MPTCA 2021

Lips set in a firm line and with shoulders tense, a student yells, “I’m not doing this stupid assignment!” as he throws his scribbler on the floor. Lessons are disrupted. Wouldn’t we enjoy it if our students could express themselves more calmly?

What if the young man was able to say, “Mrs. Libre, I’m really frustrated right now because I just don’t understand long division. It’s stressful because I’m afraid that I’ll get it a different answer than you and that others will laugh at me. I want to understand. Could you please show me how to do the division, again?”

Many students don’t have a strong feeling vocabulary and haven’t learned at home how to express what really matters to them without labelling, blaming, and venting. They are screaming for help in the only way they know how. It’s unclear and it hurts.

This session will give you a practical four-step process for helping students to identify and clearly express what matters to them in a way that promotes an ease-filled classroom learning culture: observations, feelings, needs, and requests.