Summary

Middle School Science Here, students learn more about the earth from its inception to humans’ current global impact. Students recognize the responsibility they have as characters in this continuing story.

Social Studies Students and teachers read real-life stories together as they examine their country’s social justice stories, its historical narratives, and the workings of individuals and communities. Students learn from the past and examine their current institutions, communities, and contexts. Students:

• Experience content through stories from multiple perspectives

Students:

• Read scenarios and watch videos designed to share the story of the earth • Research the earth from the perspectives of different communities and geographic locations • Create a public health story in which they research a disease, its community impacts, and individual and community efforts toward a cure, and then present this story through a slideshow presentation with images

• Share their own stories through reflection prompts, discussion, and class activities

• Deliver speeches, create slideshows, and engage in group projects to analyze history and tie their life experiences to current events

Connections made in the teacher narratives in this chapter include: • How can teachers build empathy with students they may never see in person? • How can teachers encourage story sharing? • What role does encouragement play in empathetic communication?

These questions all point teachers to the impact of sharing their stories and experiences to create connection.

Jill Clingan: Empathy in Blended Learning Environments

Jill Clingan has taught in online, blended, and in-person contexts for high school and college. Anyone who meets Jill comments on her encouraging and warm nature, and she is known in her school as its heart. Jill’s work with international students and partners carries this empathy forward, as she shares in her narrative.

Early in the semester, I received an email from one of my composition and literature students that said, “I hope we have good moments together.” I smiled and replied, “I hope we have good moments together too.” As a teacher in online education, I do not usually get to see my students faceto-face. Lucas, the student who sent me this email, lives over five thousand miles away in South America. Lucas is one of many students who are eager to connect with their teachers here in the United States, just as I am eager to connect with him and his fellow peers.

The challenge many educators are experiencing as they find themselves immersed in online teaching is how to bridge the gap as they seek to connect with students in critically meaningful ways. I believe that the key to bridging this gap is the cultivation of empathy. Börje Holmberg, a Swedish educator and writer, studied empathy and distance education for decades and found that “feelings of empathy and belonging within a distance education format influenced the learning favorably and promoted students’ motivation to learn” (Fuller, 2012, p. 38).

I spoke about empathy with school administrators at a virtual conference whose theme was the transformative power of connection. Before my speech, I asked some educator colleagues how they would define empathy. I then compiled their responses into a community poem that I read at the end of my presentation. Here is an excerpt of our poem, “What Is Empathy?”

Empathy is . . .

Listening hard and becoming vulnerable to what we hear Acting on the belief that we belong together Wearing someone else’s skin Being the human I would want as a teacher Honoring someone else right where they are and being able to enter that space with them Seeing through the eyes and heart of the other

Empathy is . . .

The transformative power of connection

These creative ways of defining empathy stretch the boundaries of a textbook-style definition and help educators consider new ways of thinking about empathy. How can educators listen hard, act on the belief that everyone belongs together, and see through the eyes and hearts of students?

Both for online educators who see their students face-to-face via video and for those who primarily interact through correspondence and feedback, it