Oh the Places You'll Goal!

One of my favorite topics to teach students is about long-term goals. I love hearing what students want to be when they grow up. It is such a sweet picture of their personality and interests. Occasionally I will even hear students who want to grow up to be a Peace Teacher!

This year, I began my lesson with the book Someday by Eileen Spinelli, which is a sweet and lovely book about a girl who alternately daydreams about her future and lives in the present, doing things that are similar to her dreams. The students have loved this book in every class where I have read it. The imagery is just lovely as the author describes the character's daydreams.

I also used the video version of the Dr. Seuss book Oh the Places You'll Go!

With each of these visuals, the students could see or hear something focused on the future -- a good future worth dreaming about and working toward.

After reading the story and watching the video, I have students tell me what they want to be when they grow up. Students aren't forced to express themselves, but most choose to share. We then talk about how they are already on their way to their future dreams, just like the boy in the Seuss story. We have to practice perseverance to reach our dreams and we have to make wise choices. One choice, of course, is to do our best in school. Another choice, one which is heavily emphasized in my program, is to protect our brain and body from harm caused by substance abuse. Achieving our dreams becomes nearly impossible if we are addicted to drugs or alcohol.

I ended with a coloring page from: http://www.seussville.com/parents/printables/drawing-the-places-you-ll-go

Brain Science in Prevention Education

Prevention education is a big part of my role as the Peace Teacher. While most of the year focuses on how we treat others, we spend almost two months on alcohol and drug abuse prevention. This is such a critical thing for children who are already exposed to information about harmful substances and many who have been exposed to substances in their home. When I teach on this topic, even kindergarteners know some who smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol. Some would argue that kindergarten is too young to introduce this topic, but I would argue that children aren't as naïve as we think on this topic.

One of my favorite ways to begin the conversation about cigarettes, e-cigarettes, alcohol and drugs is to talk about the science of the brain. Once kids understand their own brain controls (that would be everything) it makes it easier to talk about making choices to protect their brain from harmful substances.

This year, I introduced the topic of brain science with the following fantastic video called "Everything's Controlled by the Brain" by The Body Rocks. This video has a very catchy tune and is very engaging to children of all ages.

After talking about all the things in the video, I usually talk about the topic a little deeper by showing a (non-gross) illustration of the brain and an illustration of a nerve cell. To demonstrate the way that the brain communicates to the parts of the body through the nerve cells, I have 4-5 students join me in front of the class. I (the brain) communicates to a body part like the hand by passing a message through each nerve cell. I pass the message by high fiving the student next to me who high fives the student next to him and so on until it makes it to the final student (the hand). I usually tell students the message I'm sending is for the hand to wave at the rest of the class.

It is an easy jump from there to demonstrate how the process gets messed up through an injury by choosing one student to be the "break" in the nerve. I attempt to send the high five message again, but it can't pass any further than the point of the break in nerves. The students then theorize what happens to the cells beyond the break (the message doesn't get through, which can lead to injuries).

Similarly, I demonstrate what happens to this communication process when an unhealthy substance, like alcohol, enters the brain. Because alcohol is a depressant, it slows the brain's ability to process information and to communicate it through the nervous system. I make this demonstration very dramatic with students by moving in extreme slow motion to high five the student next to me. I instruct them to move in slow motion, too. After seeing how slow the communication moved I usually ask what would happen if the message were about something important, such as telling the foot to push the brake petal in a car or telling the hand to move away from a hot stove. Generally, the students make comments like "So, that's why you aren't supposed to drive a car if you're drinking!" It is a very powerful and engaging lesson.

With older students I go much deeper in the lesson on what the brain controls. I talk about the different lobes of the brain and what they are in charge of. I talk about the spinal cord and how it is protected by the bones of the spine (which I instruct students to run their fingers along their own spine). I also talk about how serious it can be to get repeated head injuries in sports and the importance of wearing helmets. The school district where I work is very enthusiastic about sports, so most of my students either play sports or are avid fans. This also makes the brain science lesson more applicable to their every day life -- and not just a choice they will make someday to say "no" to drugs or alcohol.

Bullying Awareness Day -- October 8

October 8 is Bullying Awareness Day and we are already preparing for it in our community as we talk about bullying in our PeaceBuilder lessons. Bullying is one of those words that is dangerous. We all need to know what it means and we need to be prepared to respond if we witness it or if it is reported.

I define bullying this way: Bullying is when a stronger or more powerful person uses words or actions to hurt another person's body, feelings or belongings. Bullying behavior is done on purpose and happens over and over.

There are some key parts of this definition:

Difference in power -- One key part of the bullying definition is that there is a difference in power between the bully and the victim. Books, movies and TV shows typically depict the bully as being larger than the victim, but this isn't always the case in real life. The difference in power could be a difference in confidence or difference in social ability. There could be a group of bullies who outnumber a victim who has no one to stand up for him or her.

Hurts another person's body, feelings or belongings -- Bullying isn't always physical. Many times it is psychological or emotional abuse. It could be social or relational abuse.

On purpose -- Bullying isn't an accident. The person who acts as a bully is doing hurtful things with the intent to scare, embarrass or hurt another person. A bully is also different from someone with bad manners. Rude behavior is sometimes just rude behavior and there is no intent to harm another person.

Over and over -- Another key part of our bullying definition is that the abuse is repeated. A bully is unlikely to respond positively when asked to stop their behavior. They may enjoy the reaction they get from their victim and will often continue to come back for more.

It is important for parents and teachers to know how to respond. The following link provides a wealth of good information for responding to a report of bullying.

http://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/support-kids-involved/

Book Review: The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

My students have absolutely loved this book. The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein is a delightful read. In the story, Beatrice Bottomwell is a girl who hasn't made any mistakes for as long as anyone can remember. And she's kind of famous for her perfection. When she finally makes a mistake, she handles it with humor.

This is a great story to read aloud. The kids in all my K-4th grade classes loved it and stayed engaged from beginning to end. Plus, Beatrice's foibles are a silly example of mistakes -- and excellent fodder for discussion about how to handle our own mistakes. Some mistakes are silly and we can laugh at ourselves when we make those mistakes. Other mistakes are a little more serious, but we can still learn from them. Mistakes that hurt others require us to right our wrongs by genuinely apologizing and fixing or replacing what we messed up. We don't want others to think we are disrespectful or mean and righting wrongs is a way to show we are friendly and trustworthy.

I would highly recommend this book to any classroom teacher, counselor or parent as a great discussion starter in how to handle life's inevitable mistakes.

End of the Year

Each year I try to end on a good note with the teachers. They are such a huge part of making my program successful and many of them make sacrifices to their own time in order to reinforce my lesson topics beyond my brief sessions with students.

This year, I took my final lesson time to make a class gift for the teacher. The students used their thumbs and an ink pad to add colorful "leaves" to the tree I created ahead of time. The resulting artwork was attractive and many teachers got teary-eyed when I gave them their gift. This was an activity that was definitely worth the time and effort.

Here is the finished product. Full-disclosure, I got the idea from Pinterest (I'm actually incapable of coming up with good ideas on my own now that I have a Pinterest account!) You can find the original idea here.

Anger balloon

One of my favorite lessons was on the topic of anger. I had a red balloon prepared for each class I taught. I had pre-printed some slips of paper with different physical and behavioral effects of anger on our body. The list included things like:

Heart beats faster than normal
Breathing hard
Cheeks get red and hot
Making fists with my hands
Tight muscles
Feel like yelling
Feel like I can't sit still

During the discussion with the class, I had each student tell me one thing that makes them feel angry. Most students gave examples, like a little brother who won't leave them alone. With each example, I added another puff of air to the balloon. By the time every student shared an answer, the balloon was ready to explode!

Then I talked about how when we are full of anger, it is easy to explode over little things. As I talked, I had a push-pin in my hands. I talked about how small the push-pin is and that it seems like a really small thing. However, all it takes is one small thing to make our anger explode! I gave examples of something that could set off anger, like someone borrowing our pencil without asking or someone stepping in front of us in line. I usually ham it up and pretend to be really angry as I give examples and then I tell them that I just can't hold on to my anger any more and....POP! I pop the balloon. As the balloon explodes, it sends little slips of paper across the classroom area.

After doing this lesson a few times, I did learn a lesson or two. First, prep the students ahead of time for how loud the balloon will be and promise to warn them before you pop it. Tell the students they are allowed to cover their ears if loud noises bother them. Second, give very specific instructions about what to do with the slips of paper. I told the students that they could ONLY pick up a slip of paper if it landed close to them or on them. If they were close to two pieces of paper, they should be prepared to give one of the papers to someone else who is sitting nearby. Under no circumstances should anyone jump up or race to grab a slip of paper.

After the balloon pop, I would have students read what their slip of paper said. If it was a class with poor readers, I would have them hold the paper in the air for me to take and read aloud.

Once we were clear on the negative affects of anger, we read the book Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook. In it, the main character learns some cool-down strategies to keep his anger from exploding. We review these cool-down techniques with another balloon. I blew up a blue balloon, reviewing some of the anger triggers the students had discussed earlier. The anger is the same with both balloons. But, with the blue balloon, I release a puff of air for each of our cool down strategies. In the end, all the air is released. I would take the same push-pin and talk about those little frustrations that triggered the explosion before -- but this time, when I touched the pin to the balloon, nothing happened. The flat balloon was unable to explode when the pin touched it.

It was a very engaging lesson and one the students talked about in later lessons as they talked about handling anger appropriately.

Uniquely the Best

I love teaching kids to accept their differences and to respect each others' uniqueness. One great way to teach this important concept is with a couple of awesome books. The first is one I used with Kindergarten through second grades called Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el. In this story the main character is a dragon who cannot make flames, much to the chagrin of his father. However, he can produce things that are needed, like Band-aids. His unique gift helps others.

With third through fourth graders I used the book The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi, which is about a girl who eventually embraces her unique name after moving to a new school. Her name was part of what made her special and unique.

To make the lesson more active, I had the kindergarten through second grade students create a drawing to highlight their best quality. After creating The Best Thing About Me, each student was able to share their drawing with the class.

Third and fourth grades didn't complete the worksheet project. Instead, I had them sit in a circle. I started with one student and handed him a Koosh ball. The person holding the Koosh ball had the floor to speak. Each student was instructed to share one of their best qualities -- something that makes them unique and special. When finished sharing, they would then take the Koosh ball and toss it to another student in the circle. Sharing would continue until everyone had a chance to say something that makes them special or unique. I love that this lesson allows kids to share (which they always want to raise their hand and do anyway) and allows them to hear from their peers.