UNIT 4: Overview
UNIT 4: Social Skills
Overview
Umubano Academy recognises the need to focus on and to teach specific social skills - such as listening to others, respecting property or taking turns - and to highlight them in class, to ensure that learners have opportunities to further develop their social skills and their Emotional Intelligence competencies. The teacher displays one social skill each week in the classroom. The teacher introduces the social skill, talks about what it means and then learners offer ideas about how they could try to demonstrate that skill in class that week.
Throughout the week, the teacher reminds learners about the social skill that they must focus on, and rewards learners for demonstrating that skill (e.g. by giving House Points as discussed in Unit 3).
Reflection
Reflect on how you were taught social skills. Who was the most influential person in your life and why? Most of us remember someone as a role model, someone we wanted to be like when we grew up because of the way they behaved, the kind of attitudes they had towards others, their social skills and values.
We know that as teachers we have a strong influence on our learners, beyond the content of what we teach them. How would you like to be remembered by your learners?
It is important also to remember that none of us is perfect and we all need support from our families, friends and colleagues to become our best self - this is lifelong learning!