The Emotional Classroom

Let me ask you a few questions.

How important is the emotional health of your classroom? Whose responsibility is the emotional health of your classroom? What has emotional health got to do with learning?

A few years ago I was at a real low point in my teaching career. I had stopped enjoying going to work. There were days when I drove to school and just sat in the car, not wanting to face the day. I had started thinking seriously about leaving and looking for a typical nine to five job. Talking to other teachers revealed that they also felt similar feelings to me. It was at a point of desperation that I discovered WBT. The first thing that caught my attention was when Chris Biffle said that the classroom had to be a place of fun. He said that without fun the children couldn’t learn. I realised that Coach was right but thought it was going to be impossible to make my classroom a fun house when even I hated being there.

I had to face reality and I couldn’t keep putting the blame on the rain, wind, curriculum or the students themselves. If things in my classroom were going to change and improve then I would have to change. I determined to return to school for the next term ready to implement some of the WBT strategies I had been reading about.

After the first week of term I was stunned by the change in the classroom. At first I didn’t mention the changes I had made to anyone in case it was just a honeymoon period. The end of the second week arrived and the mood in the classroom was continuing to improve. I couldn’t stop smiling. I even think I was feeling a little happy.

Here we are now, nearly two years later and I am a very different teacher. I love going to school. My classroom is such a fun place to be. The children in my class love coming to school evidenced in the drastic reduction to unexplained absences. I would love to share some of the WBT strategies that I believe have had such a huge impact on the emotional well being of my classroom.

To begin with we are going to look into the brain, as that is where Whole Brain Teaching starts. My understanding of the brain systems are very basic and open to correction.

There are two systems in the brain that impact on our emotional health, the Limbic System and the Reticular Activating System. Notice that they are both named ‘systems’, which means that you can’t just point to one part of the brain as being involved with the emotional health of a person. The limbic system includes the hypothalamus, hippocampus and amygdala.

The reticular activating system or RAS is a network of neurons that run through the brain stem connecting to other parts of the brain. The ascending RAS connects to the limbic system. Your RAS acts as a filter against all of the information we are bombarded with daily. Your brain can only process so much information at a time so your RAS filter only lets through things that it thinks important. The information that gets through the RAS filter can travel to the pre-frontal cortex, which is where thinking and learning happen. Positive things pass through and allow new learning to occur, negative things block new learning from occurring. Things that are fun pass through. Things that cause us to feel fear will stop the flow of learning. The fear response can be as a result of hunger, thirst, pain, shame, confusion, too much information or the speed at which new information is delivered.

If I want children to learn in my classroom I must provide them with an environment that is safe and fun.

Following are a few of the strategies I put in place.

·      The morning greeting. Students at school line up in a designated place each morning on first bell. As I walk to meet them I make myself smile, regardless of how I am feeling. I want each of my students to know that I am thrilled to see them at school. I make eye contact with them, comment on their new haircut, ask about their weekend or night etc. In the first few minutes I don’t mention any negatives, even if I see any, such as jewellery or lack of uniform. I will talk privately to the student about those things later.

·      Oh Yeah! This strategy is part of the WBT ‘Scoreboard’ procedure. When the class gets a point they all shout out ‘Oh Yeah!’ with a fist pump. It is a small moment in the day but it really pumps up the energy of the entire class. The whole class feels terrific and proud of themselves.

·      Scoreboard can also be used to lift the feelings in the classroom. If we are having a bad day I can work out a way for the class to get a point, have a cheer, and start feeling better about themselves.

·      Ten Finger Woo. When a student does something worth a cheer or recognition in a more meaningful way than simply saying, ‘Well done,’ you can use a Ten Finger Woo. I say, ‘Let’s give ________ a Ten Finger Woo.’ The class turns and looks at ________ and while wiggling ten fingers at the student they say ‘Woo!’ This is such a great strategy for making a student feel valued and proud. I liken it to an emotional hug. The look on a student’s face when they get a Ten Finger Woo is priceless.

I have only mentioned a few strategies and they are very small things, which only take a few minutes out of the day but bring about such a feeling of well being in the classroom. As I have continued with these strategies, the emotional health of the classroom has improved so much that parents have told me how much their child enjoys coming to school.

Let’s return to the questions I asked at the beginning of this post. How important is the emotional health of your classroom? The emotional health of my classroom is extremely vital to the quality of learning that will occur. Whose responsibility is the emotional health of your classroom? It is my responsibility and I will do what I can to see that emotional health is valued in my practice. What has emotional health got to do with learning? My minimal understanding of the Limbic and Reticular Activating Systems lead me to believe that learning will not be able to happen if a student is feeling threatened or fearful or unsafe. I want my students to know that my classroom is a safe place to be and that I will support their exploration in education. I will make their classroom a place of fun and laughter.