#197_What I Learned at the Moral Education Study Group

I have been holding a moral education study group once a month for the past two years.

I started this study group on my own because I wanted to sit down and learn thoroughly and share my output, so it is a group I run by myself as I please.
However, there are people who agree with the purpose of such a selfish group, and it has continued about eight times a year.
This is the 17th session.
It is a small group, with about 10 people at most.

Today, being the middle of a three-day weekend, there were only two of us.
One-on-one.

The session started with the lowest number of participants ever, but the other teacher was a veteran, a special needs homeroom teacher, and was in charge of some quite challenging students.

The cooperative classes are 3rd and 4th grade.
The 3rd-grade teacher is a first-year teacher, and it seems they are worried about the state of the classroom, so at first, it was just a time for me to listen to that teacher's story.
If they have things they want to talk about, nothing else will sink in, so I just listened.

Once the story was finished, the teacher asked for advice, saying, 'What should I do...', so we proceeded with the conversation through dialogue.

Since I am currently writing a book on classroom management, I am organizing the mindset and techniques for nurturing children from both the axes of special needs and student guidance/learning instruction, so I started from there.

Next, we talked about creating moral education lessons that include special needs children.
Since the teacher felt difficulties with student guidance, I shared the lesson practice of 'fluffy words' and 'prickly words'.

One more thing.
The teacher brought a textbook, so we found some good teaching materials from it and created a lesson on the spot.

The essentials of creating a moral education lesson are:
1. Organizing what to learn through this material
2. Carefully examining how to ask questions so that children can approach the intended moral values
These are the two pillars.

It might be self-praise, but the content I proposed in the July issue of Moral Education this year is truly useful.
https://www.meijitosho.co.jp/edudb/contents.asp?code=07793
I am grateful for the opportunity to summarize it.

The lesson plan was completed in exactly 20 minutes.
The teacher was surprised, though.
Honestly, I think moral education lessons are more interesting in elementary school, so
I was genuinely envious of that teacher who can practice them in elementary school.

On the other hand, I felt that there might be things I can do precisely because I have experience in both elementary and junior high schools.

This week, a first-year teacher had their first moral education lesson, and it felt like that lesson went reasonably well, so I am feeling confident in that sense as well.

Lesson techniques that allow for a certain degree of deep learning, whether for young teachers or veteran teachers.
I want to organize and verbalize this a bit more within myself.
So that children will love to think more and more.
So that children will find it more and more fun to live together with others.