Thursday, May 31, 2012

With all the work we are doing on using our 5 selected character strengths, I am hoping that the students will be able to see and understand that life is full of up and downs.

Over the final weeks of this school year, we will explore how to cope with some challenges and how to use their character strengths.  At the same time I want the students to see that it is important to be happy.  I know this seems very obvious, and that should be one of the goals of teaching, but one of the keys to ensuring that one is resilient rests with being able to tap into the emotion and feeling of being happy.

I have to films in mind that will explore happiness.  The first is named Happy.

 Here is the trailer from Youtube:

I would like to see the SBR work really make a connection for the students so they can realize they have character strengths and talents they may use.  It may help them create a project at home, help a friend, or complete an assignment in class.  But life happens.  Next week's work will begin to look at specific challenges the students may have (spelling or arguing with a sibling or parent) and how those character strengths may assist them in challenging situations.  The documentary film I plan to screen next week will look at the highs and lows, and everything in between, of living in a family.

**UPDATE:  After the screening of this film, I was deeply moved.  I will be curious to see the type of responses I receive from the students for homework.  I created three journal questions about being seeking happiness; 2 were based on life experience and 1 was from the film.

Some of the students were still having some difficulty completing Wednesday's homework.  I pulled up my 5 strengths and illustrated how you could apply those strengths to specific scenarios.
Like all things, this kind of work and thinking needs to be regularly discussed because the ideas are new to a number of students.  I imagine it is like trying to use a second language, other than your own, that you are learning so you familiarize yourself with it.

The homework on probability was handed out on Tuesday night.  We spent a lot of time reviewing it today and will have a short quiz on Monday.  We will then continue to pursue the subject a little more, weaving in some experiments along the way and using our SMARTBoard.

HOMWORK:   Math quiz on Monday and 3 journal questions on being happy.  Have a great weekend!

Here are 2 late posts for the SBR Strength poster.  I anticipate Lia submitting her poster on Monday!

Sandro

                                                            Johnson