Open Windows, Platform, and Open Doors
Allowing for Diversity to Bloom
One of the reasons to use The 5 Needs in Life materials, mindset, and concepts in your classroom setting, is because you can do two things for the students quickly, without added pressure for you.
First, as you introduce the needs, you are opening a window. Next, you are providing a platform for students to use to speak about things that may go unsaid. A platform is a space, a specific place to be heard from in a different and helpful way. A window of opportunity to explore something that may not be new, but the open window allows light to come in, and we can see things differently and from a new perspective. You can also provide an open door to services through the school social worker, counselor, or administration if needed. Teachers have so much power!
But when…
Using The 5 Needs in Morning Meetings (or anytime meetings), you will open a window, allowing students to explore their needs and understand that what they need is “normal.” By talking about each need, one by one, and providing a week or even a month to develop the need entirely, you will show that we are more alike than different. Diversity will become easy to incorporate and be a natural part of the discussion instead of a separate, stand-alone topic “we must include” in our lessons.
Another reason why…Diversity awareness easily flows.
We all have the same basic needs, each generation, and all cultures. As we explore how we get the need to stay alive (or survive) met, we can include cultures, how they survive, and what they do to stay alive. Our classrooms are often filled with students who bring much diversity and history with them, so it is easy to create “diversity awareness” with The 5 Needs as a platform. How beautiful for each student to have a place to be heard, to share a little of their history, their story, their family’s way of staying alive, or show love and how they belong to their culture. The same is true of freedom, boundaries, and the need for power and fun. There are so many options and opportunities using The 5 Needs as a guide can provide by opening windows and providing a platform. Yes, we all share the same needs; however, each student’s experiences in how their family meets their needs will differ. Often cultural differences in these areas are ignored, not purposefully, but because they are not a part of the day’s routine. We can change this.
Incorporating The 5 Needs can provide time and space to explore many things, step by step, in brief, little sections of time that can add up. Opening a window and providing space and a platform to introduce The 5 Needs is enormous! If more is needed for a student, remember you do not need to do it all. There are others (social workers, counselors, and administration to find what else is required) who can provide what is needed next. Your ability to identify the students who have difficulties or struggle to meet any one, or more, of their needs can change a life and get family resources that perhaps no one knew they needed until you began talking about these basic needs. You can help students who feel so different due to their cultural backgrounds see they are welcome. Their needs count. You hear and see them in a different kind of way. Now, others in the class community can also embrace their differences.
Students can feel more “a part” (a sense of belonging, instead of being different and an outsider) of the class community in a unique way, with just a little extra time during a morning meeting to talk about one need at a time. Also, I imagine the little ones and other students, who may be quiet or may be loud students (of any age) that will hear you, not say much, but later open up to you in a way they could not before you started using The 5 Needs, not because they did not want to, but now, they feel they have “permission” to bring up some difficulty in their life. How precious!
How? A Guide and Framework
Using The 5 Needs as a guide and framework, you can open windows to shed light on the world of students who may feel unheard and unseen. What a gift! What an easy opportunity to explore the world students bring with them to learn about different ways of being while also focusing on one need at a time. If you choose to use The 5 Needs in morning meetings, small groups, journal prompts, or any other way, you will be doing your students a favor and opening a window that may otherwise have gone unopened.
Teachers are such gifts to their students. They care deeply. The impact they have last a lifetime. My hope is that incorporating The 5 Needs into daily activities will inspire teachers, help students, and open windows and doors that may otherwise be missed or locked. Please reach out if I can help, provide training, offer materials, or support your work. You may email me at: the5needsinlife@gmail.com
You are a gift!
Thank you for ALL you do; thank you for using your gifts, developing skills, stretching yourself, learning, and remaining open. Thank you for taking care of yourself too. Please explore your life and see how you meet each of your needs. I do this personally from time to time, and it can help. We are all human, and we do share these needs. Our behaviors and thoughts can reflect how we, too, are meeting each of our needs. Take time for you to explore and see how you are doing too.
Please note:
All of our blogs are intended for educational purposes only. These are not intended as “advice” or any form of therapeutic intervention. Please contact your doctor or local mental health office for help with individual problems or concerns. You may also call 988 to speak with a person. Seeking help through Psychology Today can be helpful too.
You matter. Help and hope are there for you.
