Written by: Jennifer Appel When I was writing my book, Inspiring JOY, I really wanted to make sure that everything in the book was “practical” for teachers. We are under a tremendous amount of pressure to follow the curriculum, meet all of the standards, pass the test, teach kids SEL/Character, all while making sure their basic needs are met. This can be completely overwhelming, so I didn’t want to add one more thing for teachers to do. That is why I came up with the LESSICONS format to help all of us teach our core content and still be able to incorporate SEL/Character into our everyday classrooms. LESSICONS help teachers to focus on the whole learner and not just academics. If lesson plans focus only on academics it is like a coach who only teaches her players to dunk a basketball. They might be missing key skills like dazzling dribbling, pinpoint passing, sharp shooting, or gritty rebounding. Let’s not forget endurance, sportsmanship, or leadership. It also assumes that everyone is capable of dunking without modifications like a smaller ball, lower rim, or trampoline to jump higher. Perhaps, they’re not even showing up to the gym with proper equipment like an adequate pair of shoes or a deflated ball. How good would our team actually be if everyone only knew how to dunk? Furthermore, some athletes don’t even want to play basketball at all--they’d opt out in favor of volleyball, football, or tennis. LESSICONS is a system for focusing on what matters--it’s a template for achieving pedagogical joy. ABOUT THE AuthorJennifer Appel is an educator, coach, speaker, and writer. She’s the Co-host of the Award Winning Culture podcast and the Co-Creator of Award Winning Culture. In addition to being the author of: Inspiring JOY: A Revolutionary Lesson Planning Framework for Teaching the Whole Learner she’s the author of a line of picture books focusing on social emotional learning and character education which includes, Award Winning Dog and I’m WHO. Furthermore, Jennifer has been a contributor on two books: Teacher’s Deserve It and Expedition Science.
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About AWCAward Winning Culture was created by Hans and Jennifer Appel with the sole purpose of creating an educational mindset of Positive INTENTIONALITY and ACTION; with a daily mantra to make our sphere of influence stronger through Character, Excellence, and Community. Part of AWC's mission is to highlight outstanding educators, companies, and resources that support an Award Winning Culture. Both Jennifer and Hans work at Enterprise Middle School aka Wildcat Nation. Wildcat Nation received the 2018 ASCD Whole Child Award in Washington, for its award winning culture and the 2018 Global "Class Act Award" for Kindness. Archives
August 2021
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