In this third installment in our series on Humanizing Pedagogy, we welcome Johnathon Walker to 3Ps in a Pod to talk about his approach to character education and how educators can better get to know their students. 

Jonathon begins the episode by sharing how working with students in athletics led him to become a classroom teacher before talking about the importance of educators to teach the whole child. He defines social-emotional learning as how we prepare students to navigate social structures and society and how teachers get to know students to best support their learning.

Jonathon mentions research that says 46% of high school students don’t think their teachers know their names. He talks about strategies for teachers to better know their students and that help students know a teacher is there to support them.

He also details the steps for students to recognize “blue thoughts,” those thoughts that are far too negative to be realistic, and how to process the situation to recognize the “true thoughts” a student is having.

Jonathon will be one of the breakout session speakers at this summer’s Beginning Teacher Institute. Learn more and register for this three-day event at azk12.org/BTI23.

Learn more about the Arizona K12 Center at azk12.org.