This summer I took a class where we read a book called "Teaching With the Brain in Mind" by Eric Jensen. I think I could have highlighted the whole book! It brought me so much more insight on SO many aspects of teaching and learning and got me so excited about implementing some of these principles in my classroom.
One of the chapters discusses the effects of emotions on student learning. Jensen quotes several facts: 1) "Emotions drive attention, create meaning, and have their own memory pathways" (LeDoux, 1994); and 2) "[Emotions] regulate behaviors, and they help us organize the world around us" (Demasio, 1194). These two researched-based facts alone should motivate ALL educators to take more interest in the emotional side of teaching and learning!
Jensen also discussed the concept of emotional "states." He claims that "all states are not emotional, but all emotions are states" (2005, p. 70). For example we may experience physical states of fatigue or pain, or feeling states of curiosity, optimism, or love. Emotional states, however, are our experiences of various emotions (like joy, fear, surprise, anger, sadness) that are generated from universal and cross-cultural, even biological pathways that exist for human beings everywhere in the world. Jensen goes on to explain how various emotional states can influence student learning experiences. Jensen states that "because emotions give us a more activated and chemically stimulated brain, they help us recall things better and form more explicit memories" (2005, p. 71). Do I have your attention? When students associate emotions with learning material, THEY WILL RETAIN IT!
This got me thinking. I don't have time to see what states my students are in on a daily basis by asking them one by one! So I have to somehow assess their emotional states by reading their body language and looking for other clues in their behavior and facial expressions, or even their tone of voice. Hopefully all you effective teachers assess this on a daily basis! Are most of your students tired? Excited? Bored? Frightened? Nervous? By looking for clues that show what emotional states your students could be in, you will be better equipped to respond in your teaching methods and style for that day in order to be more effective. We're like mini psychologists in a way. We should be paid more, right?
I put up a poster on one of my walls that asks students how they're feeling. My hope is that they will consider their states on a daily basis when they're in my room and contemplate the effects that their emotional state could have in various aspects of their daily activities and interactions. What has been even more helpful is that I actually DO have a personal flipchart on my desk that I try to update everyday for them to see, which reminds them to do the same for themselves and also gives them an underlying message that I care about their feelings because I want them to know and care about mine! I joke with them that when I have a "FRUSTRATED" face up on my flipchart it is probably not the best day to come talk to me about grades! Maybe I SHOULD have them each create a flipchart where they draw some of their emotions and label them so they can display them in front of their seat at the edge of the table and everyone can KNOW how they're feeling!
This simple chart does a lot more than just let the students know how I'm feeling. Some students will ask me WHY I feel that way. This helps me develop a more personal and caring relationship with my students. One advantage of NOT having the students make and display emotion charts is that it can also help students learn an important communication and relationship skill that I think is slowy diminishing in our world due to the vast use of technology: being able to READ people and their moods! Yes, I'm TELLING them my mood through displaying my own chart, but they can connect that mood or emotional state with other clues and behaviors that help them to be able to start applying those characteristics and behaviors to others as well. I think if everyone learned how to "read people" better we'd all have a lot healthier relationships, regardless of whether or not they're personal or intimate relationships or casual or professional. We'd be a lot more respectful and empathetic, and probably a lot more effective in our communication!
So...do YOU read YOUR students on a daily basis to see how their feeling? Do YOU think it could help YOUR relationships and ability to teach if you showed a little more care about how they were FEELING or the emotional state they were in? Wouldn't YOU as the teacher feel more appreciated and happy if your students actually asked and showed some concern about how YOU were feeling? I think the consideration of emotions and feelings could really help to encourage a classroom of unity and of collaboration and cooperation. What do YOU think?
How are YOU feeling today?
**Jim Borgman is the cartoonist who has created the poster and flipchart shown. He's an Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist from CINCINNATI! Home-town pride and a little free word-of-mouth advertising for him. You can get them at Amazon.com for cheap!
