Friday, October 16, 2009

Is it a Win-Win?

Many things happen daily in the art room that are considered win-win, and win-lose. But today I noticed a lose-lose that should have been a win-win.
A boy in the fourth grade dropped his books and other papers while standing in line to leave the art room. No one volunteered to help this boy that was really struggling to pick everything up. His situation was very noticeable, and I think its the first time in art that I ever witnessed nobody volunteering to help someone in need. So I said to the class, "If you turned around you would see that somebody is in need of help at the end of the line". Everyone turned around to look at the struggling boy. I said "It would be nice if someone volunteered to help him pick-up his papers, that would be a win-win situation". A student in the class yelled "yea, he's in a lose-lose situation right now". "I agree", I said. "Let's make this a win-win situation" and the students around the struggling boy, helped him pick-up all the papers that were on the floor.
This was an unexpected learning occasion for myself and the students. For them, I pointed out that helping others is a win-win situation, and for me I learned that there are many teaching moments in a day, no matter how small they may seem. I was happy to hear the other boy realize the fact that his lack of aid was a lose-lose situation. Even though I was originally disappointed that no one helped the boy, it turned out to be an important lesson learned.

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