SCP Testimonials 3/5
On Social/Emotional Balance, Collaboration and Empathy, and Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
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SCP Testimonials 1/5 | On the Makerspace + On Flipped Instruction + On Grade Abatement SCP Testimonials 2/5 | On Technology + On Writing + On Reading SCP Testimonials 3/5 | On Social/Emotional Balance + On Collaboration and Empathy + On Critical Thinking and Problem-SolvingSCP Testimonials 4/5 | On Perseverance and Self-Efficacy + On Adaptability and Self-Awareness + On College and Career Readiness SCP Testimonials 5/5 | On Other Classes + On High-Stakes Tests + Other Reflections
On Social/Emotional Balance | Students reflect on the extent to which the course and classroom have impacted their social and emotional well-being.
On Collaboration and Empathy | Students reflect on our focus on empathy and collegiality as the "stuff of growth," including the extent to which they work with others to accomplish learning goals.
On Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving | Students reflect on the big questions we consider as a Humanities makerspace -- the problems we solve, individually and collectively, through creative and critical thinking.
More on Collaboration and Empathy
More on Collaboration and Empathy
This focus requires the alternative instruction and assessment systems we use, because true collaboration requires differentiation on an individual basis — not every time out, but often enough to demand the flexibility and framework of grade abatement:
I have talked about teaching my classmates, however, many of my classmates will often teach me things in this class (sometimes without knowing it). The majority of the time, we will work together on things and combine our knowledge and skills to figure something out/ get something done.
More on Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
More on Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
This is a separate skill in the profile-based assessment we use, but it obviously connects to everything we do. That’s how students view it, too:
I'd say that the biggest challenge we work to solve is to improve ourselves as people and writers. I already feel like my personal and academic lives have improved, so if I can say the same thing at the end of the school year, I'll be very pleased with myself.
Part of what’s on display in these responses is the freedom of choice, even when the choice is a poor one (“I do not feel that critical thinking is something I've been involved in”).
More on Social/Emotional Balance
More on Social/Emotional Balance
The Humanities starts and ends with empathy, and that’s obvious in these responses (“Topics like Empathy in this class, are preparing me for the real world because they are teaching me skills, not just facts, that will help my interactions with others”). What’s more interesting here is how many students struggle with stress and anxiety. There is a growing need to be a "trauma-informed school," as this timely report describes it.
Even More on Social/Emotional Balance
Even More on Social/Emotional Balance
This is what I wrote to a student who opened up, on the last day of school, about why she had missed so much work:
Thank you for sharing some of what's been going on. Some of the clichés you'd expect are meaningful -- that this will pass, that the future is often better -- but I'd rather tell you this: You never lost the ability to write, and you remain as thoughtful and insightful as ever. But trauma does terrible things to us all. It undercuts our best efforts and rattles our intentions, and it's hard, I find, to know what we remain responsible for in that traumatized state.
I hope you continue to write. I hope you continue to lean on those friends, who are very good people and, like you, are aware of how powerful it is to have that kind of support. When you can, ignore the folks who seem to find hard work easy, who profess not to be panicked about exams, etc., because they are often struggling as much as anyone. We all put on different faces.
The door to this space will always be open to you, too, if you need it.
The idea of trauma-informed teaching seems difficult to reconcile with everything else we're asked to do as teachers, but it's probably the most necessary shift we can make.
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