Category Archives: SEL

Empatía

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After watching the Brené Brown video on empathy on the first retreat day, I thought about how I could incorporate SEL in my classes and adapt it to my Spanish curriculum. I found that it would be a nice fit for the beginning of the year because the first chapter in the curriculum relates to vocabulary pertaining to one of the AP themes of interpersonal relationships and how we connect with people.

I scoured YouTube and I found the Brené Brown video on empathy dubbed in Spanish. I found it with Spanish subtitles and I decided to do a mini lesson on empathy with my students and embed it into the chapter vocabulary. We had a discussion in class in Spanish about what students thought empathy was and if we as a society are very empathetic or not. Students emphatically claimed that we are not a very empathetic society, however they could not articulate what we could do to practice more empathy in our relationships.

I proceeded to show the video and afterward, many students said that they did not understand the video because it was too fast. I showed the video again, and paused it every 20-30 seconds and we had discussions of the meanings in chunks. Students were able to understand the video more. I showed the video a third time, in English, so that students could compare what they understood in Spanish to what was actually being said. They said that they got the general gist of the topic. 

I assigned a video diary (a video blog that students are assigned weekly) to articulate their thoughts in Spanish about what they thought were the obstacles for empathy.

We wrapped up by doing a comprehension worksheet as an exit ticket and a check for listening and comprehension.

At the end, I had every intention to do a unit evaluation for this activity, however I personally felt that it went horribly. Students did not seem to engage with the material and they seemed confused, bored, and not connected and I felt that maybe the subject was a little over their heads. I abandoned the lesson and moved on.

A month later, I realized that I had written this activity down as one of my year goals, and that I was going to do a unit evaluation on the lesson, and feeling dejected, I didn’t do my goal. I decided that I would show the video again to my students to see how much they remembered and if anything about empathy had sunk in and if anything we had discussed in class resonated and stuck with students a month later. I was completely shocked to see that students were able to recall the lessons and vocabulary that we had talked about a month later, without even reviewing the vocabulary. I showed the video one more time, and students were shocked to see that they were able to understand the video and pick up on more vocabulary that they recognized from the previous chapter. Not only that, but they were able to identify and practice how to be empathetic in their daily relationships.

I conducted a unit evaluation and the results were pretty positive. I’m happy I did this lesson (twice) and that I was able to incorporate SEL as an overarching theme in my classes. Here are some examples from the unit evaluation:

Lemonade from Lemons

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Yesterday, I had a not so great interaction with a student, which left me feeling really bad and it ended up consuming my entire night-yes, I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking about this kid. Why? Oh, why do we have to care so much? Anyway, every year I inevitably have a couple interactions with students that I wish could have gone better, which is par for the course when you work with people, especially teenagers. Many years ago, I realized one way to counteract the way these unfortunate interactions make me feel is to write positive emails to parents of students with which I’ve had great interactions. Fortunately, these positive interactions way out number the negative ones, like by 1000%! Here is a sampling of a few emails I sent this morning:

Dear Mr. and Mrs __________, 
Good morning! I’m writing just to let you know that it has been an absolute pleasure working with _________ this year. He is a great kid! _________ is a joy to be around; he always listens attentively and consistently contributes to our classroom community. I am so happy that he is in my class! 
Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cutright
Dear Mr. and Mrs. ___________,

I just want to send a quick note to acknowledge what a great kid you have. I am ________’s English teacher this year, and I feel very lucky to have her in my class. I went to England with ____________ a couple of summers ago and I see how she positively influenced her peers during that trip. I get to see another side of her in the classroom. ___________ is hard-working and interested in learning. She really is a joy to be around!
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cutright
When the time is right, I am going to revisit the conversation I had with the student of yesterday and try again. In the meantime, I do feel better. What do you do when you have a not so awesome interaction with another human?

Feeling (and over thinking) all of the feels of SEL

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This year in Big
History, Gaeby and I, along with the help of Sam Martinez (if you are not picking Sam’s brain, like what are you even doing professionally?), developed a way to get a glimpse into our students’ social emotional lives throughout the course of their freshmen year. We created a “Twice Weekly Check In” Google
Form where students spend a few minutes twice a week in class filling it out
and giving us feedback. Here is what it looks like;
Here is some of the feedback that I get at the end of each week;
This snapshot is
from the beginning of the year. I saw which girls from my 3rd period
were getting involved in sports, which girls might be struggling socially, and
which girls were still trying to get a hang of how things work academically around
here;


This snapshot was
from a couple of weeks ago as girls turned in their first major project in my
class. I can see that many of them are not feeling ready to turn in their
projects which is something that Gaeby and I were able to address with enough
time before meltdown mode. It also shows what else is on my students minds as
they work on this project; shadow visits and frosh council selection.


Here is what I am thinking a few months into this- 
Pros
  • Students don’t seem to mind doing this twice a week – it has become a routine!
  • I am able to adapt in real time to student needs (ie changing deadlines, making seating charts, changing instructional approaches) that I feel will benefit my students.
  • I am
    getting much better at having hard conversations with students because I am not
    guessing at what their needs are. I know and can get right to the point.
  • I have insights as to why work is not getting turned in or why a student’s performance might dip. 
  • The
    Freshmen hallway being moved upstairs is HUGE for me and makes casual check ins
    really easy. I try to make a point to take notes on some of the fun stuff they
    add to the list (like dog costumes & sports) and take some laps upstairs on Fridays to check in
    with students as they are packing up for the weekend.
  • I really feel like I know MOST of my students at this point.

Cons
  • COMPASSION
    FATIGUE – I do not always have the bandwidth to hold space for student problems
    when I am at my own limit so I worry about consistency.
  •  It can
    be really easy to forget to have students take the survey when you are caught up in a lesson or trying to get to the end of a unit on time.
  • I don’t always
    know what to do with all of the feedback I get and therefore have probably
    become a big pain in the butt for our personal counselors and ed support team with my many questions. 


Questions
  •  What
    days of the week are best to survey students?
  • Is this
    actually improving my teaching and if so how do I measure that?
  • Are students going to get burned out on surveys?
  • Might they have expectations of me checking in with them personally that I cannot always meet, and therefore disappoint them?

 Well if you scrolled down the page this far thanks, any thoughts or feedback is much appreciated!

Also, Here’s a quote that I came across today that I really liked;
“Every time you think of calling a kid an “attention-seeking” this year, consider changing it to “connection-seeking” and see how your perspective changes 
– Dr. JodyCarrington

SEL Leadership Bootcamp

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Ever since I shared that my husband and I sent our two children to a leadership intensive workshop in Arizona this past August, I have had conversations with people wanting to know how it went.  As I think about and plan SEL training and topics for this year, I find myself reflecting on the training that I received that prompted me to send Aidan and Clarice to Scottsdale.  What I learned and brought back has helped me immensely both in my work here at Carondelet and at home. 

About three and half years ago, when I first took the job as religious studies department chair, I had a conversation with my husband about how I needed a leadership intensive.  I felt comfortable in front of a classroom, but management, guiding others, and having difficult conversations with peers were all intimidating realities.  He suggested that I go to a workshop intensive called, U the Leader, through an Arizona company, U and Improved.  He completed leadership training with many of the trainers in the company and thought I would benefit.  Now, a few years later, I have completed three of these intensives (one on leadership, one focusing on communication, and the last on team building).  I am a master grad of their program and look to complete the final intensive on developing vision next year.

I’ve learned many things about leadership, communication, teaming, and myself.  The insight that I use every day is this:  I have to get out on the “skinny branches” of work and relationships.  All of us have barriers that hold us back from having the conversations that we need to have, listening to ideas that we don’t agree with or feedback that makes us uncomfortable, making decisions, and pursuing goals and dreams.  Brene Brown refers to these barriers as partly the armor that we build to protect us but ultimately can hold us back.  The Sisters of St. Joseph show us that courage is important, even vital to the cause of loving others.  Courage is definitely required to set aside one’s armor, and to get out to where one feels vulnerable.

This brings me back to how my children received this leadership/SEL intensive.  I have seen them both use the tools that they learned that weekend.  My son is in the middle of college applications and a challenging academic senior year, but has practiced having difficult, yet important conversations with friends, and with us.  My daughter is exploring new interests here at Carondelet, and talking more freely with us at home about her hopes and dreams.  There’s power in shared language.  It’s one reason why I feel it’s important for our school community to talk about social emotional learning, and work through these things together, especially when we disagree.

So, I’m going to continue to get out there on those skinny branches.  Would love for you to join me!

Empathy Fitness

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I’ve been thinking a lot about empathy this school year.  When I started the year talking about Social Emotional Learning using Brene Brown’s empathy RSA short, I began to see the impact of empathy or lack thereof almost every day.  I truly believe that empathy is a starting point to understanding myself and others.  It’s a point to build connections with each other and the larger world.

Image by huoadg5888 at Pixabay

As some of you know, I love podcasts.  One of my favorites is Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantam.  I highly recommend it if you enjoy podcasts that explore human behavior.  This past week I listened to the episode entitled, “The Empathy Gym.”  This episode explores the idea that empathy is a skill that can be developed if exercised.  If one doesn’t work on empathy, that skill will wither.  One of the more interesting assertions made is that empathy in the developed world has actually decreased in the 21st century mostly due to the decline in the need to meet and connect face to face as well as a rise in people living alone.  This idea does make sense to me.  The more we have to talk, relate, cooperate, and experience each other, the more we can see and learn how others feel and live.  Another nugget in this episode explains why I am so exhausted at the end of some days.  The more a person uses empathy and is open to experiencing and considering another’s experience and story, the more tired and uncomfortable this person can become.  In a sense, those days are ones where I did a hard workout in the “empathy gym” which can make it hard arriving home to family life and its own stresses and need for empathy.

How might this view of empathy help me at school?  First, I need to be kind to myself.  Those days when I feel worn out and have the urge to come to a snap decision without considering all sides, I’ve actually expended all my empathy energy.  Stepping away for a second, focusing on something else, resting the empathy muscle, will allow me to come back to an issue fresher and more capable of discerning a way forward.  Second, when working with students who may be having trouble empathizing with others, there are ways to help develop that skill.  Perhaps that student actually has hit their threshold of empathy and cannot take on more.  Perhaps that student needs more time to walk with someone different from herself.  Restorative practices can help in both instances.

So, I’m curious.  Have you been thinking about empathy lately?  Have you found any “exercises” that help build the empathy muscle?