An important way we are educating for life at GW is seeing the daily conflicts that arise as opportunities for teaching and learning. These issues provide many valuable “teachable moments” where we use real life situations in the classroom to model and reinforce positive problem solving and social skills.
An example of this recently took place in my E-1 classroom when a first grade boy came in one morning wearing a new pair of eyeglasses. I overheard a few remarks that I was sure made him feel uncomfortable and self-conscious, and I decided to discuss it in a class meeting.
“How many of you have ever had a new haircut and felt nervous about walking into the classroom looking different, because you were afraid of what someone might say?” Since I had observed this happening I knew many of the children had experienced this. Hands shot up. “Do we want the kind of classroom where children feel nervous about what their classmates might say when they look a certain way? We need to think about what kind of classroom we want to have, and how we want everyone to feel in our classroom.” Continue reading Ms Julie on ‘Educating for Life’