HOW CAN WE REKINDLE JOY?
In the final moments of our latest Harkness PLC meeting, we found ourselves talking about how we are feeling after the first eight weeks of school. We commented that our students seem unusually passive, reluctant to speak up in class and appear generally "down" and out of sorts. Many of us also feel disoriented, isolated and overwhelmed. "We are just not able to spark off of one another like we used to," one teacher lamented and asked, "Where is the JOY?"
We delight in the joy when students drive the conversation during a lively Harkness discussion, and yet we feel deep loss and sadness this year as we are finding it harder to rekindle this energy for learning in our classrooms in the midst of the pandemic, a stressful election season and the coming of the dark days of winter. When the default orientation of the classroom is to have students sitting in rows facing forward and not being able to talk to one another as they are used to, the atmosphere is draining, not energizing. Yet this is the reality we must live with, and we will get through it together.
The film "Inside Out" invites the viewer to examine how emotions color our moods and how contradictory emotions can work in consort with one another. How many of the five basic emotions (joy, anger. disgust, fear and sadness) have you felt during the last month? My guess is all of them:
Daniel Goldman, author of Emotional Intelligence, urges us to focus on "doing what is meaningful" in our lives and to engage deeply in what brings us joy. "Acting on what really matters to a person is the antidote to burnout, " he writes. "Face what is happening. Ask what does it mean to me? What really matters to me now? Is there a way I can act upon what is meaningful to me? The news of the day can result in negative thought patterns- harsher judgements, blaming the victim and us-verses-them thinking. What really matters is the people we love and helping people."
We are more likely to rediscover why we are in this job and why we value Harkness if we reconnect with one another and our students, prioritize what content and skills are important to teach and strategize how to engage students in this material; this is what Aida is urging us to do. I sometimes say to students who are working on an essay, " What is most important to you? Don't give me the maple sap - boil it down to the maple syrup and then distill it further until you have the maple sugar-the essence of what you believe."
What is the maple sugar in our classroom practice? JOY. We don't "teach Joy;" Joy come to us when we are deeply engaged with learning about and doing what we love. By creating a classroom community that values student voice, active engagement and discovery, we can offer the opportunities for joyful learning.
JOY has to be at the heart of the classroom. The joy of learning lies at the center of the Harkness table. Rekindling joy in our personal and professional lives can help us support one another and our students.
Here is the recording of our session together on Thursday, Oct 29.
Here is the slide deck and here are the notes on teaching teamwork and soft skills that we brainstormed in small groups.
On the website Strategies in Classroom Dialogue there are numerous lessons and handout as to how to teach soft skills and teamwork- take a look at these for ideas and resources!
The Academy award for best short film goes to Vicki Hummer and Adam Sargent who coordinated this video entitled, What Not to Do on a Zoom Call" starring some HUHS teachers. It is a good resource (and a good laugh) for students and faculty alike.
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