After watching this weeks videos, it become evident to me that in the past, I may have targeted the mind instead of the heart when it came to implementing change into my classroom. These videos made me think of the professional developments that we have in our district. One in particular stands out to me. It was last year, when I was a first year teacher and they brought in someone who taught us about the emotional bank account. This particular PD stood out to me because he not only taught us how to make positive exchanges with our students to enhance the trust and willingness to learn, but the way he went presented the information was in a way that now I see was pulling at our heartstrings. The emotional bank account is beneficial when making change as well considering that most students are more willing if they trust you and know you care about them. This made me think of all the other professional developments I have been to that I have gotten nothing out of. Why is that? They didn't connect to my heart and so I wasn't buying into what they were presenting to me.
I think that many times we ignore the heart it's because people have the perception that emotion can cloud judgment and prevent us from finishing what needs to be done. I know that we have schedules and deadlines that we have to follow and maybe by only focusing on the head instead of the heart people think this will help us stay on track. I however, disagree, I think that if we want the students or anyone for that matter to do what we need them to do in the time we need them to do it, there has to be a level of trust and connection. That cannot be done by solely targeting the mind, we need to make an appeal to the heartstrings.
If we cannot answer the why when it comes to change efforts, I feel like no one would even try. To me, it's like what is the point of me changing, if you can't even tell me the reason for it? And if I, a 23 year old adult thinks that, then I'm sure my 5-6 year old students have the same attitude. Establishing the why can help create a sense of urgency, by providing a road map so to speak. I think if we figure out our why, it gives us an endpoint or goal to achieve. I think that once we have our "Why," we can figure out where to go from there and how to accomplish our tasks.
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