Teach Secondary Issue 14.7

ConnectingEmotional Intelligence totheOnlineClassroom (MonitaLeavittandKirstenStein,JohnsHopkins UniversityPress,£23) The remote learning infrastructure that emerged in the wake of the COVID pandemicmay not serve the vital role it once did, but it’s given educators and learners a valuable tool for tackling various challenges related to SEND, inclusion and long-termabsence.That said, there aremany teachers out there who still struggle with the distance and barriers to genuine engagement that remote learning can present.This book is for them. For co-authors Leavitt and Stein, the key to overcoming those issues lies in helping students develop their emotional intelligence,which will impact positively upon their ability to self-regulate,motivate themselves, focus and stay engaged. If teachers were to do the same andwork on their own emotional intelligence, they would be able to ‘read the virtual room’more easily, and establish those connections so vital for the relationship-building that’s core to effective teaching. Connecting Emotional Intelligence... covers a lot of theory – Leavitt and Stein have certainly done their reading – but consistently applies it tomatters of practice,with lots of valuable tips and numerous pointers that teachers can take awaywith them. It may be written with anAmerican audience inmind, but the book’s deep and extensive consideration of what remote learning requires to be successful aptly transcends national borders. Thebookrecountshowyouandyour colleaguesat [coachingorganisation] EquilibriadeliveredtheE-Coloursmodel ina numberofUSschools.Whatdidyouobserve? Whenwe first started, I sawa trend ofmore disadvantaged kids being quicker to pickup on it, as it provided themwith a tool that could reallyhelp them.Theycalled it a‘coping tool’that helped thembetter understand what was going on in their lives,both in school and at home.Prior toCOVID,whenwe had an E-Colours scheme being delivered in American high schools, the average graduation ratewas 78.2%. In every school we went into, the graduation rate rose to between 98 and 100%. It’s not a solution to everychallenge school studentswill face – but itmakes somuch sensewhen encountered at the right age. Whentalkingtoeducators,haveyoubeen metwithanyscepticismofthe ideas underpinningtheE-Coloursmodel,and ifso, howhaveyouovercomethat? Our approach involves talking about tendencies, gaining a deeper understanding ofyourself, and howwe can all bettermanage those tendencies .We haven’t seenmuch scepticismfromstudents,but we’ve certainly seen how rare it is for teachers to have the time needed try something new. Those kinds of conversations have to start with the leadership,where theywill hopefully grasp the benefits for themselves. Inmy experience, just during those firstmeetings, any reservations leaders havewill quicklygo awayonce they realise howvaluable a process for helping people leverage their personal strengths andmanage their limitations can be. Manywouldpointout thatpersonalities aren’tfixed,andcanchangeovertime throughpersonal growth– is that acknowledgedwithintheE-Coloursmodel? Verymuch so.We explain our thinking around personalitydiversitybyasking people to imagine a human as a constantlychanging iceberg.What we can see above thewater are themost visible aspects of our personality, fromwherewe’ll typically react .The larger piece belowthewater is our character, from wherewe respond .Acore part ofwhat we teach is ‘intentional leadership’,which can start at anyage, and concerns the idea that you get amuch better outcomewhenyou respond, rather than react. LewisSenior is theco-founderandco-CEOof Equilibria (equilibria.com) ,havingpreviously workedas theglobal headofhealth,safety andenvironment forthedeepwaterdrilling company,Transocean ON THE RADAR Meet the author LEWIS SENIOR Renaturing: SmallWaystoWild theWorld (JamesCanton,Canongate,£13.99) To the uninitiated, ‘renaturing’ is essentially rewilding, just on a smaller scale. Indeed, Canton goes so far as to state that even an act as humble as planting flowers in a windowbox counts.This book could therefore prove useful to schools keen to cultivate their own dedicated ‘back to nature’ area. Readers will learn about the kind of changes to look out for, and the methods that can be deployed to lend nature a helping hand.Themini-essays at the start of each chapter are informative, but the book as a whole ismore descriptive than explanatory.We’re told, for example, that there are a huge number of ladybirds around, but not given any reasons as to why. Renaturing is, however, beautifully written and presented in themanner of a diary recorded in the present tense,making for a gentle, yet compelling read. ReviewedbyTerry Freedman PersonalitiesRemixed (LewisSenior,MarkWilkinsonandPaul Grant, HasmarkPublishing International,£18) According to the authors of Personalities Remixed , there are four dominant personality styles which can be laid out as colour-coded quadrants of a circle, known as the ‘E-Colours’ model.They comprise ‘Doer’ (red), ‘Thinker’ (green), ‘Relator’ (blue) and ‘Socialiser’ (yellow). Understanding how they intersect and drive behaviours can, so the thinking goes, help us forge better interactions with each other. For readers shuddering at memories ofVARK, this isn’t that.The book explains that in education contexts, the E-Coloursmodel ismore about giving children and young people a language with which to express themselves, and a way to better understand the personalities of their peers.With reference to individual case studies, they proceed to detail what the approach looks like in action, and the role it can play in fostering self-awareness, empathy and compassion – which is surely something that every educator can get behind. 39 teachwire.net/secondary B O O K R E V I E WS