Gossip can take over a classroom life a wildfire. It doesn’t care what community you have built up or the team building you have done. Gossip will tear it all apart.
Glitter, I hear the word and I start quaking in my boots Toms. Glitter is one of those things that was clearly invented by someone that just doesn’t care about other’s feelings. It is messy, annoying, and downright disturbing when used in the wrong ways.
Gossip is Like Glitter
Last month when our guidance counselor pulled out a bottle of it in our classroom I nearly fainted, no exaggeration necessary. I took a few cleansing breaths and clamped my mouth shut so that I wouldn’t scream out, “NNNOOOOOOOO!!!!”
She began her lesson, and it was pure genius. There is no way around it, it truly was genius with the glitter and all.
The lesson itself was all about rumors and gossip, and how when you spread them around, you can’t ever get them back. Each table group was given a tiny pinch of glitter in one student’s hands. Their job was to pass the glitter, every last speck of it, around the table in one minute. The rules were simple. only that you had to keep the glitter in your hands.
The words EPIC FAIL have never been more true. Of course, there was glitter everywhere! Not only were students not able to get it off of their hands, but in the process of trying they got it on their desks, their clothes, in their hair, on the floor, and pretty much everywhere else imaginable.
The Gossip Lesson
Then came the lesson portion. Our counselor asked the students to look around at all the glitter and talked about how the glitter is like a rumor, and once you begin to spread it you can never really get it back.
Have truer words every been spoken than, “Gossip is like glitter?”
My students moved on with their day, glitter still everywhere, but somehow I didn’t mind it too much. Who am I kidding? I most certainly did mind it, but I broke out the lint roller and all was well with the world!
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