Empathy - Part 1

I really love this definition of empathy...

Seeing with the eyes of another,

Listening with the ears of another,

and Feeling with the heart of another.

Empathy is a really hard concept for children to understand. I think this definition explains it well in kid terms. 

I started a 2-part lesson on empathy with 3rd graders this week. In the first lesson we discussed that empathy means to be able to understand another person's feelings and emotions. To help us understand peoples feelings, they give clues and cues of their feelings with their facial expressions and body language. We need to be able to "read" those clues and cues. We also have to appreciate another person's perspective/point of view (I put on giant glasses when talking about perspective). 

To practice reading facial expressions and body language, I used the "Expression Arcade" iPad App (see below). The app has a spinner that shows an action and a feeling that must be acted out. I had students get into pairs. One of the students in the pair had their back to the SMART Board so they couldn't see the spinner (I used an apple TV to mirror my iPad on the SMART Board). The other student was facing the board to see the spinner.  The student facing the board had to demonstrate the action and feeling that was displayed. The other student had to guess how they were feeling based on the clues and cues their partner gave. When they guessed correctly, they shared what clues helped them determine the feeling and then they switched places. 

We discussed why it is important to read other people's feelings and emotions in order to empathize with them. Understanding the other person's point of view/perspective is equally important. Everyone experiences things differently and understanding their perspective will help us to have empathy for them.  

We will continue in Part 2 of this lesson in a couple of weeks when we will practice our empathy skills.  Stay tuned for that post.

I give a newsletter after every lesson so parents know what we discussed and how to reinforce concepts at home. The newsletter for this lesson is shown below. I realize that I haven't been posting about lessons much so I will try to start sharing more of my lessons in the future.

~Emily

Aha Moment!

As I was reflecting on a Social Thinking Group (stay tuned for more about this)  I met with today, I started thinking about the group dynamics and everyone's participation, or lack thereof. I have one student who rarely talks about his difficulties and I am having a hard time figuring out if he truly doesn't see how his actions affect others or if he is just embarrassed to talk about it in front of the group (who have NO problem talking about themselves). So I got to thinking about how I could get into his brain.

I am having teachers complete rating scales about these students. I talked about this in the post, Counseling Group Effectiveness. My Duh Aha moment came when I thought about the students doing the same rating scale but as a self-assessment.  I changed the wording a bit and voila, a self-assessment! I have a few chrome books and iPads in my room so I am going to have the students do the the quick Google Form before we start the group each session.  I will be able to gauge how they view their own behavior compared to the teacher's point of view.  Plus, I will have some talking points at each of our sessions that are specific to each student. I will be the only person who will see the results so hopefully I can get them to be completely honest.

I have a younger group working on self-control and school skills that I thought I could do the same thing only simplify the language on the form.  I have a picture of both self-assessments below.

If you have any great ways that you are using Google Docs, please share!

~Emily

Counseling Group Effectiveness

In an effort to become more strategic and effective with my groups, I have created a questionnaire using Google Forms for teachers to complete.  Three times per week, teachers will score their students using a rating scale.  I can now track how my students are doing "generalizing" the skills I have taught them.  Below is a screen shot of one of my questionnaires. When the info is sent to the spreadsheet, I can quickly see the kiddos who are "getting it" and those who need more support. I can also determine which area I need to work on the most. I use the data as criteria for graduation from the group. Plus, having data during meetings is a bonus!

We use Microsoft Outlook so I created an invite, copied and pasted the link inside and set a reminder. A reminder pops up for the teachers at the end of the day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  All they have to do is click the link and complete the 4 question survey.  Easy Peasy!

Namaste'

I have been using yoga a lot this year with a wide variety of students. The benefits are wonderful. Not only are you teaching valuable skills, like calming, but you are making students aware of their bodies. I particularly like using it with my counseling groups that are focused on self-control. It takes self-control when you are doing yoga to do the poses correctly.

I found a site that has a huge array of yoga videos (and other movement videos). The videos can be using to energize the tired kiddos and calm the energized ones.  Click on the link below to check it out!

Go Noodle

Calming Tool

I feel like my mind never shuts off to what may help my students. So, while shopping at Home Depot, I spotted these bendy looking things. My kids and I all grabbed them and began twisting and bending. These little things are awesome! My next thought was how I could use them in my counseling program. I bought 4 at $1.00ish a piece to give them a try at school. Needless to say, I just went back and bought a 12 pack for $19.99. The kiddos at school love them and they really do the trick when someone is upset. They fit into a pocket so you can always have one on hand. The pack that I bought has various sizes. I highly recommend these cheap little calming tools!

The Anti-Coloring Books

I recently purchased The Anti-Coloring Book and The Third Anti-Coloring Book (they came in a pack so I'm not sure why I didn't get the 2nd one). I was flipping through them and they have some really good writing and drawing prompts. I think this will be a great way to get my students talking more.

I have one problem...there is no table of contents to know what the prompts are on each page. I don't know about you, but I have limited no time to flip through and read each prompt to find the one that works for a particular student.

So......
I typed a table of contents for each one to glue into the front of my books. I figured that some of you may be in the same boat so I thought I would share.  Enjoy!

The Anti-Coloring Books

~Emily

Integrate Technology into your Lessons!

I love having technology at my fingertips and I am so blessed to be at a school that is technologically rich. Our PTO is amazing and has allowed us to purchase a wide range of tech devices. I am lucky enough to have a SMART board in my office as well as several iPads and Chromebooks. I use technology frequently when in counseling sessions with individuals and groups and for data collection.

My newest venture was to use student devices during a counseling lesson. I wanted to gauge how well my students understood the concept I was teaching (the differences between bullying, teasing, mean, and rude). I used a website called Socrative. I was able to set up a "quiz" to check for understanding. Every student had a galaxy tablet (reserved from our Library Media Center). I set the quiz to teacher paced so I could stop at each question and have a discussion. I also disabled student names because I had it displayed on the SMART Board. I could have a quiz with student names and not have it displayed so I could use it more as an assessment rather than discussion. Reports are available to view/print/email).

The students LOVED being able to use the tablets and it was a fun way to get them all engaged. Of course there are always glitches when using technology so we also had a teachable moment to "just roll with it"........2 lessons in one! If you have a tech lab, you could easily take a class there for a lesson.

If you are looking for a new twist on pre and post tests or just a way to do a quick check of understanding, I highly recommend using this site. If you try it out, please post below and let us know how you used it!

PS. I am sorry since it has been so long since I have posted...I will try to be better!