I'm not really big on reading long articles and books (I'm a math teacher--I'm better with numbers!!) but the articles from the GLEF website were so informative and interesting I couldn't stop reading. I was particularly attached to the "Caring Schools and Emotional Intellgience" article giving ten tips to creating caring schools. The one I like the most is on "Character Atheltics," which talks about students awarding cerftificates to players of opposing teams for showing good character throughout the game. Nowadays, everything in life is a competition--who has the better clothes, who finished the test first, who scored the most points in a game, etc...We always celebrate and cheer for those who end up on top that we forget about everyone else. This article talks about acknowledging the students who may not have played the best game, but played with the best spirit. The students who truly have dignity, respect, and heart. I think that this is an amazing idea and has the capability of changing the actions of students everywhere. Every student likes to be in the spotlight and get an "award", why not give them one for solely having great character. This idea basically urges students to be better, more caring, and act as mature adults.
I really enjoyed reading this article and the affect it had on some kids already.
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3 comments:
It's funny that you focused on this. I just posted on my blog - http://wlteam.blogspot.com - a short thought about being competitive. Web 2.0 allows us to share learning in such an amazing way, and also gives us a forum to talk about ourselves - which is fine, I guess. Except when it starts to sound like "Look at me!"
Fran, which exact strategies have you implemented in your classroom so far?? And how have they changed your class?
I really love this idea. I find that haste does usually take from quality.. but it is tough to get through to some students that think that confetti will magically fall from the sky if they are the first one to complete a task, assignment or assessment. I really like this idea, but aside from spoken reinforcement, how can one do that in a class? I'd be very interested to see how it would work in a real setting.
Adam
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