Lucy's lesson plan People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. - unknown The following is the journal activity I used when I taught sixth grade world cultures/world history at Discovery Middle School in Orlando, Florida. The purpose of the activity was to establish a sense of community within the classroom and a sense of active responsibility for that community. In time (three months or so), the sense of community and the accompanying sense of responsibility extended naturally beyond the walls of our classroom into the school at large. The activity can be modified to fit the California Writing Standard 1.1. However, I taught this way in order to create a classroom environment conducive to teaching effectively the materials I was required to teach. This activity was not taught to fill any standard. If I had more time I could peruse the state standards and find more correlations between this activity and state requirements. The writing requirement was the most obvious standard to include here. As a history teacher, it was very important to me to have the students see themselves as part of history - their own history, our class history, our school history, our community history, national and global history. What kind of story would history tell about them and their choices? The students were held accountable for the choices they made. Open discussions about issues (personal or global) were encouraged. Of the 55 minutes for each class close to 15 minutes were dedicated to reflection and discussion. Once students learned they were in a supportive environment that cared about what they thought and who they were, I could teach them almost anything. So,although my lesson time was reduced, I could easily cover that day's lesson. To create a class environment where children value each other they must know they are valued. I carefully modeled the kindness, honesty, respect and concern for others that I expected from them. I was "on" all the time. How I responded to situations taught the students more than any quote or lecture. I never received a teacher of the year award or teacher of the month award. But I know this approached worked for the following reasons: Students with learning disabilities were generally tracked into science not history. Within a year, LDS students were tracked into my classes by the guidance department. (In addition to focusing on community and responsibility to that community, I also taught to multiple learning styles. Teaching to multiple learning styles helped build community and ensure that the non-traditional learner was valued and could succeed.) Along with my ace student assistants, high achievers in the 8th grade, the guidance department gave me two special student assistants. Student assistants were supposed to be outstanding students but these children found themselves in my class because they were not experiencing success in any of their other classes. The guidance counselors wanted to make sure they had one period a day where they felt safe and valued. Many of my former students became leaders at the school. Students became student assistants, sports team members and leaders in clubs. On a visit to the campus, many students expressed to me (without prompting from me) that they were trying a difference at their school. The feeling of security was empowering and enabled my students to reach out to the new child, the ostracized child, the non-English speaking child, the lonely child, etc. By the end of the year these students were social justice dynamos reaching out to help marginalized students. I taught for only three years and it was not until the third year that I had the modeling down and it was my most effective year. It is hard not to have favorites, not become frustrated, to always be kind and respectful. It is hard but we must model the behaviors we expect. By doing so we can transform our corner of the school (the world) into a peaceful, loving place where everyone is valued and we can watch as our corner transforms the rest of the school - the rest of the world. Activity: Quote of the Day Purpose: To motivate the students to believe in themselves and each other. To encourage them to actively participate in making their own lives and the lives of others better. To practice expressing themselves verbally and in writing. California State Standard: Writing 1.1 (To fulfill this standard, the activity must be adapted for each grade.) Materials: A quote Journals for each child Lesson: Write a quote on the chalkboard before the students enter the classroom. Have each student read the quote and respond to it in their journal. The response should include what the quote means to them personally and how they can incorporate the quote into their daily lives. The responses must be a minimum of five sentences. (This can begin before the final bell rings.) Read and briefly discuss the quote after the final bell. (Some students may be baffled by the quote and how to respond to it. A quick explanation of the meaning of the quote by several students may help the others respond. At the beginning of the year, it will be necessary to give a full explanation of the quote and a sample response.) Give the students time to reflect and respond in writing 5-10 minutes. Briefly discuss. ( Allow more time to discuss if the particular quote relates to a specific issue or problem in the class, the school. the world.) Because my students were young and were begging me to read their journals, they turned them in at the end of the week for me to read. If you do this I suggest you stagger the "turn in day" so you will not have over one hundred journals to read at one time. If my students wrote something they did not want me to read they folded the page over. Older students might be mortified to have you read their entries. Discretion is necessary. If I were to do it over, I would have a quote a day for four days. On the fifth day, the students could pick the most meaningful quote of the week and rewrite the response and turn it in to me. Often during the year I would ask the students to reflect on their favorite quote thus far and how they have used it in their lives. Sample Quotes: Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. - Leo Buscaglia Kindness is tenderness. Kindness is love, but perhaps greater than love...Kindness is good will. Kindness says, "I want you to be happy. - Randolph Ray What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? - Jean Jacques Rousseau Kindness is an inner desire that makes us want to do good things even if we do not get anything in return. It is the joy of our life to do them. When we do good things from this inner desire, there is kindness in everything we think, say, want and do. - Emmanuel Swedenborg Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. - Seneca Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. - Theodore Isaac Rubin By taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior. - unknown "Comfort" is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being "comfortable." - Vivekananda "Face the brutes." That is a lesson for all life-face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. - Vivekananda A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century. - Vivekananda How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. - George Washington Carver Attitude determines altitude. - unknown The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. - Charles Swindoll The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. - Charles Swindoll I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes. - Charles Swindoll A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart. - Opening scene of "Faust" You can't expect people to look eye to eye with you if you are looking down on them. - unknown You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him. - unknown People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care. - unknown The only job where you start at the top, is digging a hole. - unknown Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. - Martin Luther King If you want peace, you must work for justice. - Pope Paul VI It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different. - Oscar Aria True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of Justice. - Martin Luther King There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. - Elie Wiesel A big shot is a little shot that kept shooting. - unknown No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big. - unknown A person's true wealth is the good he or she does in the world. - Mohammed To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. - Anatole France To accomplish great things, we must not only dream, but act. - Bill Blackman Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely. - unknown Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult may become easy. - Bill Blackman The willow knows what the storm does not: that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it. - Blood of the Martyr Don't ask for a light load, but rather ask for a strong back. - unknown To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. - Oliver Wendell Holmes If the going is real easy, beware, you may be headed down hill. - unknown The heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. - Thomas S. Monson Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals. - unknown He who seeks rest finds boredom....He who seeks work finds rest. - unknown When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. - Franklin D. Roosevelt Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. - Henry J. Kaiser It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. - Seneca Never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles. - Abbie Hoffman Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. - Abraham Lincoln I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel Those who love peace must learn to organize as well as those who love war. - Dr. Martin Luther King It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. And never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant. - Bishop Desmond Tutu If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it. - Lucy Larcom Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. -Jane Addams If you only look at what is, you might never attain what could be. - unknown Smile and the world smiles back at you. -unknown To have a friend you must be a friend. - unknown We must be the change we wish to see. - Gandhi The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. - Gandhi The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. - Gandhi If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. - Henry David Thoreau Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Downloaded from Educators for Non-Violence (EFNV): http://www.efnv.org/efnv/en/resources/lucy%27s%20lesson%20plan.txt