Have you spent any time looking over the curriculum map this summer? Have you thought about teaching something NOT on the map?? How about teaching manners in the classroom this year.
My first reaction to teaching manners is that MANNERS should be taught in the home. BUT IT IS NOT!
Teaching Manners in the Classroom
On a daily basis, do you stress the importance of using good manners?
Do you teach how to make a real apology when you’ve done something wrong?
Do you explain why we have to pay our bills?
Why should we have to obey the law?
Why do we have to do the right thing for the right reason all the time, even if no one is watching?
If you teach manners in your classroom will you get in trouble? Are you allowed to teach anything other than curriculum? NO, you will not!
How to Teach Good Manners to Students
As educators, we think our hands are tied and we are only allowed to teach what is on the curriculum map. That is simply not true! You must teach what is on the map but to be an INCREDIBLE teacher, you need to teach life skills! Manners is such a valuable place to start!
With so many parents, absent in their own child’s life, who is going to teach these things to their children? I promise your classroom will have a different ambiance once everyone starts displaying respect to one another!
Who Should Teach the Children Manners?
Is it our responsibility as educators or is it not? I feel it is our responsibility. They are in our care typically for more hours a day than they are with their own parents. Oftentimes, parents pick them up from aftercare at 6 PM, run around, grab dinner, do baths, and put them down for bed at 8 PM.
How much are they teaching in a two or three-hour span, five days a week? Many of the children I have taught through the years, have parents working multiple jobs and the children rarely see the parents. Often they are being raised by babysitters and grandparents.
How to Teach Manners in the Classroom
How much responsibility do you take for helping to shape these little lives? Where do you begin? Go back to the basics! Teach them how to have good manners in general, as well as how to communicate with other people. Here is a great picture of where to begin from Thirty Hand Made Days.
Super Simple yet Super Effective!
I hope you are taking time to rejuvenate yourself from the past year! You cannot expect to teach and be a positive role model when you are feeling depleted and unworthy! Check out this article to help get ready for the Fall!
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