Emotional Ecology for a Balanced Classroom Environment

Find out the key elements of the functioning of young people to create emotionally balanced class environments.

Location: Seville | Duration: 5 days

Description

Summary

The school of 21st century has to cope with a lot of challenges. The changing world and labour market require from young people who graduate not only the best notes and high level of knowledge, but also well-developed social and emotional skills. This is why modern school should not only maximise students’ academic outcomes, but also include emotional education in their programme.

The recent research shows that social-emotional education is an important factor in helping students develop crucial life skills that go beyond academics. The present data shows that emotional education not only improves achievement, but it also increases prosocial behaviours (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011).

Taking all these factors into consideration, each teacher has to deal with the question: how to include emotional education in the academic curriculum full of obligatory criteria? Is it possible?

During this course you will have a chance to get to know tools and methods which help your students to develop their emotional intelligence and social skills and which you can use during your daily lessons. We will discuss and analyse how to involve emotional education into everyday school life, in decision making process, building self-confidence, self-awareness and self-management of the pupils.

You will have a chance to find new ideas how to promote social and emotional development for all students in classrooms, involving challenging students. You will learn and try some methods of stress reduction which you can use in your classroom and which help your students to control their emotions, find the emotional balance and give them opportunity to apply these skills in various situations in their lives.

Methodology

The approach will be practical, experiential and based on an analysis of reality and the group concerns. Mainly, we will work in the forms of a role play, drama methods, group dynamics, brainstorming and assembly, encouraging the reflection and creativity in order to expand the options and alternatives for action.

Additionally, the course follow-up strategy will be proposed to all the teachers in order to monitor the implementation of good practices of emotional education in their schools based on the knowledge, skills and competencies gained by them during the workshop.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this course, participants will be able to acquire new skills and competences such as:

1 recognizing the role of emotions in modern education

2 developing active listening and giving constructive feedback;

3 developing healthy teacher-student relations;

4 identifying potential behavior problems and their causes;

5 learning how to reduce the stress of their students and providing tools which help students in finding emotional balance;

6 getting to know basic techniques and strategies for behavior modification;

8 verifying and developing pedagogical and communication skills;

9 acquiring skills to set limits in a constructive manner

10 putting into practice knowledge, skills and competencies related to emotional education acquired during everyday’s teacher’s work.

How can the acquired skills be applied in your work?

1 Identifying different emotions and their role in the educational path.

2 Developing strategies for the prevention of disruptive behaviour.

3 Improving interventions and behavior correction in the classroom.

4 Acquiring emotional intelligence skills that can be applied in conflict situations.

5 Promoting positive communication styles and positive patterning.

6 Promoting the development of supportive and guidance relations between teachers and students.

Course Programme

Day 1 (5 hours)

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF EMOTIONS!

Getting to know each other and introduction to the course
Establishing the common agreement: Goals, expectations and fears related to the course
In the world of emotions: definition of emotions and reflection on the importance of the emotional factor for the appropriate personal development and education of children and teenagers

Day 2 (5 hours)

LET’S TURN ON THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN…

When we start to feel instead of thinking… Building the fundaments: school free of stereotypes and discrimination. The importance of a friendly and supportive school environment
Getting to know what are the basic emotions and how our emotional brain works?
Getting to know SEL model (social-emotional learning)

Day 3 (5 hours)

ANGER AND DISGUST IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Finding an emotional balance: using stress reduction and relaxation methods in order to help students control their behavior and increase relationship skills

Day 4 (5 hours)

FEAR AND SADNESS IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Implementing emotional education in problem solving processes: non-violent communication method in school environment
Getting to know how to recognize feelings, needs and expectations in order to solve the problems and make the daily communication in the classroom better

Day 5 (5 hours)

HAPPINESS AND SURPRISE IN THE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

How to correct pupils?: Developing skills in order to correct/ provide feedback in a positive way
Getting to know the techniques of emotional education in order to increase self-esteem and self-awareness of students
Evaluation of the course and the experience gained