Building Empathy Muscles in the Classroom
Teaching is easier when your students look out for each other, connect with each other, and can self-regulate when challenging situations arise. That calls for empathy. Building empathy requires opportunities to practice, learn, and make mistakes in a safe classroom environment. Here are some ideas to increase empathy in your classroom:
- Practice naming feelings. When a student is upset, you can connect before you respond by saying, “You seem upset and….”
- Teach emotional language. You can use an activity like Sad Mad Scared Glad in the Positive Discipline in the School and Classroom Manual as a starting place. The manual