My thoughts after visiting the futurework festival 2022

The pounding heat felt like I was burning in the sun. I was walking around and was having trouble finding the location for the #futurework22 festival. After following someone who could also be going to the event, I made it. I got myself a cool drink and enjoyed the little oasis of inspiration and exchanging of new ideas.

After familiarising myself with the location I sat at the back of a workshop called “How to tackle mental health at work”. Having worked at a state school before I can also identify that it’s such an important topic nowadays. People are stigmatised, left alone with their problems and often go unheard.

Louisa, the speaker, suggested establishing a team atmosphere which encourages people to share their feelings. Some might roll their eyes and think “Am I on Freud’s couch?”, but it’s important to talk about our emotions otherwise people who struggle don’t get a chance to receive any help.

My thoughts then turned to my language students who always share how they feel and how they cope. That’s not something I consciously implemented in my classes, it just turned out to be a safe environment which allows them to open up.

I decided to come up with some ideas on how to create a culture of feelings’ exchange:

– Build trust: share your feelings as a teacher, maybe even some personal experiences
– Reassure students: what happens in the class stays in the class
– create a mini survey of students’ current emotional state (this can also be turned in a speaking exercise)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
Lina <3