The emotional environment

1. The emotional environment “Does anyone else feel their needs aren’t being met?”

2. What are the factors which influence positively and negatively the way your lessons go from day to day? Write a list in your groups. You have five minutes.

3. “I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.

4. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.” HaimGinot

5. You Make The Weather

6. How do you avoid escalation? Never deny or ignore a child's feelings. Only behaviour is treated as unacceptable, not the child. De-personalize negative interactions by mentioning only the problem. “that work is very messy." Attach rules to things, e.g., “pencils are not for throwing." Dependence breeds hostility. Let children do for themselves what they can. Limit criticism to a specific event—don't say "never", "always", as in: "You never listen," "You always manage to spoil things", etc. Refrain from using words that you would not want the child to repeat

7. What do I want to achieve? Is this a pointless battle of egos? Will I cease to be a professional adult if this child has the last word? Am I kicking the cat?

8. Is this argument about what I think it’s about?

9. If we asked the students how they wanted to be treated by adults in the school, what ten rules would they impose on us?

10. What would we see in the joyous, inspirational, humorous, healing, humanising classroom? What would we see in the miserable, tortuous, humiliating, hurtful, de-humanising classroom?