Friday, October 30, 2015

Awesome Reflection Resource

You have to check out this website I have found that can be used to work with kids either individually, with groups, or even in the classroom!  There are several topics worth of comic-like worksheets to help further the DOK with the concepts you teach or even use them as a conversation starter!  There are other tools to make a comic strip to use with autism and whatever else you may dream of!  Anyway, check it out and see for yourself of what you can use them for with what you do!

Friday, September 25, 2015

Empathy Lesson: The Invisible Boy

This was a great book to help the students understand Empathy, and I highly recommend it among many other topics that it can go along with.

I begin by explaining and having a discussions of what Empathy is (standing is someone else's shoes, try to understand how they feel).  Can we ever feel exactly what someone else feels?  Why/Why not?  (we aren't them)

Lesson Questions:

Pg. 5:  What does Brian want?  (to make friends, to get picked).
Pg. 7:  How do you think Brian feels? (sad, lonely, ignored)
Pg. 9:  What is the difference in this picture? (Brian is gray and kids are in color)
Why do you think he is drawn like that?
Pg. 11:  Take a look at the picture where Brian has drawn the superhero.  (Ask again)  What is it that Brian wants?
Pg. 13:  How would you feel if you were the new student and others were trying to decide if you were cool or not?  Is that very nice?  What do you think Brian is thinking?
Pg. 15:  AHHH, could Brian have empathy for Justin?  How?
Pg. 18:  What do you notice that is happening to Brian in this picture?  (getting color)
If he is getting color instead of gray, how do you think he feels?  Why?
Pg. 20:  Uh-Oh, how does Brian feel now?
Pg. 24-25:  What do you think Brian is feeling now that he has worked with his two friends?
Pg. 26:  How does Brian look like he feels?

Watch for student reactions while reading the story and catch them feeling empathy for the characters.  Challenge the students to notice when they feel empathy for another person.

**I have found that this lesson takes a good 20-25 minutes if you are discussing what is happening in the story as you read.  It generates great questions and responses from the students.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Empathy Lesson

This has to be the most influential, positive discussion, student engaging movie clip I have found that has to do with empathy and several other topics (friendship, kindness, accepting others, and etc.).

I start out by discussing with the class what empathy is (standing in someone else's shoes, trying to understand another's feelings).  I also ask the class "Can we ever really understand what another person is going through? Why or why not?"

Then, I ask the class if anyone speaks Spanish and if any of those students started school not understanding any English.  I tell the class that this is their chance to understand what it may have been like for those students who don't understand English, because the entire video is in Spanish.

I tell the class to be watching for things that are happening, emotions, actions, and etc. because it can tell us a lot, even though we cannot understand what is being said.

I pause the movie right when Maria finds out about the boy being sick so that the students can observe the sorrow.

Questions to ask the class:
How did Maria have empathy for the boy?
Are there other people that showed empathy towards the boy?  Maria?

I turn to the paused movie and ask the class:
What is Maria feeling?
In what ways might we not be able to understand how she feels?
How can we have empathy for Maria right now?

After discussing the movie, I turn to the students who don't speak Spanish and ask them how they felt if they weren't able to understand what was being said.  Most answers are; confused, frustrated, weird, and etc.  I then ask, do you have some empathy now for our students that come to our school who do not speak English.

This lesson is interesting to watch the kids' reactions and can be very engaging for them to really understand what it means to have empathy.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Most Magnificent Thing

I would have to say that I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK!  This book is the best for covering a PLETHORA of concepts for character education.  It talks about a little girl who wants to make something, she tries and tries again, gets frustrated and mad, and finally looking over all of her mistakes, she completes her final masterpiece.  This book covers anger, frustration, pain, trial and error, mistakes, setting and completing goals, accomplishments, perseverance, hard work, and many more.  Such a cute, cute story for every grade and I highly recommend it.  

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Wondergrove Kids

I ran into several videos that can help me with younger kids.  Keeping hands to yourself, basic rules, and so on and so forth. Here is the actual website for Wondergrove Kids that has a ton of great videos.