Week Five

Week 5: March 29- APRIL 4

EXPLORE

Please do the following:

Journal

Write in your journal about your experiences and your questions about empathy. The following questions might be interesting (they are offerings, not requirements):

• What have you learned about empathy in this course?

• What questions do you have?

• What for you is the difference between knowing about empathy and being empathetic?

• Has your understanding and practice of empathy changed, shifted or stayed the same during this course? Explain.

Explore terminology for this week’s assignment: Quizlet

This week we are going to look deeper into empathy and how one framework. Non-violent Communication (NVC), helps us see and practice empathy. Before learning more about NVC, please work with these terms in quizlet:

Click on this QUIZLET ON TERMS

Learn about Non-Violent Communication

Take about 30 minutes to research non-violent communication online. What do you find? Please share at least 1 link on your whatsapp group and tell us about what you found so that others can learn from your research.

Watch this 12 minute VIDEO, where a trainer for non-violent communication, Marianne van Dijk, summarizes a three hour video of founder of NVC, Marshall Rosenberg, into 12 minutes and 10 principles.

1. As you watch the video, write down the 10 principles as she explains them. After the video, put each of the principles into your own words.

2. Which 2-3 principles are most interesting/powerful for you right now? Why?

3. Which 2-3 principles are least clear for you right now?

4. Rank the principles in order of what is easiest to what is most difficult for you right now. What do you notice?

5. Think of a challenging situation that you had in the past 2 weeks. Which principles come to your mind when thinking about the situation?

6. Which two principles would you like to work on in your conversations next week?

Read about empathy blockers and play on quizlet again:

Usually empathy-blockers limit connection, block empathy and do not generally support people in telling and exploring their stories. Empathy blockers are not malicious and are usually not done with the intention to hurt others. Indeed, they are usually well-intentioned with the desire to support others' well-being. When people use empathy blockers it is often because they don't have the time, space, attention or vision to really listen to another person's story, or they don't want to see the other person in pain or with challenges, or they are uncomfortable with the other person's discomfort. In this set of cards we share some examples of empathy-blockers. See if you can recognize them - in both other peoples' words/actions as well as your own. What do you think?

Click on this QUIZLET ON TERMS

Journal about empathy blockers and then

Make one post in your whatsapp group about your thoughts, experience, and/or opinions about empathy blockers.

Watch the Video “Mirror” (1 hour of work)

Read the following questions and then watch this video

1. Stop the video at 22 seconds. Copy the quote (in English or in Spanish) at the beginning onto a piece of paper. Pause and reflect on what the quote means. You may find that reading it outloud a few times helps you “feel” it is a different way. What impact does this have on you? What questions arise in you? What aspects of empathy are deepened or clarified?

2. Watch the rest of the video

3. What empathy blockers do you notice in the video?

4. At what moment did you see empathy in action? How could you tell that it was empathy and not an empathy blocker?

5. What impact does this video have on you?

6. Think of a moment when you wanted to give someone empathy and it didn’t work. Compare that moment to the situation in the video. What do you notice?

7. What does this video teach about empathy in collaborative coaching conversations?

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Extra offerings - not part of our classwork but it might be helpful

A video about using Nonviolent communication in living through the coronavirus

A Video about using Nonviolent Communication with triggered kids:

EXPERIENCE

This week we would like you to have at least two conversations (in person with family, via Skype or WhatsApp or Zoom with a colleague/teacher/peer) in which you practice presence, deep listening and empathy. The goal is for the speaker to be/feel understood and for you to deeply understand their story from their perspective.

The topic can be about anything that the speaker chooses. You might be talking with teachers about teaching online. You might be talking with friends or family about how they are handling their experience in regard to the Corona Virus/CoVid-19, or about something that is completely different, to get their minds/hearts off of the current crisis. What is most important is that it is something on the speaker’s mind and/or heart.

Your work is to be and remain fully present. Build on your listening and empathy skills, use questing kinds of questions if needed, and deepen your ability to be fully present in your listening and empathy. Notice yourself and your own abilities to be present, listen and empathize.

Before you have your conversation you may want to reread your journal and/or think about your work with empathy this week.

REFLECT

After your coaching conversations please fill out your coaching journal and your skill journal so you can keep track of your own thoughts, feelings and learnings in this experience!

FILL OUT REFLECTION FORM: (to be posted)

PRACTICE

ZOOM meeting: (April 2, 3 or 4)