After discussing the emotional pathway, I wanted to focus
more on positive emotions. Although we must understand negative emotions, I
would like to have a classroom where positive emotions happen involuntarily
when my students walk into the room. I love the idea of all students being enthusiastic
about learning every day, all day. By having the students feel safe and
comfortable in their learning environment, it will allow more opportunities to “fire
and wire” vital information. Although I am not teaching at this time, I would
like to incorporate breathing strategies as a morning welcome in my classroom.
Hopefully this will help the students to release any stress or anxiety from the
outside world. Also, after doing some further research, I would like to include
the concept of “mindfulness”. There is an article I found that discusses the
concept of mindful photography. The link to the article is listed below. In the
article, it discusses a lesson of having the students walk around campus and
take pictures of things that made them feel happy. The students would then
bring their pictures into the classroom to discuss different characteristics,
such as nature. I believe the article is geared more towards older students, but
I thought that it could be adapted to use with younger students. In the article,
I enjoyed the idea of using mindful photography in writing. Since writing can
bring up negative emotions in all students, I believe allowing the students opportunities
to use their own “happy” photos will increase positive emotions in the
classroom. Giving choices when using written expression in the classroom may
take away some of the stress, or pressure, students feel when having to complete
a writing assignment. A lesson such as this one would also be a great way for
the students to reflect over their own choices.
Where would you fit this into your curriculum Ashley? Just thinking about the pressures on teachers these days and wondering what standards, etc this can address.
ReplyDeleteI would try to create a writing unit that would incorporate photos that are personal to the students. For example, in the Common Core writing standards state that third grade students need to "write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences using descriptive details". I believe the students personal "happy" pictures could be used as inspiration to begin their writing process. I was thinking by making the writing more personal to each student, it could possibly alleviate some of the pressure and stress that writing can put on students.
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