Emotionally Responsive Education: "inviting and containing"

Margaret Blachly of Bank Street’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice describes how to fit materials, curriculum, and relationships together to create an emotionally safe classroom. Emphasizing the importance of a deep understanding of child development, she tells how important it is to know each child’s "story." Margaret shares what she’s learned as a dual-language and special ed teacher and gives advice to new kindergarten teachers. Reflecting on Dewey's Education and Experience, she talks about the ethical dimensions of teaching and the connections between the classroom and the larger society. *Overview and transcript below. [ss_player] References During the interview, Margaret refers to the book "Creating Schools that Heal: Real-Life Solutions" by Lesley Koplow. You can find it here. Margaret also co-wrote an article with Noelle Dean for EIEN titled "Feeling charts instead of behavior charts: radical love instead of shame". Click here to read it. To know more about Bank Street’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice, click here. Overview 0:00-1:46 Introduction 1:46-5:02 Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice; importance of deep understanding of child development how each child’s life experience affects who they are, act, think, connect 5:03-11:59 Components of emotionally responsive classroom; “inviting and “containing” 11:59-16:06 Influence of John Dewey 16:06-22:00 “Aha” moments; growth and change in teachers 22:00-35:33 Immigrant experience; using reflective techniques; loss; inviting stories in that are hard 35:33-39:46 Changing school culture; teachers bringing their whole lives into the classroom; reflecting on their experiences; feeling valued 39:46-48:33 Dual language, translanguaging; Ofelia Garcia 48:33-54:09 Advice for beginning kindergarten teachers 54:09-1:01:35 Connections between special education, bilingual education, and dual-language education; decentralizing white experience as the first or only experience Transcription of the episode Amy H-L: 00:00:15 I'm Amy Halpern-Laff. Jon M: 00:00:18 And I'm Jon Moscow. Amy H-L: 00:00:18 Welcome to ethical schools where we discuss strategies for creating inclusive equitable schools and youth programs that help students to develop both commitment and capacity to building ethical institutions. Jon M: 00:00:34 Our guest today is Margaret Blachly. Margaret is a psycho-educational specialist at the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street College. She's also an advisor and instructor in the early childhood special education and bilingual programs at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education and a learning specialist at the children's learning center of Morningside Heights. She has been a teacher for two decades. Welcome Margaret. Margaret B: 00:00:57 Thank you. Amy H-L: 00:00:59 Margaret, how would you define the term psycho-educational? Margaret B: 00:01:03 That is a wonderful question and it's funny you ask because when I first saw my contract for taking on the job at emotionally responsive practice, I said, "Is that what I am?" And my, my director Leslie Koplow said, well, that is what you are. So I had to do a little thinking about it. Um, psycho-educational specialist to me means somebody who knows about and thinks about and can advise and teach about the impact of emotional health and wellbeing in the educational setting. Amy H-...