Learning Support
Active Listening to Reduce Verbal Escalation
There are always situations where people disagree. Although conflict is a permanent part of life, how one reacts to conflict is a different matter. Recently, the SIS Staff had a training on Crisis Prevention that promotes Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). During this training, the SIS Staff practiced Empathic Listening. The Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) has listed steps to actively and empathetically listen to someone who is emotionally escalated.
Empathic Listening
- Be nonjudgmental
- Give undivided attention
- Allow silence
- Use restatements to clarify
- Listen for underlying messages
When an individual is emotionally escalated, they are in a crisis mode. To help ease the situation and for the individual to feel safe, we can apply Empathic Listening. The SIS Staff can provide a safe environment that allows the individual to feel cared for and gives them the private space to start to de-escalate. In a calm manner, the SIS Staff will listen without judgement, give focused attention to the situation, provide the appropriate environment, seek understanding, and build relationships with the individual. The SIS Staff is committed to provide a learning community that supports the whole child.
For further information, please contact Ms. Jodi or Ms. Dita and visit https://www.crisisprevention.com/ to learn more about Crisis Prevention and Empathic Listening.
MS Music
The second semester has begun. It is the time for students in grades 7 and 8 to choose what instruments they would like to master during this semester. They were very happy and eager to take part in this process. This is a very important step before going further because the continuation of music lessons depends on the choices they make now.
In addition to students choosing what instruments they want to master, they will also start looking for what songs they will learn in the class. Student choice is an important part of being engaged in learning. Our song choice discussion was very interesting because students were all able to offer their favorite songs. 
After all of the songs were collected, voting was done to determine which songs would be learned in accordance with the class choice. The songs chosen must be doable for all students and appropriate for all age levels. Everybody is happy with the result of the votes. I am looking forward to seeing how much the students progress in the second semester.
HS Mandarin
Several fun activities have been a part of class in recent weeks in Grade 10 Mandarin class. Our unit was focused on Chinese food. To further explore the cultural aspects, we brought cooking class to our Mandarin class. Students had a great chance to cook Chinese food by themselves and try to figure out different ways to cook. The dish we cooked was “Scrambled Eggs and Tomatoes” which is a famous Chinese dish. Students really enjoyed the cooking process. They also enjoyed the taste of the food they prepared. In terms of language skills students ave been developing, students needed to understand the orders for each step and were able to use Mandarin to present the process of cooking.
Playing games is another good way to strengthen teacher-student and student-student relationships, especially in the class with the different Mandarin levels. One of the games we have played is called “Mandarin Character Connect Five” which has the same rules as the popular game “Connect Five” but students have to use Chinese characters to play. We were happy to see students having fun and learning at the same time. All the students can play at the same time, and they can also connect new learning with old, because they can use all the characters they have learnt so far.
