Educators value the success of all students. Educators care for students and act in their best interests.
Given our lesson plan assignment from Educ 402 to I wanted to create something that I could use within my classroom during the practicum. I created something that fit within the current units and that connected to diversity. In honour of Valentine’s Day and Pink Shirt Day I did a lesson to celebrate the diversity within our classroom. I really wanted to do a fun activity that would highlight and celebrate the diversity within our classroom. This lesson created an excellent opportunity for students to connect and build each other up.
We were in the middle of our ELA unit focusing on different reading strategies and the strategy that week was “Tune in to Interesting Words”. So I read the anchor book “If You Plant a Seed” and then we created an anchor chart called “Our Word Collector”. We brainstormed lots of “triple scoop words” that described people we care about, including our classmates. I made sure that students knew not to use words that focus on appearance.
The activity portion of the lesson consisted of students having a yellow sticky note on their back, and they walked around the room writing a word that described a unique quality about each classmate. They loved this! There was such an excited “buzz” around the room while students and many happy hearts once they got to sit down and read what their classmates wrote about them. I had students do a “self-assessment” or check-in with themselves before and after the activity, and it was described as a “definite bucket-filling” activity that left everyone feeling happier. The goal was for individuals to see themselves through other people’s eyes and hopefully realize positive qualities about themselves that they didn’t realize they possessed.