Emotions impact our attention, memory, and learning our ability to build relationships with others and our physical and mental health (Salovey & Mayer 1990). Mitchell models emotional intelligence and supports its development in her students.Įmotional intelligence is a set of skills associated with monitoring one’s own and others’ emotions, and the ability to use emotions to guide one’s thinking and actions (Salovey & Mayer 1990). Mitchell also uses the mood meter to talk with children about her own feelings, how characters in books feel, what happened to cause their feelings, and how characters’ emotions change throughout a story.
Throughout the day, children use a classroom mood meter to acknowledge their feelings. She greets children and families as they walk through the door and asks how they are feeling. If she feels frustrated or overwhelmed when she arrives at school, she takes a deep breath and makes a plan for managing her emotions so that she can fully engage with her students and coteachers. Mitchell thinks about how her feelings will affect her teaching.
