“ As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural , the cultivation of love , one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens ”
LOVE creating resources
In this issue INSPIRATIONAL ENGLISH talks to two ladies who feel that LOVE and EMPATHY should be taught in class . Find out why and how you can use POSITIVE resources in your classroom .
Vassiliki Mandalou is a Greek freelance teacher of philosophy , literature and linguistics . She also specialises in helping learners with learning difficulties ( autism and Down syndrome ). The passionate teacher gives sessions on " Philosophy for Well-being " and " Poetry in motion " projects .
Julie Pratten is the creator of Heart ELT , a non-profit organisation in the UK that offers resources and support to children who cannot access education . She also developed the app Brighton Study Kit , a social initiative for the University of Brighton and Academic Flipwords , which focuses on vocabulary from the Academic Words List
Hi Vassiliki , last month INSPIRATIONAL ENG- LISH introduced HEART ELT to its readers . You are one of the first teachers who donated an activity to the project “ A-Z of Hope ”. Would you tell me how you got involved ?
VM : I got involved in the " A-Z of Hope " after I saw Julie Pratten ' s call for collaborators on Facebook . This innovative approach appealed to me and at the same time inspired me . I thought that this initiative had the potential to grow into a very different kind of teacher community ; teachers collaborating for change . It is a wonderful mosaic of ideas and thoughts , teachers with different characters and styles engaged in harmony to create a book . Quite thrilling ! And I was very touched when I learned about the charity aspect and spirit of support behind Heart ELT , I believe it is the first charitable publisher of this kind in ELT . After meeting Julie in person I realised why I Ioved the whole idea so much .
Some of your lesson plans teach about LOVE and EMPATHY . Why do you think it is necessary to talk about these topics in class ?
VM : Love and Empathy are two of the main teachings of Socrates . As a teacher of literature and philosophy I was extremely motivated to write lessons covering those topics . Why ?
“ As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural , the cultivation of love , one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens ”
Teaching children empathy , love , to treat others with kindness , tolerance and acceptance has never been more important than it is right now . I also believe that it is vital that we as teachers approach our teaching through LOVE . Love for what we do as professionals , love for the process of learning and the love of our learners . We can ' t teach nor learn if we don ' t literally love what we are doing . Love can be taught , it ' s not something innate . It exists inside of us but so does hate . As our classrooms become increasingly more multicultural , the cultivation of love , one of the core elements in the teaching process is essential for creating caring and responsible global citizens .
Image Credit : Heart ELT
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