On Friday, April 22, the District 64 ITC team attended the Illinois Coaching Conference at Northwestern University. The event began with a morning keynote by Jamie Almanzán. Jamie’s speech was funny, enlightening, and engaging. He spoke about his experience as a Mexican-American student, and then teacher of students from diverse backgrounds. Some take-aways from his speech:
“Being able to put aside one’s self-centered focus and impulses has social benefits: it opens the way to empathy, to real listening, to taking another person’s perspective. Empathy, as we have seen, leads to caring, altruism, and compassion. Seeing things from another’s perspective breaks down biased stereotypes, and so breeds tolerance and acceptance of differences.” -Daniel Goleman
- Educators working with minority and low socioeconomic status children need to close the OPPORTUNITY GAP, not just one of its outcomes: the achievement gap.
- Listening to others is one of the most important things you can do to build relationships. Use the follow-up, "Say more," to fill any awkward silences in conversation. Paraphrase what you think you heard the other person say. If they reply that it's "kind of" what they meant, ask what they REALLY meant.
- In challenging conversations, only ask questions you don't already know the answers to.
- Empathy is vital to building relationships. As teachers, "the Internet 's gonna kill us" on content delivery. We're not in the content delivery business. We're in the relationship business.
“Being able to put aside one’s self-centered focus and impulses has social benefits: it opens the way to empathy, to real listening, to taking another person’s perspective. Empathy, as we have seen, leads to caring, altruism, and compassion. Seeing things from another’s perspective breaks down biased stereotypes, and so breeds tolerance and acceptance of differences.” -Daniel Goleman