Don't worry, I am not blogging about this very popular Nickelodeon show. I am painfully aware that I know nothing about iCarly other than that it is a mega-hit in the tween world. But I do know that navigating the social scene in elementary school these days is quite different from when I was in school, both for better and for worse. I'll get back to iCarly in a moment. In 24 short hours, we will celebrate Rosh Hashanah, a time of reflection and introspection for the Jewish community. Today at LGA, I witnessed something that spoke volumes about the moral compass that my uber-sweet school seeks to instill, in both the students and the faculty.
Parts of the story were retold to me; other parts I witnessed myself. The story involves three students at LGA, one of whom is new, and a veteran educator who holds an acute sense of the importance of the social-emotional curriculum of our school. At some point during the day, these three students got into an altercation that left everyone feeling bad. The students walked into the classroom of this teacher, who immediately sensed that something was not right. She could just feel it in the air. The students were not shy about hiding their feelings about what had just happened. This teacher told the three students to stay back while the rest of the class was dismissed for lunch.
LGA teachers have packed schedules. We expect a lot from them. In addition to teaching, every teacher at LGA is committed to serious professional development that involves multiple periods of meetings. When teachers aren't on lunch duty, they are often in a team meeting discussing students. This particular teacher had an actual lunch break today, and could have easily said, "I'll deal with this later." But she knew that the issue needed to be solved immediately. This teacher sat with the three students, asked them to talk about their feelings, and more importantly, made them each take ownership for miscommunicating and/or causing hurt feelings Some were more open to that concept than others, but all began to reflect on what could be different in their relationship. The teacher thoughtfully explored with them what it meant to be in a classroom community, and more crucially, the concept of what it means to be in a new environment.
Meanwhile, I was walking around the lunch rooms shmoozing with students when I noticed that these three students were missing. I asked another student if they knew where so-and-so was? I was told they were eating lunch in the classroom. I bumped into the above-mentioned teacher in the hallway, who told me what was going on and asked if I could follow them, as she had to get ready to teach. As the faculty member explained the story to me, suddenly we turned and looked into the classroom. The three students were dancing to a pop song they all knew. There was genuine laughter, and they looked like they were best of friends. At that point, I couldn't have been prouder of everyone involved.
In the end, was it their like (or dislike) of iCarly that brought these students together? Who knows? But what I do know is that this is what a strong social-emotional curriculum looks like at its finest moment. As an educator, I maintain that using the instances like these as teachable moments is just as important as when a student grasps a mathematical concept or learns a new Hebrew word. We are teaching our children what it means to be a mensch.
Shanah Tovah u'Metukah! May you all have a sweet new year.
Yes we are!
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