This article is based on the experience of Mélina Touil, French teacher. She is the author of this experience-sharing article. Mélina has been teaching for 24 years in classes ranging from preschool to 5th grade. She currently works in Mériel, a small town in the Val d'Oise. Mélina organizes also meditation sessions with students aged from 4 to 6, during time slots set aside for complementary educational activities (APC).
As a teacher, I'm delighted that a platform like Gan Jing World exists, because young generations tend to see their “environment” as a model for themselves. They imitate adults, they absorb our words and reproduce our actions. If we offer them a clean and respectful environment, they will tend to behave in an upright and respectful manner. Digital technologies play an important role in the lives of our young people, so let's avoid exposing them to violent or perverse content. In short, our young generations are nurtured with what we provide to them, so let's be careful what we offer them.
Gan Jing World, a useful classroom aid
As a kindergarten teacher with students aged 3 to 4, I use digital technology, but I don't suggest that my students use it. They're still very young to be exposed to screens, but I do use them occasionally to illustrate our talks and above all to show them animation of the story we've been working on. I'm also happy to do a search on Gan Jing World with them, as no inappropriate images appear before their eyes during my search, and when I do a search, we don't have the mandatory few seconds of advertising before I get the video I'm looking for. When I, for example, search for “The Lotus Fairy Tale”, there is no risk of distraction and my students are immediately connected to the story.
Classroom management with “The Lotus Fairy Tale"
I've been working on “The Lotus Fairy Tale” for two years now. It's full of great values, it uses images to illustrate how we should behave in life, and it helps us understand that we have the choice to elevate ourselves by rejecting what's not right among what's offered to us. Students need a safe environment in which to flourish, and this story is a godsend. We work on the rules of life through the hardships this little seed goes through to become a beautiful flower. I have simplified the definition of the three worlds offered by the lotus to match the age of my students.
- The world of Evil: it’s the underwater crocodile's world that is made up of violence
- The world of Dishonesty: it’s the world of the warty toad that is all about lies.
- The world of Laziness: it’s the worm's behavior that boils down to a refusal to make an effort: refusing to work, refusing to get dressed on one's own, and so on.
To help students grasp the sense of this very vocabulary-rich tale, in which some sentences can appear complex, I first worked on the vocabulary using photos (lotus lake, underwater crocodile, warty toad, earthworm, unhealthy world, etc.) Then I read the story bit by bit, analyzing it, and we took the time to explain it and match the photos (seen earlier) to the illustrations in the story. Next, we did a painting, a mural, of this lake, from the depths of darkness to the water's exit into this magical world of magnificence where all these beautiful lotus flowers live. Lastly, I told them that they too were little seeds, that they were represented by their photo and that I would place them all in the world of the beautiful lotus flowers, but depending on their behavior, they could fall into the world of Laziness (the worm), Dishonesty (the toad) or at the lowest level, Evil (the crocodile) as soon as they did something inappropriate or violent.
Children understand the values conveyed by the tale
Of course, the students all want to stay in the lotus world, they don't like falling and if they fall, they try to improve afterwards in order to go back up. They constantly comment on the mural, telling each other why the other has fallen. They play this game beautifully, commenting to each other on what's right or wrong and why. For me, this is the best way to teach the rules of life in society in a playful and responsible way. I'm convinced that the visual representation of the magic lake gives meaning to the values conveyed by this tale. The image carries meaning for them, it's very concrete, and the story made them feel a lot of emotions.
Teaching children to be guided by Truth, Compassion and Tolerance
Talking about three treasures to evoke truth, compassion and tolerance, fearing the characters of the three worlds in the lake, admiring the lotus flowers emerging from the lake, is essential to their understanding. They realize, for example, that if they retaliate, they fall into the Evil World, they are like the person who attacked them, although some parents agree that they should retaliate, which leads to an outburst of violence. All we have to do is work together to find ways of getting away from an unpleasant or violent character, and explain why. In this way, they learn to talk to each other: “Why did you do that, it hurts me, it upsets me, etc."
In addition, I typed up the story and pasted it into their notebook, which is the link between school and home where we communicate about what we're doing in class. At the end of the typescript, I gave them the link and details of the story on Gan Jing World, so they could review it with their families.
To conclude, studying this story and putting it into pictures with their photos has helped my students become more aware of their actions, even if it's harder for some than others, because at this age impulsivity can get the better of us, nevertheless everyone improves.
Many thanks to Mélina for her precious contribution to Enseigner la gentillesse.
