Its a simple message. But its one that we need to remind our student about daily. Their lives are stressful. They bounce from class to class, extracurricular to sports, all while balancing the social pressures of middle school. Even those with the most ideal of home lives forget how awesome they are. Its easy to forget when their lives are so busy all while hormones and adolescence are constantly telling them they are weird and strange and smelly (The latter is accurate, lets be real).
With all of this in mind it is so important that we remind our students to be awesome. Because its not just a catchy phrase or an homage to The Lego Movie. It really is a reminder that we are all human. That we all make mistakes, forget assignments, have pens explode on our new pants, get angry at a teacher, fight with a friend, or wake up with giant zits on our face. But we are still awesome. And we can´t forget that. Because to be awesome is to be human. Flaws and all.
I´m making it my summer project to blog about my experience with social emotional learning in the middle school classroom. I am no expert. I am no veteran teacher. I do not have any specific training beyond my teaching certification. But I have seen first hand the impact SEL has on my students. And I do want to continue to improve my craft.
The last (and largest) assignment for my 6th graders has always been their 4th marking period reflection. The assignment begins with a quote: ¨Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.¨-Confucius. So this is a challenge to myself, to practice what I preach. I will try to post at least once a week a lesson I´ve learned, tool I´ve experimented with, or a mistake I have made in hopes that I can learn from it. Maybe you will learn something too!