I hope attaching this link to the 5/6 homework pages will help publicize the school counselor's blog. There have been requests to share information about character classes I facilitate in 5th and 6th grade. I anticipate that more visibility will support communication to parents.
For the most part, character class has been operating similar to class meetings. In fourth grade, I spend significant amount of time teaching conflict resolution skills to students attending Riverdale. Now in fifth grade and sixth grade I can encourage students to use these skills to effectively manage conflicts that occur in real life. I am thrilled to give students this added supervised practice in the safe environment of class meetings. In addition, using this class meeting format has allowed ample opportunity to support the acquisition of empathy skills. My previous log dated Jan. 5th specifies detail regarding empathic development. In my opinion, learning conflict resolution and empathy skills are critical in today's world.
There has been some time to bring in hands-on learning activites that enhance the development of life skills, i.e. communication, decision-making, goal setting, and cooperation. These activity ideas are primarily taken from Cooperative Learning, by Dr. Spencer Kagan; Tribes, by Jeanne Gibbs; and, Activities that Teach, by Tom Jackson. However, other experiential learning sources have supported my efforts to conduct effective classes that build essential concepts and skills for lifelong success as well.
My intent for these weekly meetings is to build inclusion, to increase understanding of influence, and to promote positive growth as a community of learners. I commit to updating this site on a regular basis.
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