PBIS: Involvement

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 1.01: Involvement at Home

 

Forced family fun time, anyone? (Source)

Let's talk about our favorite wisecracking meerkat from The Lion King: Timon. We love him. He's hilarious. He's adorkable.

And we don't want to ruin a perfectly good (and kind of tragic) children's movie to make a point about meerkats, but... where is Timon's family?

Seriously. Meerkats are social. They live in colonies. In these colonies, everyone has their assignments: some babysit, some search for food, and others look out for predators (Source). So why is Timon hanging out with a warthog and a lion cub?

Let's examine Timon real quick. He's a little selfish, isn't he? He's also kind of lazy, hypocritical, and overly proud. Doesn't sound like a good addition to a meerkat colony. We're just speculating here, but maybe his meerkat colony didn't like his complete lack of involvement. Maybe Timon didn't like being involved in a meerkat colony and left.

Who knows? (And, more importantly, who's willing to write the fanfiction?)

Still, towards the end of the movie, Timon gets way more involved in his adopted family and everything works out. He dances the hula, for crying out loud. Now that's involvement (and good character development).

We humans may not have to worry about hungry hawks, but as members of a household, we all have a job to do. If everyone doesn't pitch in, things can get a little crazy. Sally doesn't make her bed, so Susie decides not to clean her room, and then Brent stops doing laundry. Next thing you know, Dad will quit making dinner just to prove a point and you'll all be hungry and dirty.

Crazy family dynamics aside, meerkats (and Timon in particular) may just have something to teach us about being involved at home. Plus, they're really cute.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 1.1.01: Involvement at Home

Before you ever stepped foot in a classroom or sized up potential teammates for your ultimate frisbee team, you were a member of a household. In fact, you still are.

And, as much as you despise your family's chore chart—dishes again!—learning to be involved and willing to collaborate will really come in handy once you graduate and are dropped into the big, scary real world. We know, we know. You've heard this all before.

But it's totally and utterly true: unless you're planning on living in a cave, you're going to be part of a community. And that means one thing: involvement.

Around the House

Try taking care of all your responsibilities at home without being involved. It's a little hard. We imagine you'd have to pull a Tom Sawyer and convince one of your friends to do your chores. (That Tom sure was an enterprising fellow.)

But let's assume you're not about manipulating your friends. That means you have chores to do. Maybe your responsibilities are taking out the garbage, making dinner, or figuring out whose avant garde art piece makes it onto the refrigerator that week.

And guess what: having chores and responsibilities already means you're involved in your family's household. And because you're already involved, you might as well make your involvement mean something—otherwise, you're essentially just a tenant who pays for room and board with manual labor. And that's kind of sad.

Here are a few ways to stay involved around the house that don't involve scrubbing the dishes:

• Speak up. Talking about your day, your life, and your thoughts helps to connect with others and let them know what your needs and feelings are. It also builds a sense of connection—as long as you're not telling everyone the details of your dreams, that is. No one likes hearing about other people's dreams... except psychoanalysts.
• Offer to plan a special activity. We don't mean you have to plan a family sing-along, a family group Halloween costume, or anything else that's cringe-inducing. If you're a fan of cooking, offer to make dinner some night—bonus: it'll be whatever you decide to make. Plan a film festival composed only of movies you want to see. Offer to oversee your cousin's birthday party—the decorations are going to way better if you do them instead of leaving them up to your dad. (You know it's true.)
• Be open to others. When you're open to allowing others to be included in your school work or social activities, you have more people on your side. You might even learn something from them.

How else can we say "don't be a jerk and ignore the people you live with"? That's really all it is. Upping your involvement game might not happen overnight. It takes practice, fine-tuning, and—above all else—being aware. If everyone is not on the same page at first, keep at it.

Sample Lesson - Activity