Self-awareness is an essential skill that children must acquire, similar to writing, playing an instrument or doing math. Teachers should therefore ensure they teach this capability to their pupils while providing related activities for this subject matter.
One way of accomplishing this goal is to have students maintain a journal about their emotions. You can also encourage positive thought breathing by placing emphasis on breathing exercises.
1. Recognize your emotions
Students who learn how to identify their emotions will become better equipped at managing themselves and making smart choices, an essential skill in almost every subject area. Furthermore, this subject matter can be taught to any age student from kindergarteners up through 65-year-old leaders.
One way teachers can help children identify their emotions is to encourage them to keep an emotion journal, either physically or digitally. Write about how it makes you feel each day; include such topics as, “I am angry because the line was too long.”
An effective way to teach kids how to recognize their emotions is using prompts such as movie or TV scenes that are suitable for their age, pictures, objects, songs and questions that prompt children’s reflection on them and make them think through how it makes them feel. They should write out responses about how it made them feel.
Kids can practice mindfulness by focusing on their breath and body sensations, practicing positive thought breathing by thinking a positive statement or affirmation for two to three seconds before exhaling, creating vision boards listing dreams, hopes, and wishes and checking off goals each week – giving them something tangible to celebrate as milestones to build self-confidence.
2. Recognize the emotions of others
Children as young as age five can learn self-awareness skills to better understand themselves and others’ emotions.
Help your students recognize emotions by teaching them to observe body language. This can be accomplished by watching media and watching friends or coworkers interact, as well as keeping an emotional journal of what’s going on inside themselves; by doing this on an ongoing basis, your students will also become adept at recognizing similar emotions in other people.
Help your students become more self-aware by encouraging them to set personal goals for themselves. Doing this will allow them to celebrate successes as well as increase their self-belief; goals may include practicing positive thoughts breathing or creating a vision board.
Reading can also help students develop self-awareness. Find age-appropriate materials and have students read it either silently to themselves or out loud to you, then discuss its relevance towards meeting self-awareness goals together.
Your students can explore their cultural identity by creating a family tree, interviewing relatives or researching flags or languages. Doing this will enable them to gain more insight into themselves while accepting and celebrating their heritage in a safe and educational environment that encourages examination of thoughts, feelings and potential prejudices in a constructive manner.
3. Understand your strengths and weaknesses
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses helps you identify situations in which you excel and those where you struggle, making it easier to focus efforts in areas you enjoy and accept help from others. Knowing what skillsets you possess enables you to make decisions regarding where and when to invest your efforts, as well as accepting help from others when needed.
Help students develop an understanding of their strengths by encouraging them to write down their skills, passions and abilities. Furthermore, ask them about instances when their strengths enabled them to excel in certain situations – this exercise can benefit both younger students and older ones alike! This exercise is perfect for both.
One effective and fun way of teaching children about their emotions and feelings is encouraging them to keep an emotion journal. This can include simple prompts such as a blank piece of paper with stickers to mark whenever they are feeling happy, sad, angry, anxious or calm.
Your students should set self-awareness goals and work toward them, in order to strengthen their belief in themselves. Setting these milestones with an expected timeframe is also helpful for celebrating progress – for instance if a student has become more conscious of using filler words when speaking in class and has taken steps to overcome this weakness, that should be celebrated!
4. Identify your goals
Self-awareness as a framework for teaching SEL can equip students with the tools needed for success in school and beyond. By identifying their strengths and weaknesses, they can develop an action plan to enhance their performance and identify their emotions so they can manage them appropriately.
One way to teach self-awareness is by setting it as a classroom goal and discussing it frequently, notes Debbie Malone of Edgenuity. Involve students in setting weekly goals relating to their self-awareness; according to Debbie, this will enable students to consider their learning progress throughout the week while giving them an opportunity to analyze why or why not they met their goal.
Another effective way of teaching self-awareness is connecting what a class is learning with personal lives, memories and feelings of students. For instance, if they’re studying animal skeletons in class, a teacher could ask their pupils about experiences they had discovering bones while out and about in nature.
Promotion of self-awareness will enable students to feel more assured in their learning abilities and take greater risks in exploring new ideas. It will also enable them to apply a growth mindset when confronted with challenges, and learn to cope with difficult emotions more effectively. Teaching self awareness can be both fun and rewarding experience when students can use these skills outside the classroom setting.
