empathy | Robin Neal

Tag Archives: empathy

Philanthropy in the Classroom: Tech Tools for Empathy and Service

Of course, love belongs in our classrooms. Students learn best from teachers whom they know truly care for them. Teachers gladly go the extra mile for students who demonstrate a passion for a subject. Without working from a place of love, we cannot hope to develop empathetic, global citizens who care for one another. I strive to bring love into my classroom through daily actions, a patient heart, and a clear culture of respect, but I also infuse our curriculum with themes of social justice. The following sites and tools have proven helpful in this pursuit. No tech tool can be a panacea, but these are good places to start. They can help us infuse love for humankind into our daily work with students.

Kiva.org is a microlending site that allows everyday people to loan to other everyday people. Kiva works with microfinance institutions around the globe to ensure that those requesting loans actually receive the funds, and when the loan is repaid, users can either donate the money to another user or take it back.

In my classes, I tell students about the site, ask them to explore the stories, and select people to whom we should donate. I then collect a dollar (now a Euro) donation on a voluntary basis. Some give nothing. Many give more. The money is then “kept in rotation” as it is repaid, and new donations are added to the communal pot.

Kiva is a very concrete way for students to practice empathy and gain experience in directing where their donations go. I look forward to seeing how we can grow our donation pool, and it will be a nice legacy for each group of students to leave for the next year’s students.

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Tags: #charityintheclassroom, #dogood, #doinggood, #philanthropy, #philanthropyintheclassroom, #socialjusticeedu, #studentphilanthropists, #youmatter, empathy, modern slavery, socialjustice

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Categories Building Class Community, Social Justice

Visualizing One Million

10 May

To help my students care about one, I try to get them to picture one million. Big numbers are really big…too vast to properly understand without help. This activity can be used in any situation where students would benefit from grasping big numbers, but I use it as an opening exercise in our study of The Diary of Anne Frank.

In this situation, understanding the expanse of one million helps students begin to comprehend the vastness of six to 12 million, the estimated number of people killed during the Holocaust. When students have a nascent, sobering understanding of the horrific scale of this genocide, they approach our study of Anne’s diary with more care, solemnity, and empathy. I emphasize the privilege and duty we have to explore one small part of one life. In doing so we begin to understand the immeasurable loss and, hopefully, do what we can to ensure something like this never happens again.

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Tags: #annefrank, #engchat, #teachingempathy, #thediaryofannefrank, #visualization, #youmatter, classroom_example, empathy, English, pedagogy

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Categories English, How To, Pedagogy, Social Justice, Uncategorized

Teaching in a Boston Classroom: “This State of Grace”

20 Apr

Through the filtered lens of my classroom, I have lived through terror before. Fourteen years ago to the day, as a beginning teacher in suburban St. Louis, I watched the dark horror of Columbine snake through the classroom T.V. I can still easily conjure the slithering shock we all felt when the Towers fell. My father, a commercial airline pilot, was flying that day and the dread I felt during the few hours it took to learn that he was O.K. will always be with me in some way. Without any real effort, I can play, on a mental loop, my colleagues’ dumbfounded reactions when their former neighborhoods in London and Mumbai were attacked.

This week has been different. The bombs at the Boston Marathon exploded only two miles from my doorstep. My neighbors and I spent yesterday “sheltering in place” as authorities searched for one of the suspects. Thankfully, nobody in my immediate community was injured in the attacks, but, of course, all Bostonians are affected.

This morning I woke up thinking about those who died: Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Martin Richard, and Sean Collier. I prayed for all those who have lost limbs, for those who must carry the mental and physical trauma of these events. I mourn for those families who must bear the tragedy of these surreal days in more immediate and lasting ways. I suppose my reactions are not any different than millions of others.

As a teacher, however, I cannot help but process this senselessness by considering how it will shape my interactions with my students. Inevitably, when people meet me and learn that I teach, I get some sort of comic empathy…something along the lines of, “Oh, man! I could never do what you do. You must be so worn down.” I always politely respond with something like, “Actually, I really love my job. Being around optimistic young people every day fills me up. I’m really thankful that my life’s work is not about making money. It’s hard work but it’s rewarding.” Yet, that reaction is sometimes a lie. I do get worn down.

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Tags: #bcds, #bostonmarathon, #Bostonstrong, empathy, Neal

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Categories Uncategorized

T.V. as Text: Secret Millionaire Essay

8 Dec

I will not shock fellow English teachers when I write that most of my students watch television more often than they read. I’m not complaining. I actually think the current generation of teenagers reads more often than the previous one…thank you, Ms. Rowling.

I have, however, been thinking about how I can use my students’ love of T.V. to make them more critical, artistic writers. If I can help them become more empathetic human beings in the process, then maybe I will finally get into Gryffindor.

In recent years I have asked my students to write about ABC’s show Secret Millionaire. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, a millionaire goes undercover for the week, posing as a regular person who happens to be making a documentary about volunteerism. The millionaire visits an impoverished neighborhood and volunteers at charitable organizations within the community. At the end of the week, the millionaire returns to the organizations, reveals his or her identity, and leaves a fat check.

As a way to help students develop skills of persuasion, organization, and communication, I assign this essay. They write to their fellow students, and I ask the most successful writers to submit their pieces to our school newspaper and other online sources like teenink.com.

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Tags: #bcds, #engchat, #secretmillionaire, best_practice, classroom_example, empathy, English, essays, Neal, pedagogy, reading, socialjustice, student_work, writing

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Categories Classroom Examples, English, Reading, Social Justice, Writing

Do Your Students’ Work

10 Nov

When teaching AP or IB English, one of the most useful things I did each year was to write at least one of the essays I assigned my students. I would select a textual response prompt I had never seen before and, within the same time constraints set on the students, I would read, analyze, and respond. I would then slip my anonymous response in with the model essays we used during review. It was always humorous and enlightening to hear my students praise and criticize my work, and once I revealed my response, they were always appreciative that I had put myself “out there.”

As teachers we can easily fall into the trap of forgetting the messy, recursive and challenging process of learning. As we repeat lessons throughout the day or re-read books each year, we remove ourselves further from the inevitable struggles inherent in any learning process. To heighten my empathy for my students’ challenges and to model good learning in action, I often do my students’ work. I try, at least once a term, to complete one of my own assignments.

I gave an Ignite speech right along with my students. An Ignite speech is five minutes long, and the speaker creates 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. I have never given such a speech, so I knew I needed to do it as well. I’m glad I did. Had I simply assigned it, I never would have understood how difficult this format really is.

I easily invested six hours into my five minute speech, and I even had to take a “mulligan” when delivering the speech to the class. In the end, however, I am happy with the results.

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Tags: #bcds, #ignite, #publicspeaking, best_practice, classroom_example, empathy, English, Neal, pedagogy, public_speaking, speech, student_work, YouTube

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Categories Classroom Examples, English

Paper Airplanes for Freedom: Who Cares?

3 Nov

Most teachers would probably naturally intuit this, but carting 20 students to downtown Boston so they may throw paper airplanes at strangers is probably not a good idea. Too many things could go wrong, and why, exactly, would they want to do this in the first place?

I was cautious, but I really care about putting students’ ideas at the forefront of learning, so we executed this harebrain idea anyway. It did not go so well. And, it was a huge success.

How can it be both? First some background….We used CNN’s Freedom Project throughout the term as one source for our research on modern slavery. One posted assignment, Paper Airplanes for Freedom, intrigued us. It is pretty simple: make a paper plane, write messages of solidarity on it, launch it, and encourage those that pick it up to do the same. It’s a novel way of spreading awareness. More slaves exist in the world today than at any point in human history….27 million by some counts.

As we brainstormed our own ideas for raising awareness, the students had an overwhelming urge to create a public action. During the idea generating and iteration phases, “Paper Airplane Flash Mob” rose to the top. The students and I thought it represented a chance to grab people’s attention and make a lasting impression. We also thought we could execute it relatively easily.

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Tags: #designthinking, #youmatter, atlantic slave trade, authentic_audience, best_practice, classroom_example, empathy, English, harriet jacobs incidents, incidents in the life of a slave girl, modern slavery, Neal, pedagogy, socialjustice, student_work, trans atlantic slave trade

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Categories Building Class Community, Classroom Examples, Design Thinking, English, Social Justice

27 Million Dots (or Why Design Thinking Is Worth the Extra Effort)

27 Oct

As I sat in line waiting to buy some blue paint and Goo-b-gone, the time creeping past 8:00 p.m., I thought, “Does any of this really have anything to do with English class?” This year I began my sophomore English classes with a project on modern slavery, and even though we moved on to topics like Gatsby’s impossible dream and the nuances of parallel structure, the Modern Slavery Project is still going, taking more and more of my time.

This re-occurring unit is one of which I am very proud. I have written about our work in the past, and every year I attempt to reboot this project, I start by showing past work and asking, “Now…what do YOU want to do?”

For the past two years this has meant tweaking the basic pattern from previous years: students research an aspect of modern slavery, create a video PSA, and write letters to various organizations and individuals, all the while making connections to Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. This work is always engaging, interesting, and original, but this year I pushed my students to think about ways to amplify their voices and increase their impact.

I utilized some design thinking training that is part of Beaver’s in-house professional development. I built in more time to INSPIRE (a research stage of the design process), and we took our ideas through a longer process of iteration. My students were particularly keen to take our work beyond the classroom walls, and they devised some novel ideas to do so:

27 Million Dots: Make Your Mark

One section transformed a three story hallway in the building by painting 27 million dots to represent the total number of slaves in the world today. This idea is inspired by Paper Clips, the documentary about children at a Whitwell, TN middle school collecting six million paper clips to represent the six million lives lost in the Holocaust. The students generated many ideas about how to best create a physical representation of such a large number, but the plan that emerged as most “doable” and having the most impact was the dots.

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Tags: #bcds, #designthinking, #youmatter, Beaver, best_practice, classroom_example, empathy, English, harriet jacobs incidents, incidents in the life of a slave girl, Neal, public service announcement, socialjustice, student_work, trans atlantic slave trade, YouTube

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Categories Classroom Examples, Design Thinking, English, Social Justice

Little Things Add Up and Other Life Lessons

18 Sep

I begin each week in the classroom with a Life Lesson. These lessons typically last five minutes, but my goal is to share with students some truth I hold dear. This week’s lesson: Little Things Add Up.

A few years ago Steve Bergen, while teaching at the Children’s Storefront School in Harlem, NY, started a Billion Penny Project. The idea began as a math lesson and quickly blossomed into a novel fundraising campaign. CBS picked up the story and ran this piece. I was part of the campaign and even made a brief appearance on national TV. Blink and you will miss me; I am in the red sweater:

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Tags: best_practice, classroom_management, empathy, flipped classroom, harlem ny, pedagogy, steve bergen, storefront school, worthy school

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Categories Building Class Community, Classroom Management, Life Lessons

Building Class Community: Role Call Questions

23 May

Most of my best classroom ideas come from students. As a young teacher, I was wise enough (and desperate enough) to ask them what they liked about their favorite teachers. I was confident in my own bumbling, so I wasn’t fishing for false compliments. I KNEW their favorite teachers would be somebody else.

My students—luckily—were honest and kind and eager to share teaching practices they enjoyed. Like every new teacher, I struggled with classroom management and daily lesson planning. I was devoted to the idea that a teacher’s primary responsibility is the delivery of curriculum. I did not allow for any wasted time in the 45-minute period. I planned every second of class.

Fifteen years later, I’m still this way. I plan out every moment of class, but now I know to welcome (and even engineer) tangental moments where we throw out my plans. Role Call questions are one of the most productive ways to steer off course. Continue reading →

Tags: best_practice, collaboration, empathy, English, pedagogy

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Categories Building Class Community, Life Lessons

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Robin Neal

Teaching in a Boston Classroom: “This State of Grace”

Do Your Students’ Work

Little Things Add Up and Other Life Lessons

Building Class Community: Role Call Questions

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