Today's workshop was fascinating and gave me a lot to think about. Throughout the day I found myself being reminded of Responsive Classroom- so much of the Mandt method supports the same theories and ideas taught in RC- understanding your student's basic needs and making sure they are met, pre-teaching your expectations, and being aware of your own teacher language. Not to say if you have RC training you don't need Mandt and vice versa- but the two truly go hand in hand. It's always reassuring to see common themes and philosophies across trainings- it reminds you that you're doing the right thing!
A few quotes from today struck me.
"I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in my ______ (as teachers we'd fill in classroom). It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make _____ (student's) life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is MY response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or dehumanized." ~Dr. Haim Ginott (1956)
"A person is a person through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanize you, I inexorably dehumanize myself." Desmond Tutu, 2000).
2 comments:
That's the trouble with quotes.
They strike a chord at particular moments when really the person was talking about something else.
I try to always reassure myself that primary school children are surprisingly more adaptive than older students because all they really think about is themselves 24/7.
If you hear of any good books on Mandt, would you let me know? I need to learn some new things in this area.
jan
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