Kids Cooking for Life is proud to offer professional development sessions for its staff. Our first session was with Rachael Katz, author of the book ‘The Emotionally Intelligent Child.’ Rachel is an expert in evidence-based social-emotional learning, especially within children’s education. Her focus is on helping children to become effective communicators who are more able to regulate their behavior and ride the waves of their emotions.
Rachael discussed ways to enhance lessons by tapping into the student’s own creativity, and troubleshooted with our instructors on common classroom issues. Memorably, she suggested teachers reply to students fixated on the idea that they don’t like vegetables with, ‘Ah, so you don’t like vegetables YET.’ This instantly opens them up to the possibility that they can grow to like them, and is based on a growth mindset perspective.
The seminar was fascinating and our teachers came away with many constructive strategies to promote deeper learning.
