Sheldon:

Welcome advocates to another episode of the Leading Equity Podcast, a podcast that focuses on supporting educators with the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity at their schools.

               I have a good friend of mine that is here with us today. So without further ado, I want to welcome on Dr. Lorea Martinez is here. Thank you so much, Lorea, for joining us.

Lorea Martinez:

Thank you for having me, Sheldon. It's a pleasure to be back.

Sheldon:

Yes. You've been on the show before. You've been in the Leading Equity Virtual Summit this year. We've connected on some other projects. Again, I'm glad to have you on talking about one of my favorite topics when it comes to equity, which is social, emotional learning. Now, I know who you are and those who might listen to the show and follow the work of Leading Equity Center might be familiar as well, but for those first time hearing your voice, could you share a little bit about yourself and what you currently do?

Lorea Martinez:

I'm the founder of Heart in Mind Consulting, which is a company that helps people and organizations to integrate Social Emotional Learning principles and practices in their communities, in their products, in their teaching. And I'm also faculty at Columbia University Teacher's College where I've worked with aspiring principals and I teach them the skills of emotional intelligence.

Sheldon:

All right. And that's a great topic, emotional intelligence. Now, you have a book coming out. At the time of this recording, it hasn't been released yet, but it's called Teaching with the Heart in Mind. Could you give us just a quick overview of what to expect for our audience? Let us know a little bit about what the book is about.

Lorea Martinez:

Yes. So the book is what I call a complete guide for Social Emotional Learning, and truly it's a tool that can help teachers with kind of three main things. One, to be able to have a deeper understanding of what SEL is. SEL is not just a plug and play type thing where you have a curriculum, you teach the curriculum and you are done. It's truly a process to look at your teaching practice and seeing what are the conditions that you are creating in the classroom to support your students to grow and thrive.

               And within that process, the skills of the educator are such an important piece of teaching SEL effectively. And one of the things that I like to say is that we cannot teach what we don't practice, right? So educators need to be able to model to be intentional about how they are showing up in the classroom. And the book gives you kind of some tools and some reflection questions on how to bring yourself into the work.

               And then the third part is, as educators, you always need a place to start. And in my work, working with schools and also I'm a former special education teacher, I know that we still need that practicality of how we come into this work and what are the specific tools that we can implement in our classrooms. And what I thought was missing is just having a framework that would really root the SEL work. And that's how the HEART, and HEART is actually an acronym for five key social, emotional competencies. I'm hoping that teachers can take these three big ideas, and with the book, just have a tool that they can go in into the classroom and really embrace SEL and implement it for themselves, but also for their students.

Sheldon:

Ultimately, we want to make sure that our students are prepared for life beyond school, right? And so, I think I totally agree with you that it starts with us as educators who are instilling this information, this knowledge, these experiences our kids will have, especially during a pandemic I think your book... I mean, it was timely before, but I would say it's timely even more now with everything that we have going on and a lot of uncertainty with our educational system.

               And I want to hone in today on our conversation on the five key SEL competencies that you have. And I love that you have an acronym, which makes it so much easier for us to follow, for us to remember. Let's break it down. Let's start with the H. Tell me about the H in the competencies.

Lorea Martinez:

Yeah. So the H is Honor your emotions, and that is kind of in a nutshell what we would understand by self-awareness.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

But I want to kind of double click on this idea of using our emotions as a source of data. Many times, with growing up or maybe in the kind of schools that we went as kids, we were taught, "Well, emotions, that's something that you leave at the door. Don't bring it into the classroom. If you got to focus, just forget that you're upset because you had a conflict with your sibling or your mom." And this skill, what it does is kind of go deep into why we need to just pay attention to our emotions and use them as information because they are data that can help us. It gives us indications of what's happening inside, what's our response to our environment, our interactions with others. So that's why first skill is honor our emotions, the foundation of self awareness.

Sheldon:

Now, honoring our emotions, does that connect with mindfulness? Is that kind of intertwined, or would you kind of consider that something that's separate?

Lorea Martinez:

So mindfulness, it is somewhat related. And mindfulness, I see it a little more in conjunction with the next competency in the model, which is Elect your responses, the E. And that looks into, what are some of the strategies and tools that you have to avoid reacting on a daily basis to situations and put yourself in a place where you can respond. When you are making a conscious decision about, as an educator, this student is coming to me, or this student is not engaged in our Zoom conversations, and instead of making the assumption of, "Oh, this student is lazy" or, "This student is not trying hard enough." then I can stop and think about, "Okay, what do I want out of this interaction? What is my goal here?" and then approaching the student that way. So the Elect your responses related to mindfulness, it helps us create that space where we can make more positive decisions, we could [inaudible 00:07:09] stopping and thinking about what's happening internally, but also what is the result that we want out of that interaction?

Sheldon:

All right. So what I'm hearing is, the first step is to honor your emotions, meaning, "Okay, let me recognize what I got going on right now, how I am feeling." And then, the second piece is to elect your response. So how am I going to respond based off of my emotions? I'm going to imagine and assume that within the book, you're really breaking down ways or strategies to honor those emotions, and then some specific examples or strategies to elect your responses.

Lorea Martinez:

That's right. And I do it looking at three lenses. So first, there is in SEL your direct instruction, right? And that's the time when you are taking 15, 30 minutes to teach your students about different strategies, for example, in the case of elect your responses. But there are two more strategies in order to implement a SEL in the classroom, and one is to infuse SEL into your teaching practices. And the other one is integrating it with your academic content. In the book, I actually break each competency into those three lenses, so as a teacher, you can go in and say, "Okay, I want to teach my students about honor your emotions, but also I want to reflect on my practice and see what are other ways in which I can integrate this into my instruction." And just to give you a specific example, I recently posted this and had huge response in social media, talking about the emotions that Math generates in students.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

I have a 3rd grader at home, my oldest daughter, and there are days when we are distance learning and she's coming, trying to solve these multiple set of Math problems and crying and so overwhelmed by the experience of having to do that work. And thinking back about my experience with SEL, it shows that many times, students, it's not that they are lacking the skills, but sometimes Math is taught in a way where it is completely removed from emotions instead of recognizing that we have all these mindsets about, "Are we a math person or not?" And that really limits our brain's ability to process any information. If you go to your Math class and you are thinking, "Oh, I'm not good at Math. I never get what the teacher explains." Your brain is not open for learning, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Your brain shuts down and you cannot engage with the content in a way where you are going to be able to learn anything new. So that's a way in which you can integrate this skill of honoring your emotions with your academic content, by acknowledging that students are going to have reactions and emotions regarding the content that you teach. And when you bring that into your teaching, you're helping students to process, so then, they can engage with the work more effectively.

Sheldon:

I guess my next question then would be... And I totally agree and understand where you're coming from because especially with Math, for example, there's formulas, there's equations, there's pretty much, one plus one equals two. And yeah, we could probably explain that, but when we start getting into deeper concepts related to Math, folks are trying to figure out, "Okay. Which formula do I use? Okay. What's my next step?" It can get frustrating. And so, as an educator, if we can recognize that, "Yeah, some of our students are going to come into my classroom, not really excited about Math or become frustrated about Math" and having that understanding to me makes so much of a difference.

Lorea Martinez:

Absolutely. And then the other piece is for the educator to bring their own emotions into the topic.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Because I haven't met... From all of the teachers that I've met over the years, I would say that many teachers still feel uncomfortable teaching Math because they have that mindset that they were not good at Math when they were back in school, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

And I think that, by the teacher recognizing, "I struggle with multiple set Math problems for example, as a child, and I learned that these are some strategies that I could put in place in order to help me when I felt stuck or when I felt like I couldn't do the work. And I think by normalizing the fact that things are hard and it's okay for things to be hard, is how we come into the work." And then, what are the supports that the teacher can provide, not only on the academic side, but also on the emotional side? How can I support my students emotionally when they are faced with difficult tasks? And I think that's such an important aspect for educators to bring into the classroom.

Sheldon:

I got you. Okay. we talked about Honor your emotions, that's the H. You mentioned, Elect your responses as the E. What is the third step?

Lorea Martinez:

So then, we come to the A. The A is Apply empathy, and that is such an important skill I think especially in the work that we do with equity, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Because unless we are able to see and understand other people's perspectives, it is so hard for us to see that we live in an unjust world, that the things, my experience as a Hispanic white woman might not be the same than yours. So empathy creates that space where I'm able to connect with the experiences of others to understand my students and where they are coming from, when maybe my intent was to provide a certain experience for them and the reaction is different. And then I need to be able to say, "Okay. What happened there?" right? What happened for my students that they didn't react, or they didn't have the experience I was planning for them in just being able to connect with the feelings and the emotions of others?"

Sheldon:

I think this one is very important as well, because when we talk about empathy, I think a lot of our biases tend to play a factor. You mentioned how maybe an educator's experience as learning Math growing up, or when they were going through school, or even other subjects, their experiences from their time in school, or just things at home and how they were raised, that to me creates a lot of biases. And if we're not careful, that empathy can be lacking. I wonder if you could maybe go a little deeper into the applying empathy, maybe if you have an example of what that could look like, because I really want to hone in on this one.

Lorea Martinez:

Yeah. So kind of an easy way to reinforce and provide an opportunity for students to apply empathy is through literature. So the books that we read, looking at the characters in the stories, thinking about, "Why did they make that decision? Would you have done the same thing in that situation?" and then, really identifying the experience that we read in the stories and how we, as humans, can connect with those feelings, even if we have never been in that situation before, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

I think that the power of empathy is that, even if we have different experiences, we have the ability to connect at an emotional level. So I can connect with a time when I felt rejected or I felt isolated, or I felt sad because I lost someone in my family. Those are the experiences that helped us connect at that very human level. We all have the ability to connect that way, but we need to be able to create the space in the classroom for that to happen.

Sheldon:

Okay. Thank you. And so, that kind of intertwined with the emotional intelligence, right? Because even if I haven't personally experienced something that my students are experiencing, but having that emotional intelligence, being able to kind of recognize certain signs, students demeanors, their level of tone with their voice, all these things, to me, signifies that I do have that emotional intelligence in order to operate and support our kids beyond just the academics, "Turn in this assignment. Do this homework, blah, blah, blah." but there's that other piece that needs to be added in, is that correct?

Lorea Martinez:

That's correct. And I wanted to also touch on something that I think many educators struggle with, which is sometimes when we talk about empathy, we become overwhelmed because educators are putting the emotions of their students on their shoulders. Although that is something, it's common, it happens, that is not the goal of us applying empathy as educators, because there are certain things that we won't be able to change in the realities that our students experience in our communities. So, I think that we need to be cautious of not crossing that boundary and put those emotions on our shoulders and carry them with us because that's going to drain us emotionally, right? I think that, that ability to connect with our students recognize where we have control, what we can do to support our students, but also recognize the areas where we cannot do anything about it, and just stay there in that place so we don't burn out and we don't become unable to cope with those feelings.

Sheldon:

Gotcha. Okay. So Honor your emotions, Elect your responses, Apply empathy. What's number four?

Lorea Martinez:

So the R in HEART is Reignite your relationships. And I had people ask me, "Why did you choose reignite?" And I see relationships as a fire, right? Sometimes you have these relationships where from the get-go, it goes so well, you have that connection, you hit it off the right way and it's like a fire that is healthy and you let it burn. But there are other times when you got to bring your big locks, because maybe something happened in the relationship, the relationship got eroded so you need to put a little more wood into your fire in order for that connection to happen.

               In our work in SEL, I think that cultivating relationships, especially with our students and also with the adults in the building where we work, is such an important part of just bringing your full self to the classroom. And it's a broad competency, but I think that it is important that we recognize how to teach students to build those positive relationships and definitely apply certain strategies that you can learn in order to have better relationships.

Sheldon:

I think relationships is pivotal. And we say it a lot, "Build relationships. Build relationships." And I love that you're talking about reigniting relationships as well. When we're talking about a virtual space, when we're just Zooming with our kids, or we're doing Google Hangouts with our kids, what are some strategies that you would suggest to reignite relationships?

Lorea Martinez:

Yes. So something that I see that it works is creating space for students to actually have those relationships. And one of the things that sometimes makes me sad, I asked my daughter, "Hey, did you talk to so-and-so in your classroom? Your friend, how are they doing? And she says, "Well, mom, unless I'm in a small group with them, I don't have a chance to talk to them."

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Well, you can't establish relationships unless you have that opportunity to connect with each other. I think an easy way for teachers is to just create the structure within their classroom even if it's virtual for students to be able to do things together, to have conversations, not only about academic things, but also about non-academic things for them to have a chance to connect with each other, because we're not doing play dates anymore, so the kids need a place to play and we have to do it via virtual, via Zoom.

Sheldon:

Well, it needs to be more intentional with our approach. And I love how you said that it can't just be academics. Sometimes when we set up our Zooms, we're prepared to do a lecture or prepared to step our students through a process. One of the things that I've noticed is a lot of teachers will kind of have those "office hours", if you will, so they'll have a Zoom room open, which allows students to kind of pop in and pop out and provide some support there. Are there maybe some avenues that a teacher can utilize during those "office hours" that could help build relationships, not with just the peers of students, but also one-on-one with the students?

Lorea Martinez:

Yes. In that space, I think that getting to know the students is so important. And I love how teachers have shared that they bring their pets into their Zoom space, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Like, if the teacher has a pet, it shows up in the Zoom. If the kids have an animal at home, they can share that. I think that just recognizing, just getting to know each other, knowing you have a pet or these are your preferences, and then as a teacher, to be able to go back to that student and say, "Oh, you told me about your pet. How are they doing?" Or, "Are they learning their tricks?" or, "Are you training your dog?" Whatever that is, it's to find those moments of connection based on that getting to know each other and having that expectation that, that is also part of teaching, to have just that connection with your student about what's going on in their lives.

Sheldon:

You know, I was doing a training with a group yesterday, and one of the teachers, we were talking about relationships and we're talking about how we can help develop those relationships again as a class, as a class community. And one of the teachers were sharing how they noticed that a lot of their students, they had elementary kids, a lot of them were showing their house. And so, the teacher started showing her house. She was like, "Well, here's my bathroom. Here's the kitchen. Here's this. Here's that." and all part of just giving a virtual tour and allowing that opportunity for the students to kind of gauge a little bit more of personal side of their teachers. And I think when I was listening to the teacher talk about it, I was like, "That is such an awesome idea." And she was like, "Man, my house wasn't clean. It wasn't in pristine shape, but I wanted my students to get a little glimpse of my world outside of the 'academic setting'."

Lorea Martinez:

It's so important. And somehow we picked up that as teachers, we need to be this perfect models where our house is clean, we are dressed up the right way, all our plan is done, all our papers are graded. And I think that when students see, "Oh, this person is human. They make mistakes. They sometimes answer or snap back and they don't..." And then you go in and apologize. Just seeing that humanity in the teacher, I think that for students it's like, "Oh, okay. I can relate to you because things that happen to you also happen to me."

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

I think that it brings that... I don't know, those expectations down, that we have to be this perfect beings and just really connecting. I think that I go back to this idea of really connecting at that human level.

Sheldon:

I love it. Okay. We got Honor your emotions, Elect your responses, Apply empathy, Reignite your relationship. What does the T stand for?

Lorea Martinez:

So the T, I have to say it's probably one of my favorite competencies in the Heart in Mind model. So T stands for Transform with purpose.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

And this purpose is something that you don't see often in SEL frameworks. When I was creating this, I really wanted to find a place where we could ask the hard questions of, "Okay. What am I doing here? What is my purpose? What are the things that really motivate me to get up in the morning and go do what I love?", right? And that's important for the teacher to have that clarity, to really have clarity on what is their why, in why they decided to go in the classroom, and have that as kind of the light that guides your teaching.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

But also, when thinking about the students, this is a question we don't ask kids. "What's the contribution you want to make in the world?", right? Use your voice to make that contribution. What that skill does is it brings the opportunity for teachers and students to have those conversations to explore, first, "What are my strengths? What are the things that are interesting to me? Where's my fire?" And then, connect that with some of the problems that our students want to solve in the world. Maybe they want to fight for racial justice or environmental justice, or they want to make sure that in their community, there's a bike lane.

               There are so many things that students see in their communities, in their own schools that they want to improve. And many times they don't have the space to act on those things that they see. And when you ask kids, I did this research with middle schoolers a few years back asking, "How can we make your school a better place?" And what they said was that, "We have ideas for how to make things better, but nobody ask us."

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

Right? So we have this untapped potential of kids that they can contribute in so many different ways, with purpose, with looking at those things that they want to provide for their schools and their communities. So I think that transform with purpose brings us that opportunity to have those conversations and to connect that with our academic content, then see, "Okay, you want to, for example, make sure that in your town, there are bike lanes. What are the venues that you can act on that purpose?" And students are going to be learning about how the city hall works, how government works to write a compelling letter, to make a budget, right? There are so many things that are attached to acting on your purpose that have an academic foundation that I think that's such a nice way to bring kind of everything together, your SEL, but also your academic instruction in a way that is meaningful to your students.

Sheldon:

Okay. I have a question, because as an educator, and I know you work with even administrators as well, when I'm thinking about purpose, personally, where do I start? Because a lot of us are comfortable in our careers where we're at, we feel good about the job, the work that we're doing, maybe some of us do have some ideas as far as leadership or moving up in different realms, but where do I start when it comes to finding my purpose?

Lorea Martinez:

Yeah. In the book, I talk about this three step process, and the first step is to go inwards.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

That means that you have to spend some time thinking about your strengths. What are the things that you are good at? And I know that this is a really hard question. Like, if I were to ask you right now, what are your strengths? Okay, let's do it, Sheldon. Tell me one of your strengths.

Sheldon:

I think I have some interpersonal skills. I think even with the podcast, it has really helped me become better with listening. And it's also been very helpful with communicating in a way that before, three years ago, I probably didn't have that skill, so I think that has been developed over time.

Lorea Martinez:

Okay, great. So we have that, right? So, hold on to that idea that you have those interpersonal skills. Now, the second step is to look outwards and see what are some of the problems or challenges or things in your community? And that can be your local community, but it can also be your global community that you would like to solve.

Sheldon:

I live in Idaho. I'm a black man that lives in Idaho at that, and there's a lot of things I would say, I mean, I'm very socially just... That's the mindset that I usually try to operate on. So when it comes to diversity equity inclusion, to me, that is definitely a need out in the area that I'm in. And so that would be probably my primary focus.

Lorea Martinez:

Okay. So you have your focus, you have this, it's a broad field, but you know that that's where you want to act on. And then, the third step in the process is to connect the two, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

It's to look at, "Okay, I have these very strong interpersonal skills. I know how to listen. I'm really good at summarizing and making connections and I want to act on this equity to improve the place where I live." And that's where you start seeing opportunities to act on that purpose, right?

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lorea Martinez:

And in your case, probably, when you started the Leading Equity Podcast, that was your way to act on your purpose, right? Because really, it helps you to bring that strength in a way that connects with the community, and it provides tools, not only for yourself, but for others.

               And that's the other piece about purpose, that it's not just about what you want to do, but it's how you can contribute and improve the community around you. And I think that when we put these transform with purpose into practice, it gives us the opportunity to look at all the other four competencies and really bring them to life and practice them in a way that it makes sense for us, but not from a selfish perspective. We are trying to do something that it's going to be better for others.

Sheldon:

I love that. I love that you mentioned how it's not just like, "What is my personal gain purpose, but what can I do for others? What can I do for my community?" That is a piece that sometimes gets missed because even myself, when I asked you about purpose, how do I start figure that out? I was leaning towards personally, but I love how you've navigated that response to, "Well, what can you do for others? What can you do for your community?" And just think about how that translates into our students, when we teach our students about purpose as well and how that can impact their community that they're serving.

Lorea Martinez:

Absolutely. And the thing is that, research shows that acting on your purpose has many benefits, from life satisfaction. People that have that clarity, they do good for others. They feel more satisfied, right? You avoid burnout. You are more connected, right? And especially during this pandemic, people have felt very isolated. But for those that who have been trying to do something for others, it makes you feel better about yourself, about the future. It brings more hope. So I think that it's not only a way to contribute to the community, but also to be in community in a way that, again, it fills our hearts.

Sheldon:

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Fills our heart. I love how you threw heart in there at the end. Good job on that. I definitely consider you as providing a voice in leading equity. What would be one final word of advice that you could provide to our listeners?

Lorea Martinez:

I would say that if you're listening to this podcast and you think, "Well, I cannot do this because nobody else is doing this work in my school." I would say, you can. You can start the work. The teachers have a big influence on their students and they can be that champion for children. And even if nobody else around them is doing the work, you can do it in your classroom.

               I think that the book is a great tool because it gives you kind of like this array of strategies, a framework, and also tools to reflect on your own. And don't wait for others, just do the work.

Sheldon:

All right. Well, again, I am talking to Dr. Lorea Martinez, author of Teaching with the Heart in Mind. I'm going to go over those five competencies. One more time, Honor your emotions, Elect your responses, Apply empathy, Reignite your relationships, and Transform with purpose. Lorea, if we have some folks that want to connect with you, what's the best way to reach you online?

Lorea Martinez:

Yes, they can go to my website, loreamartinez.com. The first chapter of the book is currently free for download on my website. And I'm also on social media, Twitter and Facebook, @loreamart. And Facebook is loreamartSEL.

Sheldon:

There we are. Okay. And I'll leave a link to the book as well in the show notes. Lorea, it's always a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time.

Lorea Martinez:

Thank you, Sheldon. It was great talking to you today.

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