The Rabbit Listened by Cori DoerrfeldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Perfect book to define empathy and to add to your empathy unit and text sets! It's so hard to just listen when someone needs us. It's easy to fall into the trap of offering advice, consoling with platitudes, or dismissing feelings when someone is feeling down. Rabbit knows just what to do for Taylor. Be there and listen.
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Writing invitation: What does empathy mean to you? How do you show empathy? Write about a time when someone did or said exactly what you needed.
Rabbit reminds me of Sadness in this scene from "Inside Out", one of my favorite Pixar movies. I had to laugh at Joy because she reminds me so much of how I can react when someone needs comforting or has had a bad day. She's so desperate to turn Bing Bong's emotions around. But Sadness does just what Bing Bong needs, much to Joy's annoyance, by validating his emotions and listening. Then quickly, Bing Bong is ready to move forward.
The other thing this book reminds me of is the insightful book, The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman. One of my love languages is Acts of Service (I also love gifts - ha). My husband knows this about me, and he also happens to be a great cook. So one of the ways he can express empathy and love when I'm feeling stressed, anxious, or unhappy is to cook for me! Actually, he cooks for me even when I'm happy. :-)
His veggie soup, which also happens to be great comfort food!
Finding out what works for someone when they are down can also work in the classroom. When we know our students and what motivates them, we can make sure they are achieving to the best of their abilities. I hear about unmotivated learners a lot when I visit teachers and schools, and of course, I had a few in my classroom when I was a classroom teacher. They aren't working up to their potentials, they don't care about school, they don't do their work, etc. What can we do to reach them? Can we meet them where they are and connect at a deeper level if we know what they care about? We know that some of them pursue their passions outside of school and spend hours of flow time at various activities: video games, sports, YouTube, hanging with friends, hobbies of various types. How do we bring that flow into our classrooms? What are their Learner Languages?
How can we be more like Rabbit and Sadness? We can come alongside. Get to know one another. Be there for each other. This is a crazy world, and it's becoming more and more frenetic. Let's be Rabbits and listen.
One more connection! My friend, Megan, and I include this video sometimes in our PDs on our empathy unit. Rabbit is the perfect example!
One more connection! My friend, Megan, and I include this video sometimes in our PDs on our empathy unit. Rabbit is the perfect example!
I love the use of videos in your blog posts! And that picture of Ed's soup looks amazing. I think it's so interesting to think about how to "hear" people and figure out what *they* need instead of our go-to, which is often what we would need in that situation. It's hard to process and do that. Thanks for the reminder!
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