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Tuesday, 16 July 2019

Freeze Frame

Hey friends!

Today I wanted to share a little technique I have been using with my students this year to help them with practicing kindness and respect and managing their emotions.

I think we have to acknowledge that first and foremost it starts with us. We need to model to our students what we want to see in them. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that was the end of it but it isn't. Our little people are just that, people, human beings capable of making mistakes.

So I talk to my kiddos about imagining that our lives are a bit like a movie, in that it is a series of frames. During the making of a movie there might be a mistake, the wrong thing being said or something falling over. When this happens they have editors that can take that frame out and replace it with one that will correct the mistake. We call this Re-framing and I teach my littles that when we say things that are not kind or we are starting to feel frustrated we might make a mistake but we can edit it so that it will be better.




An example of this might be a student who may be playing a game in a small group and they accuse another student of 'cheating'. I may go to that student and ask them to reframe what they said to fix their mistake, if they need help with 'editing' their response I might give them an example or sentence starter.

If I can see a situation that looks like it may be escalating quickly I will say "FREEZE FRAME!" this is a signal to that student/s that they are heading into the red zone (we use zones of regulation) and they need to stop and have a break. They can take a walk, have a drink, go to the cool down zone, jump on the mini tramp or whatever they need to do. After they have cooled down, they can then re-frame the situation and fix their mistake.



I have had such great success using this technique and I am now hearing my students using the same language with each other. It also helps them to solve their own problems as they calmly ask someone to re-frame what they said. It allows both parties to maintain dignity whilst practicing kindness on both sides.

What do you think? Would you use this in your classroom?


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