Impact: the strong effect or influence that something has on a situation or person
As educators we are always being asked about the impact we are making in our schools and with our students. This is an important question because we have such a significant impact on both the school environment and the student experience. Regularly reflecting on ways that students are negatively and positively impacted by our attitudes, our words, and our interactions is important in creating a successful and thriving school environment.
If we could pause here for just a moment… I want to ask about you, the educator. How are you doing today? How are you feeling? How have your students’ attitudes, words, and interactions impacted you?
It is equally as important to check on how teachers are doing, as it is to check in about the students. Not only do teachers need to check in, but we need to make sure we are taking the time to process.
The Importance of Processing
Today we are going to discuss why we should process and how to process.
Process: To deal with something according to a particular set of actions.
Here are some helpful steps for processing the points of impact along your teaching journey:
- Acknowledge the feeling.
- Acknowledge the trigger.
- Lean into the feeling and learn from it.
- Ask yourself questions – do you like this feeling? Is it negatively or positively impacting your person?
- Decide on appropriate responses – counseling, journaling, exercise.
- Release the feeling, retain the lesson.
As teachers we are emotionally connected to our students and the school environment. Throughout the school year there are things that happen to our students impacting their behavior and academic performance. These things also impact us as teachers.
There are both positive and negative points of impact. Look at the chart below. How do these events make you feel?
| Positive | Negative |
| College acceptance | Illness |
| Sports achievement | Death |
| New student | Bullying |
| Acceptance to a performing arts or specialty school | Fight |
Begin Purposeful Reflection
Download the FREE Healthy Processing Packet and begin processing the points of impact you encounter year after year, day after day, class period after class period.
**Here is a teaser** Write down one significant point of impact. Next to it, write a corresponding feeling. Don’t think about it. Don’t try to be politically correct. How does the event make you feel?
Cheers! You have already begun healthy processing.
Is this the first time you have stopped to process?
If not, think about how you typically process these most significant points of impact.
If this is the first time, reflect on why you have not stopped to do this sooner.
The Importance of Awareness & Atunement in Purposeful Reflection
In “Understanding Emotions and How to Process Them“, Dr. Gregg Henriques discusses the importance of awareness and attunement. To be aware is to recognize the existence of the feelings. What feelings are produced as a result of events happening in the school as a whole AND those produced by students’ attitudes, behavior, and interactions?
Attunement describes a person’s awareness and receptivity level in conjunction with the reaction to awareness. So, now that you are aware of the feelings produced by various impacts, what is your response? Do you shove the feelings away? Do you discuss the feelings? Journal? Counseling? Talk to a teacher friend?
Your reaction can be the beginning of a healthy processing journey, or the beginning of an unhealthy compacting journey.
Download the FREE Healthy Processing Packet to begin your journey. We will dive a bit deeper in the next post.
Cheers to healthy processing!
Joce
Looking for a deep dive into purposeful reflection for both teachers and students? Check out the Intentional Teaching Series.
