Emotions Run High! Allow Time! | By: Committee for Children This is no understatement for the beginning of the year. We know that emotions for students, parents, and teachers are all over the place. It is important we as adults understand our own emotions and the emotions of others. The beginning of the school year is an opportunity for us teachers and our students to gain great emotional and social learning if we allow time. Allow time for: Greetings Every child wants to be greeted by their teacher with a smile. Please don’t be the teacher who says “No smiles until October”. Some of these students remember haven’t seen a kind friendly face in months. They’ve been yearning to be in an environment that nurtures them. SMILE! Song! Every morning after we sung “Good Morning to you” (to the Happy Birthday tune) the students would know that was a signal to show me they were ready to learn. Books were put away, hands folded, eyes on me, and mouths closed. At the beginning of the year we may sing the song three times. Our goal was to just sing it once through and have everyone ready to go. This was a great time to practice many social and emotional skills of listening, following directions, and self regulation. Asking “How are you?” Every morning I asked how my students were. Many times they responded with a thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumb sideways. Depending on my student language background I would try to integrate their first language during this time. It was a super simple way to teach the class to learn a new language and to help the child who may be an English Language Learner and feeling very uncomfortable more at ease. For instance, if I had some Spanish speaking students, I may say, “Buenos Dias, Como estan Ustedes? And then I would proceed to teach them how to say Bien, asi asi, or mal. If it was a language I was not sure how to pronounce or unfamiliar with I would talk to the child before hand to learn the phrases and then ask him/her if he could teach us or lead us. This was not only a simple way to create a safe environment, something that is crucial for social and emotional learning to take place, but it allowed my students to really think about their emotions. At this time we talked about how it was ok to have a bad morning, it was okay to feel just alright, or how it was great if they had a good morning. This was also a time where I shared my own feelings and examples and students could turn and talk and share their own feelings. I also shared that we hoped if it was a bad or okay morning that we hoped it got better and if it was great, we hoped it stayed that way! Connecting one on one In those first days it is especially important to go out of our way to begin on creating a relationship that will last all year through. Complimenting is a perfect way to build that connection. Spending time helping a child also builds that trust. Often time in those first days there is a lot of whole group explaining/rules/procedures so it is especially important that connecting is also occurring with the communicating. Writing home to the child’s parent about something great they said or did that first week will surely help. I always chose five kids a day that first week and sent an email to their families saying something positive about their child. For we must remember that parents emotions are high that first week too. Goodbye Beginning the day was a good time to check in to see how people are feeling but also at the end of the day. Saving time for a goodbye where there is time to reflect on the day allows for much social and emotional learning and growth to occur. At the end of my days I would always have my children either verbally share or write (depending which was appropriate) what they wanted to remember forever about the day. Not only did it allow them to reflect upon their day and all that had gone on, but it allowed them to have something right on the tip of their tongues ready to share with their families when asked at home. Allowing time, being present, and honoring emotions is crucial to creating that foundation of emotional and social learning at the beginning of the year. Our children deserver to get off to a great start! Understand emotions run high, talk about them, check in, and allow time for connections to occur. Let those first weeks be a beautiful beginning to a yearlong (or more) relationship between you the teacher and your students.