Weekly Update

January 31, 2020

Hello!

This past week, we have been discussing the topic of “assertiveness”. We started off with a whole class discussion on what the characteristics are for passive, assertive, and aggressive people. I facilitated the discussion by writing those 3 words on the board and then asked the students to list off words that describe those approaches. Interestingly, they had the hardest time with the assertive characteristics, which we pointed out and discussed further. To wrap up this class discussion, I then had each student complete a self-assessment on which approach they tend to use in various situations.

Over the course of the rest of the week, we did various worksheets and hands-on activities that all related to how we communicate in tough, peer-pressure related situations. One of the individual assignments was to write about 2 separate situations where they were either passive, aggressive, or assertive. Then for one of our class activities, we practiced turning accusing/aggressive statements and reactions into assertive statements. To further this activity, students also completed a bell work assignment where they had to answer how they would respond to the various scenarios listed and then they had to determine what category their response would fall under: passive, aggressive, or assertive.

On Monday, we will finish up our last assertiveness activity, which will be focused on a final review of what assertiveness means, why it is important to be assertive, and when to be assertive. The rest of next week we will be discussing how to make better/smart decisions. This topic will include everyday decisions, school/home decisions and how we might make different ones based on the difference in environments, also about how our decisions lead to certain consequences: both good and bad.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns: btaylor@santancs.com.

-Mrs. Taylor