Saturday, February 2, 2013

I Want to be Miss Harmony

We all have people we look up to; those we want to emulate.I am here to admit, I want to be like Miss Harmony in Rosemary Wells new book, Miracle Melts Down. I realize the book was written for children, but I think it is a good book for teachers, maybe better than some of those 300 page text books I've seen on social emotional development.

Miss Harmony doesn't have the perfect class of alligators. She has regular alligator kids, but within that room she has  built a wonderful class community. It is a room, in which the children clearly care about each  other. When poor Miracle has a bad day, the other children and Miss Harmony help her get through the day.They give her tissues to wipe her tears, sing the Feeling Better song, make her a crown and a necklace, clean up her messes, and they help her count to ten.

Rosemary Wells has written an excellent book for younger children, to help them learn about handling emotions. It also helps them learn how to help others and it just might remind teachers that they don't have to always take care of everything themselves. If they work to build a sense of community, everyone in the class can contribute to making classroom better.

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