Perspective: A Game Changer in the Classroom and in Our Lives. What is perspective?
What does it have to do with teaching, leadership, and learning? The Oxford English Dictionary defines perspective as: "A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view. " Blending this definition into our instruction, classroom cultures, and relationships, perspective drives all we are and do in our classrooms. Perspectives are bundles of beliefs, a mindset that we each embrace determining how we see one another, our experiences, and possibilities or lack thereof.
Building Social and Emotional Skills in Elementary Students: The Power of Perspective. In this nine-part series, we will look at important factors that influence the happiness and social and emotional learning of elementary school age children.
These are very useful in helping students learn, manage emotions better and increase empathy. Each blog features one letter of the acronym HAPPINESS: H = Happiness A = Appreciation P = Passions and Strengths P = Perspective I = Inner Meanie/Inner Friend N = Ninja Mastery E = Empathy S = So Similar S = Share Your Gifts. How stories can transform a classroom. When students conduct StoryCorps interviews, teachers say it can “reorganize the ions of a class.”
Photo: David Andrako, courtesy of StoryCorps Caitlyn, a quiet seventh grader, was bullied by the other kids in her class at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank, California. Multicultural Books. Dinosaur Train (Age 3+) Crouching Tiger (Age 6+) The Tequila Worm (Age 9+) Boxers & Saints (Age 12+) March: Book One (Age 12+) The Book Thief (Age 13+) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Age 14+) World of Jenks (Age 14+) TV and Movies That Promote Empathy. Get our best picks for movies, apps, TV shows, books, and more, customized for your kids.
Get the App Get the App No thanks close(x) Movies That Inspire Kids to Change the World. Promises. A beautiful and deeply moving portrait of seven Palestinian and Israeli children.
Emmy award-winning and Academy award-nominated, PROMISES follows the journey of a filmmaker who meets these children in and around Jerusalem, from a Palestinian refugee camp to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Although they live only 20 minutes apart, these children exist in completely separate worlds, divided by physical, historical and emotional boundaries. American Promise. The American Promise journey began in 1999, when filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson enrolled their son Idris in the Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan after the private institution boldly strengthened its commitment to cultivating a diverse student body.
Michèle and Joe decided to turn the camera on themselves to film the experiences of 5-year-old Idris and his best friend and classmate Seun. The documentary captures the stories of Idris, Seun, and their families from the first day of kindergarten all the way to their 2012 high school graduation. Over the 12 years, we see the boys and their families struggle with stereotypes and identity, navigate learning differences that later become diagnoses, and ultimately take increasingly divergent paths on their road to graduation.
Inequality For All. A passionate argument on behalf of the middle class, INEQUALITY FOR ALL features Robert Reich – professor, best-selling author, and Clinton cabinet member - as he demonstrates how the widening income gap has a devastating impact on the American economy.
The film is an intimate portrait of a man whose lifelong goal remains protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. Through his singular perspective, Reich explains how the massive consolidation of wealth by a precious few threatens the viability of the American workforce and the foundation of democracy itself. In this INCONVENIENT TRUTH for the economy, Reich uses humor and a wide array of facts to explain how the issue of economic inequality affects each and every one of us. Poverty, Inc. The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry — the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change. From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem? Quotes “A powerful and uncompromising film that strikes at the core of the traditional understanding of development and international assistance.” — Andres Jimenez, Waging Non-Violence [Costa Rica] A Bug's Life (Age 5+) E.T. (Age 7+) Paper Clips (Age 8+) This documentary isn't a slick, celebrity-narrated account of the Whitwell students' simple but life-changing Holocaust studies project.
In fact, the biggest celebrity is Happy Days dad Tom Bosley, who, as a Jewish grandfather, sent in one paper clip to the class. Instead, the documentary earnestly focuses on the principal Linda Hooper, assistant principal David Smith, and language-arts teacher Sandra Roberts, and the students and journalists who helped spread the word that a group of white Southern kids were doing their best to honor the six million Jewish people killed by Hitler's racist regime.
Throughout the collection process, the students, who didn't even know any Jews personally when they began the project, become attuned to the stories behind the paper clips and understand that unchecked intolerance and prejudice can lead to genocide. In the Shadow of the Moon (Age 9+) Bully (Age 13+) Glee (Age 13+) If You Really Knew Me (Age 13+) Lost Boys of Sudan (Age 13+) This American Life (Age 14+) World of Jenks (Age 14+) Waste Land (Age 14+) The Matrix (Age 14+) Sites That Help Kids Appreciate Differences. Close(x) Don’t Miss Out You’re all set!
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (Age 4+) BrainPOP Jr. (Age 5+) Oh Noah! (Age 6+) PBS KIDS GO! (Age 6+) Google Earth (Age 8+) National Geographic Kids (Age 8+) Google Art Project (Age 12+) Your Commonwealth (Age 12+) Mission US: A Cheyenne Odyssey (Age 12+) Youth Radio (Age 15+) DoSomething.org (Age 16+) Global Scribes.
Happend.org. Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (Age 4+) Cool School (Age 5+) The Daring Game for Girls (Age 8+) Mission US: Flight to Freedom (Age 10+) Stop Disasters! (Age 12+) Half the Sky Movement (Age 14+) Gone Home (Age 15+) Empathy Apps, Games, and Websites. Get our best picks for movies, apps, TV shows, books, and more, customized for your kids. Get the App Get the App. Global Awareness Apps, Games, and Websites. Get our best picks for movies, apps, TV shows, books, and more, customized for your kids. Get the App Get the App No thanks.
Cultural Appreciation Apps, Games, and Websites. No thanks close(x) Don’t Miss Out You’re all set! Look out for our weekly updates soon. Star Walk (Age 8+) Google Maps (10+) Google Maps is an excellent tool for active people who like to get around. Navigation provides well-highlighted alternate routes, optional text-list display with voice guidance, street level views with rotation, a peg man to drag around, and easy zoom controls. Users can ask for directions for driving, walking, biking, or riding the bus. Map layers include traffic, transit lines, bicycling routes, Wikipedia articles, attractions, restaurants, and satellite view (toggle for map view). Terrain layer shows contour. The app also provides some icing with latitude and check-in features, screenshots for offline viewing, and extensive web-based help. Leonardo DaVinci (Age 12+) The Code of Understanding (Age 18+) Quotes (Age 18+)