A Little More Kindness in the World
Don't we all need it?
Let's all begin at home...
- where we live
- where we work
- where we play
I decided it was time in my own classroom to put a screeching halt to academics for just one day. You see, at this time of year, my students have become just a little too comfortable with each other.
There's the occasional name calling. There's the occasional leaving one student out of a game.
I have a good group of students. I really do.
However, the little things add up. Slowly and over time, it starts chipping away at those precious hearts.
It was time to step in before it became a full-blown problem.
We watched "Enemy Pie" from Storyline Online. We then had a discussion about friends.
I even made a quick Google Doc for a Google Classroom assignment.
1) What does friendship mean to you?
2) Who are your friends in this classroom?
3) Who are your friends in other classrooms?
4) How would you feel if you didn't have any friends?
5) What would you do if you saw someone without a friend?
WOW! It was an eye-opener. I had one student who NO ONE - not one single solitary person - listed as his or her friend. I knew this student had trouble understanding how to be a friend, but there were a couple of students I felt sure considered the other student as a friend. NOPE...NOT EVEN ONE!
Next, we watched a really good video from Discovery Education about bullies. Some of my students really didn't understand what true bullying is. It was evident from our discussion before we watched the video.
After the video, the students completed another quick activity I made in Google Classroom.
1) What is bullying?
2) Have you ever been bullied? Explain what happened.
3) Have you ever been a bully? Explain.
4) Has anyone in THIS classroom ever bullied you? Explain
WOW!! This was another big eye-opener. One of my sweetest and quietest little girls admitted to bullying a couple of other girls earlier in the school year. Guess what? She was right! She really was being a bully. The sad thing is that I NEVER KNEW!
The last thing we finished up with was working in small groups on some scenarios to help solve situations of bullying and not having friends.
This took us ALL morning, y'all!
I immediately sent off an SOS email to our school counselor asking if he could make time for a follow-up lesson that afternoon. He did and was able to tie everything together just beautifully!
I know taking the time to do this really helped because the next day was one of the BEST days ever in our class! I saw students going out of their way to be kind to each other, respect out of the wazoo, and smiles all around.
Sometimes, you've just got to throw all those well-thought-out academic lessons out the window and actually make time to reach out for important life lessons...
- like KINDNESS lesson plans
- like BULLY lesson plans
It's sad but true.
It's time to bring a little more kindness to the world.
If that means dealing with the hard stuff or the bullies even in the best group of students, then that's what you do.
Our students deserve it.
Our future deserves it.
Let's make a difference!
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That's just my... Kind of TEACHING!
