Our “inner coach”is the positive voice inside our head that talks to us all day long. In room 12, we look at how that voice can contribute to our life in a healthy way. It’s easier to listen to our coach when we are focused on the present and not worrying about what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future. Listening to our coach means not giving up and believing, “you can do it!”
Super Hero Talent Assignment
What makes you extra-ordinary?
For our first art project of the year, you will be designing yourself as a superhero that showcases your extra-ordinary talent.
The Zones of Regulation reminds us that while some problems are really big, most problems at school are little and can be fixed quickly.
When problems occur it is important that our reactions match the size of the problem. The above Zones of Regulation ‘thinking tool’ helps us evaluate how big and small problems are.
Life is full of problems and challenges. Luckily, as we have investigated, most problems that occur at school are little or small problems that can be easily solved. People who solve problems are called problem solvers. Problem solvers look to see how they can make the world better for others. Problem starters make bad things even worse.
Good problem solvers are creative thinkers. They listen to their coach and refuse to quit. When problem solvers work with others, they use the “Yes, and …” strategy to build on other people’s ideas. Below are some videos about some incredible problem solvers. We will begin with the legend of a tiny, but mighty problem solver: the hummingbird.
LITTLE acts of kindness can go a long way toward making someone feel a LOT better. In room 17, we call acts of kindness filling someone’s bucket.
We can fill someone’s bucket by:
Now lets watch what bucket filling looks like:
In room 21, we have learned that teasing is the worst! It is an unexpected behaviour. It makes people feel uncomfortable and will lead to people not wanting to be around you.
Unfortunately, teasing sometimes happens at school. If someone does tease you, there are three things students can do:
Please watch the two below videos that teach us about what teasing looks like and what we can do if someone teases us.
Example #1
Example #2
Now let’s see what treating others how you want to be treated looks like!
A very important community agreement in room 21 is: Be kind.
In our program, we have been exploring what being kind to others looks like. We have learned that kindness looks like treating others as we would want to be treated. Below is a video of a story we will be reading during our class lessons.
Do Unto Otters
In room 17, we are working on our ability to become “flexible thinkers.” Flexible thinkers can successfully collaborate and work more cooperatively with others. Practicing a popular improv drama activity called, “Yes, and…” can help us become more flexible thinkers.
“Yes, and…” is a powerful tool for collaboration and negotiation. Here is how it works: When a classmate presents an idea, room 17 students are practicing by saying, “Yes, and…”
For example, one person might say, “Star Wars is a great movie.” A possible response might be “Yes, and so is Moana!”
The goal of “Yes, and…” is to look at the “bright-side” of a classmate’s idea and build upon it rather than immediately disagreeing. This helps to avoid needless arguments. We call disagreeing statements, “Yeah, but…” or “wet blankets” (because you might be putting out the fire of a good idea). Statements that begin with, “Yeah, but…” or “Yes, but…” often lead to arguments. Watch the the “Yes, and…” approach in action in the video below.
During cooperative learning, it is quite common to respond to another person’s idea or opinion with, “Yeah, but.” Just watch this video below:
As you have seen, classmates will often feel upset, frustrated and might not want to work with someone who is being overly critical.
Below are some other videos demonstrating the “Yes, and,” approach.
