There’s a big push in our society to “talk to someone” to solve every difficult situation that you are experiencing. While this has great merit and has produced so much positivity, there’s something to say about a child’s ability to portray themselves in ways we don’t expect at their age. Even at such a young age, students have experienced situations that we as adults may have never encountered.

I am currently student teaching at an urban school in Ottawa, Ontario. The students come from all different backgrounds and experiences, which makes for a dynamic learning environment. At the conclusion of our poetry unit, students were instructed to write a poem demonstrating their best literary ability. Students had the freedom to choose the topic and structure of their poems, allowing their full creativity to flow! The only restriction was that their poetry must be respectful to everyone.

There were a few pieces of student work that I just had to share.

True works of art. Was all the spelling correct? No. Did the students use proper punctuation? Not always. Did the students demonstrate an ability to portray a feeling in a descriptive way? Absolutely. While I used to think of poetry as boring and redundant, I now view poetry as an insight into a student’s soul.

Last week, there was a student that came in after recess and looked visible distraught. I motioned for him to come over to my desk and proceeded to ask him if everything was alright. At the drop of a dime, he started to cry. I took him out into the hall and let him tell me what was going on. He talked about how he got bullied during recess and the most hurtful comments were the ones directed at his weight.

This whole situation was very alarming for me, for a few reasons. This was one of the first experiences I had on the teacher’s side of bullying; that of counseling a student that was negatively impacted by their peers. This put bullying into the forefront for me as a teacher, especially as I reflected on some of the bullying I experienced at the same age as this student. Alternatively, the idea that comments about this student’s weight were more harmful than those directed at his character left me with a few questions.

Self-image may consist of three types:

1. Self-image resulting from how the individual sees himself or herself.
2. Self-image resulting from how others see the individual.
3. Self-image resulting from how the individual perceives others see him or her.

Fostering a positive self-image is an important thing for everyone, students included. We need to realize that the negative things that people say about us should not be internalized, potentially replacing the positive aspects of our character. What that being said, I created an activity that centered around fostering a positive self-image and disregarding the negative things being said about us.

The activity started with a brief conversation about self-image, targeting areas such as what creates a positive self-image and why it is important. Each student then received a handout that looked like this:

Each student was instructed to write any negative comments about themselves that they’ve been told. Some of these comments included words like “gross”, “ugly”, “stupid”, and “gay”. Next, students were told to write the positive aspects of themselves that they cherish. After a few minutes, students then cut along the outline of the person, removing all of the negative comments said about them. I placed the recycling bin in the middle of the classroom and students were allowed to rip up and throw away these nasty words. Students were left with a “positive self-image portrait” that outlined all the characteristics that truly have an impact on our lives, which is often clouded with all of the negativity present around us.

Here are just a few of the final products my students produced:

The activity concluded with a video by Soul Pancake centered around the importance of giving compliments rather than spewing hate. This video definitely resonated with students, leaving a few in tears (happy ones of course)!

We can never truly know the impact that our words can have, positive or negative. But we must always strive to spread love rather than hate.

Today, I accompanied a group of grade 3 and 4 students to MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre in Ottawa’s east end. This beautifully scenic education centre is located on over 40 acres of land! They provide high quality, hands-on outdoor programming that is designed and delivered to compliment classroom learning in many sections of the Ontario Curriculum. This trip was focused on the life of the pioneers! The students were introduced to the beauty of the natural world, as well as our place in it.

The day began in the central cabin, where many of the students ask the all-important question: Did those animals used to be alive? All I will say is that we had a great little introduction to the fur trade…

After our initial gathering, we began a 5-station activity that introduced students to the many jobs that Canadian pioneers had to complete on a regular basis:

Next, we all worked as a community to build a log cabin! Families from Spain, France, and England worked well together, proving that many hands make light work.

We ended the day by practicing our penmanship, memorization, arithmetic, and proper classroom behaviour, including writing with our right hands only (as was the case years ago). All of this occurred in a 1-room school house that was built in 1886! Mistress Crabbtree felt more like a drill sergeant than a teacher…

Our day at MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre was very educational and taught us just how fortunate we are to live in the world our ancestors worked so hard to create for us!

Last week at my Community Service Learning placement, I lead a lesson for my grade 7 students about ABC Poems. —An ABC poem usually has 5 lines, but sometimes it is a little longer (which is great for differentiation!). Essentially, the poem has very few rules and restrictions except for the following 2:

1. The first word of each line (1-4) is in alphabetical order from the first word (ex. G-J, P-S, etc.).
2. —Line 5 is one sentence, beginning with any letter.

I instructed the students to choose a topic and brainstorm as many different things about the topic as possible. Next, the students chose a letter that they would use as the first letter of the first line. And was I surprised by the positive reception and amazing work from my students! What started as a simple writing strategy to introduce students to a different approach of poetry turned into something much greater. Some students decided to write from A-Z, while others combined two ABC Poems into one. The best part: the select few students who typically refuse to write or complete work were passionate about this activity and actually asked to perform their written piece to the rest of the class!

I definitely recommend this activity! Check out some of the final products below (Note: spelling, grammar, etc. was not assessed).

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian tells the story of a fourteen-year old boy named Junior that lives on an Indian reserve in Washington. After getting in trouble at school for acting out over the age of the textbooks he was being given, he transferred to a school that is off the reserve. With the new schools comes a large culture shock; the students all seem to have money, their families ties are different than this own, and the way others behave does not always align with how he was raised. The story continues to share the story of his year at this new school and how it affects not only Junior, but his relationship with the reserve he came from.

Two strong themes were apparent in the novel: self-identity and alcoholism. Self-identity is how we define ourselves, referencing such themes as gender, academic performance, socio-economic status, and sexuality, among other factors. In Junior’s case, there were additional factors that played into his formation of an identity. Firstly, he had a number of medical deficiencies resulting from being born with hydrocephalus. Secondly, he was the only Indian student in a predominately white school. This caused him to internally battle with the juxtaposition of his two different personas: Indian at home and white at school.

Forming a solid self-identity is difficult for any young adolescent, nonetheless a teen in Junior’s position. As teachers, we must ensure that we serve as a pivotal role model to our students during this period in their lives. We must ensure that we create an emotionally safe environment for all students. Themes of respect and inclusion will help to diminish hateful acts, which will allow the students to feel safe in their exploration of creating a self-identity.

The second theme that stood out to me in this novel is that of alcoholism. Junior loses many family members to the effects of alcohol, which is a serious issue on Indian reserves:

There are a variety of reasons why alcoholism is heavily present on Indian reserves (poverty, history, etc.). No matter what the reason might be, it is important that this issue be addressed, even at young ages. Although alcohol and substance abuse education is one thing that can be done, there is a lot that can be done in the field of positive psychology and coping methods to reduce these statistics. By teaching students that there are ways other than alcohol to solve their problems, we can work towards creating a safer and better prepared generation on the reserves.