Benefits of Being Outwardly Focus




Benefits of Being Outwardly Focused


Service-Learning can improve character values and responsible 
behavior. 

Service-Learning can improve academic outcomes for students. 
Service-Learning can promote a sense of connectedness to the 
school and the community. 

A sense of connectedness includes:
• Feeling valued by community members
• Feeling responsible for the welfare of the community
• Having pride in one’s community
• A high tendency to take action for the benefit of the community 
(Yamauchi, Billig, Meyer, & Hofschire, 2006)

Service-Learning can promote social-emotional skills. 

Researchers have found that there is a statistically significant impact of 
service-learning programs on multiple outcomes (Deakin Crick et al., 2005; 
Irby et al., 2001; Lerner et al., 2008; Michelsen et al., 2002) including:

• Improved social skills
• Lower levels of problem and delinquent behavior
• Better cooperation skills in the classroom
• Improved psychological well‑being, and a better ability to set goals
and adjust behavior to reach these goals




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What is the "cattiness" level in an all girls classroom?

A classroom of all girls? Anyone who has daughters or is a teacher has experienced "girl cattiness."

Girl cattiness = A lot of "me me me" and at the same time "it's not fair," and "everything must be the same" yet they know that there are differences, "she looked at me mean", "she talked to me in a mean way" ....

The sweetest girls can sometimes get caught saying the nastiest and sassiest things to each other when so and so is not their best friend any more!

So I get asked often doesn't the all-girl environment just ask for a elevated "cattiness" all day long?

At first I was not so sure what would happen because as a teacher I had my fair share of this cattiness amongst my female students in coed classroom. This was my first time teaching in a single gender classroom and was not completely sure how it would be with "girls only."

What I have experienced with my all-girl multiage class is wonderful! The key is the multiage... the girls are balanced out in the different stages/phases they are in. For example, a group of 10 second grade girls in the same classroom all aged 7-8 are all basically in the same stages - what aggravates or frustrates one second grader socially - frustrates the others. The result - Cat Fights!

In our multiage classroom, the ages and stages are dispersed from age 5 - 12. The result, a peaceful, calm harmonious group of girls. With most of the any minor issues occuring amongst girls in the same grade level. Interesting! The younger and older girls all help and support each other and that keeps good manners in check and bad manners out.

We have Friendship Circle twice a week where we talk about conflict resolution (how to productively resolve problems and conflicts with others) and have lessons on topics such as "manners" and " how to share" and basic social skills. Learning how to get along with others and to solve problems is just as important to learning how to read and to do math. That is why I incorporate these lessons into the Huakailani program. Social skills and socialization is so much more important to girls than boys. Girls need to talk and share their feelings. Our environment supports that need.

They all still get along great 95% of the time and you won't find that in any other classroom setting so I am fortunate for that. Lucky me! Each student although different in shape and size fits perfectly into the Huakailani Girl puzzle.

On the other side of the coin - some of you may say "Well - that's not the real world" but there is plenty of time for them to learn to deal with "the real world" later on. Kids have to grow up way too fast these days. This is elementary school and we should support our kids to be kids.

My job is to give them the skills they will need to be able to cope with and to deal with the issues and conflicts that life may present as they grow up. We do just that.