[MUSIC] Our feelings come with us to work. Despite our best efforts and good intentions to show up for our students and colleagues, we simply can't leave our emotions at the door. When we try, they tend to leak out or leave us drained from the effort of showing a different feeling on the outside than we're experiencing on the inside. So what do educators' emotions have to do with our students? As we've seen so far in this course, our feelings affect our judgment. They impact how we perceive situations and how we understand others behaviors. Our feelings give us a window into why we connect more easily with some students than others, and why we may be drawn to support students that seem more like us. Awareness of such natural biases is the first step toward mitigating these effects. Next, we know that emotions impact how we communicate and teach. Emotions are contagious, a passionate teacher can inspire their students, while a distracted teacher may struggle with keeping students engaged. To stay aware of how we're feeling, we can ask ourselves if our emotional state is helpful to our current situation, and if not work on shifting our emotions to be in the most effective emotional place to perform in our jobs. Finally, we're the models of emotional intelligence for our students, this begins by setting the climate in our classrooms and schools. Students will define themselves inside of the emotional space that we create for both our classrooms and in our relationships with them. Modeling also means monitoring our own biases, so that we can see the other person clearly for who they are and what's going on with them, rather than as mirrors of ourselves or projecting our own emotions onto them. It's a step towards meeting our own needs in a healthy way, not making students meet our needs. Teachers who model emotional intelligence are also comfortable showing their students how to identify and manage emotions. For example, after getting some sad news that a colleague is ill, we might say to our students something like, I'm a little distracted right now, because I just got some sad news. I wanted to let you all know that I have that going on, but I'm going to do my best to be present with you during this lesson. One way I'll do that is by reminding myself how lucky I am that I get to see you all today. Emotional intelligence doesn't mean being happy all the time, it means understanding our own and others emotions and their value. For example, when thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic, we realize that we're all in the same storm, but we're not all in the same boat. Perhaps you have ample child care or don't have Children in your home, your school has selected a plan that makes you feel safe and you don't have family members who are sick or at risk. Yet daily coworkers and students you interact with are struggling, how do you balance your own comfort with empathy for others? Or you may be struggling with these areas, and have difficulty understanding why others seem to have it so easy during such a challenging time. Remember, classrooms and schools are places with many interpersonal dynamics at play. Race, religion, culture, gender identity, and socioeconomic status all influence the way people experienced situations, how they feel, and how those feelings are expressed and understood and sometimes misunderstood. It's our obligation to be aware of these differences, for example how the distribution of power and authority shapes our interactions. The sum of these interactions and how they are experienced forge identities and can lead us to us and other categorizations, labeling, and stereotyping. As educators, it's our job to not be complicit in this and to actively avoid these stumbling blocks. Mapping out the differences in each of our relationships is a process. Doing so can help us determine where identities overlap and how bonds can be developed despite them, bonds that are stronger and more conducive to the shared mission of teaching and learning. Wherever you are in the process, it has to involve questioning our initial interpretations off and reactions to others emotions. To ask about their feelings, be honest about our own, and be willing to try to understand the circumstances.
