How can teachers ensure that students harness the power of negativity?

There is no better feeling than teaching others emotional intelligence!

Mr Castor

Having dealt with the awkwardness of my own shy emotions, it was not until I entered the teaching profession that I discovered the real me—thanks to my principled students. Learning about emotions at a young age will equip students with the fundamental life skills that will enable them to succeed in the future. 

Students need to know, experience and understand all emotions. They must have the confidence to talk about these feelings, particularly the negative ones. If educators exclusively focus on happiness, they may indeed alienate negative emotions, thus creating more generations that will suppress and hide their true inner feelings. Children learn best through example; and we teachers are no different. Express and show emotions with your students—both good and constructive ill feelings— and you will have created an organic environment where all stakeholders truly feel valued.

Life is one big roller-coaster—full of joys and setbacks. The key to how high one reaches along this emotional ride is not the ability to be happy all the time rather knowing how individuals can acknowledge, appreciate and harness the negative emotions that life throws at them. If someone is able to put the setbacks they encounter—and emotions attached to such events—to good use, then they are destined for greatness. Get the mindset right—by praising and promoting the expression of both positive and the often elusive negative emotions—and you are sure to be on to a winner.

Sample Slides from Planet Castor’s Pedagogical & Resource Toolkit

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The growing popularity of emojis makes our Emotional Roller-coaster resource a really useful one for casting out to learners. Once students have decorated their own roller-coasters with faces that depict their own life events, they can then communicate such experiences with their wider peers. It will help students to develop their own communication skill—an extremely versatile resource that not only can shape your team at the beginning of the year but also can be transferred to much language and character analysis that may facilitate other learning intentions that you plan for.

Teachers are trained and judged by their ability to disseminate knowledge, skills and understanding, to large audiences. Yet many of the resources contained on Planet PSHE, like those shown below, have been created as a direct result of what my students have taught me. Through my own student’s actions, they have shown me that if someone is confident to express and display emotions (and if they work in a trusting environment) then they will indeed excel in all that they do. Exploring emotions early will certainly have a telling impact throughout the year.

#planetcastor #planitpshe