Emotions impact everything that happens in our lives. Some emotions are big, and some are small. Becoming aware of how emotions impact our learning, decisions, relationships, and general well-being is important to our overall functioning.
Reflective practice helps us find relevance and meaning in the videos by supporting us in making connections between educational experiences and real-life situations. We can use different ways to reflect– journaling, mental reflection, pair or trio share, or group report-out. Think through which approach fits best in the context of your group.
View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time Reflections”
Think about a task you have encountered recently that you didn’t know how to address and how you responded creatively or may have responded creatively.
Now think about the youth in your program. How do their emotions impact their creativity? It can be helpful to think about a specific youth or a specific activity when considering this.
View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time Activities”.
Think about a time you tried to learn something new.
Think about a specific youth in your program and a recent activity they were asked to complete. How did their emotions impact their attention, memory, and learning?
View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time Activities”.
Think about how your emotions have impacted your mental or physical health and well-being. The impact could be direct or the result of your health-related behaviors or choices.
Now think about one youth in your program. How do their emotions impact their health and wellness?
View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time Activities”
Think about a situation in which you needed to make a decision – it could be a big one, like whether to take a new job or a small one, like what to have for dinner.
Think about a specific youth in your program. How do their emotions impact their decision making in your program?
View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time Activities”.
Think about how your feelings might affect relationships with youth or with other staff in your program. Can you think of a situation when your emotions either improved or harmed a relationship?
Now think about the youth in your program. How do their emotions impact their relationship with others? It can be helpful to think about a specific youth relationship.
Below are a list of activities you can engage in with your staff.
Activity Summary: In this activity, staff respond to prompts and think about the emotions at play in various situations.
Time: 20 min or less
Background: To understand emotions, we need to be aware of the many factors that influence them. These can be things that happen in our environment – at the time or at some point in our past – or things that happen in our minds – immediate thoughts or memories.
Objectives: Understand that multiple factors contribute to a person’s emotional experience and that it’s important to consider the broader context of a situation.
Directions
Your supervisor unexpectedly calls on you in a meeting to give a report out from a previous meeting.
A young person in the program shares an incident that happened at home. Under state law you must file a report with the state.
You are presenting a new teen program to staff. There is a lot of pushback from the community and staff who support the current curriculum.
A youth asks you to bend one of the program rules.
A young person in your program is talking with another youth and suddenly throws a chair and storms out of the room.
A youth arrives at a program in a bad mood. You ask them how they are doing today, and they drop their bags and slump to the floor.
You have been facilitating a teen group’s work on a community service project they have been planning for a month. Today is the service day.
Activity Summary: In this activity, staff reflects on various situations to identify the emotions they would feel in those situations.
Time: 15 min or less
Materials: Situation Statements
Background: Emotional self-awareness is the ability to recognize one’s emotions. The same situation might evoke very different emotions in different people. Our emotions often reflect our personalities, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences.
Directions
Situation Statements for When I, I Feel Activity
Activity Summary: Staff follows a read aloud script that helps them understand all emotions they may feel in a day.
Time: 15 min or less
Materials: Facilitator Reads Script
Background: Emotions impact everything that happens in our lives. Some of these emotions are big, and some are small. Becoming aware of how emotions impact our learning, decisions, relationships, and general wellbeing is important to our overall functioning.
Objectives: This activity will help staff think about all emotions they feel on a scheduled day.
Directions
Script
“Take a few minutes to journey through the different feelings you experience during a typical weekday, from the moment you wake up to the moments before you fall asleep.
I invite you now to think about a typical weekday. As we move forward in this reflection, I’ll be asking you to notice what emotions come up for you as you move from morning till evening.
Now to get started, please get comfortable wherever you’re sitting. Feel free to close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing so, or gaze softly downward. You may want to take a deep breath in and out, and just get comfy.
Now imagine that it’s early morning on your typical weekday. Maybe your alarm sounds. Maybe you wake up on your own. When you first open your eyes, anticipating the day ahead, how are you feeling?
You go through your typical routine to prepare for the day ahead. Getting dressed, perhaps you’re eating, perhaps you’re not. And then you commute to work. Maybe speaking to someone along the way, maybe you’re absorbed in your own thoughts. What emotions do you notice?
And now you arrive at work and you walk in. Maybe the hallways are noisy, maybe they’re quiet. Maybe the fields have just been mowed, maybe they are overgrown. You’re walking immediately to your activity area or you’re taking a moment to talk to youth or colleagues as you make your way. What emotions do you notice?
Now think about your afternoon at your program site. Maybe this afternoon on your typical weekday you have more structured time, more activity time, or planning time. Or maybe unstructured time before you’re heading home. What emotions do you notice?
Now thinking about what you typically do after your day ends from your commute through the rest of the evening. During afternoon responsibilities, through dinner time, through the rest of your night, as you’re reflecting on the day behind you and anticipating the day ahead. What emotions come up for you through the evening? What do you notice?
And now you arrive at work and you walk in. Maybe the hallways are noisy, maybe they’re quiet. Maybe the fields have just been mowed, maybe they are overgrown. You’re walking immediately to your activity area or you’re taking a moment to talk to youth or colleagues as you make your way. What emotions do you notice?
Now think about your afternoon at your program site. Maybe this afternoon on your typical weekday you have more structured time, more activity time, or planning time. Or maybe unstructured time before you’re heading home. What emotions do you notice?
Now thinking about what you typically do after your day ends from your commute through the rest of the evening. During afternoon responsibilities, through dinner time, through the rest of your night, as you’re reflecting on the day behind you and anticipating the day ahead. What emotions come up for you through the evening? What do you notice?
Finally, think about the hour before bedtime on your typical day. Maybe it’s busy and rushed, where you collapse into bed. Or maybe you’re getting to enjoy some peace and quiet. Maybe you lay there for a while thinking about the day behind you. Maybe you’re anticipating the day ahead of you. Maybe you drift quickly off to sleep. Notice your emotions as you close your eyes on this typical weekday. What are you feeling?
And as you let yourself drift off to sleep, please come back to my voice and this recording. Appreciate yourself for taking the time to journey through this typical weekday.”
“When you look back on your family, what were some of their beliefs about emotions? Did they talk about emotions? Were some emotions okay to express while others weren’t? Were the rules different for different ages, genders, and backgrounds? adults and children?”
Facilitator debrief questions to use:
Here is a list of available documents to share or print out for this topic.
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