Emotions in the Classroom

Helping students navigate their emotions in their world is important to success throughout the school year as well as life.

Research shows that when teachers help students learn to manage their feelings during the school day, they become better problem solves and communicators when involved in an emotional issue. They are also better able to engage in the learning environment. 

In an age where the media and medical organizations are saying that teens (and even younger) are stressed out, overly anxious or even depressed, there needs to be opportunities for them to recognize and manage their emotions in a healthy way.

Watch this engaging, informative and unforgettable TED Talk by psychologist and author Susan David:

Dr. David offers 4 steps in teaching children how to work through negative emotions. They are feel it, show it, label it and watch it go.

FEEL IT

Validate the emotion instead of saying “don’t be _____”.

SHOW IT

Accept any emotion instead of using expressions like ‘boys don’t cry’. We are humans, not robots and our feelings make us honest with ourselves.

LABEL IT

Ask students, ‘how do you think (this person) is feeling?’ Teacher them to understand what is fear, panic, resentment, etc. Look at facial expressions, body placement.

WATCH IT GO

All emotions have value, but they will also pass. Give examples of what an emotion feels like and then what it feels like after it passes and what was done to help it pass.

When experiencing similar emotions in another situation, Dr. David says ask ‘who do you want to be in this situation?’ and ‘what’s important to you about this?’ Students will feel stronger as they start to learn that it is not how they feel that is important, but HOW THEY RESPOND to the feeling that makes the difference. Show students how to use emotion rather than be used by it – ‘what’s the function (of the specific emotion)?’

Literature for the Classroom

Book Riot has a great list of 23 Children’s Books About Emotions for young’ens. For teens, check out Epic Reads 10 Young Adult Books Guaranteed to Give You All the Feels.

 

Children-driven Education

TED Talk is one of my favorite places to find reflective, engaging and motivating videos to share with colleagues. As an Educational Technology Facilitator for a school division, I am lucky to have the ability to share TED as a great resource for administrators and teachers.

Various other bloggers and my own PLN agree that TED is an amazing resource. Learn-gasm has gathered 25 TED talks for teachers.  There’s a wiki to assist teachers in using TED talks within the classroom to start discussions, reflections and even as a culmination activity. Even Lifehack has chosen 10 videos that will change our opinion of the way we see the world.

As you can see TED talks really reverberate with a variety of people and organizations.  This week, I had the opportunity to spend 17 minutes engaged in a summer 2010 talk by Sugata Mitra (famous researcher for his Hole in the Wall experiments in India). He takes us on an incredible journey.

After watching the video, one of my colleagues, Diane, commented that we could show it at an Administrative Leadership meeting and follow it with a U-shaped discussion (Support Material: U-shaped Discussion) . The discussion could be based on the question, “Can a computer take the place of an effective teacher?” After debating the issue, we could co-create criteria for an “effective teacher.” (Or, before watching the video, build the criteria, and then re-visit our criteria after having watched the video…) Our school division is involved in a critical thinking iniative that is really making an impact for administrators, teachers, students and parents so this video and activity would be a perfect opportunity for our Learning Services department to share a great video and model a sound teaching strategy (not just critical thinking but touching on differentiation and technology integration).

How would you use/share this video in your position? After viewing the video, what are some of the BIG IDEAS that you came out with?