Knowing Yourself to Better Know Your Students

Format

Individual Presentation

Format

Workshop

Presenters

Nathan Swanson, LakesideFollow

First Presenter's Institution

NeuroLogic by Lakeside

First Presenter’s Email Address

nathans@lakesidetraining.org

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Nathan started his career as a 5th-grade teacher in the Philadelphia School District. Desiring to find ways to help students who had experienced trauma, he left teaching to pursue a master's degree at Eastern University in Community and Clinical Counseling. After earning his master’s degree, Nathan was a Family-Based Therapist working with families whose children returned from Psychiatric Inpatient Hospital Stays. In 2015 he started at Lakeside as an In-School Counselor where he provided Outpatient Counseling to students in grades K-12. Nathan brings his diverse classroom and clinical experiences to his current position as the Coordinator of NeuroLogic Coaching Services.

Location

Scarbrough 4

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

This workshop helps educators and others learn about how their culture, past, and current stressors can affect their relationships with students and clients. Our own wounds, prejudices, and irritants can keep us from reaching and connecting with the kids who often need us most. This workshop will provide several activities and tools to use in the self-discovery process to better understand and meet one's own social, emotional, and mental health needs in order to best serve our students.

Brief Program Description

Participants will explore ways influenced by scientific research in neurology, epigenetics, psychology and sociology to examine personal, cultural and professional experiences to better understand the impact those experiences can have on one's current thoughts, reactions, and behaviors in the classroom and towards challenging students and what to do about it. Our own wounds, prejudices, and irritants can keep us from reaching and connecting with the kids who often need us most. This workshop will provide several activities and tools to use in the self-discovery process to better understand and meet one's own social, emotional, and mental health needs in order to best serve our students.

Summary

Gaining knowledge about ourselves is an essential step in effectively understanding and supporting our students. Every educator experiences challenges in the classroom, and often, these challenges stem from interactions that push our limits or trigger responses we didn't intend. Do you recognize a pattern where certain types of students test your patience every year? Have you found yourself in repeated arguments and power struggles with students, despite your best intentions to maintain a calm and productive environment? Perhaps there are aspects of your behavior or responses you've tried to change, but the outcomes seem unaltered. Additionally, it might be that the strategies you typically use for self-care and managing stress are no longer as effective as they once were.

These experiences underline the significant impact that our personal history, cultural background, and current stressors have on our professional lives, especially in teaching, a profession that demands high emotional and psychological resilience. Today's educational environment requires us to manage a variety of stressors, and having a deep understanding of our own psychological and emotional makeup is key to navigating these challenges effectively.

In this presentation, we will delve into the importance of self-reflection and self-understanding in the context of educational professionalism. We will introduce simple, yet powerful tools and exercises designed to help participants explore their own psychological, neurological, cultural, and emotional dimensions. This exploration will occur through various lenses such as trauma-informed perspectives, psychological frameworks, neurological insights, and cultural understandings, alongside evaluating personal self-care practices.

By engaging with these tools, educators will be able to identify personal triggers and understand the underlying motives and behaviors that influence their interactions with students. This self-awareness will enable educators to modify their approaches and responses to better suit the needs of their students, fostering a more supportive and inclusive classroom environment.

Furthermore, we will discuss how these insights not only benefit classroom interactions but also contribute to personal well-being and professional longevity. Understanding oneself deeply offers a pathway to more effective teaching and richer, more empathetic engagements with students, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling teaching experience and improved student outcomes. Through this comprehensive self-exploration, educators can transform their approach to teaching and develop new strategies for personal resilience and student engagement.

Evidence

It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn

Getting Past your Past By Francine Shapiro,

My Mother's hands By Resmaa Menakem

What happened to you? Opray Winfrey& Dr. Bruce Perry

Onward by Elena Aguilar

The Gift of Being Yourself by David Benner

Learning Objective 1

Equip educators with tools and exercises to explore their psychological, neurological, cultural, and emotional dimensions

Learning Objective 2

Apply insights from self-reflection to modify teaching approaches and enhance interactions with students.

Learning Objective 3

Encourage educators to reevaluate and enhance their self-care practices based on a deeper understanding of their own needs.

Presentation Year

2025

Start Date

3-4-2025 1:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Swanson, Nathan, "Knowing Yourself to Better Know Your Students" (2025). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 56.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2025/2025/56