Posted 4:44 a.m. Sunday, June 24, 2018
Conference speaker shares how to nurture good human beings, not just high IQ scores.
Conference speaker shares how to nurture good human beings, not just high IQ scores
America is experiencing an empathy deficit. At a time when teens are 40 percent less empathetic than they were 30 years ago, cultivating empathy should be a high priority for parents and teachers, says Michele Borba, an educational psychologist and author. At UWL’s Fall for Education Conference Nov. 3-4, Borba will share how to teach students the nine essential habits of empathy — lessons from her latest book, “UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World.” Borba, an expert in childhood development, has been featured on Today, Dateline, The View, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and The Early Show, among many others. [caption id="attachment_52453" align="alignright" width="266"]
Michele Borba is an educational psychologist and award-winning author. She will be a keynote speaker at UWL’s Fall for Education conference Nov. 3-4.[/caption]
UWL’s Fall For Education conference is a professional development opportunity for area PK-12 teachers and administrators, as well as UWL’s Master of Education - Professional Development graduate program students. It is sponsored by UWL’s Institute for Professional Studies in Education (IPSE) program.
“Education is changing so much. We are finding out so much more. If we [educators] can be the ones to make a difference in a child’s life while in school, we should be the ones making that difference,” says Patricia Markos, director of UWL’s IPSE program. “A teacher might be the only person in child’s life who ever gives them a compliment or smiles at them.”
The IPSE program and conference has preserved and inspired the personal, human side of the teaching profession at a time when teachers are pulled in a lot of directions, says Tim Sprain, a UWL ME-PD program graduate and graduate faculty facilitator for IPSE.
Advances in technology have created a new, online front door to classrooms that teachers are constantly responding and updating via email, websites and online forms. Teachers must look to meet high-stakes standards while helping students navigate crisis that come up, says Sprain.
“I used to teach 100 percent of the time. Teaching is not just about teaching anymore,” he says. “The stress and the work takes a very special person. This conference is one place where people will get rejuvenated and gain confidence and become positive.”
Sprain says the key to the success of the IPSE program and conference is taking time to listen to one another’s stories — often by sitting in a circle and sharing experiences — as teaching professionals and people. Then, the group relates and applies those experiences in teaching. Sprain, a teacher at La Crosse’s Lincoln Middle School, constructs the same circle with his seventh-grade students. Getting back to these basics of building relationships and showing empathy for one another are important to opening up the doors for learning, both he and Borba agree. Kids and adults who understand and appreciate people around them are better able to collaborate, innovate, and problem solve, says Borba. They can contribute to a future economy where employers seek team players, she adds. “We want to raise kids not only who have the high test scores, but who are good people,” says Borba. “The bottom line to a good school is being empathy centered. You get far better results.”“I used to teach 100 percent of the time. Teaching is not just about teaching anymore.”