What values are we teaching are children? At school we often speak about behaving well, respecting each other and being kind to each other. We need to ask ourselves, are we modeling the behavior we want the students to portray?
If we, as teachers, model positive behavior, the children we teach are seeing a role model which may influence them in becoming caring, considerate and responsible adults.
One way of role-modelling caring behavior towards others is doing a community project with the children, or encouraging children to do community service.
Each school; no matter how big or small, wealthy or poor; can teach their students to care for others in the community. The outreach activities do not have be big projects. Start with a small activity. Find out about the needs of people in your community, for example: is there a blind or elderly person living near your school or even an old age home, with whom the children could visit and just have a chat. You, as the teacher, could organize to spend time with the children visiting others, perhaps in small groups, or if it is an old age home or a nursery school a class could visit at a time.
Remember to get the parents permission! Even better is to involve the parents in assisting with transport or if it is in walking distance from the school, the parents could accompany you.
Activities you could do:
On Old Age Home visits, the students could
- Sit and speak to the old people.
- Older students could read to individuals
- Make tea
- Bring snacks to share
- Work in the old person's garden with him or her
Just spending time with people who may not have many visitors is greatly appreciated in most instances.
At a nursery school visits, the students could
- Play pre-organised games with the little children
- Do simple baking tasks - such as making faces on Marie biscuits with icing sugar, and sweets for facial features.
- Older children could read to younger children
Have fun exposing the children you teach to community service, involving the parents as you go along!
