NVC and maths education
What does teaching math have to do with NVC?
Let’s start with how Not to teach non-violently:
“If you don’t learn math, you won’t get a job!” -This was my reply to a student in one of my high school classes in 2001 who asked “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Predictably, my reply did not go over well. At the time (15 years ago, Really??) I (think) I felt fed up with the kids lack of motivation, and they felt it. They even told me so. Problem is, that turned into a vicious cycle of me against most of my kids, rather than us cooperating as a community of learners, as I had imagined.
If I had known that my (un-intentional) seeking of validation from my work of teaching, and that essentially blaming my students for their learning difficulties was the source of my difficulty in teaching them, I might have been able to help them more, using Non-Violent Communication techniques, and SuperNanny classroom management, which I didn’t learn about until some years later.
“If you don’t learn math, you won’t get a job!” -This was my reply to a student in one of my high school classes in 2001 who asked “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Predictably, my reply did not go over well. At the time (15 years ago, Really??) I (think) I felt fed up with the kids lack of motivation, and they felt it. They even told me so. Problem is, that turned into a vicious cycle of me against most of my kids, rather than us cooperating as a community of learners, as I had imagined.
If I had known that my (un-intentional) seeking of validation from my work of teaching, and that essentially blaming my students for their learning difficulties was the source of my difficulty in teaching them, I might have been able to help them more, using Non-Violent Communication techniques, and SuperNanny classroom management, which I didn’t learn about until some years later.
(reposted a bit late from ShiraDest.Wordpress.com) Read, Write, Dream, Teach !
ShiraDest
17 March, 12016 HE