018: Emotional Agility in Action

This week’s blog is written by Resonance Ed’s facilitator Maureen Zavadel.

How do you provide a safe space for students in crisis within your classroom? While conducting an observation in a high school classroom, I had the unique opportunity to witness emotional agility in action.

At the start of his first-period class, the health teacher shared that students would be partnered up for an activity to discuss the different types of muscle. He passed out an index card to each student with one part of an assigned pair (i.e., one student had peanut butter while another student had jelly). Next, students were to quickly and quietly find their partners and begin discussing the question on the board with each other.  

As the teacher passed out the partner cards, a student in the front row put her hood up, laid her head down, and did not engage in the activity. The teacher walked over to her, whispered something, and then the student left the room. When I was in the classroom, I began to wonder what had transpired privately in their discussion. In my mind, I was starting to formulate a series of questions to ask him at our debrief session. Things that popped into my mind were: “Does this student suffer from intense anxiety when partnered with others? Did she not like the assigned partner and staged a small protest? Did the teacher inadvertently miss the opportunity to support this student in overcoming fear?” I was concerned that the student used an escape mechanism to cope with a situation she found uncomfortable.

Later that day, I had the chance to meet with the teacher to discuss the observation. I celebrated all the meaningful active engagement and was eager for the chance to discuss this one particular student. Before I even had the opportunity to ask, the teacher said, “Did you happen to see the girl in the first row? Well, I stand in the hall to greet my students each day, and today when I welcomed her, I noticed that she was crying. I took the opportunity to ask more and found out that her grandmother and grandfather are living in Ukraine. They had called her family last night to tell them that they would be leaving their home and trying to find another place to live because their entire town was being destroyed. She was distraught and afraid for their lives. I shared with her that we would open up class with a partner activity, and I would allow her to decide if she felt she could engage in that activity or wanted instead to speak to the school counselor. When I checked on her, she had decided to visit the counselor, which is what she needed in that class period. I will help her understand different types of muscles, but nothing will make sense when your whole world is upside down.”

Last week, in our blog post, we referenced the term “emotional agility,” which Dr. Susan David describes as “being sensitive to context and responding to the world as it is right now.”  I was blown away by this teacher’s exemplary demonstration of emotional agility for this student at that moment. He was deeply connected to the fact that nothing else was more important than helping this student feel safe and was confident that he would be able to help her get caught up on the content she would miss. 

Instead of rigidly forcing her participation in this activity, he provided her with the gift of embracing her emotions and the time to help her navigate them with support.