Supporting Teachers, Reaching Kids, Educating Antiracism:

Introduction

There are over 6 million confirmed cases of CV19 in the world, and getting near 400,000 people who’ve died. So there’s a very serious threat to physical health. At the same time, there are 10s of millions of people experiencing a threat to their emotional health.

A teacher recently wrote to me about their experience of teaching during the pandemic: “Every day I feel like a failure. I can’t do the actually important part of my job. I can’t actually reach my kids.” On today’s show, we’ll address the emotion burden educators, students, and parents are carrying now… and how this connects with racism and the uprising in support of Black Lives Matter.

Key questions in this episode

• What makes the shelter-in-place situation so difficult for educators and students?
• In the US, and in many places around the world, there is a painful level of polarization. Last week we saw an intense level of pain and anger about the deep, systematized racism and inequities in the US. How is the pandemic response contributing to this problem?
• Before the pandemic, we were already concerned about the emotional wellbeing of educators and students — so aside from the pandemic, what is one of your concerns about the emotional wellbeing for students, parents, and educators?
• What’s one thing that’s giving you hope?
• What is social emotional learning?
• As educators, what are you doing right now to foster emotional wellbeing for educators, students & parents?
• How is the pandemic and pandemic response making that harder?
• Is there anything that you’re finding is actually EASIER or better right now in terms of growing emotional intelligence in the world?
• What are you seeing that’s working to support educators and students with social emotional learning at a distance?

Background

Teachers are in the thick of a heartbreaking challenge – “their” kids are suffering from isolation, stress, and all too often from an unsafe or unstable home, and the teachers are stuck at home. At the same time, teachers are grappling with their own stressors, navigating uncertainty, parenting, isolation, disruption. While academic topics can be delivered online or even by radio, it’s far more difficult to build a safe, supportive classroom community. 

While we can’t solve all these challenges today, we can offer inspiration and strategies. In an informal online dialogue, we’ll get real about the challenge, and then identify practical methods.

• What is the emotional health burden educators and their pupils are facing today?
• Can social emotional learning occur remotely? How?
• What can everyone, including the teachers themselves, do to grow and practice emotional intelligence in this time?

As a recent article in the Pediatrics Journal of the American Medical Association pointed out, children’s wellbeing is one of the corollary dangers from pandemic response. Tens of millions of children, parents, and educators are facing these challenges – can emotional intelligence help?

Join this practical conversation with global experts on emotional intelligence and coaching. Hosted by Joshua Freedman, CEO of the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network, and internationally best-selling author of At the Heart of Leadership.

Part One: What are educators & kids facing in the pandemic? 

1. Dimitri Christakis, MD MPH, an Epidemiologist, Pediatrician, and Parent,  is the George Adkins Professor at the University of WA and Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.  His laboratory focuses on strategies to optimize children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development.
2. Marc Brackett PhD, is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University; creator of the RULER program for social emotional learning; and author of the new book, Permission to Feel.
3. Cristy Guleserian – Director of Principled Innovation at Arizona State University, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, has spent the past decade working collaboratively with educators, learners, parents and community partners to create learning environments that nurture social and emotional well-being.
   
4. Natalia Herrera, Alumna of Teach for All network is collaborator at the Spanish Association of Second Chance Schools, based in Spain. . She studied Industrial Engineering and she has a master’s degree in teacher training. Now she mixes her passion for education with engineering leading projects focused on training and evaluation of soft skills in young people. For her next projects, Natalia is interested in combining the benefits of emotional intelligence education through food justice.
5. Michael Eatman is a Certified Diversity Professional, Executive Coach, Advanced EQ practitioner. Michael utilizes his EQ expertise to ground his diversity and educational leadership work. With Michael’s guidance, governing leaders of institutions have expanded their understanding of how emotional intelligence and diversity awareness help give organizations a competitive edge.

Part Two: Social Emotional Learning at a Distance 

1. Anabel Jensen PhD, educator of educators, pioneering author of one of the world’s first social emotional learning programs, Anabel is 80-years-young and bursting with innovation for education that activates the brain, ignites compassion, and equips kids with the most essential skills for a vibrant future.
2. David Adams, Director of Social-Emotional Learning at The Urban Assembly and serves on the Board of Directors of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). In addition, David served on the Council of Distinguished Educators of the Aspen Institute’s National Commission of Social, Emotional and Academic Development (NCSEAD).
3. Macarena Arribas, CEO and founder of MAB Your Learning Coach, one of Latin America’s only complete resources for academic AND social-emotional learning — offering all of Peru’s national education requirements, online.
4. Henry May, alumnus of Teach First UK, is the founder of Coschool, one of Colombia’s leading organizations on SEL, as they prepare children, youth and educators from all over Colombia to face real-life personal and professional challenges of the 21st Century through social & emotional learning programs. Coschool is one of the HundrED (Finland) 2020 collection of 100 education innovations from around the world.  
5. Maria Tope Akinyele PhD is the founder and Lead Education Consultant of Agiri Learning, an organization that has helped hundreds of school leaders and organizations embrace, strategize, and enact positive change.  Maria is a Professional Learning Strategist, Organizational Development Specialist, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Teachers College. Maria specializes in designing culturally responsive, positive, and constructivist approaches to learning and leadership.  She desires to help awaken the inner gifts within all people–leaders, educators, and students–all over the world. 

Moderator: Joshua Freedman, cofounder and CEO, The Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network, working since 1997 toward a world with more EQ. Josh is a Master Certified Coach and author of the best-selling At the Heart of Leadership

Related articles

https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/55912/with-school-buildings-closed-childrens-mental-health-is-suffering

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2020/05/15/its-not-childrens-education-we-should-worry-about-its-their-mental-health/