What Our Students Need Now:

Ambassadors 4 Education

A4E Perspectives~

As educators, we pursued our careers for a variety of reasons; yet, a common thread throughout all those reasons, is that of helping others.  Quality educators and quality education is wrapped in love, empathy, and compassion. 

We have spent decades focusing on process, procedures, structures, routines, and schedules. We have fixated on the HEAD of our students. 

• How much do they know/comprehend?
• How much to they retain/remember?
• How much do they apply/practice?  

These and countless other questions, drove us (as an educational unit) down a variety of paths to assess, strengthen and enhance instructional practice.  Focus has been placed on standardized learning, assessment, and accountability.  

Now is the time to change that focus and bring back a balance to the educational system.

During this time of pandemic, emotions for our students, families and colleagues are often mimicking a roller coaster ride, moving quickly and suddenly through variable emotions: Confusion, Apprehension, Angst, Rage, Euphoria, Comfort, Empathy, Sympathy, Compassion, Frustration, Courage, Innovation.

From our vantage point, EMOTIONS critically influence, impact and introduce creative approaches to the way we live, work and educate ourselves.

We agree with those who promote and propose that when it comes to education, we should focus on emotions and student-centered learning.  We believe, right now, we are building what life should be like for school. Now is the time to be creative and innovative to build the new educational system foundation on HEART.

Does it matter how many vocabulary words students learn, how many math problems they solve, how many essays they write during the pandemic? The global answer is NO!

Educators far and wide, let us reconnect with our WHY.

What every student needs to know, feel and experience is that they are LOVED, they need to experience EMPATHY from us, we need to engage HEARTS. What our students need most is:

~Love, Consistency, Humor and Acceptance~

Love

Students look to teachers to find the positive in things, options and opportunities to learn from failures, upsets, and barriers.

Consistency

Students look to educators for routines, structure and procedures/processes to make sense of confusion.

Humor

Laughter affords a student's body an opportunity to release and relax (even if only for a moment), engaging in fun, and approaching the present with humor provides both the HEART and the BRAIN the opportunity to take a moment and breathe.

Acceptance

Collectively, all of our students were not ready to learn prior to the pandemic, why would they be ready now in this unprecedented time?  Some of our students love school, some do not. For some of our students, school is a place of solace, for others it is a place of agony. It is our responsibility as educators to accept ALL students where they are, engage with them where they are, love them where they are, and guide them to where they want to be in the future.

Healing comes from the heart, now is the time to focus on teaching and learning from the HEART!