LEGACY Reflections

I sense it with my students this time every year. A restlessness crops up in early spring and I've never felt I'd been able to adequately address it. It's what I think of as a "push/pull" mindset. 

My 8th Graders are pushing away from Middle School and feeling the excitement and pull of their new lives next school year as High Schoolers. It's a drive for new experiences along with the sadness of leaving Middle School. This often manifests in an "indifferent" attitude conveyed outwardly but this indifference (usually) masks the trepidation they're feeling inside. I believe I may have found a way to help students work though these feelings.

Last June the idea of a LEGACY project came to me in the middle of the night the week before school ended (the subconscious mind at work)! I quickly ran through the activity with my students. This year I'm able to take my time and have hopes for its success.

Students began reflections yesterday. I defined legacy and explained our goal for this project. Each letter of LEGACY is a part of acronym related to how they may be remembered when they leave us in June. Students started with the L in LEGACY--LEADERSHIP. I asked them to come up with examples of their leadership throughout their years at Boulan. Big examples and little examples all matter. Every example of leadership contributes to our school community's success and strength. Students were then asked to write one example on a piece of colored card stock to display on the bulletin board outside of our classroom. They were asked to explain how their example of leadership contributed to the LEGACY they will leave when they are promoted next month.

This type of self-reflection is challenging for many students. Some aren't comfortable with it, something I witnessed yesterday.  One particularly reluctant student didn't complete a reflection at all--and I didn't push him for an answer. To my surprise he approached me today for a piece of card stock and took it home to work on tonight. I commend him for his perseverance and look forward to his response when he's ready. 

I do feel having this LEGACY vocabulary will help us process these next few weeks and provide my students an constructive outlet for these feelings. 

It's human nature to want to be remembered, perhaps reminding my students that they will be (and helping them understand that they have control over the way they are remembered) is a powerful vehicle to process the changes they will undertake soon.

Update: I’m pleasantly surprised to say my reluctancant student gave me his card yesterday. I am impressed with his insight. This student doesn’t like to receive compliments or focus on his accomplishments and I view this as a huge step forward for him!

The cards are cut for the rest of the project and I anticipate continued growth from my students.