JOIN USIf we work on marble or on brass time will efface it, if we build a temple, time will crumble it into dust, but if we work on the innocent beautiful minds of children by instilling principles and values, that engraving will brighten generations to come...”
She entered the class room, her head bent, shoulders drooping, her walk with a drag, her steps filled with reluctance. She looked a picture of utter joylessness and for a girl of eight, it was definitely not the right kind of look.
She went straight to the basket kept on a table in the corner of the room, picked up one card from it and went to her desk and laid it on top. The teacher, after going around the class to check on every child, stopped at the child’s desk on seeing what the card read — it said ‘sad’ and the girl was sitting with doleful eyes. The teacher gave an understanding and knowing look; took the card in her hands and showing it to the whole class said, “today our little miss is sad. Let us all do something about it.”
The magic started working — the whole class made the best effort to change the mood of the girl. What followed was a scene of love, empathy and a scene of ‘reaching out’ to a distressed soul. In the evening while on her way back home, the girl had a beaming look of happiness and contentment.
Young children love to be included in a process of creating something that gives them a sense of identity, a sense of identity to their feelings and emotions.
This particular ‘best teacher award’ winning teacher did exactly that. She came up with an idea, to keep a basket with small cards in the class room, with the names of all the emotions written on them, like ‘angry’, ‘afraid’, ‘sad’, ‘happy’, et al. A student can go and pick up that card which defines her/his ‘mood’ and rest of the class will either enjoy it together if it is worthy of celebration, or try and alter the negative mood in the best way possible. By introducing something like this, the teacher is trying to inculcate lasting values of empathy, helping nature, brotherhood and understanding.
This US-based teacher from South Carolina stands as a role model to many teachers, with her many other innovative ideas. She is known to bring in positive energy into the class, because she has it in her.