Helping students find their strengths — their “super powers” — can change them forever. Use some of these strategies to see big changes! (Photo via Nili Bartley / Take It to the Classroom)
Want to stop bullying, improve the classroom and school climate and improve achievement all at the same time?
Help your students become superheroes.
Using the SuperYou FUNdation curriculum, teachers are helping students empower themselves and become the best versions of themselves. They’re seeing children transform into better people as well as better students.
You can see these results in your own classroom or school, too, by requesting the SuperYou curriculum or by using the strategies mentioned below.
Two years ago, Lourds Lane, the book, music, and lyrics writer of the Broadway-bound musical “Chix 6,” volunteered at an inner-city school in Harlem on her days off from the stage. She saw a desperate need for self esteem and confidence in those students. She started helping them find their inner superheroes, which is the defining theme of her musical, and was encouraged by the results in behavior and classroom performance.
The SuperYou curriculum was born. It helps students identify their best positive character traits and the ones they aspire to develop in themselves. Then it carries those positive messages into the classroom and integrates with the school curriculum.
“It’s not about bashing and smashing things. It’s not about hurting ourselves or others. It’s about getting to know who you are,” Lourds said in an interview with Ditch That Textbook. (Click here or see the embedded video in this post to hear more.)
In the classroom, empowering and affirming students’ perceptions of themselves isn’t touchy-feely fluff. Nili Bartley, an elementary teacher who used the program and says the results are tangible.
One student ran a 5K race and struggled to finish but called on her superpower to persevere.
Other students wrote their superhero names on math tests to gain confidence.
“If you have one ounce of doubt when you’re wanting to take a risk as a student, you have a whole team of superhero classmates right there ready to encourage you and the doubt just sort of disappears,” Nili said.
Lourds recalls a story of a troubled student who was so disruptive, an aide was assigned to work with him in class. Students identified their positive character traits in class. When it was his turn, he said, “I’m evil.”
The students disagreed. “No, you’re funny. You’re smart.” He beamed.
The next day, instead of causing trouble, he was helping others. Students noticed and gave him SuperYou stars to reward him.
It changed him and altered the classroom climate for the rest of the year.
“He wasn’t disruptive in class anymore,” Lourds said. “He just needed a little love.”
Ready to make that kind of impact in your classroom or school? The SuperYou curriculum can be requested at www.superyoufun.org. Or, you can try some of these strategies Lourds and Nili suggested:
Helping students become superheroes can be one of the most powerful things teachers do for their students, Lourds said.
“When everyone becomes a superhero and everyone’s holding each other accountable for that … everything starts shifting.”
Additional content to check out about SuperYou and empowering students’ super powers:
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