Читать книгу The Courageous Classroom - Jed Dearybury - Страница 11

The goal of Courageous Classrooms is to help both students and teachers interact in ways that promote a courage-based mindset, develop a positive adaptation to trauma and fear, and realize that courage in the face of fear within classrooms is a necessary choice. This book will utilize three principles to illustrate three truths for students and teachers:

1 the power of story and narrative for self-awareness;

2 the role of educators as encouragers of students; and

3 the importance of a courageous mindset.

The framework for the book is:

 Teachers and students have stress, fearful experiences, and trauma.

 Fear and trauma inhibit learning and contribute to anxiety-linked conditions.

 Courageous classrooms promote healthy learning related to resolving conflict, eliminating bullying, and maximizing potential.

 A fear response can be modified by fear extinction, fear reversal, and cognitive regulation of fear by attending to it (thoughts), regulating it (visual imagery), and choosing courage (persevering through fear).

Teachers who are encouragers (embodying and instilling more courage) provide appropriate encouragement to their students as an important mechanism in response to pain and to facilitate their growth and learning. They provide value in the interaction with their acceptance, attention, and affirmations; insight by being sensitive to a student's present emotional level and sharing that insight with the student; and challenge students to build on past learnings about how they successfully handled a situation, to keep trying as they think, grow, and take positive actions. Teachers who are encouragers also constantly re-evaluate their own skills with the goal of building courageous classrooms and their own self-efficacy.

At the heart of this work is a belief that teaching needs to be done with empathy, compassion, understanding, and love. It is written with the sincere wish that educators continue to work fearlessly, because the welfare, education, and safety of their students is their primary concern. Teachers wear many hats, including those of counselor, disciplinarian, role model, and a friendly shoulder to lean on. Managing their students, empowering them, and keeping them safe in the classroom and halls of the school while doing their primary job as educators is not easy. Teachers are on the frontline, weathering the storm of student fears while managing their own in times of stress, anxiety, and conflict. The courage of educators is a beacon of light that we need to continue to shine brightly for students, and Courageous Classrooms will promote creativity, communication, compassion, confidence, freedom, connectedness, and courage over fear. Read and join the movement of courageous classrooms. Start a conversation.