How can we explain empathy to young children?
VM: Empathy comes hand-in-hand with love. Empathy means putting ourselves in another person ' s shoes, in order to understand how he / she feels and to be able to embrace the differences and similarities between us. Empathy is a product that comes out of the filter of love. Through empathy learners understand the ideals of equality, coexistence, cooperation, peace and respect. And what better place for those blessings to bloom than in the classroom?
JP: Teaching is a demanding job and we are used to juggling several different tasks and giving our all, but in order to avoid a stress meltdown, we need to take off ourselves. As teachers, whatever our mood we are used to going into class as usual without letting our students know we are feeling overtired or even depressed. I think at times when we feel our energy level is low we have to take the backseat for a while and allow our learners to take the initiative and sometimes the lead. This not only empowers them, but gives us a bit of a breather. It is important we recognise the signs of stress and overtiredness before they impact our health. One idea could be to arrange a ' breather ' session with a colleague. You can combine two classes and one teacher could cover both classes while the other has a short ' time out ' session to recharge.
You must be very proud of“ A – Z of Hope”, the latest book created by Heart ELT. Can you tell us what materials teachers can find in the book?
Vassiliki has kindly shared one of her activities with our readers. You will find it on pages 23- 25. Thank you very much, Vassiliki.
Julie joins our conversation with Vassiliki. Julie, you believe in Carl Jung’ s words
“ an understanding heart is everything in a teacher and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”
JP: A-Z of Hope contains 26 activities to inspire and bring fun to the classroom. Several activities in the book are classed as ' zero resource ' lessons. This means that they can be used by teachers working in difficult circumstances who may have little or no resources; perhaps just a blackboard and chalk. As we started to think about the plight of such teachers, it occurred to us that one other function of the A-Z of Hope could be that those of us who consider ourselves ' privileged ' teachers, with a rich array of resources at our fingertips, could take time to empathise with teachers who are working in very difficult circumstances.
- but you also say that teachers should start with“ loving themselves”. Why is it so important?
Image credit: Heart ELT
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