Dear Difference Maker,

It’s happening!  Educators around the country are gradually getting back to their classrooms and with it may come heightened energy and pent up emotion.

In other words, the classroom management problems that existed before COVID may in fact be even more magnified now.

Troubling home experiences magnified by the financial pressures brings many students back to school emotionally off kilter.

Electronics babysitting students during long days at home, diminishing academic interest and social engagement now magnified.

Chinese word for crisis can be translated as both danger and opportunity.
May we open our eyes to both. 

While we often hear, “I just want things to return back to normal” this may just be the most dangerous lamenting we can let ourselves say or do.  Things have changed and many of those things are laying the foundation for healing today’s children … and ourselves!  The real danger is going backwards to the way things were.  Let’s keep going forward to ease into a greater humanity.

One example is virtual learning.  Never before have teachers been inside of student’s homes in this way.  Everyone has been stretched to the max.  However, stretching is a good thing when you decide it is.  Never before have such a vast number of teachers and parents worked so closely together to keep their kids in front of the screen for their daily classes!

To quote Mathew Portell, Principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary, an internationally recognized innovative model school for trauma-informed practices in Metro Nashville Public Schools …

“We required our teachers to call every student every day
and virtual learning shot up. Why?  Connection.”

He goes on to say, “We’re not asking our teachers to be therapists.  Studies are confirming that it is the consistent, little interactions that add up and are often times far more impactful than therapy.”

I will add to his statement that it is every infinitesimal attitude, vibe and tone you offer in every single interaction is accumulative and over time will either calm or agitate (regulate or deregulate) any child you are working with. (To learn more about the energetics of teaching click here.)

Virtual learning has required us all to reach out and touch each other’s lives via the Internet or through phone calls, drive-bys, stop-ins, etc.  New levels of energetic engagement, encouragement and connection has happened.  Danger: Do not let this slip away just because students are back in the classroom.  Keep doing what you did virtually to be energetically engaging and interesting.

Here’s your opportunity to embrace the gifts that taking manageable steps can bring to  social engagement to the forefront can bring in your classroom NOW!

Social engagement is happening whether you are in control of it or not.  Take the last nine weeks of this school year and direct what’s happening socially and emotionally in your classroom with “done for you” conversation starters, so your students end up learning how to care and be protective of each other going forward.

By simply directing the conversation one class period a week over a period of nine weeks you can make Make A Difference this year that transcends anything that’s ever happened for them and for you.

Mental Health has been on the forefront, but now it’s a MUST DO for educators.  Like it or not.  No one is coming to fix this.  Waiting for “professionally trained” outside reinforcements is not happening.  Waiting for your administration to buy in can take how long?

For the past forty years I have been reaching out to work with administrators and teachers on the importance of social emotional engagement first and foremost before academics.

Teachers, you have the power to make your classroom every student’s safe space on every conceivable level in order for their minds to relax, breathe and function. So actual accelerated learning can and will occur beyond your greatest imagination.

Administrators, you can take this same 9 weeks and direct your faculty and staff into conversations where they experience common ground.  Every teacher needs to experience incremental shifts and then take it forward to the next step and the next step.  9 Weeks of these conversation starters and it’s accumulative.

For the past forty years, even though explosive behavior has been steadily increasing, padded rooms are being built, room clears are on the rise, we still here the three most common default statements:

I don’t have time to deal with social emotional stuff.
I didn’t go to college to be a counselor.
My plate is too full.
I’ve got to get these kids ready for their annual tests or I’ll be out of a job.

In learning to listen to people, what each of these default statements might be saying is, “Emotional stuff really scares me and I don’t know how to deal with emotional stuff so I’d really rather someone else do it for me.”

I’m not going to lie.  Mastering the Social-Emotional Learning tools and techniques is not only necessary for today’s educator, but it does in fact take a lot of time to learn to teach children how to put clarifying words to feelings.

Social emotional engagement is already happening and it happens to be how children learn best, so why not direct it where you want it to go?

9 Weeks is a primer to my upcoming Teaching Energetics self-paced online program which will elevate the effectiveness and ease with which SEL programs can be absorbed and assimilated to build a comradery between students that stays with them going forward.

It’s a scientific fact that teachers who are stressed out deregulate their students.

Never before has there been a moment in time where all of your reasons NOT to take the social emotional deep dive have become the reasons why you MUST take this next step in your professional development.

Because of this upside down school year, the outside pressures are off.

There is no way you can cram 9 months of learning into the last 9 weeks of this school year to get all your students caught back up.

But you can Make A Difference now that is long term and carries into next year.

There is a way to get your students minds back in the game by harnessing social engagement that builds comradery and community going forward.

In my forty years in education I have found that that one thing that helps students excel academically is knowing that in your classroom they are safe and that their classmates are their teammates from this school year going forward.  When they feel safe in your care, when they know they are safe with every student in the room, their brains can breathe and the frontal lobe lights can turn on and executive function is in play.

Study after study has shown that social and emotional competencies correlate strongly with children’s academic performance and their overall health, well-being, and ultimately, life outcomes. Yet actually helping children develop their social-emotional skills has proved to be a daunting challenge.

Contrary to what many believe, the route to emotional self-awareness and intelligence lies in social engagement rather than social instruction.  Meaning that while SEL is a great (long overdue) addition to the educational process its still not dealing with the heart of the problem:  the classroom culture.  And you’re not going to like what I say next, but culture is established by a teacher’s leadership, expectation and vibe.

You Can Always Begin Again: 9-Week Curriculum

No matter what quarter of the school year you are in, if you want to build a safe community, you must make a safe space for students to find their voice and take ownership.  Beginning with creating their own list of New Rules is unifying. It gets them all on the same side.  They are the ones that will hold each other accountable, and let me tell you, that really lightens a teacher’s load. If anything, you’ll have to tell them to not be so hard on themselves and each other.

If you want to be able to reach and teach students it all begins with a safe, inclusive classroom. Then community begins, with students coming together to talk about what’s important to them.  Even though there will be differing opinions, talk it out until you find alignment.  If you can’t find alignment, give it a day and come back to it the next day.  Don’t stop working on it until you find the sweet spot.

The only way to teach safe social engagement is to DO social engagement deliberately, intentionally; and this 9-Week Curriculum will help you through the maze of what’s really going on just below the surface.

There’s no better time than the present.

The last 9 Weeks of any school year – and particularly this chaotic school year – are pivotal in creating comradery, so they can end the year with the excitement and expectancy of getting on with the next school year.

Learn more about how to make your classroom safe, all-inclusive and hum with academic productivity with my “9 Weeks to A Make A Difference Year” Curriculum.

Your Road Map:  1) one class period a week for nine weeks: play a heart connecting movie and/or engage students in a team building activity which you will then use to, 2) direct the conversation using my “done for you” questions to, 3) explore what is really on in your students’ hearts and minds.

When you follow my 9-Week Make A Difference Year Curriculum you will …

• slow everything down and breathe a collective breath.
• ease your students into constructive and productive social emotional engagement with “done for you” activities and discussion questions.
• learn deeper levels about each student by listening to them discuss “what came up” for them about the movie or activity.
• start tuning-in to your students’ “hidden stressors” that each of them is struggling with daily, not just academically, but socially and emotionally to build a common bond.
• experience the transformational power of my WIW – “What, If, When” – technique, to shift the energy of the room in 30 seconds or less as intense situations come up (and they will come up)!
• see unskillful behaviors with new eyes of understanding, hear with healing ears.
• be thrilled at how a safe, inclusive and caring community will yield calm minds and accelerate learning.
• marvel at how quickly students – particularly those who are normally behind – are able to catch up and even pull ahead.

Click the link for more information and get started now!

Reaching out …

Founder of Heart Publishing

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