Lesson 3

After watching the videos on Attention, Emotions and Learning, describe how this information impacts you as a teacher.


A teacher is with their students for a significant part of their waking hours.  This being the case the teacher is going to see a wide range of emotional reactions from their students.  Students will come to class "under the influence" of the experiences they have at home and outside the classroom.  Being aware that stress and emotion impacts learning can help the teacher use classroom time in productive ways.  Providing time for students to transition from one activity to another, to process the information they have been studying and to be creative can help students have a more engaged learning process.  Emotions effect everything we do.  By making the learning environment a nurturing one students are more easily able to focus their attention on learning.  Encouraging positive expressions and relationships among students as well as allowing for the safe discussion of emotions, fears and worries can facilitate a healthy learning environment.  Making sure students have the necessary resources can decrease the stress they feel when assigned a certain task which in turn makes it more likely they will be successful in the assignment.  Eric Jensen says in his book Brain Based Learning, "When we feel right, we can think better" (2008).  Realizing our brains are highly sensitive to our emotions enables the teacher to be aware of the emotions of their students and in turn influences their emotional reaction to the students' behavior. Being a positive emotional role model such as sharing  a love of learning, encourages students to have emotionally healthy reactions to learning.  Helping students identify the emotions they felt when reading a particular passage for instance helps to cement that learning in their memory.  

Students (and teachers!) are sponges and they will pick up on every verbal and non-verbal cue a teacher gives out.  Our facial expressions and attitudes will influence the student almost more than what we are saying.  Sending positive and encouraging messages to students will help them gain self-confidence in their work.  Providing the "Goldilocks" level of challenge - not too hard or they are frustrated and not too easy or they are bored - encourages learning and satisfaction which influences self-confidence.

One of my favorite quotes (though I am unable to remember the source) says that "Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire". My goal as a teacher is to light that fire of learning under a student so they want to learn both in and out of the classroom.  My job is not to just pump them full of knowledge but to help them make knowledge a part of them and a desire for lifelong learning.

Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning, the new paradigm of teaching. (2 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.