When reflecting on what I learned during this professional development day, I noticed one commonality between all of the workshops I attended: the theme of emotion and feeling. During the Authentic Learning for Global Sustainability workshop, the feeling of empathy was brought up (during discussion in the chat) because when we have a connection to place/our surroundings, we begin to feel empathy for that place as well. Feeling and our emotions associated with the environment around us is therefore something that will facilitate positive shifts and progress regarding climate change. The hosts of this workshop asked all of us listeners if we would feel comfortable talking about climate change with our students, and not everybody said yes to this question. The hosts then explained that everyone should feel comfortable with this topic, and their goal is all about trying to help people reach a feeling of comfort with the topic of climate change. This observation taught me even more about the relationship between emotion and creating environmental sustainability: we as teachers must allow ourselves to feel vulnerable and uncomfortable in order to get to the point of comfort. Noticing the feeling of being uncomfortable in the classroom deserves attention and awareness; that feeling is trying to tell us something. Whether an emotion is telling us it is time to step away from something or whether a feeling is trying to tell us that we need to step out of our comfort zone and learn something new, that will be up to us. Feeling and emotions give us roadmaps or signs as to what to do or where to go next within a classroom, and so giving our feelings attention and awareness has been a huge takeaway and lesson that I have been thinking about and learning about a lot recently.

Similarly, during the Place-Based Education and the Place-Based Mental Health workshops, the importance of emotion was brought up again. Shirley Giroux, the host of the Place-Based Mental Health workshop, talked about how creating a vulnerable, open, and emotional connection with our peers at work is the key to experiencing wellness at work. One important takeaway that I got from this workshop (and has actually been a huge lesson for me throughout this entire year of 2020) is that even though we as individuals might feel isolated and alone in our struggles, there is almost always someone around you who is experiencing the same feelings. Allowing ourselves to talk openly about our emotions in professional relationships is therefore very important when it comes to our own learning, considering we are lifelong learners: “emotions are the primary gatekeeper to learning…positive emotions encourage, for instance, long-term recall while negative emotions can disrupt the learning process in the brain” (OECD, 2012). These workshops were a huge reminder for myself that creating a classroom environment where students feel willing and motivated to learn all begins with what is going on within ourselves. In other words, when we are in a state of wellbeing or in states of positive feelings like joy, gratitude, and excitement, those feelings will influence the rest of the atmosphere in the room. If we as teachers are not taking care of our own emotional wellbeing, how can we make sure that our students are in a place of emotional wellbeing?

Now what? What can I do with these insights that I have been thinking about? With my crazy busy schedule I have had lately, I have been less self-reflective in regards to how I am feeling and can tell that my anxiousness has skyrocketed. I know that I need to dedicate more time during each day to sit in stillness with myself and reflect on ways I can generate more calmness within me. I want to remember the takeaways that I have been thinking about this week, so that I can remember to do daily check-ins with my students at the beginning of the day to see how they are doing/feeling as well. Lastly, I want to remember to create monthly or weekly check-ins with my professional peers. Shirley Giroux suggested doing something like monthly dinners or creating book clubs with coworkers so that we as teachers are there for each other while we are also reflecting on how we are feeling in a continuous manner.

Many learning epiphanies for me this week. I enjoyed the C2C conference and will be excited to look back on this blog post in the future.

References

OECD. (2012). The nature of learning: Using research to inspire practice.

https://learn.unbc.ca/bbcswebdav/pid-138431-dt-

content-rid-923998_1/courses/50216.202005/50300814%281%29.pdf