to change something. SO I started a project similar to this. I planned to leave the last few minutes of class available and over a period of weeks each student had a chance to come up and sit on my stool in the front of the room. Then other students could raise their hand and as the student in the spotlight called on them they would give a compliment. The first few times it seemed a little awkward, but pretty quickly things got rolling. We continued through the rest of the school year gradually rotating through the class more than once. I never required every student to offer a word, but pretty soon I was seeing that everyone had taken opportunities to give compliments. Some of them were simple "I think your shoes are cool" or "you have good handwriting" to more in depth "you watch for people who need a friend at recess" or "you are a good helper". They started seeing the good in the others around them and in themselves. I had my prep time during that class, so another teacher had this class for the last 45 minutes of the day . She was an experienced teacher of many, many years, and was overwhelmed by the particular mix of students in this class as well. Even she started to see the change. They never were an "easy" class, but there was definitely a change. The "cool" kids started learning how to talk to the "smart" kids, and they learned to interact also with the "shy" kids. As I continued to shift around the seating arrangement I found that the groups worked better together and the kids who had felt left out or bullied were ending up with kids on their side and being included. Seeing the good in others is a very powerful lesson!
No comments:
Post a Comment