add to it. The students discussed how
they could set up wikis about content
areas they were studying.
Use Interactive White Boards
Digital natives often interact with their
world through screens. Interactive white
boards allow you to connect a large
screen at the front of the class to a
computer and to project on that large
screen whatever appears on the
computer. The tool is interactive; with a
finger touch, a user can move around
the information that appears on the
screen or even call up new information.
Students can work in small groups at
the white board, or the entire class can
participate. Students can move physically and communicate with one
another as they interact with technology.
For example, the class might open
from a computer file a worksheet they
had for math homework and project it
on the white board. Students can come
up to the white board and demonstrate
solutions. They can erase mistakes with
their hands and call peers up to the
board to help them.
language. In their world of instant
communication, students seldom take
the time to examine how they or others
are feeling (Small & Vorgan, 2008).
Teachers can help students by simply
taking a few moments each day to check
in about how they are feeling. When I
taught middle and high school, I
checked in with students while taking
attendance. As I called names, I asked
each student to say “present” followed
by any number from 1 to 10, with 1
indicating “I feel terrible” and 10 indicating “I feel great.” This reading gave
me a good idea of how much learning
would take place that day. If a lot of
students gave low numbers, I would
deliberate inner awareness of what one
is thinking, feeling, and experiencing.
This enables students to focus on themselves and to become aware of their own
thinking.
The 2008 book Building Emotional
Intelligence by Linda Lantieri offers
grade-appropriate suggestions for
teaching students how to calm themselves and focus their attention. For
example, some teachers simply offer
students a five-minute calming time.
Each student chooses a quiet part of the
classroom and sits comfortably, slowly
breathing in and out. Each student
chooses a mantra, a phrase or a word
such as ohm, that he or she repeats
The main goal behind their multitasking
is not so much to be productive as
to be connected to someone.
Build Emotional Literacy
Facility with relationships will be essential in this new century. One analysis of
more than 100 studies showed that
students who had received training in
social-emotional learning, compared
with those who hadn’t, earned higher
grades, scored 14 percent higher on
achievement tests, and were less impulsive and better at calming themselves
(Lantieri, 2008).
Communicating digitally is an efficient way to exchange data, but when
dealing with fellow humans, everyone
needs to be able to recognize other
people’s emotions and to use emotional
intelligence to help make decisions,
cooperate, and even understand themselves. Students who immerse themselves in high-tech activities lose their
ability to read facial cues and body
give students an opportunity to explore
negative feelings through journaling or
talking together before beginning
instruction.
I also had students practice becoming
aware of others’ feelings. I showed
students photographs of faces with
different expressions and challenged
them to decide how each person
pictured was feeling. Students role-played emotions and asked classmates
to guess what feeling they were
enacting. At times, I guided students on
how to handle situations in relationships, through role-playing or discussions. The Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning
( www.casel.org) has excellent resources
for teaching social and emotional skills.
silently. Students focus on their breathing
and the mantra and allow any thoughts
that enter their minds to drift away.
Students report feeling more energized
and attentive after such a meditation.
Teach Mindfulness
Meditation techniques lower students’
stress and improve their focus. Such
techniques encourage mindfulness, a
Encourage Storytelling
Digitally connected young people are
experts at finding information, but in
this century, they will need to package
that information into broader concepts
and share it in a way that engages their
listeners’ interest and emotions. Storytelling enhances people’s emotional
connectedness and understanding of
concepts. It’s also what the brain likes
best (Roger C. Shank, as cited in Pink,
2005).
As we struggle to keep students’ digitally conditioned brains attentive in the
classroom, storytelling may be one of
our best strategies. Teachers might tell a
simple story that relates to lesson
content or students’ lives. When people
