I feel you

 
It's week 2 in my Neuro EVO and we are mostly uncovering the science behind emotions; how amygdala, dopamine, serotonin and prefrontal cortex can get to make us enjoy exploring the world around us as well as fight or freeze or want to flee - needless to say all processes which greatly impact our success in class.

Anamaria shared a TED talk I remember watching too - how our emotions are reflected in our body language - and surprisingly - how this works the other way around too.  Marineide followed up with a tip she had once received that seems to suggest an even  broader see-show-feel relationship; if  you dress up kids nice, they would naturally behave better. And the same is true for adults. I have to agree with this. I know that I like wearing what I feel comfortable in - and if I have to put on something else, this affects the way I feel.

The discovery I shared with the group is Technology-Enhanced Social-Emotional Activities - a website with practical activities to use in class adaptable for various ages. I'd already come across most of them at some point or other in my life, so I clicked the one that sounded least familiar - What's your sentence? The link takes you to Dan Pink's tip to discovering and nurturing our inner motivation. A simple answer to 2 questions:

• What's my sentence? (the thing I want to be known for) and...
• Was I better today than yesterday? 

...and suggestion how to use this in class. I'll work on mine after my badly needed beauty sleep.

I think we teachers have mostly come across such activities in terms of different sort of vocabulary (warm-up, getting-to-know each other activities, ice-breakers...) - so its kind of interesting to pull them together in this context - which basically tackles the same topic from the other end (activity leading to emotions vs. emotions leading to activity/non-activity).