Ms. Han Vocabulary

You may have heard your child use words or phrases about life in school that are unfamiliar and even strange to you.  In my classroom work with students, we develop a working social/emotional vocabulary of words and phrases students  use to describe feelings, people, situations, experiences, and interactions we are likely to experience as we learn about navigating our school life. Since you may be confused by those terms if your student uses them in describing their day and it might be difficult for them to accurately convey these meanings to you, I thought a glossary of “Ms. Han-isms” might be in order.  I have either made up these words and phrases or borrowed them from story books and materials I use in the classrooms.   Your children should be able to explain these terms to you but perhaps a translation will help you engage in conversation with your children should these terms come up.   Hope this helps!  J  Ms. Han

• Bumpshrinkers – Based on the book Lumps and Bumps by Denton L. Roberts that I use with the lower grade students. The book tells a story about being round and rolling through life until something happens that makes us lumpy and bumpy which makes it difficult to roll along. But, around us are any number of “bumpshrinkers,” people who can help us solve problems in order to become round again.  This book leads us to a lesson on identifying the “bumpshrinkers” around us, including fellow students, and using them to address, and hopefully solve, the problem.

• Block Stack – The block stack is a metaphorical symbol of the inner life we all have and represents our overall level of wellness and balance. Using old-fashioned wooden blocks, I demonstrate for students how their block stacks change from day to day and even within each day, becoming larger and smaller depending upon what might be happening to us at the time.  Having a firm foundation to our block stacks is vital and is usually comprised of strong family, friend, and faith connections.  Students create their own block stacks with Legos and we often refer to them during conversations regarding conflict in school.  That can be a very powerful, non-verbal way for Student A to show Student B the impact of his/her words or behavior on Student A.  Our goal is to live our school lives in such a way that we only raise or maintain another’s block stack, never lower it.

• Fishbowl – Each classroom in grades two through five has a “fishbowl,” a plastic jar with paper “fish” attached that serves as a message center for students in between my monthly classroom visits. During my class time with them, the “fish” are read to the class and then, as a class, we do one of two things.  If the “fish” is a good news one, we celebrate, congratulate, and say, “Everything is going swimmingly!”  J  If the “fish” mentions a problem, we engage in some brainstorming and class problem solving and say  “We’re going fishing for solutions!”  J  Silly, lame jokes go a long way toward setting the stage for some good classroom interaction.  LOL!

• Friendship Dating – I introduce this term to the fourth graders during our lessons about the fluid, changing nature of friendships, a difficult concept for students to grasp. They typically cringe when I use it because to fourth graders, the idea of any kind of dating is unthinkable!  It perfectly captures, though, the friend process that starts to surface around that time – students begin to experiment more with different types of friends and branch out to create new friendships, a process that helps hone their “picker outer” skills.  Difficulties arise when one friend feels left out or left behind by another who is doing some friend expansion.  Understanding that “friendship dating” is a normal, natural process can sometimes ease the sting.

• Friendship Pyramid – Used as the basis for our fourth grade lessons, “The Treasure of Frienship.” It’s an ancient plastic paperweight shaped like a pyramid with beads inside.  We use the beads inside the pyramid as a metaphor for our friendship life:  we’re stuck in school like the beads in the pyramid; the beads move around like our friendships do;  and narrower areas of the pyramid hold fewer beads, representing different levels of friendship including, acquaintances, social friends, and best friends.  Sometimes the simple phrase, “Your beads are moving around the pyramid” is enough for a student to understand that current friendship upset is simply a matter of shifting friendships and is very typical and normal.

• Peer Helpers – A team of ten sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who work closely with me to serve as student mentors and promote a positive school environment. To be on our team, students must be nominated by their classmates and approved by their teachers.  They welcome new students, run our Random Acts of Knightness program, check in on students who could use some support, serve as tour guides at open house, and assist in many behind the scenes ways.

• Peer Mediation – One option for conflict resolution among students. Conflict is bound to occur when there are almost 500 people in the building!  Student conflict not only gets in the way of friendships, of course, but also interrupts learning.  The Peer Helpers are trained to serve as mediators in a session, usually about 15 minutes or so, where two students in conflict meet with two Peer Helpers to iron out an agreement for peaceful coexistence, under my indirect supervision.

• Playdoh Brain – Another metaphor for our inner life but more mental than emotional. Students are introduced to the “Playdoh brain” in kindergarten and it’s a term we use throughout the grades.  A wad of Playdoh shaped like a brain serves as an illustration for how things that upset us interfere with our ability to think well.  Not a good thing in school!  The more upset we are, the more “brain” comes off.  It’s a simplistic way to explain the human stress response in a concrete way that students can easily understand.  It also encourages students to work toward putting “Playdoh brain” back by taking appropriate steps, possibly with the help of a “bumpshrinker,” to address the underlying problem.  Often, the underlying problem is something outside the control of the student, but the exercise of attempting to address it is empowering and in itself can restore some “Playdoh brain.”

While some of these terms may seem funny and silly, students can relate and comprehend them.  Understanding our inner life goes a long way toward improving our outer life.  Also understanding that we are not helpless in creating and maintaining our inner life is a life-long skill we want our students to acquire.