Bill Preston's Class

Two Grade 7 classes at Georgia Avenue Community School have recently completed the "Be A Secret Hidden Hero In Your Own Family" exercise, part of our Hidden Heroes WebQuest.

For at least two weeks students were asked to CONSISTENTLY do at least one small positive thing around their home each day, something they don't normally do, and then observe any changes in themselves and others in the family. The "secret" is that they are not to tell anyone in the family what they are doing.

Here are some of the lessons learned by the first students to complete the project.

Miranda Satermo decided that she was going to improve her attitude and be more respectful to others in the family and she discovered that everyone became nicer to her when her attitude improved. She also noticed that other members of the family were more willing to do things for her.

The cost of this change in behavior, she says, was that she wasn't able to see her friends as much as she would have liked. The benefit was seeing her parents become happier.

Her final conclusion was, "When someone changes their behavior for the better it has a BIG impact on others and it will change you too."

Kayla Cutmore's commitment was to, "... try not to be so mouthy and when I feel myself getting worked up over something, I will try to calm myself down."

After two weeks Kayla wrote, "My parents' and my brother's attitudes changed around me and I got to go more places and do more things. I liked the attitude I had for the past few weeks. To tell the truth I kind of liked the attention and responsibility. I also noticed that people relied on me more than they did before."

Brinda Meas' commitment was to do more homework than usual and to be more talkative at home.

She summed up her experience by writing, "When it was my turn to clean the house, I did it without being asked and I felt like a whole different person. My family's behavior changed toward me too. They respected me and I respected them back. Everyone is different now but still cool."

Sharon Dial says she ended up doing a lot more things than she had expected to do.

She concluded, "My hypothesis was confirmed. Everything was perfect! I learned that it's actually pretty cool to do positive things for others. You earn their trust and their respect. Every time you do something, you feel better even though some times it doesn't seem to make a HUGE difference. But then when you look back and think about it, even the little things might have been worth it and it feels REAL good after."

CJ Reilly's commitment was to do more things around the house.

In his conclusion he wrote, "My parents didn't really change much except they were more spry and happy. I also noticed that when I do nice things, people respect me more and I become happier."

Alisha Callow decided to stop "calling her brother down" and to do her chores without being asked.

In her conclusion she wrote, "I felt like I was a new person. The house was much more clean and when I cleaned my room, my cat came in more often. And yes, my brother and sister's behavior changed too. Since doing this exercise, my family and I fight less, we have more respect for each other and my cat loves my clean room. Every time I go to sleep, he is there.

For more information about the Hidden Heroes WebQuest call Bill Robinson at 741-7499.