There have been a lot of layers added to the teaching profession over the years. Subjects have come and gone, kids have graduated and become adults, and yet the purpose of teaching remains the same… preparing students to be adults with responsibilites and real life problems and dreams. Sometimes that gets lost in the midst of all the “to do’s”.
The difference today:
-High anxiety for both students and school staff
-The culture in which the students have grown up
-our ability to connect socially and emotionally
These differences do not make us have to start a new program or a new set of beliefs, it is going back to the foundations of teaching.
People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. -Teddy Roosevelt.
How do we show we care? My experience with teens and leaders of teens for the last 25 years has driven me to the biggest change our culture needs to make to our social and emotional health… to LISTEN. It sounds simple, and it is, and yet it is not. We are not well versed in it anymore.
How can we use listening in our classroom and at home?