Over the last 18 months, we have seen an explosion of interest in student engagement. While this was always a topic of interest for teachers, requests for strategies and training skyrocketed while everyone was teaching and learning online. Breaking down the requests, it’s been apparent that a lot of them focused on cognitive and behavioral engagement. While these are critical components of instruction, the beginning of the year is a perfect time to focus on the third type of engagement: emotional.
Many educators are not familiar with the idea of three different types of engagement. These three types however help us narrow down where students might be a little disconnected. A lot of times when we think of engagement, we think of what students are doing. Are they on task? Are they participating in the activity? This is just one type of engagement though, behavioral engagement. Another type is what students are thinking about during a lesson or activity, cognitive engagement. Are they thinking about the content? What is their attention focused on? Finally, the last type looks at how the students are feeling both in general and about the learning. Do they feel emotionally safe? Have they bought into the lesson or activity and feel some connection to the learning. This type especially hinges on the relationships we build in the classroom. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
There has also been another explosion of interest over the past 18 months and that has been in the hit show, Ted Lasso. People have been drawn to its folksy charm and unending kindness and wisdom. The basic premise is that Ted Lasso is a college football coach who has been hired as the head coach of an English soccer team….despite knowing nothing about the sport. Yet he approaches this challenge with courage and an unwavering belief in his ability to help the team. As the episodes progress, viewers realize that Ted isn’t a successful coach because he knows the game, he leverages his ability to create relationships and emotionally engage his players and staff. With that in mind, here are 5 lessons that educators can learn about emotional engagement from Ted Lasso.
Names are critical
One of the very first people Ted meets in England, as he begins his football coaching journey, is Nathan the kit man (locker room assistant). It’s evident from the get go that Nathan is not well respected by the players and lacks confidence. When Ted asks his name, Nathan is shocked as “No one ever asks my name.” Ted makes it a point to not only remember Nathan’s name, but to use it in their subsequent conversations. Nathan is absolutely flabbergasted and can’t believe that the head coach remembers his name. When we take the time to see people and use their name, pronounced correctly, we send a message that “you matter” and take the first step towards emotionally engaging students.
Tool: Consider using Flipgrid to have all students record their names and pronunciations at the beginning of the year. This allows you the chance to put names and faces together and hear correct pronunciations of names or preferred nicknames.
Celebrate each other
The biggest challenge Ted faces as a new coach is a very fractured team. One player is extremely arrogant while another is angry and abrasive. The rest have either taken sides or keep their heads down to avoid the conflicts. Ted works to bring them together by throwing a surprise birthday celebration for one of the players before a game. As a gift, the team got him snacks from where he grew up. He is moved by the small gesture and how the others thought of him. It takes so little for so many kids to show them that you see them and you are glad to have them. Whether it’s a positive phone call home out of the blue or a meaningful smile as a student leaves your class, there is so much we can do to celebrate our kids.
Tool: Use the Stream in Google Classroom to post private uplifting messages or notes to students. Simply click the All Students drop down menu in the announcement and choose which student will see the post.
Look for genius everywhere
Ted’s wealthy boss and team owner, Rebecca, is hosting a charity gala when the entertainment cancels at the last minute. Understandably panic sets in as she tries to find a replacement. At the eleventh hour, Ted brings in a busker he saw on the street to perform for the guests. Despite her hesitancy and initial dismissal, Rebecca introduces him and he wows the crowd as an amazing musician! All too often our students are judged by so many factors that are beyond their control. They are dismissed by adults and peers because of superficial impressions. Sometimes by giving students a variety of settings in which to “perform” we can see talents and strengths that we didn’t even know they had.
Tool: Have your students had a variety of “settings” to demonstrate their learning? Consider maker activities that blend content and hands-on activities to engage a variety of learners. Students who might struggle with getting their ideas in writing could build something and verbally explain their thinking.
Honor what others bring
As somewhat of an oddity, Ted is shadowed for a day by a journalist, Trent, doing an in depth piece on him and his coaching style. Ted takes the journalist to an Indian restaurant owned by the family of Ollie, the cab driver who picked Ted up from the airport on his first day in London. Ted asks them for whatever is good and “make it like we’re a couple members of the family” before admitting he’s never had Indian food. In one of the most visceral scenes of the show, Trent gives up after one bite but Ted continues eating to be respectful and not embarrass Ollie in front of his father in law. Ted gloriously swan dives into the food of another culture and tries his best to appreciate it in all its blazing hot glory. Our students come from rich and varied backgrounds. We can recognize and honor those backgrounds through the design of our lessons and the way we interact. Bringing in pieces of our students’ cultures, gives them a reason to emotionally connect with the content and their learning.
Tool: Use a multimedia tool for students to create All About Me “presentations”. Tools like Google Slides, Screencastify, or Google Drawings can be used by students to show everyone who they are and give insights into their backgrounds and personalities.
Believe
Probably the most recognizable image from Ted Lasso is the duct taped and slightly crooked sign he hangs above his office door that simply says Believe. There are a lot of things we can do to help our students engage with their learning whether it’s cognitively, behaviorally, or emotionally. We can create authentic lessons that are meaningful to them and allow them to be creative. However, it’s hard to ignore the increasingly compelling idea that engagement starts with one small action. Believe.
