Changing My Classroom Culture.

My classroom culture sucks. There is pushing, yelling, tattling, and a disregard for personal space, personal property and shared materials. It is frustrating and it does not bring out the best in me. I spent the past two weeks or so in a very apathetic mood: nothing I was trying was working, so I am just not going to bother and wait for a new bunch of kids next year. If you know me at all, you know that this feeling could not last long. So I am trying something different.

I completely revamped my schedule and beginning next week will be rolling out a 6 week culture building/ character development plan. We will spend 30 minutes a day on our culture building program (the name is still in the works) and as much extra time as I can find during the day to supplement the plan with trade books and writing. This 30 minutes of time will be an non-negotiable time in my schedule because while academics are important, my students need to learn social behaviors to be successful in school. Social development, in my opinion, is a critical part of early childhood education and one of the reasons I am so passionate about early childhood development. I cannot justify just teaching academics to my students. They are missing out on so much  from their education. I did not become an educator to force content into my children. I became an educator to teach children to become learners and citizens. For me, this is where it begins.

Below is my tentative unit plan. I drafted it after collaborating with our school's literacy coach, EL coach and my TFA MTLD. Click here for more information on the Social Star program used. I am pulling most lessons from books 2 and 3.  Any feedback/ suggestions on my  would be more than appreciated!

I do not know if this is going to be the magic solution I am hoping for, but I do think it will help, and it definitely cannot hurt!

Week	Theme	Lessons
1	We are problem solvers	(1)Kick-off: make puppets, talk about how we are all unique and how each of us are the same and different Literature Connection: Amazing Grace
		(2) What is a problem?                A problem is something that hurts your body, feelings, learning. Sort problems
		(3) Is this a problem?                Sort things that are problems and things that are not problems.
		(4) How we stop someone who is causing a problem.   Teach sentence frame: __________. You are hurting my ___________ because _______.  Please_________.
		(5) Use puppets to respond to mock problems. Literature connection: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Day (have students use puppets and respond to Alexander’s problems)
2	Appropriate touch	(1) Stop hitting me! Sort: good touch/ bad touch
		(2) Defining types of touch: hit, bump, poke, tap       Sorting appropriate touch:
		(3) Please stop touching me!  “_________stop ___________ because _______. Please_____.”
		(4) Physical Space: Define your own space. “You are hurting my learning because________. Please______”
		(5) How we get someone’s attention. puppet scenarios: if someone is on the other side of the room, if someone’s back is facing us, if someone is asleep, if someone is working with a grown up.
3	Respect: We respect others	(1) Kind actions—sort kind and unkind actions Literature Connection: Read the Kindness Quilt Writing Connection: Create a block on our class kindness quilt
		(2) What is a friend? (Being a Friend, Social Star lesson A p195)
		(3) Friend v. not friend (Being a Friend, Social Star lesson C p208) Literature Connection: The Recess Queen
		(4) How we can be a friend (Being a Friend, Social Star Lesson D p213), Blast off to friendship game
		(5) We like Compliments! (Giving and Receiving Compliments, Social Star Lesson A p234) Literature Connection: Have you filled a bucket today?
4		(6) Inside and Outside Compliments (Giving and Receiving Compliments, Social Star Lesson B p238)
		(7) Receiving Compliments: practice giving and receiving compliments in partners
	Tattling or Reporting	(1) Read “don’t squeal if it isn’t a big deal” and identify what a “tattle” is
		(2) Sort: tattling v. reporting Practice reporting with puppets
		(3)  Get it out! What to do if we need to tattle. Introduce the “tattle box”
5	Owning your Feelings	(1) Labeling Feelings (Social Star, Taking Charge of Feelings, p97) Literature Connection: How are you Peeling?
		(2) I am in charge of my feelings (social Star, Taking Charge of Feelings p101)
		(3) Use puppets to respond to situations, “I feel _____ because _____”
		(4) I statements: “ I feel____when____. I need _____” Use puppets with “I statements” to respond to scenarios on SS p. 143
6	Taking Charge of Anger	(1) What is anger? Good anger v. bad anger (Taking Charge of Anger, Social Star p. 191)
		(2) Anger Shrinkers: Strategies for dealing with angers (days 2-5) (Taking Charge of Anger, Social Star p.196)