Questions for Reflection

Question 1: Are the students in the middle school band class really taking risks when they play a rainstick or conduct?

Question 2: The elementary school teacher, Ms. Bijur says she emphasizes her role preparing students for learning, but we see only that. Does she ever actually teach content, or just spend her time resolving conflicts?

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Question 3: The racially mixed classroom seems to be preoccupied with conflicts that have to be resolved, while the essentially all-white music class seems to have no conflicts. Are we subtly saying that people of color are more likely to be involved in conflicts?

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Question 4: Some teachers think their job is to teach and the students' job is to learn, and there is no mention of developing relationships. The teachers in the video seemed to have strong relationships with their students. Why are relationships so important in developing emotional intelligence?

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Question 5: I'm not a mind reader! How am I supposed to know when students are experiencing emotions that are impeding their learning?

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Question 6: We all want to work in an emotionally safe environment, so how is the classroom any different from the entire school? Don't we want the whole building to be emotionally safe?

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Question 7: Teaching students how to manage their emotions seems to be a continuous process that may become the primary objective instead of the content I am supposed to be teaching. How do I keep required learning content at the forefront of my instructional day?

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Question 8: With 30 children in attendance couldn't my entire day be spent on solving emotional dilemmas preventing any significant amount of learning from taking place?

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Question 9: I understand that my student's emotions can block learning but wouldn't school psychologists and/or school counselors handle developing emotional intelligence better?

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Question 10: I like the idea of creating an environment where my students can take risks, however, most students are so cautious about saying or doing anything that may appear stupid. How do you create a classroom where students feel free to take risks that often turn out to be failures?

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Question 11: While watching the video, I saw how emotions impact learning but it is not clear to me how learning impacts emotions.

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Question 12: I watched with interest the segment where Kristin resolved a conflict between two students using conflict resolution. While the teacher was listening to the two students involved what was going on with the rest of the class?

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Question 13: The teachers created an emotionally safe environment conducive to learning but I only saw the results, not examples of how and when they did it.

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Return to Support Materials for Session 5.