Speaker: Betsy Butler, Course Developer/Creator
What do you hope teachers will take away from this course?
Betsy Butler: Hi, I'm Betsy Butler and I'm the course creator for course 5107 Empathy and Social Comprehension for the Compassionate Classroom. I think teachers will really find ways to allow students to really connect into the empathy that is needed when you're dealing with some of these large world problems that are happening. And even within some of this really hostile environment that we're dealing with politically but also socially. Students don't just show up at school ready to learn. They may have had some really awful things happen to them the night before or that morning and they carry that with them. And so it's important to honor that and really understand how best to channel that into support for them that can happen from you and the classroom.
What do you love about this course?
Betsy Butler: One of the things I love about this class is that it allows teachers to really experiment with ways that they themselves can grow. There's some focus on identity and making sure that all identities are seen and honored. Lots of ways to provide respectful ways to challenge and to affirm in the classroom. It's kind of just a really great way of seeing your class as more than your students. They also have these other lives and they are functioning in the world just as we are. And it's important to know that about everybody right now and we all need help and we all need empathy, and I think that this course does a good job of providing ideas for how to do that.
