Ok. How many of you like to lose? Anyone? That's what I thought. Losing is not ever fun, but especially if you love your team and you worked hard to win!
A little insight into my teacher brain, I LOVE to play games to teach. I feel that using games or competitions in children's learning creates an incredible classroom atmosphere! The only downside that I have discovered is that when students engage in competition, there is always a team that DOESN'T WIN.
<<<INSERT MAD FACES, STOMPING FEET, AND HATEFUL WORDS>>>
I have a simple, yet interestingly effective, remedy; teach your kids how to be "Awesome Losers". How do we lose awesomely?
I teach this strategy at the beginning of the year when we are learning new routines and procedures. I start by explaining the difference between losing bad and losing awesome. Bad losers (sore losers) stomp their feet, use hateful words, pout, cheat, argue, etc.
AWESOME LOSERS, however, congratulate the team that wins! Mind blown, right? It is something oh so simple! Nevertheless, if you neglect to explicitly teach it to your students, you will end up stopping games altogether due to students being horrible at losing.
I should also note that I like to heavily reward my students for being awesome losers. Sometimes really great losers receive more of a reward than the winning team!
Ever heard of teaching the WHOLE child? My kids now know how to congratulate others, lose with grace, and keep playing the game! Win, win. I mean lose, win. Or lose, lose? hmm..
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