TIDAL: Educating the Heart

Over the last few days, Children in Crossfire delivered its TIDAL: Educating the Heart training to a group of energetic and enthusiastic teachers. Our intern, Barbara, was there to take part. Here are her top 5 takeaways from the event:

 

  1. Teachers think about students holistically

I am a student and I have never spent much time around teachers outside the context of school. Listening to and sitting with teachers made me realise how deeply teachers care about their students and how they respect the complexity of students’ inner lives. I had never thought of teachers caring and imagining their students to be so multifaceted. It made me reflect on the teachers that I have had through the years and how they thought about and nurtured my and others’ emotional wellbeing and character without us ever recognising it.

 

  1. When it comes to serious things, people listen

One of the more powerful moments of the programme for me was during an activity where several teachers were playfully talking over one another, then one teacher spoke up about something that was hard for her to talk about and the room went utterly quiet; everyone intently listened. I felt like that was a perfect example of the ‘compassion in action’ we had been discussing throughout the entire day.

 

  1. Teachers are really good learners

Many of the teachers in attendance already do a lot of work around mindfulness and compassion. They had a wealth of knowledge about strategies and methods for pupil voice and empathy activities and lessons, but yet were still very open and excited about different ways of thinking about compassion and interconnectivity in a global context.

 

  1. Teachers know what will work for them

I counted all the years of experience between the 19 teachers in the room and cumulatively there was 332 years of teaching experience – 332! As we talked about lessons, they made tweaks according to the needs of their students, and that’s how it should work. The child and their needs should underpin every lesson taught.

 

  1. I want to be a student during TIDAL

I am an adult but the activities were fun and the conversations that they sparked were so beautiful and thoughtful that I really want to be a participant. I’m really excited on behalf of the students who will be touched by this programme.

 

If you would like to learn more about our TIDAL: Educating the Heart programme just click here. If you’re interested in taking part in some of our upcoming training events, you can find more information by following the links below:

Educating the Heart

Connecting Classrooms