Fish in the classroom

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Permalink Reply by Robert Enck on June 18, 2009 at 11:47am

Hi, What did you use to help with the rollout of the FISH! program? We are considering doing this next year and I was wondering if the manuals that come with the DVD are sufficient for ongoing staff development. Also did the manuals give specific direction for you to feel comfortable with implementing the program properly?

Thanks,

Bob Enck

Permalink Reply by Lyn Rudduck on June 19, 2009 at 7:56am

HI Bob
When introducing Fish at the staff level I simply used the books as my starting point. I summarised the story of Fish and started teaching different parts of Fish at different meetings. The books are full of great ideas of things to try. I did things like follow the hints to find the staff meeting, happy notes for teachers, took staff to a coffee shop for staff meeting etc. I did not have the manuals or DVD however knowing the quality of fish I am sure they would be great resources.

Personally I have since watched the DVD's and was greatly encouraged to be onto such a great thing.

In the classroom and at staff level it gives you common terminology that every can understand. Just yesterday I was able to remind chn of how we started our year with Choose your attitude. The one child who did not have a good attitude at the start of the year was the one I asked about it. He immediately smiled with that knowing smile of oh yeah I remember.I am pleased to say his attitude is now so positive and he has become a wonderful peer mentor to other students.

P.S. I haven't tried for another goldfish yet!

Permalink Reply by Robert Enck on June 19, 2009 at 12:55pm

Hello Lyn,

We are in the process of ordering the materials and we will then meet during the summer to plan out how to introduce the FISH! program. Thank you for your help.

Bob

Permalink Reply by Barb Stoflet on June 19, 2009 at 8:53pm

HI Bob,

I started using FISH for Schools in my sixth grade classroom 2 years ago. My grade level is departmentalizes so I rolled out differently for my homeroom than with the others classes that come to me.

With my homeroom the manuals were great. The kids really enjoyed the activities. As with any curriculum I modified a few things to meet my students’ needs both years. I found that I needed to repeat some of the activities after we had extended breaks (like 2 weeks of winter break) to get the kids back on track.

With the classes that only come to me for 50 minutes a day I used the four main principles, but didn’t have time to do all of the activities and develop mission statements for each separate group. They just adopted what my homeroom had written. I spread some of the four principle activities further out into the school year because they hadn’t written their own mission statements.

I felt very comfortable rolling out with just the manuals and the DVD. I posted the four principles very prominently in my classroom to remind me to use the language so it would become more deeply instilled in my students. With 6th graders it seemed like the philosophy was just plain common sense and they seemed really relieved to have something in place that would make our classroom feel safe. They write a letter to themselves at the beginning of the year stating their hopes, dreams, and fears. More than half of them mentioned having a positive outlook on the year because of Fish in their letters.

Using Fish has probably helped the most when I teach math. Be There has been essential as students share strategies with each other when solving problems. Stressing Play when students are approaching a concept that they have found “hard” in the past has made it possible to rewire some of the negative messages they’ve given themselves. If Play didn’t work I could always fall back on Choose Your Attitude!

As teachers are implementing the philosophy they probably just need to remember that they’re creating an environment, not teaching a concept. Fish swims it’s way into every part of our day. Times that have previously been “trouble spots” for some kids (lunch and recess for kids who haven’t found their niche socially, PE for the unathletic, music for the kids who can’t carry a tune, etc) are made better by the kids who are following the philosophy. It’s been great. I wouldn’t want to go back to teaching without it.

Right now I’m teaching a 6-week summer school course. Even though we’ll only be together for 6 weeks we started our time together with Fish. It’s been amazing to see how quickly they’ve used what we’ve talked about.

As far as ongoing PD – just having teachers share ways they’ve used Fish in their classrooms or Fish stories at a staff meeting would be helpful.

Good Luck
Barb