# data[].attributes.body
tevlfdsjefbhdskdkdhsyytic/dshsl;handwf;mbv jbytpsbddvdhdfbdchhcvbhv c dhbffbdhd d gsfx

# data[].attributes.headline
Tweeting with another class to learn more about ourselves 

# data[].attributes.subject
Tweeting with another class to learn more about ourselves 

# data[].attributes.body
Classroom discussion. Icebreaker activities

# data[].attributes.headline
Love the hell out of them!!  Value them as people!

# data[].attributes.subject
Love the hell out of them!!  Value them as people!

# data[].attributes.body
@kellyasmith06

# data[].attributes.body
I create jobs and responsibilities for my students, so they take ownership of their learning and environment.

# data[].attributes.body
Weekly reflections though padlet
Student Blogging
Class Website
Team Building
We have a class mission statement
We are a Leader in Me school
Getting feedback through forms (exit/entry forms)

# data[].attributes.body
Classroom jobs

# data[].attributes.body
Team building activities/morning meetings/PBIS/Character Traits

# data[].attributes.body
Morning meetings by discussing what animal we feel like and why
we feel that way

# data[].attributes.body
Specific teaching of expectations, safe search engines, monitoring of where students are, community circle,

# data[].attributes.body
Star Student of the Week

# data[].attributes.body
morning meeting/community circle

# data[].attributes.body
We work in groups throughout the entire semester. We work with other clubs and activities to create ads and other videos. I also try to work with other content areas to create videos.

# data[].attributes.body
Doodle tables. Library digital newsletters. Courtesy Notes for staff.

# data[].attributes.body
conversations about the curriculum  to their lives

# data[].attributes.body
I start by engaging my students with stories of life before becoming a foster child.  Truth is, they are facintaed by true life and it it helps them see me as a human rather than just a teacher.  In exchange, I rarely have any disciplin problems in my classes.

# data[].attributes.body
Circles, class meetings positive behavior support

# data[].attributes.body
morning meetings

# data[].attributes.headline
K-8 Tech Teacher/Asst. Principal @HCSMrsJerome 

# data[].attributes.subject
K-8 Tech Teacher/Asst. Principal @HCSMrsJerome 

# data[].attributes.body
-We use Class Dojo to build out the ideas of empathy and growth mindset
-We use Common Sense Media's digital citizenship resources.
-We look at over-use with our No Impact Man challenge
- Brain breaks/ Mindfulness
-Google Cast

# data[].attributes.body
Morning Meetings
Kidblog-- commenting and connecting with others
STEM Teamwork activit

# data[].attributes.body
Morning Meeting
Goal Setting

# data[].attributes.body
Tech Coach
Mindfulness
Have you Filled a Bucket today?
Seesaw

# data[].attributes.body
Here is the original article I read that shaped my weekly reflection/seating request review over social dynamics and our SEL needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A few weeks ago, I went into Chase's class for tutoring.

I'd emailed Chase's teacher one evening and said, "Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you're sending home is math - but I'm not sure I believe him. Help, please." She emailed right back and said, "No problem! I can tutor Chase after school anytime." And I said, "No, not him. Me. He gets it. Help me." And that's how I ended up standing at a chalkboard in an empty fifth grade classroom staring at rows of shapes that Chase's teacher kept referring to as "numbers."

I stood a little shakily at the chalkboard while Chase's teacher sat behind me, perched on her desk, using a soothing voice to try to help me understand the "new way we teach long division." Luckily for me, I didn't have to unlearn much because I never really understood the "old way we taught long division." It took me a solid hour to complete one problem, but l could tell that Chase's teacher liked me anyway. She used to work with NASA, so obviously we have a whole lot in common.

Afterwards, we sat for a few minutes and talked about teaching children and what a sacred trust and responsibility it is. We agreed that subjects like math and reading are the least important things that are learned in a classroom. We talked about shaping little hearts to become contributors to a larger community - and we discussed our mutual dream that those communities might be made up of individuals who are Kind and Brave above all.

And then she told me this.

Every Friday afternoon Chase's teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they'd like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.

And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase's teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.
Who is not getting requested by anyone else? Who doesn't even know who to request? Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated? Who had a million friends last week and none this week?
You see, Chase's teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or "exceptional citizens." Chase's teacher is looking for lonely children. She's looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She's identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class's social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she's pinning down- right away- who's being bullied and who is doing the bullying.

As a teacher, parent, and lover of all children - I think that this is the most brilliant Love Ninja strategy I have ever encountered. It's like taking an X-ray of a classroom to see beneath the surface of things and into the hearts of students. It is like mining for gold - the gold being those little ones who need a little help - who need adults to step in and TEACH them how to make friends, how to ask others to play, how to join a group, or how to share their gifts with others. And it's a bully deterrent because every teacher knows that bullying usually happens outside of her eyeshot - and that often kids being bullied are too intimidated to share. But as she said - the truth comes out on those safe, private, little sheets of paper.

As Chase's teacher explained this simple, ingenious idea - I stared at her with my mouth hanging open. "How long have you been using this system?" I said.

Ever since Columbine, she said. Every single Friday afternoon since Columbine.

Good Lord.

This brilliant woman watched Columbine knowing that ALL VIOLENCE BEGINS WITH DISCONNECTION. All outward violence begins as inner loneliness. She watched that tragedy KNOWING that children who aren't being noticed will eventually resort to being noticed by any means necessary.

And so she decided to start fighting violence early and often, and with the world within her reach. What Chase's teacher is doing when she sits in her empty classroom studying those lists written with shaky 11 year old hands - is SAVING LIVES. I am convinced of it. She is saving lives.

And what this mathematician has learned while using this system is something she really already knew: that everything - even love, even belonging - has a pattern to it. And she finds those patterns through those lists - she breaks the codes of disconnection. And then she gets lonely kids the help they need. It's math to her. It's MATH.

All is love- even math. Amazing.

Chase's teacher retires this year - after decades of saving lives. What a way to spend a life: looking for patterns of love and loneliness. Stepping in, every single day- and altering the trajectory of our world.

TEACH ON, WARRIORS. You are the first responders, the front line, the disconnection detectives, and the best and ONLY hope we've got for a better world. What you do in those classrooms when no one is watching- it's our best hope.

Teachers- you've got a million parents behind you whispering together: "We don't care about the damn standardized tests. We only care that you teach our children to be Brave and Kind. And we thank you. We thank you for saving lives."

Love - All of Us

Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller LOVE WARRIOR - ORDER HERE
Join the Momastery community on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Share This With All the Schools, Please - Momastery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A few weeks ago, I went into Chase's class for tutoring. I'd emailed Chase's teacher one evening and said, "Chase keeps telling me that this stuff you're sending home is math - but I'm not sure I believe him. Help, please." She emailed right back and said, "No problem!

# data[].attributes.body
How did she use the seating requests? Or observations of students not being requested?

# data[].attributes.headline
Honoring every answer, no matter if right or wrong

# data[].attributes.subject
Honoring every answer, no matter if right or wrong

# data[].attributes.body
Monthly declarations of need to the whole class

# data[].attributes.body
filling buckets

# data[].attributes.body
Learning to express needs.

# data[].attributes.body
all about me collages

# data[].attributes.body
Teaching Mindfulness (a la meditation)

Teaching Social Emotional Learning Skills

# data[].attributes.body
morning meetings
themes
table teams & points
school theme

# data[].attributes.body
Weekly Student Authored Class Goals

# data[].attributes.body
Have students collaborate and publish writing

# data[].attributes.headline
Morning Meetings, collaborate with writing, daily appreciations

# data[].attributes.subject
Morning Meetings, collaborate with writing, daily appreciations

# data[].attributes.body
Kind time

# data[].attributes.body
Giving students ownership by acting out rules for us all to follow and embrace.

# data[].attributes.body
Students finding solutions for school problems

# data[].attributes.body
morning meeting, appreciation circle
class rules together

# data[].attributes.headline
morning meetings, putting students in table groups, class rules created together

# data[].attributes.subject
morning meetings, putting students in table groups, class rules created together

# data[].attributes.body
create meaningful relationships

# data[].attributes.body
Boys' Integrity workshop
Girls' Empowerment workshop
leave it in the bag
Golden Bucket

# data[].attributes.body
- express appreciations for one another
- brainstorm how we want our classroom to be/feel
- character counts focus
- growth mindset discussions

# data[].attributes.body
Morning meetings
Table groups
Academic partners

# data[].attributes.body
class groups
class meeting

# data[].attributes.body
Morning meeting, responsive classroom

# data[].attributes.body
Students helping students to be successful

# data[].attributes.body
-appreciations
-class expectations (student responsibilities, teacher responsibilities)
-morning meeting

# data[].attributes.body
RA Circles (proactive)
High-fiving at the door

# data[].attributes.body
class meetings

# data[].attributes.body
Put students in teams or groups

# data[].attributes.body
Create a list of class expectations together

# data[].attributes.body
Work as a class to create a class constitution

# data[].attributes.body
- appreciation and concern circles
- conversations about LIFE
- At the end of the day, my students pick from a pile of paper hearts, hands, 5s, or smiley faces and hand whatever they chose to me on their way out at the end of the day---easy way to check in with how they are feeling about the day or towards me.