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...

  Headwork Ahead is a sign that Ms. Smithers has standing in her classroom. It’s a visual reminder that monitoring how we feel, behave and how we think about what’s happening around us is an ongoing matter of mindful mind maintenance that can become an automatic, intuitive practice. Nevertheless, we need to be vigilant because Brain Busting Brain Bully is an opportunist and lurks around every corner! Have a Go Spaghettio! is a constructivist-based teaching and counselling pedagogy. It’s based on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and General Semantics theories. Each posit that how we see ourselves, others and the world is a construction, a mind made virtual reality that can either be far removed from how the world is or is pretty well aligned with it. General Semantics introduces the notion that the ‘map is not the territory’ meaning that our constructed ideas about how things work are just that, a simulated internally fabricated model, the map that we believe represents the ...

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...

  The third in the ABC of REBT series, this video applies the ABC of REBT theory considered in the first 2 videos, to text analysis. In effect the ABC can be used as a critical literacy tool and in this instance we look at the situation Franklin the turtle is called to deal with. The ABC theory lends itself well to teaching children that strength of emotion in response to an unwanted happening is connected to how the situation is viewed, perceived. Ms Smithers is across the theory and is doing well in applying it in practice to reinforce the ABC of REBT ideas through the Have a Go Spaghettio! framework. Ms Smithers is a Rational Emotive Behaviour Educator, a Have a Go Spaghettio! – ist, and she is firing on all eight cylinders! We’re back at school; Ms Smithers welcome’s her children and beckons them inside. She’s planned a lesson that will illustrate how a book character deals with a serious and traumatic happening. Ms Smithers is aware that her students sometimes feel very ag...