“ As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural, the cultivation of love, one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens”
LOVE creating resources
In this issue INSPIRATIONAL ENGLISH talks to two ladies who feel that LOVE and EMPATHY should be taught in class. Find out why and how you can use POSITIVE resources in your classroom.
Vassiliki Mandalou is a Greek freelance teacher of philosophy, literature and linguistics. She also specialises in helping learners with learning difficulties( autism and Down syndrome). The passionate teacher gives sessions on " Philosophy for Well-being " and " Poetry in motion " projects.
Julie Pratten is the creator of Heart ELT, a non-profit organisation in the UK that offers resources and support to children who cannot access education. She also developed the app Brighton Study Kit, a social initiative for the University of Brighton and Academic Flipwords, which focuses on vocabulary from the Academic Words List
Hi Vassiliki, last month INSPIRATIONAL ENG- LISH introduced HEART ELT to its readers. You are one of the first teachers who donated an activity to the project“ A-Z of Hope”. Would you tell me how you got involved?
VM: I got involved in the " A-Z of Hope " after I saw Julie Pratten ' s call for collaborators on Facebook. This innovative approach appealed to me and at the same time inspired me. I thought that this initiative had the potential to grow into a very different kind of teacher community; teachers collaborating for change. It is a wonderful mosaic of ideas and thoughts, teachers with different characters and styles engaged in harmony to create a book. Quite thrilling! And I was very touched when I learned about the charity aspect and spirit of support behind Heart ELT, I believe it is the first charitable publisher of this kind in ELT. After meeting Julie in person I realised why I Ioved the whole idea so much.
Some of your lesson plans teach about LOVE and EMPATHY. Why do you think it is necessary to talk about these topics in class?
VM: Love and Empathy are two of the main teachings of Socrates. As a teacher of literature and philosophy I was extremely motivated to write lessons covering those topics. Why?
“ As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural, the cultivation of love, one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens”
Teaching children empathy, love, to treat others with kindness, tolerance and acceptance has never been more important than it is right now. I also believe that it is vital that we as teachers approach our teaching through LOVE. Love for what we do as professionals, love for the process of learning and the love of our learners. We can ' t teach nor learn if we don ' t literally love what we are doing. Love can be taught, it ' s not something innate. It exists inside of us but so does hate. As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural, the cultivation of love, one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens.
Image Credit: Heart ELT
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