Special Edition | Seth Pozzi -  Head of School

Emotional Intelligence
Why teach it to teachers?

February School-Wide Professional Development
As you know, Preschool closes early twice a year for school-wide Professional Development. Last month’s workshop: Emotional Intelligence (EI) in the Preschool Setting was led by Gwen Bagley, one of the preeminent experts on EI in Early Childhood Education. EI is the ability to utilize emotions and apply them to tasks, for example thinking and problem-solving during a highly emotional event or situation. Having the ability to manage emotions, including controlling your own, as well as cheering up or calming down another person is Emotional Intelligence.

At the workshop, Gwen outlined four key components of EI: self-awareness, self-management, managing distressing emotions, and social awareness. As adult learners, we tried out some tools to help us understand our own strengths and develop areas where we are less strong. We also looked at how “emotional hijacks” can get in the way of effective relationships.

Why do we need Emotionally Intelligent Teachers?
EI is critically important for Early Childhood Educators for two reasons:

• Reason 1 - Teachers with higher EI are more effective, have better parent-partnerships and make better decisions.
• Reason 2 - In order for teachers to help children develop EI, they must be able to model and discuss their own emotions with children. You can't teach if you can't do!

Emotionally Intelligent people know how to make the workplace, and the world, a better place. Daniel Goleman, one of the best-known writers and researchers on Emotional Intelligence (Why It Can Matter More Than the IQ) states that it is Emotional Intelligence that drives a person to excellence both personally and professionally.

Tips for Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Acknowledge Perspective and Empathize  
You can’t prevent (and actually wouldn't want to prevent) most conflicts, upsets, or injustices. But when your child is upset, empathize. Just being understood helps humans let go of troubling emotions. Empathizing doesn’t mean you agree, just that you see her side, too. Remember she is entitled to her perspective. Feeling understood triggers biochemicals that travel in the neural pathways. Each time you empathize with your child, you’re strengthening these neural pathways to learn how to self-soothe. As your child grows, these pathways will be stronger and allow her to eventually self-soothe without your guidance. As adults, it is not our job to solve the problem. Empathize, and if necessary, help your child reflect on how she might want to resolve (or not resolve) the issue.

Allow Expression
Children can’t differentiate their emotions and them-selves. Accept their emotions rather than deny or minimize them. Minimizing a child’s emotions creates a belief that feelings are shameful or unacceptable (e.g. "Boys don't cry..."). Disapproving of fear or anger won’t stop him from having those feelings but it may well force him to repress them. Teach that feelings are understandable and part of being human. Your acceptance helps your child accept his emotions which in turn helps your child to resolve and move on.

Teach Problem-Solving
Teach your child to feel emotions and tolerate them without always needing to act on them. Once emotions are understood and accepted, the feelings lose their charge and begin to dissipate. This leaves an opening for problem-solving. Children just need our help to brainstorm constructive solutions to problems.  With coaching, we can empower children to handle their feelings in a positive way. It is important to not problem-solve for your child, but to be a participant in their problem solving.

Leadership Notebooks
Every Student's Individual Learning Profile

I want to take this opportunity to share one of the most unique things we do as an elementary school to ensure that our students leave us as empowered learners: Leadership Notebooks. A Leadership Notebook contains each student’s unique set of goals, strengths, and growth opportunities. This allows students (even as young as TK) to take ownership of their learning and celebrate their unique strengths. A Leadership Notebook is simply a fancy word for a 3-ring binder, but its contents tell a wonderfully complex story.

PIGS & WIGS
When students are introduced to this concept, they can’t help but giggle and perhaps imagine a pig dressed in a wig. A “PIG” is a Personally Important Goal; this is a goal that students set out to reach that is personally important to them (e.g. getting better at playing the drums, getting to the next level in karate, scoring a soccer goal). A “WIG” is a Wildly Important Goal; these goals are set aside for academic growth and are directly school-related (e.g. growing by 2 reading levels, mastering multiplication facts, learning all 100 sight words). Our highly trained staff sit down with each student to establish goals early in the year and revisit them regularly. Students are learning at an early age that they can set and accomplish their goals. Teachers work with each student to set goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. This is a skill many adults are still working on! Throughout the adventure of elementary, our students constantly refine this skill, so that by the time they leave our program they are confident goal-setters (and achievers) who are able to approach complex situations and work toward incremental growth. Essentially, they become CEOs of their learning and development.

DATA
Data drives everything that we do at WHPS. But, data doesn’t necessarily mean multiple-choice tests and bubble-in answers. The data our students track in their Leadership Notebooks includes both “formative” assessments (during the learning process) and “summative” assessments (at the end of the learning process), work samples, and reflections about their learning and personal development. All of this data drives our teachers’ decisions and approaches to each individual student. By involving students in tracking and discussing data, we shift the conversation from a teacher or parent telling a student they’ve succeeded or (G-d forbid) failed, to instead leveraging a partnership in which students are involved in critical conversations about their learning.

CELEBRATION OF SUCCESS AND GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
Growing as a learner is not linear, it is filled with big jumps as well as occasional setbacks. Using Leadership Notebooks as a tool allows each child/family to celebrate successes and talk about areas that are harder. It can sometimes be more difficult for adults to watch their child struggle and experience setbacks, but children do not benefit from being successful at everything all the time. Ultimately, we are raising our children to be resilient, empowered, lifelong learners, and some of this comes from helping them learn how to overcome setbacks, disappointments, or even failure.

One of the most rewarding parts of my career is helping children build resiliency while we have them in a safe, protected environment. This approach is an incredibly powerful tool, which helps prepare our children to go off to middle school (and beyond) with the tenacity, grit, coping abilities, and communication skills necessary to succeed at complex and difficult tasks.

Hello Barnyard Friends!

Spring is here, and all the animals know it. Everyone is getting excited for the season, showing a lot more energy and enthusiasm.

Elementary has been full of exciting learning this month. In Evolution & Genetics, we learned about Neanderthals (another species of humans that lived right alongside us) including why they went extinct while we survived. In April, we are moving on to a topic our students have been asking about all year, hybrids! What exactly is a hybrid? Are they natural in the wild? Are they “better” than non-hybrids? All these questions and more will finally be answered!

Recently our Ecology classes learned about photosynthesis and the plant cycle; plants starting as seeds, growing roots, stems leaves, and flowers, and then producing more seeds. We then started our planting project in which each class planted a different herb. This month, we will learn about pollination and binomial nomenclature, the process of naming new species.

As expected, our Animal Care class had a blast in our poop lesson! It was a fun-filled day full of giggles and laughs, but we also saw just how important poop is to an animal caregiver. Poop can often be the first indication that something is wrong with our animals, so Mrs. Tanja and I keep a close eye on it here in the barnyard! With the end of the year coming up, our Animal Care class only has a few more lessons to go. Next up is learning the importance of record keeping and Ethograms. Ethograms are charts and diagrams describing an animal's behavior, or a group of animals. It is yet another way for Animal Caregivers to know if something is wrong with our animal friends.

Preschool has already been enjoying the weather in the Barnyard. We learned about baby animals and the different names we use when they are young: ducklings, lambs, or even poult for a baby turkey! Everyone enjoyed our “Chicken Mama Game” where we all made nests and laid some eggs, protecting them from the egg monster, Mr. Matthew. As we continue our spring lessons, we will be learning about plants and their five different parts, culminating with planting herbs for the animals!

Don’t forget to come by and visit all your barnyard friends. We even have some new friends in our Rabbitat that will be happy to meet you!

-Mr. Matthew and Mrs. Tanja.

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