Compassion in the Classroom

Global Learning for an Open World (GLOW) Conference is a premier virtual event dedicated to global education and innovation. This conference aims to enhance global competencies, foster cross-border collaboration, nurture dynamic global citizenship, and ensure equitable access to quality education for all.

About the Event

Give yourself the gift of time to connect with a community of educators who believe that teaching compassion is important. Take part in this discussion journey to gain ideas, reflect on practice and share how you foster compassion in your classroom and community, including free resources and suggestions from Compass Education and the Institute of Human Education.

This presentation will give educators tools to build a strong classroom community. All schools today have a diverse range of students with a variety of backgrounds to consider. Additionally, there are many challenges we are all facing in this ever-changing world. Educators need to take time to support students in developing strategies to deal with stress and regulate themselves so they can be in the right state for learning and collaborating. This presentation will provide tools and strategies to use in classrooms to create a safe and calm learning environment. Teachers who attend will practice using some of them and will leave with a list of ideas to use in the classroom ranging from mindfulness, communication tools, and conflict resolution to create an inclusive and kind community. The hope is to give time to the importance of having a learning space that allows students to feel safe and ready to learn.

The presentation will provide Compass Education and Institute for Humane Education tools and strategies. It will not only share the resources but also provide the opportunity for us to use some of them together to help understand them clearly and implement them well. There will be a bank of resources for teachers to use and these will be shared in the session. There will also be time for teachers to share their own ideas, creating a community within the session. It will be broken into sections of understanding the importance of compassion, tools for setting up a community, strategies to continue building a safe community and ideas on setting up an inclusive learning space.

REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE HERE

———————————————————

Presenter

Betsy Farrell-Messenger has been in the education field for 25 years. Her experience ranges from environmental education in the field to teaching in the classroom to co-developing farm animal sanctuary programs for youth. She has a M.S. degree in education from College of St. Rose and in 2014 she earned her graduate certificate in Humane Education through Valparaiso University. Betsy has developed lessons for IHE and participated in the Solutionary process pilot cohort with her middle school students. She is currently a facilitator for the Solutionary Micro-Credential Program, which encourages, inspires and supports teachers in bringing the solutionary teaching and learning to their classrooms and creating the next generation of solutionaries. Betsy lives her message of being kind and mindful of how her behaviors have an impact on people, animals, and the environment.

Angela Whittaker has dedicated her career to serving young people. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tennessee Technological University and a master’s in education from Old Dominion University, specializing in students with emotional and learning challenges. Angela has over 28 years of experience in education as a teacher. She designed and taught award-winning programs in environmental education and established a non-profit, Full Circle Education Center, created to address the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of students. Angela is a pragmatic visionary dedicated to redesigning K12 educational systems and instruction so they support and inspire young people to change the world for the betterment of all beings.

Lucy Thompson has been an elementary classroom teacher for over 10 years, working in Cambodia, Lebanon, Malaysia and Scotland.  She is currently teaching Grade 5 and is the Professional Learning Coordinator at International School Aberdeen. She has a passion for integrating sustainability within the classroom, especially delving into topics using systems thinking tools and exploring a variety of perspectives. Outside of work, she enjoys playing squash and being on the coast, most recently sea kayaking.