In place of a full blog post this week, is an amazing video of a TED talk by the members of the band OK Go. This video is just a treat! Where does OK Go come up with ideas like dancing in zero gravity, performing in ultra slow motion or constructing a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machine for their music videos? In between live performances of "This Too Shall Pass" and "The One Moment," lead singer and director Damian Kulash takes us inside the band's creative process, showing us how to look for wonder and surprise. How do you allow for or carve out time to find the wonder and surprise in what you teach? ~ Rowan Taigel
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We all know it: social media is an inescapable part of our students' daily lives. It's been described as 'A Weapon of Mass Distraction', and is fully integrated into their very existence and sense of identity.
While many students interact with others online in positive ways, many also spend time on social media sites criticising others, engaging in risky behaviour, trolling others and comparing themselves unfavourably with impossible and unrealistic celebrity ideals. Recently, we've been having a push on kindness, positivity and anti-bullying in response to a number of negative student actions at school, many related to misuse of social media. It's really had me pondering the insidious nature of life online for our students, and how for some of them, this can be a 24/7 connection with negativity, thereby developing and feeding low self-esteem. How could I, as a classroom teacher, support and encourage students to step outside their comfort zones and be actively kind, generous and positive towards each other? How I could bring these sentiments more purposefully into my English classroom?
Not long ago, I came across a youtube clip that someone had shared about a student who went around a school asking people if she could film them for a project. When they agreed, she started filming and told then why she had chosen them: "because you're beautiful". Their responses were so moving and powerful, I thought it would be wonderful to do something similar for the girls in my class. Too often we go through a day, week or even month without receiving a single compliment or recognition for the good things we've done or the great people we are.
In my search for something special, meaningful and positive to do with my students, I came across a teacher in the USA who had undertaken a positivity project with her students, which they called 'spread the love'. I thought it met the requirements of what I was looking for:
I pitched it to the class, and they were keen to give it a try, but slightly hesitant at first. It is tough enough as Kiwis in our 'Tall Poppy Syndrome' culture to receive a compliment, let alone receive a whole lot of them in front of your class! But with some encouragement from me and some of their more enthusiastic peers, everyone decided to give it a go. I put a post on google classroom to support students with how to pay a compliment, and to think less about the superficial things like outward appearance, and think more about a person's internal qualities and the actions and values they demonstrate. I was very proud of the thoughtfulness of the compliments paid to our first students in the 'Queen Seat'. We had our first compliments session a few weeks ago, and started every lesson until the last week of term with two students receiving compliments.
Alya was the brave student who volunteered to go first. Her reaction was absolutely priceless. I hope she treasures these photos for years to come. As we continued through this experiment, the girls seemed to take and gain a lot from thinking carefully about others and giving compliments. At first, I had to remind them who was 'up for compliments' on our randomised roster, but by the third day, the girls had taken over and I would often arrive to class and the names would already be on the board. This activity took 8-10 mins at the start of each lesson and became our 'do now'. My favourite part was photographing each girl in front of their compliments before they had seen them, and then attempting to capture their reactions as they read them. I sent each girl her pictures afterwards.
The benefits I'm seeing in supporting students to take what feels like a risk, in a safe space, is starting to pay off in a number of ways:
If you've tried something 'experimental' with any of your classes that has paid off in any way; big, small or unexpected, please consider sharing it on this blog so we can all celebrate it with you!
~Rowan Taigel
www.thechristiannerd.com/2014/06/874-social-media-sadness/ - instagram image credit
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AuthorsWe'll have a variety of authors from OGHS over the year sharing their thoughts and experiences about education, teaching and learning Archives
June 2019
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