צOver the course of five years, the Tschernihovsky School in Haifa developed a model that was designed to develop the interpersonal communication skills of the students, in addition to the ability to read and interpret body language, to consider the other during the conversation and even to speak in front of an audience. The model will be presented to the Ministry of Education and it is possible that following this, it will be implemented in other schools in Israel.
At the open day, the model was presented to the parents of the students and an experiential experience took place in the classrooms.
Watch a video from the open day:
Doron Weinberg (principal of the Tschernihovsky school):
The school team has been developing the model for 5 years, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education's Experiments Division.
The model is designed to train the children to talk to each other, while observing the other, observing their body language and taking it into account for social action. We also use pantomime and theater in grades 1-2. This way the child learns to consider his friend also by observing and reading his mood. We developed a method of dialogic teaching, in which the teacher functions as a facilitator.
We recently introduced a group game that teaches the children about the emotion of empathy. As part of the game, the children work together to save the residents of a remote village. They solve a remote problem in the group, for a common humanitarian goal.
This model has a positive effect on the classroom atmosphere. As soon as the children respect each other and work together, the model works and is felt in the day-to-day life of the school.
In April 2018, the school staff will be invited to the committee of the Division for Experiments and Educational Initiatives at the Ministry of Education. We packaged our model as a complete product, for evaluation purposes. I hope that following the evaluation, our model will be distributed in more schools in Israel.
Jordana Cohen - 6th grade teacher
There are children who can sit in a classroom for years, without knowing the child sitting next to them. The model opens a window for that child and encourages acquaintance between the children. We practice movement and conversation in class. Sometimes we practice singing and movement with background music. The activity encourages the release of interpersonal tensions and a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom.
