Edutopia on Facebook
Edutopia on Twitter
Edutopia on Google+
Edutopia on Pinterest Follow Me on Pinterest
WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Raise Your Students' Emotional-Intelligence Quotient

By Diane Curtis

Credit: Max Seabaugh




Everyone Makes the Team




No 'Hey, You'







Zero Policies






Morning Meeting







Character Athletics





'Hi, My Name Is . . .'





Teacher Evaluations






Student-Led Parent-Teacher Conferences





Listening Sessions




2 by 10








TKH's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

What a GREAT way to prepare students for the real world! There is nothing dumb about helping students realize the truth that we ALL function at different levels of skill. Living creatures are not able to improve their skills in any given area of interest unless they are allowed the opportunity to practice and use those skills. The point of excelling would be to move to the next skill level, to improve one's self. Our society suffers with the all or nothing mentality. Our nation's youth fail to see the value in doing their best if it does not measure up to society's best. Perhaps that is why gaming is so popular. A kid can play a game over and over. Every time they play they improve their skills, and their understanding of the game. Eventually, they experience the success of beating one level and they move to the next, more difficult level. They are able to experience failure without judgment and find themselves wanting to return to the game to beat their last personal best. Why shouldn't the classroom run the same way? Why not accept people for where they are and support them in the direction they REALLY want to grow? When we judge, we close the door to thinking and living beyond our current conditions. When we encourage, we open the doors of opportunity.

Christine's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

Allowing all students to be on a team has so many benefits. Children who are not initially good at a sport, may LEARN from being on a team, and often will gain skills that make them exceptional players after even a short time. I think this IS preparing students for the real world, by teaching them that they can work hard toward a goal, they can learn from others (or teach others), and be a valuable member of a team, whether they are the best or the "worst" player. Not every player will have the same skill-sets, but a good "coach" or teacher/leader will know how to make a team (or classroom) benefit from the many different and unique players. The same goes for education. We don't make kids try out to be in our classrooms, whether our classes are "full" or not. We understand that all children are different and we teach each of them, appreciating their unique qualities and their skills. How horrible it would be if we only bothered with the ones who appeared to be "smartest" and told the others, "too bad, that's the real world!" And, in reply to Anonymous, in my opinion,every child DOES deserve it just because he or she was born....a child should have the same chance for success and acceptance as every other child. When a child becomes an adult, those childhood opportunities will have given a better chances of success and also will have taught acceptance of failure. Being let down is obviously a part of life....by letting a child be on a team whether they tried out or not, isn't robbing them of an experience for dealing with a let-down...they'll learn it in a million ways, just like you and I have.

Claude Almansi's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

Mr/s Anonymous

You seem to believe that team spirt lets "lazy bums" get away with it, and that marks are the only reward for learning. This is a picturesquely retro conception of education, but it has nothing to do with real life. In real life, you don't get marks for being good at passing tests because of your patient cramming. In real life you have to know how to work in a team where each person is better at something and less gifted for something else, and where what people are good at must be valorized.

Of course there is a core of basic knowledge and skills that must be acquired too. But students seem to find it easier if they are made relevant by their use in team work than if they have to struggle with them solo, in abstraction.

I'm saying this not as a creed, but on the basis of 30 years of teaching - and of having been part of a scheme as a high school students where the "strongest" student in a subject would coach a team of students who were good at it, who in turn would coach the rest. I was a coachee in math, physics and chemistry and a coach in greek and latin. No one protested that I or others like me were "in debt". Our goal was to stay together for the 4 years of high school because we enjoyed being together, and this meant that no one should have to repeat a class. If you were a coachee in one subject, you were more motivated to kick *ss because a friend was helping you. It's as simple as that.

And it's as complicated as that too: we happened to share enough tastes, hobbies, interests and ideals to make us a team,but that was a fluke, not the rule when 20-30 people get thrown together in a class. So it's educator's role to find ways to promote this team spirit.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

Some great ideas to show caring at our school.

Curious Student's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

I feel that is very discouraging[everyone makes the team]. I would rather prepare myself to work and make the tryouts than have everyone make the team.

If that was possible, I would join all of the school teams thus making it way easier on my college application.

I do like the teacher evaluations. It makes it easier to explain to a teacher why we are having issues with their teaching style. That's why most teens act out. They do not have a way to express themself without having the teacher berate them about it.

To Christine, I agree with that we will have many other ... opportunities to deal with a let-down, but it doesn't teach other kids that you cannot get everything you want. Some kids do have soilsome parents who spoil them so much that when the kid is now an adult and leaves to live on their own they screw up. They get in debt so bad that they will never get back and end up living with their parents.

Those are mostly good ideas ... for elementary schools. I am in high school and the only one that sounds like it would help much would be the student-led teacher conferences and the listening sessions.

Many sites are geared for elementary schools. That's great ... but what about when we're older?

We are the future generation and yet you go on about the generation after us, skipping us when we should be the immediate problem, considering we will be the next president.

Why do you forget about us?

Have you even asked us our opinions?
You'd be surprised by the number of students who would be willing to talk if you'd just listen.

Bob M.'s picture
Anonymous (not verified)

How "uniquely full of self" your words are. You seem to presume that the "real world" is the one which you inhabit; apparently affluent, white collar, and corporate. For many students the real world has nothing to do with your comfortable, unruffled existence. Life is hard for many of them with few choices falling within the realm of black and white. Economic, moral, social, and familial issues are often intensified by poverty and neglect. I keep forgetting that corporate America would like to forget that so many of our children don't fit into the paradise which lies north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

JLP's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

I do understand and sympathize that each student should make the team in middle school. If a student tries out for a sport in middle school and doesn't make it, they usually never want to try out again. The students that will try out again are few and far between.
I can not image taking 25 minutes each day to have morning meetings. We would be wasting over two hours a day. I need to teach all of the standards that my state puts forth. Yes, it is about social skills as well, but those skills should have been developed during elementary school, not in middle school. They should only be reinforced in middle school.
Thanks for listening.

LKD's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

First of all, I really like what you said about gaming. They do get to play again and again until it has been mastered. That is a very good comparison and I never looked at video games like that. I always thought they were more of a mindless distraction, but they are learning and adapting.

My second comment is for the general blog. Does it seem insane to anyone else that you would not cut people from a sports team or from band and have 700 players?? How is that possible? How much are they learning from one teacher when there are so many of them? And how can there be enough funding for 700 band students when some schools don't even have books?

tcd's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

I am trying to understand how having 25-minute morning meetings could waste over two hours a day.

Also, maybe social skills should be developed during elementary school, but not all individuals mature at the same time. Should the late-bloomers just bear the loss? I submit that they should have another chance to blend in, and avoid creating "loners" and social outcasts.

Just a different opinion.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified)

I would like some advice on how to set up student-led parent-teacher conferences. I have always heard positive outcomes & am very eager to try this in my classroom. I teach 7th grade mathematics and would be thrilled to get more parental involvment!!

Sign in to comment. Not a member? Register.