Curious Sheila’s Characteristics after Learning with Torey Hayden

40 rules. First, the children could not hurt anybody there. Second, the children should always try to do the best job. “Come over here.“ I tugged her to the table and set her down in a chair opposite me. “You and I have something to get straight.” ... “There aren’t a lot of rules in this room. There are just two rules, unless we need to make special rules for special times. But generally there are just two. One is that you can’t hurt anybody in here. Not anybody else. And not yourself. The second is that you always try to do your best job” pp. 26-27. Sheila had a freedom for herself, but she should be cooperative with the class. Torey put a big trust to Sheila. Torey gave a responsive act. She taught about how to be responsible about something.

2. Giving Specific Feedback Rather than General Comments

Every Wednesday, the class made something to eat. They had variety recipe. On that afternoon, they made chocolate bananas with topping and frozen. Most of the students could manage themselves. Sheila wanted to join the cooking time. She took the banana and gripped it tightly. She began to make the chocolate banana and added with toppings she liked. Sheila hesitated to join in, clutching her banana tightly and watching from the sideline as the others babbled gaily ... Once Sheila started, she became fully absorbed and began trying to roll all four different toppings onto her sticky banana pp. 72-73. At the end of the cooking day, the children were standing in line waiting for the buses. They sang “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands” after Torey suggested to sing a song. The buses still had not arrived when they 41 had finished all the actions of the song. Tyler said to jump up and down after Torey suggested for new actions. When we had finished all the actions, the buses still had not arrived so I asked for suggestions for new actions. Tyler said, “If you’re happy and you know it, jump up and down.” So we sang a verse using Tyler’s action p. 96. The students felt happy when they sang the song with some actions. Yet, Sheila did not join to sing the song of “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands”, she just stood on the edge of the group. Torey asked for new actions again to kill the silence. It was the first time Sheila spoke up and gave her idea. All of the children and also Torey were surprised about it. They began to song with the action from Sheila’s idea. ... Again I asked for new actions. From her corner Sheila shyly raised her hand ... To see this little kid─who thus far had never spoken to other children, who came in with a history of uncooperativeness─standing there with her hand up was a heart stopper. “Sheila, do you have an idea?” “Turn around?” she said diffidently. And we sang our song turning around p. 96.

3. Modelling Attitudes, Ways of Approaching Problems, and Behaviour

The class was began with opening, morning discussion, and ended with closing session as usual. The students were asked to write notes or compliment for their friends at the end of the day. They put the notes in a box. They called it as Kobold’s Box. The notes were read by volunteer in front of the class. Sheila protested about her notes because Tyler got more notes than her. Torey explained about the reason why. It was about politeness.