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Sky Class Promises

October 21, 2020 | Sossi Essajanian

Over the past 6 weeks, the children have begun to know each other and the space, learned routines, and shared in laughter. As they shape a classroom culture, some ideas emerged about what this culture should be like and what everyone needs to do for each person to feel happy and safe in the Sky Class.

To begin thinking about this, the class responded to a reading of the book Have you Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, illustrated by David Messing. In the book, people add drops to other peoples’ buckets by doing caring things or using kind words.

This provided a visual for an abstract idea of caring for others and being part of a community. It also helped them make the connection that a person’s actions and words can affect others in different ways.

“Can I help you clean up?”

“Yes.”

“Does that put a drop in the bucket in your heart?”

“Yeah!”

So the children made their own promises to each other by responding to these questions:

What do we need to feel happy and safe in our classroom?

What do we need our friends to do?

What do we need to do for our friends?

“I think [she] is looking for someone to play with at the light table.”

“… are you looking for someone to play with?”

“Yes! You can come play with me.

“Ok!”

(another child watching)

“That’s her promise!”

Sossi Essajanian

Teacher, Sky Class

Sossi Essajanian is excited to continue her teaching and learning journey at the Mustard Seed School. She began teaching at the United Nations International School where she worked with children and colleagues from around the world. This inspired her to take a primary teaching position abroad in Nicosia, Cyprus, where she lived and worked for two years.

Ms. Essajanian has a passion for supporting children’s social/emotional skills and learning through a loving and caring classroom community. These are built on creating shared understandings and opportunities for children to identify and express their feelings and of those around them. She believes in creating experiences through pair and group work where learning blossoms through social experiences.

Ms. Essajanian also enjoys reading and talking about books and continues to pursue her second passion: editing. She’s worked in various editorial capacities in newspapers, magazines, and books. She was recently excited to serve as the development editor of a children’s book about engineering and is looking forward to leading some tinkering investigations of her own with her students!

In her free time Ms. Essajanian runs, swims laps, and likes to take long walks to explore the world around her.