Welcome fellow Recovering Traditionalists to Episode 172: Is Emotional Teaching a Thing???
Well here we are in September and it is the start of a new school year here in the United States! Actually we’ve been started for a while and it’s taking me a little bit to get back into the swing of doing this podcast again.
I always take a break during the summer months because life is hectic with our four kids and their sports schedules during the summer and trying to get back into the swing of doing the podcast has been a little rough on me. So I thought I’d start off with kind of just a little thing to ponder.
I was listening to another podcast and they were talking about Emotional Eating and for some reason that prompted me to think: I wonder if Emotional Teaching is a thing??
Like emotional eating, when we have just had a crappy day we want that comfort food. Like for me, I want the mac & cheese…maybe I’ll have some chicken strips to throw in some more protein and make it seem a little better for me. But really I just want a box of Kraft mac & cheese or even the Velveeta Shells & Cheese. I don’t care. But it just makes me feel comfortable. And in the moment I feel like “this is so good,” but then after I eat (probably the entire box myself) doesn’t feel so good. I started to think: is that sometimes happen when we teach? Especially in mathematics it is difficult to do all of these things that you often hear me talk about here on the podcast. About doing the number routines and asking kids to share their thinking and getting them to see connections between things and solving story problems and you know all the things that we talk about. It’s kind of a lot of work to do.
Do you ever have those days where it’s been a crappy day and you’re like I just want to give these kids a worksheet!
I feel like that is emotional teaching. And I want to ask, does that ever happen to you? It’s like our comfort zone…when things aren’t going that great we just want something that we feel like we can rely on. For me I think that worksheets were those things and sometimes we just want that comfort of: here just sit, be quiet, do a worksheet. And I’m not saying it’s bad or good. You know like in the moment it’s going to feel good and then you’re going to be like, “Man! I missed out on so many things we could have done today!”
But just like if you were emotionally eating, when I emotionally eat as well I try to give myself Grace. As long as I’m not doing it every day (sometimes that does happen) but I’m not doing it everyday all day. Every once in a while it’s okay.
So let me know in the comments of this video, or if you are watching it on the blog or wherever you’re at if there’s a comment section or if you get an email from me reply to the email, and tell me have you ever had those times where you emotionally teach? You just kind of throw in the towel and go print off a worksheet from Mathworksheets.com and say “this is what we’re doing today.”
All right, now we know that that doesn’t always Build Math Minds like we want to, however just remember practice is always good and as long as you’re not doing it all day everyday it’s all right. It’s not going to be the end of the world and tomorrow you’ll get back into it and you’ll be building number sense and helping kids see strategies around mathematics. It’s not all lost and you’ll get right back to it.
I’m excited for this school year to bring you back the podcast every week
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