How to Teach Students Who Are Too [Insert Emotion] to Learn, with Diana Kennedy (The Exceptional Educator, Ep. 2)

For a moment, I considered titling this episode, “How To Be A Cool Cucumber When Your Students Are Angry Apples.”

Too much fruit.

I don’t know about you, but remaining calm when a student is in pain is one of the most challenging parts of being an effective educator. And forget about actually teaching when a student goes nuclear.

To help us manage these common difficulties, I’d like to introduce you to my friend and colleague, Diana Kennedy. Diana is a fellow educational therapist who runs a thriving private practice in Marin County, California. She’s compassionate and playful, and one of the best educational therapists I know.

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In this episode Diana and I discuss:

• Nurturing students who are the victims of trauma or who have witnessed trauma.
• The most effective resources for supporting students who struggle with emotional regulation.
• Using storytelling and mindfulness activities to help students name and express their feelings.
• Balancing social-emotional support with “real” academic work.
• Supporting individual students so they can self-regulate their emotions in the mainstream classroom.
• Using meta-cognitive techniques to help students cultivate self-awareness of different emotional levels.
• Teaching “self-conscious” kids to use breathing as a tool for emotional regulation.
• Helping students who experience anxiety in the classroom mitigate (and even overcome) their anxiety.
• When you should NOT ask students to show their work. Yes, you read that correctly.
• The importance of separating your emotions as a teacher from the students’ learning process.
• How to help kids understand and compartmentalize their learning differences.
• Supporting students through transitions, like beginning-of-school-year and end-of-school-year worries.

Links and Resources Mentioned in This Podcast:

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day – by Judith Viorst.
• Brain Stress Toy – This tool wasn’t actually mentioned in the show, but it’s related. This is how I like to show students where different parts of the brain are located!
• Wemberly Worried – by Kevin Henkes.
• A Light in the Attic – by Shel Silverstein. This timeless collection of Silverstein’s work includes the brilliant poem “Whatif,” which Diana and I discuss.
• Mental Flexibility: It’s Not Just For Students Anymore! – a terrific article about flexible thinking for teachers from Diana’s own blog.
• Timothy Goes To School – by Rosemary Wells.
• Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse – by Kevin Henkes.

Thanks for listening!

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Diana shares provocative articles about educational therapy and learning disabilities on her blog.

If you’d like to see Diana in person, she’s presenting at the National Association of Educational Therapists Conference and the Learning Disabilities Association Conference this school year.

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