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Weekly Tribes: Tattle or Talent?

This is for all my friends who teach younger children and are tired of ‘tattling’.

My dear friend Kathi Jensen, Tribes trainer and retired principal, and I were reminiscing about our days in the classroom and she told me about this strategy she made up “before I ever knew about Tribes!”

Create a box where children can put their ‘tattles’ or write a ‘talent’ they are willing to share.  Each day (designate a specific day if you wish), create a time for ‘Tattles and Talents’.  Let the children know that if there are too many ‘tattles’, there won’t be time for ‘talent’ (which was almost always something impromptu and entertaining).  By allowing the children to write down their frustrations with others – usually during recess – and then reading that aloud during ‘Tattles and Talents’, she said it was amazing how many ‘tattles’ were no longer an issue.  

I think the secret to success is to make this a consistent event, since the ‘talents’ accentuate the positive and invite appreciations.

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