After starting teaching, it immediately became apparent that the job was incredibly complicated. Each of your 33 students would have a different relationship with the each of the other 32 students, and endless friendship groups with their own group dynamics. If you didn’t command their attention, persuade them to work, they would all soon start doing their own thing, usually to impress their friends.
Pyschology provided some excellent answers for understanding how both individuals and groups operate, and how to guide students to make better decisions. One particular resource that was of extreme interest is this TED talk by world leading scientist and author Lisa Feldman-Barrett
This TED talk provides an extremely useful insight into how our minds generate emotion. Any teacher or parent will be richer for having watched it, and it literally blows your mind in places.
I’ve recommended her work before and had the honour of having her feedback and thank me for my kindness in using her work. I had never spoken to her before (I had previously got very excited at her liking a couple of my tweets) but with a growth mindset, I created an opportunity to work with my hero. She thanked me for my kindness. The internet is an incredible thing full of incredible opportunities – all we have to do is commit to making them happen!
