“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
A big thank you to all of the participants in this session. A big shout out in particular to Ashwini from Capital Montessori Preschool of our ECE community. Great to have everyone together. To frame up this session, and to put this in the context of future sessions we looked at Stephen R. Covey’s Circles framework. The complexity of our circle of concern raised questions about the challenges facing schools, and teacher capacity – this is a demanding job with lofty aspirations and can be a heavy load to carry emotionally. Some great questions emerged considering the importance of relational practices within our wider communities, and the challenge of ‘how to build relationships whilst doing the work?’. The tensions between the wellbeing of teachers and students, alongside organisational constraints, are big questions that will be good to explore further in future sessions. The groups discussed the relationship between our own behaviours (what we have control over) and intrinsic influences. How teachers and students manage themselves relationally within the classroom are influenced by a variety of factors. Hidden values and personal belief systems, emotional states and thoughts all influence behaviours. Teachers (and students) are also often triggered emotionally by the behaviours of others. The group looked at Nathanson’s (1992) ‘Compass of Shame’ and how the behaviours we exhibit, or see in students, are often ‘the acting out’ of responses to feelings of ‘shame’. With a greater awareness of some of the ‘warning signs’ we can be better placed to navigate these challenges with increased skills, kindness, and compassion. We rounded out the session by considering the shift from ‘Circle of Control’ to ‘Circle of Influence’ – a shift from teacher centred relationships to relationships between students. This has provided us with considerations to build into the next sessions around issues of exclusivity vs open inclusivity, creating opportunities for social connectedness, and some of the factors affecting individual students and their social isolation. The next session will offer an exciting opportunity to continue our journey towards building relational capabilities both for teachers and students.
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