Morning Meetings: Getting Ready

Summer is in full swing, and yet many teachers are already seeking the best ways to meet the students they will get to teach in the coming year. How exciting! May you explore The 5 Needs concepts and perhaps decide to incorporate these materials and ideas into your work. Feel free to reach out to Wendy and brainstorm. In the meantime, her work is being posted here to give you ideas. Your thoughts are welcome!

Class Meetings, some call Morning Meetings.

“Class meetings” can be held at any time of the day. Some teachers and students enjoy mornings to help set up the day. Some prefer noon time, after lunch, or before lunch to pull the group together again. Some prefer towards the end of the day. Any time is good for a class meeting, and what works for your class is best.

The purpose of class meetings is to build a sense of community. We do better when we feel like we are part of a community. We learn better, we communicate better, we often behave better. We do not feel so isolated; we actually feel we matter because we do matter. Each member of the community is important.

As we incorporate The 5 Needs in Life into our classes, through Morning Meetings or Class meetings, and with our academics, we can learn that we are more alike than different. We can understand one another in ways that may otherwise not happen. We can use The 5 Needs to show diversity, demonstrate how to practice acceptance and create a space of understanding without any judgment. We can increase curiosity as we explore each of the needs we share in life and learn how we are alike but different too.

We can build our capacity for empathy and compassion as we explore how others meet their needs in life and what behaviors may indicate that they are struggling with one or more of the basic needs in life. Our behaviors are often connected to our ability to identify and meet our needs in healthy ways. The ways we do and do not meet our needs will have a rippling effect on our lives and the lives of others. Learning to observe and become aware of our needs can bring clarity and understanding in our personal life and the lives of others.

Our perceptions can change.

As we learn to connect behaviors with unmet needs, we can also find solutions to “problem behaviors” that impact our life or those around us. This can explain some behaviors but not excuse behaviors. We want to build hope, solve problems, create safe spaces to talk and explore what is happening beyond what we see. Using The 5 Needs in Life within our communities, homes, and even with ourselves can help us see more clearly, develop and create change.

We can learn how our great- grandparents, grandparents, and parents met their needs. We can see how others in our community, as well as faraway places, meet these basic needs or, perhaps, are unable to meet the needs and struggle with basic needs, like many do, locally and worldwide. We can begin to see and understand what impact this has on people and communities. We might even find ways to help others, locally and in distant places as we broaden our views.

Versatility and Convenience

The materials’ versatility is one of the best things about incorporating The 5 Needs in Life into our world.  We can explore one need a week or take one month for each need; it is our choice. We can begin looking at it from a narrow and wider lens. We can adjust what we teach, how we teach about the needs, and how deep we want to go depending on the developmental ages of those we are working with currently. We want to make this work personal, allowing students to discover how they are each meeting their needs and see if there are ways they may want to change. We can connect general behaviors to each need and help create changes without pointing fingers.

This takes time, but not always separate time

Consistency and persistence will help The 5 Needs in Life come alive and be a meaningful part of our lives and those we encounter too. We can do this in ways that will become natural in the classroom by using The 5 Needs in Life as the foundation or framework for our class meetings; this way, the vocabulary of The 5 Needs will become natural in conversations.

Then, by challenging our students to identify the needs discussed in the academic materials, the needs become a bit more relevant. This can become an easy and fun way to learn about their own and different cultures and understand lessons from history; reading assignments also lend themselves to identifying The 5 Needs in Life. Some classes even watch movies and work on identifying needs through behaviors. Some have used music to discover what songs are actually saying as part of special projects. The 5 Needs can be used in Project Based Learning too. All this will enhance your work with The 5 Needs, and we will discuss how to do this through the materials provided.

YOU CAN HELP

Your experiences and your examples will greatly enhance this work, so please share. Write what works for you and how you use The 5 Needs in Life in your life, family, classroom, or group. If you give permission, your ideas will be shared and may make all the difference to someone else. Thank you in advance for sharing your magic! We will each find different ways to use The 5 Needs in Life concepts and materials, and what works for us is the best way to incorporate this work into our work. We may also learn from others, and we may even inspire others. Let’s keep learning, doing, and sharing.