Respectful & Ethical Minds

Respectful & Ethical Minds

Milton Hershey School instills four sacred value into their employees and students, and one of those is "respect."  Students are taught to respect other classmates, houseparents, and teachers on a daily basis with the hope that it becomes intrinsically instilled in them. I am sure that you can imagine how tough this is for  six year old to constantly remember, because for the most part, they are only focused on what is important to them at the current moment. Throughout the discussion  between Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis, the theme of respect continually came up. Ownership of respect, giving respect, and understanding what respect is in a digital world were all major thinking points for us listeners. In my opinion, respect is a major part of the digital world. We are often times viewing others work, sharing, commenting, editing, etc. The previously mentioned digital practice are also something that we see happening in the classroom. Students are often viewing others work, providing feedback, and seeking to understand more. 

In my first grade classroom, we are LOVERS of the app Seesaw. Students are able to create a digital portfolio which can be shared with parents, houseparents, teachers, and other students. One of the things that we are beginning to work on within the app is posting comments. Students are able to "like" another students post by pressing the heart, or they can voice record a comment/type a comment for the student to see. This has provided to be an excellent way to build community in the classroom, understand how to take criticism, and really embrace the growth mindset. We have set up "posting" rules in our classroom, and they are as follows:

1. If you record a comment, it must start off being positive. 

2. If you see a mistake that was made or feel that the student could have done something differently, you can only post it after your positive comment. 

3. You must give suggestions in a kind way, and may not say things such as "not a good job". If something could be better, students must say "next time, why don't you try" or "have you thought of."

I have found that these guidelines help students receive feedback that produces growth as well as understand how to be a kind classmate. As we all know, kindness matters. :)  A sample is attached below (I modeled the comment for the class):

(Photo Credit: SeeSaw: Paid Version via MHS).

My favorite take away thought from  the video was: The aim of global collaboration in education is to improve learning, break down classroom walls, and develop authentic audiences. I feel that our system of commenting in SeeSaw is just one subtle way that we are achieving the above!