Have you ever met that teacher that was somehow able to understand you and your situation? That was somehow able to say exactly what you needed to hear at the right moment. If not, you have probably met the one who is unable to understand at all what you are going through or how to reach you. As educators, one of the most important skills we need to develop is not how to write the most elaborate lesson plans or manage a thought provoking classroom discussion. The most overlooked skill is that of emotional intelligence or the ability to recognize one's own and other people's emotions. As teachers begin to understand the emotional aspect of learning, they can more easily engage students in wanting to learn.
Before teachers are able to read their students' or other teachers' emotions, they first need to learn to recognize their own. This can be easier said than done. It requires us to be truly honest with ourselves and not be complacent. It requires us to admit our own shortcomings as we are self reflective on our work. As we do this however, we can make tremendous growth in short amount of time. As we humbly seek to get better, we will open our eyes to new ways of doing things that will enable us to help students learn. I recently had a conversation with my teachers on the importance of having high expectations for all students. This is not a new idea or new concept nor is it one that many people would disagree with. We should expect great things from all of our students. In being honest with ourselves though, we will see ways in which we are not holding all our students to the same expectations. As we reflectively look at our own biases and our own hot buttons that keep us from expecting a certain student to be successful, we can begin to address those areas and explore ways we can change those perceptions we have for the better.
It is also important that we learn to understand what our students are feeling and what is causing those emotions. This does not happen unless you have a teacher who is willing to invest in that child's life, who is willing to develop a relationship with that child. Once you know their background, their interests, their family dynamic, and understand their story, it will be that much easier to understand their emotional state. I have a general rule of thumb in working with teachers on my campus in terms of student discipline, and that is that you should never send a student to the office for a discipline issue until you know their favorite color, their favorite tv show, who their best friend is, what is their favorite thing about school, etc. The reason for that is you do not want to send that students off to someone else until you have invested in that child's life and worked to understand them. If you do, you are communicating to that child that you have already given up on them before you even understood them.
So how do we make this happen. Here at Altamira Academy, each class devotes 30 minutes each morning to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). We have a "Morning Meeting" each day where our children have the opportunities to share their feelings, their successes and their failures. We are able to talk about the issues we are facing as a group and have lessons on ways that we should interact with each other. These meetings help build a sense of community in the classroom. It gives students a voice and allows them time to understand their own emotions. I have seen our students grow and enjoy being at school as they are given the chance to express their emotions opening with their classmates and as a sense of community is established with their peers.
I want to end by sharing a post from a teacher who powerfully understood the need for emotional intelligence in the classroom. http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/
This is something that I wish I had understood when I began teaching. I didn't really value the importance of relationship building and understanding the emotions of others until I was in an administrative role. Hopefully this inspires teachers to reflect on their own practices and begin to tap into the power of emotion as they work with their students.
