Moral of the story is
It was like a scene out of an after-school special.
I am preparing for values assemblies happening next Friday at one of my elementary schools. This month we're looking at fairness, and I've organized a group of grade 6 students to perform a skit. Today was the day we were going to meet to come up with an idea and as I'm waiting for all the kids to arrive a student teacher brings one of them down and has him inform me about the events that had just taken place.
Now, I had asked the teachers to choose students who either displayed leadership skills or who could use a little extra guidance in the area of playing fair. Sure enough, this scallywag was one of the latter.
We hold a leftover Halloween candy drive to donate to sick kids every year, and so students bring in a big ziploc full of candy to hand over to those who miss out on trick-or-treating because they're hospital-bound. Well this kid had helped himself to his buddy's loot before he'd sent it in for the drive and got busted. The interesting layer to this whole story is that the buddy's little brother is actually quite sick.
Anyway, there I am, being asked the question of whether or not this student deserves to be a part of the troupe.
Some people would have said no, but I had a better plan.
The other kids arrived, including his loot bag buddy who had also been chosen to be in the troupe. Standing outside the office, the two looked at each other angrily. I asked them to explain the story and suddenly they both start tearing up, realizing their friendship meant more than being angry at each other. Well, the friendship factor, and the thought that they might somehow be pulled out of hockey over this.
We used the experience as the foundation to our story. And the obvious choice might have been to let them play it out just as it had happened, victim is victim, thief is thief, but again, I had a better plan.
So the storyline transforms into a student brings in a bag of cookies for a math project about circumference and refuses to share them with her classmates, so the others steal them at recess (double-whammy right?!).
The kids were excitedly coming up with ideas and when it came time for casting, I knew our little sticky fingers was perfect for the role of the... teacher. He was not inspired by this at all at first, but as they improvised the scene, I sat back and enjoyed listening to him tell the group of peers why it's inappropriate to steal (because you'll lose friends and their trust) and why it's important to be fair, AND how they could make it up to the student they stole from (who, by the way, was just like totally kidding about not sharing with them in the first place). It was like watching Danny Tanner incarnate. So needless to say, he was able to answer me when I asked him how he would make it up to his buddy. He'd obviously have to bring in more of his own candy to donate to the drive.
Now here's the kicker. And by the way watching kids improvise is awesome, they're a bunch of naturals!
One of the students had a very good, very theatrical, but also very honest suggestion. At the very end of the skit, the student playing the teacher would remove his teacher costume to reveal himself as a student (*GASP!*) and confess to the school that this skit was based on true events, and that HE was the thief in reality. And then he'd apologize to his bud and everyone would go home happy.
Pretty good punishment if you ask me. It's rare that anyone would have the time to let a lesson evolve like this for any particular student, but I felt pretty lucky. For the kids, by the kids.
The more you know,
Katie
I am preparing for values assemblies happening next Friday at one of my elementary schools. This month we're looking at fairness, and I've organized a group of grade 6 students to perform a skit. Today was the day we were going to meet to come up with an idea and as I'm waiting for all the kids to arrive a student teacher brings one of them down and has him inform me about the events that had just taken place.
Now, I had asked the teachers to choose students who either displayed leadership skills or who could use a little extra guidance in the area of playing fair. Sure enough, this scallywag was one of the latter.
We hold a leftover Halloween candy drive to donate to sick kids every year, and so students bring in a big ziploc full of candy to hand over to those who miss out on trick-or-treating because they're hospital-bound. Well this kid had helped himself to his buddy's loot before he'd sent it in for the drive and got busted. The interesting layer to this whole story is that the buddy's little brother is actually quite sick.
Anyway, there I am, being asked the question of whether or not this student deserves to be a part of the troupe.
Some people would have said no, but I had a better plan.
The other kids arrived, including his loot bag buddy who had also been chosen to be in the troupe. Standing outside the office, the two looked at each other angrily. I asked them to explain the story and suddenly they both start tearing up, realizing their friendship meant more than being angry at each other. Well, the friendship factor, and the thought that they might somehow be pulled out of hockey over this.
We used the experience as the foundation to our story. And the obvious choice might have been to let them play it out just as it had happened, victim is victim, thief is thief, but again, I had a better plan.
So the storyline transforms into a student brings in a bag of cookies for a math project about circumference and refuses to share them with her classmates, so the others steal them at recess (double-whammy right?!).
The kids were excitedly coming up with ideas and when it came time for casting, I knew our little sticky fingers was perfect for the role of the... teacher. He was not inspired by this at all at first, but as they improvised the scene, I sat back and enjoyed listening to him tell the group of peers why it's inappropriate to steal (because you'll lose friends and their trust) and why it's important to be fair, AND how they could make it up to the student they stole from (who, by the way, was just like totally kidding about not sharing with them in the first place). It was like watching Danny Tanner incarnate. So needless to say, he was able to answer me when I asked him how he would make it up to his buddy. He'd obviously have to bring in more of his own candy to donate to the drive.
Now here's the kicker. And by the way watching kids improvise is awesome, they're a bunch of naturals!
One of the students had a very good, very theatrical, but also very honest suggestion. At the very end of the skit, the student playing the teacher would remove his teacher costume to reveal himself as a student (*GASP!*) and confess to the school that this skit was based on true events, and that HE was the thief in reality. And then he'd apologize to his bud and everyone would go home happy.
Pretty good punishment if you ask me. It's rare that anyone would have the time to let a lesson evolve like this for any particular student, but I felt pretty lucky. For the kids, by the kids.
The more you know,
Katie
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