February 23rd - 27th

This week, the students explored the wild world of emotions and how our Limbic System can take over our ability to think rationally, which is controlled by the Cerebral Cortex. To do that, I set up a multi-day lesson that demonstrated our brain biology and how our bodies react to what we're thinking and feeling. On the first day, we identified the seven primary emotions: joy, fear, sadness, disgust, anger, shame, and compassion. We also practiced distinguishing the difference between thoughts and feelings, as well as the difference between thoughts that are facts and thoughts that are opinions. You can test your skills by following the links here and here.

The second day, we began watching a short horror movie called "The Quiet." Students were instructed to monitor their emotions as they viewed the film and we stopped periodically to discuss the feelings the characters were displaying, as well as the students' emotions and the biases they were observing. If you'd like to see the twenty-minute film, click here. It was great to see the kids so engaged with the plot. At the end, we mapped out the level of fear being experienced by the main character and pondered how the movie would have been different if her Limbic System hadn't taken over her rational Cerebral Cortex.

Today, the final day of the lesson, we continued our conversation around the film and how the characters' emotions affected their behaviors. We also began discussing how we can control our emotions by thinking a certain way and staying logical in the face of adversity. This series of lessons is meant to supply background knowledge for the rest of the YESS curriculum, since I noticed many of the kids were unable to identify emotions.