Discomfort For Solidarity In a recent staff equity meeting, the concept of staff responsibility in gender pronouns came up. It seemed that everyone there had at least one student who used pronouns that didn’t necessarily align with the sex they were assigned at birth. And, they all fully supported the importance of honoring student’s pronouns […]
empathy
Posted inCOVID-19
Opinion: The Teacher Stories We Tell Ourselves: Let’s Assume the Best
We (yep, all of us) are stressed. Students are swamped with work and desperate loneliness. Parents are at their wits’ end trying to keep their jobs, kids, and sanity afloat. Teachers are exhausted from the literal and emotional headache of online learning. Administrators are trying to balance the needs of their staff and students […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Accountability and Empathy: Where’s the Balance?
Accountability and Empathy: Where’s the Balance? Pandemic Adjustments I went into this year knowing online learning would be tough. I zoomed in with my equity lens and kept it sharply focused, ready to make adjustments wherever necessary to meet students’ needs. 2020 has been a stressful time for all of us and my students are […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Dear Teacher Friends, It’s Time to Show More Empathy
It’s always wonderful when teachers from different parts of the world can come together and laugh, joke, complain, or cry about the same common things happening in our classrooms. “I’ll Wait.” “Where are all my pencils?” “This PD could’ve been an e-mail!” *Insert teacher on the way to break meme* Yes, we can all agree […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Empathy: The Key to Better Behavior in the Classroom
Empathy, for me, was always one of the best ways to handle classroom behavior. It came to me naturally because of the teachers I had in elementary school. I grew up in a housing project. This living situation was due to the death of my father just before my third birthday. In a time before […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Empathy with Concrete Examples
“They just want to sleep in their own bed” The first 50-plus days of Donald Trump’s presidency have provoked an intense mixture of anxiety, fear, anger, and urgency for many Americans. As the great-grandson of immigrants who fled anti-Semitic pogroms in Eastern Europe, it’s heartbreaking to see our president close the country’s doors to refugees and […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
Wanted: Empathy for Our Students
For me, empathy has always been one of the most important character traits of a teacher. I brought empathy into my classroom from the day I started teaching. It had a lot to do with my childhood which was different from most in the time period in which I was born. My father died just before […]
Posted inElementary School
Teach From the Heart
1 Samuel 16:7: “The Lord does not see what man sees. While man looks at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart.” Teaching is personal. Teaching is tireless and endless. We get the best gift a parent can give us, their child, and we are trusted to move them forward on their path […]