My educational philosophy consists of two very important concepts that I hold dear to my heart. The first is the strong belief that all children can learn. No matter the situation, factors, or difficulties a child may face, all children can learn. All children have strengths in them that can be brought out through facilitation. The second belief I had originated from my first professional teaching institution, which is educating the WHOLE child. Educating the whole child means to not only teach a child content, but skills that are necessary to live a life as a great citizen for this country. These skills can be content focused, academically focused, or interpersonal life skills that can help build one self and relationships with others. With that being stated, it is imperative that during this difficult time the country is facing, especially New York City, we lead our teaching practice with empathy – one of the most important interpersonal skills needed by all age groups in all areas of life. New York Ci
ty, especially when NYC bred (born and raised), can have someone focus on what needs to be done instead of self-care in terms of one’s mental state. Educators can also feel that way with a short notice on changing their curriculum to be solely remote learning – a practice that may be new to some. Despite the anxiety and innate nature of a NYC Educator to ensure academic learning is occurring for their students, one may struggle with how can he or she ensure that their students are also receiving the social and emotional support they need during this global historical event. In this time, it is imperative we lead and teach with empathy. Lead with empathy whether it is in grade teams, department teams, or whole staff meetings. Now is the time to be patient, to support one another even if one may have to take on more roles than intended if he or she is capable of for the support of a colleague and stakeholders involved within a school. However, the most important stakeholder to receive the most empathy and guidance during this time period are our students. Depending on their cognitive level, some students may have the social and emotional skills needed to navigate their feelings during this global event. Unfortunately, there may be some students who do not have the prior knowledge or close adult-know how on ways to navigate their feelings. Therefore the following are steps, WE can do as educators to support our students and teach with empathy:
Creating a Google Form to allow students to release their feelings, concerns, and supports needed by
you in an unanimous way. This is extremely helpful for introverted students as well as students that are older who worry about the opinion of others in the online learning community if that cooperative learning community was not established in the physical classroom prior to this event.
Norming parts in your online lesson that allows for students’ feelings to be expressed. This can be during the warm-up or APK (activating prior knowledge) part of your lesson. Example: “We have been learning about plate motion and geological events that occurred on Earth. How do you think today’s events will contribute to Earth’s changes in the future? How can you help contribute to these changes? Free write for 5 minutes on these questions and how you feel about your impact on the Earth and its impact on you today.” This type of APK allows for some academic prior knowledge to be discussed by previous lessons, but also allows the student to free write and express one’s emotions. This is important because students will then realize all academic content allows for emotions to be developed because they are applicable in real life.
Your face! Our students want to see a familiar face, hear a familiar voice. It gives them comfort during a time like this. Google Hangout or Zoom allows for this to occur. It may not have to be a whole online class period, but providing time or office hours for students to see your face or hear your voice can ease anxiety for students during this time period. Since switching to using Zoom, I have seen an increase in student online work. Students were more comfortable asking questions and receiving / giving feedback in this manner.
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ce Overs: Let’s not forget our students in need. Our IEP students are struggling during this time period as well. Remember to differentiate your lessons, it can be providing sentence starters or scaffolded questions for readings or online PowerPoints to better help our IEP students to understand the content. Help students access information by using videos and images. Another way to help these students will be recording yourself read a passage with a model on verbal annotations you would have made. This is a model for students to then do the same as they read along with your voice recording.
Finally, allow your students to be themselves. Spare time in your weekly lessons for free talk where students can share their ideas, tell jokes, and be themselves. I spare the last five minute of online learning for simple daily life discussions. This helps students release emotions, Emotional release is very important for one’s mental health during this time period.
As I practice more strategies and develop my online learning community, I will continue to share. Teaching is only strong through collaboration. Best wishes. And let’s keep TEACHING strong.
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