REBTOZ

Mr Popoffalot of What's Up? News has popped by for another chat about the Have a Go Spaghettio! Success Helper approach to student personal development. Mr P. has interviewed Ms Smithers before, and he is eager to follow up and learn some more. Mr. Popoffalot ‘How are things going Ms. S.?’ asks Mr. P. Ms. S. replies: Well, we’re well into the term and classroom discourse is very Have a Go Spaghettio! rich. All the students have set their personal Success Helper goals for the term, the Have a Go capability they want to work at. E.g., Ahmed has a Red Success Helper goal, Bridget, a Yellow SH goal, etc. They each have identified a habit of thinking which may be Brain Bully stopping them from doing stuff because they might be too scared, worried etc. Mr. P. A great idea. So, they decide what they want to get better at. This gives them agency. Yes indeed. Agency or locus of control, where personal goals are set and work planned to realise them. Locus of control and frustration...

Mr. P. Popoffalot Mr Paxton Popoffalot (Mr. P.) has organised an interview with Have a Go Spaghettio! expert and Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator Ms. K. Smithers. She is using her school planning time to accommodate Mr. P. who is a journalist for the local newspaper, What’s Up? Mr. P: Thanks Ms Smithers. I’ve heard about the Have Go Spaghettio! program you use in your classroom, can you tell us about it. Ms. S: It’s a Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy based program, which teaches children about the thinking – feeling – doing connection. Albert Ellis, creator of REBT said the future of psychotherapy is in the school system, and we are doing it! Ms. K. Smithers Mr. P: Sounds complicated. How is this idea or principle conveyed to your young learners? Ms S: The key is to make the complex simple and fun. These young constructivists are the architects of their trajectories in life. They can have agency in their deliberations, learn to manage frustration and develop what Albe...

Angus’ experience to date had taught him that he was inherently stupid and along with other associated self-generated conditions he decided he was in essence a no hoper. How did he ‘know’ this? Because the information he received from others and the meanings he made of  it, led him to conclude he was a hopeless case. Therefore, he anticipated failure and rejection. And he expected that the world would ‘be’ unfair and if anything good came his way, it was an accident, fate. He had constructed a predominantly Brain Bully sense of who he was, an irrational assessment of his nature, his capabilities; he had a bad self, and he deserved failure and the derision of others. His anger, depression and anxiety were attached to a belief construction that was informed by messages received which he deemed were true and correct. His significant adult mentors and others informed his belief constructions and his take on reality was set, and it was not a very healthy one. Angus didn’t get some ...

Ms Smithers is a Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator. She teaches to the Have a Go Spaghettio! pedagogy based on Albert Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. She teaches her junior primary students that they are constructivists, they make or build the beliefs that inform how they perceive events in their lives. Epictetus said: "It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance."  This in turn connects to the persons behavioural and emotional responses to those events i.e., thinking, feeling and behaving are all connected. Ms Smithers knows that if her students understand this, they can learn to regulate how they feel and behave by monitoring how they think about themselves, others and life in general. "As we think so are we." Suzy is one of her students and she believes she can do stuff, and through persistence she can achieve her goals and if she doesn’t, she strives to work out how to solve problems. She doesn’t believe in fai...

Let me introduce you to Mr. Chin. He is married to Mrs. Chin. They live in a lovely cottage in a little village called ChiniChinChin. They are the Chins from ChiniChinChin! But they have a problem. When jobs get tricky, Mr. Chin gives in!           Mr. Chin would start jobs around the cottage, and he would get tired and not finish them.   He would say ‘I give up’ and he would have a rest and fall asleep in his favourite chair. Snooze, snooze, snore, and snooze! He dug half a hole in the garden and built half a shed. He mowed half the lawn. He washed half the dog. And shaved half of his beard! He did look funny! Mrs. Chin said, ‘Have you finished your jobs Mr. Chin?’ But Mr. Chin was fast asleep. Guess where he was? Yes, he was sleeping in his favourite chair . He was snooze, snooze, snoozing in his favourite chair, again!! Snooze, snooze, snore, and snooze! Mr. Chin went to the doctor and said, ‘I give in when I have t...

  Ms Smithers is determined to teach her young constructivist learners that habits of thinking can be healthy and helpful or unhealthy and unhelpful. She want’s to focus on the D part of the ABC DE of REBT counselling paradigm that she is learning about. This is the part where we ask the question How do you know? And what have you left out? What do we mean when we say, ‘My friend is mean!’ How do you know? And what have you missed out. Ms Smithers has compiled a list of expressions, utterances made by children in her class. Here are some: He’s dumb! I can’t do this! No one likes me. These are discussed and referred to often as Ms Smithers wants to promote a discourse that points to examining what we mean, explaining how we justify our meanings and exploring how what’s left out can challenge what we mean and form new and more accurate meanings. That’s the Have a Go Spaghettio! Way! Ms Smithers says, “When children present with behaviours and emotions that suggest t...

This is the script of the video. Ms Smithers is a Have a Go Spaghettio – ist! She is well versed in the basic principles of REBT and GS theories. She knows the language of feedback can be helpful, meaning she is making sure it is effort focussed and never person specific. She tells her students that making a mistake does not make us a mistake. She refers to the Have a Go Spaghettio! visual at the start of each day and sings the Have a Go song with the children. They anticipate having a successful day, and they will work through the inevitable challenges that crop up now and then. Ms Smithers greets her children as they arrive at school. She has done her homework, and her goal is to apply Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and General Semantics principles in daily teaching practice. Another principle uppermost in her mind is to promote classroom discourse based on questioning, enquiry, problem solving and self – monitoring; referring to the classroom Emotional Thermometer and the Ca...