Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strengths of Character—Outcome 3bud at the door.”FIVE PRACTICES FOR DEVELOPING THE SOCIALLYAND EMOTIONALLY SKILLED PERSON1. Develop and regularly renew a positive relationshipwith every student.2. Foster positive peer relations.3. Teach the power of a positive attitude.4. Teach manners.5. Teach the art of asking questions.OUTCOME 3:Socially and Emotionally Skilled Person3Promising Practice 1:Develop and regularly renew apositive relationship with everystudent.Research underscores the importance of“school connectedness” for teens’ emotional well-beingand avoidance of risky behaviors. 10 Developing students’social and emotional skills begins by building a relationshipwith them. Teachers and other school staff build bondswith students in different ways that are authentic expressionsof their individual personalities. Here are threeapproaches we encountered in our research:◆ The personal conversation. Said a high school boy:“Teachers need to motivate every student individually, notjust as an entire class. The personal connections teachershave made with me—something as simple as a short conversation—havekept me motivated to learn.”◆ The e-mail connection. One school district with four highschools set up an internal e-mail system to facilitate communicationbetween teachers and students. Students e-mail teachers about lessons, assignments, tests, andcareers. “We have found that students use it a tremendousamount,” the superintendent said. 11◆ The daily handshake. A number of teachers said theyfound great value in greeting students with a handshakeat the classroom door each day. Said one teacher, twicenamed Teacher of the Year in his school: “I greet everykid, every class, every day—starting with Day 1.” Saidanother, “In the half-second it takes me to shake a hand, Imake a direct, meaningful, and personal connection withthe student.” Another said, “I can tell in a heartbeat whatkind of day a kid is having. You can nip problems in theOne teacher commented: “I had always stood at the door,but didn’t do the handshake. When I tried it, the kidsloved it. If I wasn’t there when they arrived, they’d line upat the door waiting for me.”“In the half-second it takes me toshake a hand, I make a personalconnection with that student.”These teachers pointed out that in addition to makingand renewing a connection with every student, this greetingritual teaches an important social skill: how to shakehands. Charlie Abourjilie, a former high school historyteacher, writes in Developing Character for Classroom Successabout how he conducted a mini-lesson on the value of ahandshake:I talked to my class about the power of a handshake. Ipointed out that it has ended wars and created powerfulalliances. We discussed the value of a good handshake inthe business world, on job interviews, in meeting a date’sparent—what a positive human resource it is. 12A superintendent said, “If a candidate in an interviewdoesn’t give me a firm handshake, I might talk with thatperson for a few minutes out of courtesy, but the interviewis essentially over.”THE SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL BENEFITSOF POSITIVE PEER RELATIONSHigh school students in small learning communities,whose small size helps students get to knoweach other, not only achieve at higher levels than studentsin bigger schools but also feel less anonymous,are more attached to their schools, and are less likelyto engage in negative social behavior. 13Similarly, research by the Child Development Projecton six socio-economically diverse elementary schoolsfinds that the stronger the classroom and schoolwide“sense of community” (indicated by students’ agreementwith statements such as, “People in my classroomcare about each other”), the more likely studentsare to show positive social-emotional outcomes such asgreater liking for school, less loneliness, greater empathy,stronger feelings of social competence, strongermotivation to be helpful, and more sophisticated conflictresolution skills. 14119Smart & Good High Schools