The Big Fresh November 26, 2016 Secret Handshake

You have to trust someone before you can have rituals with them.

                                                                             Rachel Klein

I am observing in Gigi McAllister’s fourth-grade classroom early in the year. Hannah and Cara are special guests for morning meeting – girls from a fifth-grade class who have come to teach Gigi’s students the secret handshake.

Gigi describes how a few students in last year’s class developed the handshake on their own and taught it to everyone in the class. The handshake was something kids did daily at random times. It is a quick but elaborate mix of fist bumps, high-fives, low-fives, and jellyfishes.

Gigi explains,“This handshake is only for students who have been in this class. Just think – someday when you are in sixth grade and you meet up with one of my students, you can share the handshake. Heck, in 40 years you might run into someone in Walmart who was my student too, and you can know for sure when you do the handshake.”

There is much laughter and concentration as students move through the meeting area, testing and perfecting the handshake among themselves. The energy and sense of fun is potent. The scene makes me think of what rituals any classroom has, and how few might be unique to that classroom. Yet those are what you’ll remember in 40 years when you are in the local grocery store reminiscing about a favorite teacher or class.

Teachers are famous for borrowing freely (and sharing generously) their best new ideas. Every class includes so many routines learned from others. There is not much that is uniquely ours. Yet those quirky rituals are what are remembered most fondly, not the routines students experience year after year.  What’s the “secret handshake” in your room? What will students be carrying away that they remember as uniquely yours 40 years from now?

This week we look at how to foster book love in classrooms. Plus more as always — enjoy!

Free for All

That’s all for this week!