Student Contributor: M. Vargas
Trash your Troubles provides students the opportunity to express their feelings or worries anonymously. It also provides some insight on problems your students face that you might be able to help with by addressing the whole class.
Trashing your Troubles should be used by students whenever they feel like expressing their feelings. This should never be mandatory for the students as it will take away the value behind the tool. This tool should never feel like a task for the students. It is important for the students to know that these notes can be anonymous as this will make them more comfortable with sharing. Many students won’t feel comfortable writing their name at first but as you build a trusting relationship with your students they will begin to write their name. These notes can also be shared with the school counselor in order to help you handle situations or problems you may feel uncomfortable or unknowledgeable with dealing.
Trash your troubles falls under the supportive phase as it is meant to create a more comfortable environment for the students. This tool also helps you maintain a positive relationship with the students. This tool is very student-directed as it is helping create caring personal relationships and a caring community. It also touches a bit on the collaborative theory of influence as it creates and establishes a respectful relationship between the student and the teacher. This tool is very helpful in strengthening your relationships with your students and it provides an opportunity to see how much progress you have made in gaining the student’s trust.
More Information –
Tool Source: https://bit.ly/2ze7JW4
I really liked this idea to implement in my third grade classroom, my mentor and I talked it over and we both thought that the kids would benefit from getting some feelings off their chest and be able to confide in a trusted adult. Something I really liked was that they didn’t have to put their names on the page unless they wanted to. My students all put their names on it the first time around and we talked about if you wrote in one color, then they would be called to talked about the problem at some point, and in a different color then it would just be read and that my mentor and I would be aware of the situation but not pull them out to discuss it.
3rd Grade
15 students
Suburban
I think this tool is amazing! I will definitely use it in my future classroom. It was really easy to prepare, teach, and use. At first, I was not sure about it, because I thought it might be a distraction, but once I set the rules, there wasn’t any problems. I was not sure how the students would react to this tool either. They not only tried it, but they absolutely love the idea of writing their worries and frustrations on a piece of paper and throwing it away. I truly think it has helped my students moral in the classroom. I think every student, at some point, has used this. I think this tool is great as is. Although, I was talking to some of the students about how maybe we can have a bucket or mail box on the other side of the classroom with a similar idea, but with a positive note. The students would have a chance to write uplifting things about their classmates on cards. Of course, I would proofread it and then we could read it at the end of the day or the end of the week. The only thing is, they wouldn’t know who wrote the compliment or uplifting statement. All in all, I think this went better than expected!