Week 8 -March 9th

  Takeaways: 

• I-statements need to be used to express how we feel without making the other person feel attacked or bad. Besides, we can also express what we would like to happen.

• There are three parts to everything we say. These parts are choice of words, tone of voice, and body language and there are three communication styles; passive, assertive, and aggressive.

• Anxiety is part of us and we need to name it, locate where we feel it in our body, talk to it and help it, ask it what it needs, and reframe.

Reflection:

We need to teach our students how to communicate properly, how to be assertive, and how to apologize. Teaching them I-statements is very important. We can tell them that instead of saying something negative to the person we are speaking to, we can say "I feel ____ when this happens." This way the other person does not feel attacked and good communication takes place. Besides, it is important to teach them to regulate emotions because when we get angry, we tend to communicate aggresively and it causes more problems. Sometimes we need time and it is better to say that you prefer to continue the conversation later when you feel calmer. Plus, emotional regulation is important for different factors in their lives; for example, when we are going to take an exam, we feel anxious and it is very common for people to tell us to "be calm," but we do not realize that be calm for an exam in unrealistic. Therefore, instead of trying to be calm for an exam, we can be excited which is a more realistic feeling for that situation.  

Activity in class:
An activity to in class to see how our students are feeling is to ask them to draw a mountain and draw where they feel they are, e.g., climbing or at the top and write things that are during the climb and at the top or going downhill.

References

Wallace, K. (2021). Conflict, Communication, Relating Nonviolent Communication [pdf]. 

Wallace, K. & Lewis, P.J. Chapter 3: Narrative. In Trauma informed teaching through play art narrative (PAN) Boston, MA: Brill/Sense.

Took Bullying Quiz (see on section "Tests and Quizzes")