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.
Staff Reflection
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.
- What was the task or problem?
- What were you feeling in the situation?
- How did your emotions affect the situation? How did they influence your response? Impact the outcome?
- Did you approach or avoid the situation? Did you give up or keep trying? Why or why not?
- How can you leverage your emotions to be more creative?
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.
- What were you trying to learn?
- What were you feeling in the situation?
- How did your emotions affect your ability to pay attention and remember what you were learning?
- Were you able to stay focused? Did you give up or keep trying? Why do you think that was the case?
- How can you leverage your emotions to improve your attention, memory and learning?
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.
- What area of your health and wellbeing has been impacted?
- What feelings contributed to the impact?
- How did these emotions affect your behavior or choices?
- Has the impact on your wellbeing been positive or negative?
- How can you use your emotions to positively impact your health and wellness?
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.
- What did you have to decide?
- Did you engage or avoid the decision?
- What were you feeling?
- Did your emotions make the decision easier or harder? Why do you think that was the case? How did your emotions impact your decision?
- How can you use your emotions to make better decisions?
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?
- What was the situation?
- What were you feeling?
- How did your emotions influence your relationship? Did they help?
- How can we use our emotions to be more effective in our relationships?
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.
Staff Activities
Below are a list of activities you can engage in with your students.
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
- View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time”
- Distribute situation scenarios to pairs or small groups. Allow groups to discuss them and share. Use sample scenarios below or create your own using situations relevant to your program.
Your supervisor unexpectedly calls on you in a meeting to give a report out from a previous meeting.
- How are you feeling
- What factors might influence your feelings
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
A young person in the program shares an incident that happened at home. Under state law you must file a report with the state.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
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.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
A youth asks you to bend one of the program rules.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
A young person in your program is talking with another youth and suddenly throws a chair and storms out of the room.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
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.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
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.
- How are you feeling?
- What factors might influence your feelings?
- How might those feelings impact your response?
- How can you use your emotions wisely in this situation?
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
- View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time”
- Place the situation statements below into the center of the table (use two sets of the situation descriptions). Staff take turns selecting descriptions and share with their table how they would feel.
- Return as a group to Debrief.
- How did everyone’s feelings compare in each situation? What did we have in common? What was different?
- Ask staff who want to share and read out loud.
- What resonated with you while talking in your groups?
Situation Statements for When I, I Feel Activity
- When I am home alone and have nothing to do for the next hour, I feel _____________.
- When I finish a hard puzzle, I feel _____________.
- When a neighbor’s dog comes over and licks me, I feel _____________.
- When my supervisor calls me out in a staff meeting to tell me I did a great job, I feel _____________.
- When I’m at a large family gathering, I feel _____________.
- When I’m at a party and I don’t know anyone, I feel _____________.
- When I am at an art museum, I feel _____________.
- When I am walking in the woods, I feel_____________.
- When I am at a small gathering with friends, I feel _____________.
- When I am with my closest friend, I feel _____________.
- When I see someone I haven’t seen in a long time, I feel _____________.
- When I am in a noisy bar or club, I feel _____________.
- When I am at an amusement park, I feel _____________.
- When I go to the zoo, I feel _____________.
- When I am riding a roller coaster, I feel _____________.
- When I am on my way to work, I feel _____________.
- When I am on my way home from work, I feel _____________.
- When there is a pending snowstorm, I feel _____________.
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
- View “Infusing Emotional Intelligence into Out-of-School Time”
- Read below to guide staff through all emotions they may feel in a day.
- After listening to the reflection, discuss the following in pairs or groups:
- What did you notice about your typical day
- What emotions do you tend to experience throughout an average day?
- What did you learn from the reflection?
- Was there anything that surprised you?
- How do you think your emotions may have affected your work?
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:
- “If you feel comfortable sharing, please share: how has the emotion education you received growing up impacted your life?”
- “How easy or difficult is it to talk about emotions? Why?”
- “Are there some emotions you feel more comfortable sharing? How does context and/or situation matter?”
- “If you chose to work in groups: “What similarities and differences did you find in your groups about your emotion education?”
- “What emotion education do you think the youth in your program are receiving in their families?”
- “How might your awareness of your own emotional education impact your interactions with others?”
- “What is something you value from your emotion education that you want to offer to youth?”
- “What is something you have been challenged by or needed to relearn about emotions?”
Resource Downloads
Here is a list of available documents to share or print out for this topic.
Deeper Dives
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