A Quieter Place Today

What happens when you send all your grade 6 and grade 7 students away on a field trip together? At Cleveland, things got a lot quieter.

At 11:30 today, about 110 students went snow tubing up the mountains. It was quite loud as they got ready, but once they left, the West wing became silent.

At lunch time, there were plenty of play options for our grade 4’s and 5’s. There was less competition for the swings, hard top, four square and tire swings.

They’ll all be out there on Monday (no school tomorrow – Professional Day).

At 3:00 pm, all the students returned, looking tired, but happy. I think they had a great time, and I hope they thanked their teachers.

Take care.

Stand By Me for the Older Crowd

The Stand By Me program is coming to a close today, but I hope that this does not mark the end. After today’s last class session, all students and adults alike will have a common language for how we deal with social difficulties, and this will mesh well with our school’s work on creative a postie behaviour support system (PBIS).

Some of the key messages I have heard shared with the students and staff this week include:

STAND

  • Stay calm
  • Think out what to say first
  • Alone – if possible, try and sort out the problem alone
  • Need – let the person know what you need
  • Distance – respect people’s personal space

These strategies are meant when children are having trouble with friend. There are other strategies for when dealing with someone who is not a friend and who is making you feel unsafe.

Teresa Trigiano (founder of Stand By Me) has been welcomed in all classes, and I was able to sit in on a few sessions. It was wonderful to see how well she interacted with children, fostered an environment of respect, and honoured the feelings of children when they decided that they did not want to share anything (the right to pass).

Teresa shared some stories with children while she was here. The stories related to personal interactions at schools, and the weight some people still carry into their adult years based on what went on in school. These were powerful, emotional stories, and were good lessons for us all.

We all need to help our students know that they are incredibly valuable, and we need to be able to listen and support them when they need help. Sometimes our students do not know how to ask, or feel that if they do ask for help, the situation will get worse. Sometimes it has.

Many students offered suggestions for getting help. Someone brought up leaving an anonymous note to their teacher or principal. Someone shared the idea of children should report what they see and ask the adults to handle it in such a way that the other children do not know that they told.

There are many ways to get help. We need to make sure children feel safe sharing their troubles, and we need to help them with how they handle themselves with each other.

Ask your children about strategies that two other strategies that they have worked with: The Sandwich & How To Be The Most Boring Person to Bug.

3 steps to fixing a mistake

  • Take responsibility – tell the truth
  • Apologize – be brave enough to mean it
  • Learn from your mistake – think about why

In the end, she asked students to commit to being “only be part of the solution” and to help make every classroom and the school a safe and caring space for everyone. Choose to be positive, and to include others. Choose to handle problems politely, responsibly, and respectfully.

One class brainstormed the top 10 negative behaviours that they see at school:

  • Exclusion
  • Being sworn at
  • Racism
  • Sexism
  • Blamed
  • Talked about (rumors)
  • Making fun of people / tease
  • Being judged
  • Physical assault (pushing, hitting)
  • Threatening
  • Pressure
  • Blackmail

The class worked with this list by looking at how many people have experienced something from the list this year. Interesting results, but as we were working confidentially on this list, I will not share their discussion. I will only say that I was very pleased with how open and willing the children were to sharing what their experiences have been, and how respectful they were of each other in the process.

Some classes took part in an apology circle, but I left when those started. Who wants to apologize in front of the principal?

Our Cleveland community has some work ahead of us. We have language issues we need to talk to children about (swearing at each other – Kindergarten through grade 7), put downs, mean play and exclusion. This should not be a surprise to anyone. Look at all the role models we show our children: they swear in the House of Commons, we promote violence in hockey, we watch television shows where people are laughed at, and our use of current technology is not always positive.

No more preaching. Sorry.

This past weekend I asked myself – “What difference am I making in respect to teaching and learning?” I should also be asking myself, what difference am I making in how we treat one another?

I have some plans. One is to educate – so parents, here is a homework assignment for you. Please review the following link with your children, and discuss how we can make showing kindness one of the coolest things that we can do in our world. 5 Myths We Must Combat to Foster Kindness in Kids…

My other plans will be shared with students and staff. Keep asking your children about how the school feels. They should be able to share with you what I am doing to help out.

I will wrap up with a reminder from Teresa – “It matters how we treat people and it matters how we feel.”

Take care