Building Community

Last week I went to the lunchroom to pick up my students and all of the girls were sad due to social problems on the playground and different groups of girls being mean to other groups. I could only address it quickly right away because we had to go right to the Media center for checkout; however, I made sure to have a class discussion right when we got back to our room. I was thinking of the training this summer and realized I could skim over it and do math, but nobody would be gaining any knowledge if I did that. We all sat in a circle and passed a ball around and gave compliments to the person sitting next to you. The person who received the compliment said thank you and gave the other person a compliment back. Some simply said, "You are a good friend." But some students were really creative and thought of very specific traits to compliment each other on. At the end of the activity, they all were beaming. They just brightened up when they got the compliments. The girls on their own apologized to each other and wanted to make each others' "hearts happy" as I say. :) It was a very meaningful activity that built a positive community in my room.