Social Skills and Parent Resources
The Social Skills: We will post here what the social skills are for the year for 5th-8th grade classes.
This year, 7th and 8th grades will be working on a slightly different approach to social-emotional development. Our class will be exploring the Essential 55, guidelines created by Ron Clark and implemented at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Clark’s list covers good etiquette and skills for life, such as looking people in the eye when you talk to them, and leaving a tip when you stay in a hotel. Each quarter, 5th-8th grades will focus on a different rule on the Essential 55 list.
In addition, 7th and 8th grades will be learning about 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and the role that what we do or say has an impact on our future. Throughout the first semester we will be reading and evaluating what each chapter means to us.
Finally, each student will choose one social-emotional area that they would like to improve in the first semester. During the first two weeks, we’ll be discussing possibilities. Please take the time to have conversations at home with your child, too. I want this to be your child’s choice, but you know your child and can offer valuable input on areas that they may need to build strength.
Over the course of the semester, each child will be given time to reflect and self assess. As adults, we can support, encourage, help them practice, and find resources for them about the skill that they choose to work on. If, by the end of the first semester, there is agreement that your child has significantly improved on their chosen social emotional area, they will choose a different skill for the second semester. If they still need some practice on the first semester’s skill, then they will stick with that area. Here’s what the year will look like:
First Quarter: Essential 55 #1 Respond to an adult appropriately. Personal SED goal
Second Quarter: Essential 55 #4 Respect other students’ comments, opinions, and ideas. Personal SED goal
Third Quarter: Essential 55 #3 Congratulate and uplift a classmate. Personal SED goal
Fourth Quarter: Essential 55 #5 If you win, do not brag; if you lose, do not show anger. Personal SED goal
This year, 7th and 8th grades will be working on a slightly different approach to social-emotional development. Our class will be exploring the Essential 55, guidelines created by Ron Clark and implemented at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Clark’s list covers good etiquette and skills for life, such as looking people in the eye when you talk to them, and leaving a tip when you stay in a hotel. Each quarter, 5th-8th grades will focus on a different rule on the Essential 55 list.
In addition, 7th and 8th grades will be learning about 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and the role that what we do or say has an impact on our future. Throughout the first semester we will be reading and evaluating what each chapter means to us.
Finally, each student will choose one social-emotional area that they would like to improve in the first semester. During the first two weeks, we’ll be discussing possibilities. Please take the time to have conversations at home with your child, too. I want this to be your child’s choice, but you know your child and can offer valuable input on areas that they may need to build strength.
Over the course of the semester, each child will be given time to reflect and self assess. As adults, we can support, encourage, help them practice, and find resources for them about the skill that they choose to work on. If, by the end of the first semester, there is agreement that your child has significantly improved on their chosen social emotional area, they will choose a different skill for the second semester. If they still need some practice on the first semester’s skill, then they will stick with that area. Here’s what the year will look like:
First Quarter: Essential 55 #1 Respond to an adult appropriately. Personal SED goal
Second Quarter: Essential 55 #4 Respect other students’ comments, opinions, and ideas. Personal SED goal
Third Quarter: Essential 55 #3 Congratulate and uplift a classmate. Personal SED goal
Fourth Quarter: Essential 55 #5 If you win, do not brag; if you lose, do not show anger. Personal SED goal
Parent Resources: Here are some books that I have been reading as a parent and teacher that I found useful as both.