The Scoop With Mrs. Ruebush
Staff Newsletter - January/February 2021
Teaching With Empathy: Why It's Important
Student Behavior and Empathy
It's normal to focus on the negative behavior and how it takes time away from teaching and the other students. It then becomes easy to feel more agitated and you're less likely to focus on the student.
Showing empathy can help you change the dynamic, so you not only acknowledge and consider what you see and feel but also what you don't see. Those unseen challenges could include learning and thinking but other struggles, such as trauma and hunger, may also be involved.
What is Empathy?
Empathy is a way of connecting with others that show you understand that they're experiencing something meaningful - even though you may not understand exactly what they are feeling or experiencing. In other words, to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
Empathy is a powerful tool that can better help you understand what's driving your student's behavior and find strategies to help. It can also help you better understand your friends, family, children, coworkers, and community members.
What Empathy Is NOT!
When you feel sympathy towards a student, you may feel sorry for that student. Even though you care deeply for that student, you may look down on them instead of trying to understand the student.
Being empathetic doesn't mean lowering your expectations of the student. You can validate and have empathy for students, while at the same time holding them to high standards. Give yourself permission to acknowledge your emotions. It's natural to feel upset and frustrated. What's going on with your student may have an emotional impact on you as well.
When you're ready and able to be empathetic in stressful moments, it shows you're trying to get past your own feelings. You're modeling for students what it looks like to practice self-control and to tune into other's feelings.
The Four Parts of Empathy
- Perspective-taking. When you take a different perspective, you put aside your own feelings and reactions to see the situation through your students' eyes. You may ask yourself: Do I believe my students are doing the very best they can?
- Putting aside your judgment. It’s easy to jump to and express conclusions about the situation based on what you see. But it’s important to step back and consider: What more do I need to learn and understand about the situation?
- Trying to understand the students' feelings. If you can, tap into your own experiences to find a way to understand what the student is feeling or to remember a time when you felt something similar. Ask yourself: What more do I need to learn and understand about how other people are reacting to or perceive the situation?
- Communicate that you understand. Talk to your students without using “fix it” phrases like “what you need to do is….” Instead, try reflective phrases like, “It sounds like you…” or “I hear that you….” As teachers, our instinct is often to contain the situation and find a quick fix. That can help in the short term. But it won’t build long-term trust with students. And it won’t help students learn to solve problems with you, and eventually try to solve issues on their own. You may need to do some self-reflection.
February is Kindness Month and February 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day
Kindness in the workplace!
How random acts of kindness can affect your health
- Reduce blood pressure: it produces an emotional warmth, which releases a hormone called oxytocin. This helps lower blood pressure and improve heart health.
- Reduce pain: kindness produces endorphins - the brain's natural pain killer.
- Reduce isolation
- Reduce anxiety: kind actions stimulate the production of serotonin.
- Reduce stress: kind people have 23% less cortisol - the more cortisol you have the more likely you will gain weight or retain water.
The average worker spends up to 90,000 hours of their life with their work buddies, so why not brighten up their day and reap the benefits from doing so?
How to perform random acts of kindness in the workplace
- Be a feeder!
- Say ‘Thank you’ – and mean it!
- Give a compliment or two
- Actively listen to your colleague
- Spread messages of kindness everywhere!