A person has to know themselves before they can they can fully develop social awareness. We need to know how we feel, what we value and what is important to us before we can build strong, positive human connections.
One way I am encouraging self-awareness in my sessions is by asking my students to think about their feelings as well as their peers. To do this, I start off my groups by asking everyone how they feel. Students then select a colored wristband that corresponds to that feeling. For example, orange- anxious, yellow-happy, blue-sad. We talk about our feelings and wear the wristband throughout the session. Wearing the wristbands increases our awareness of our feelings as well as those of others. If someone is wearing a blue wristband we may try to encourage that student or give them an extra compliment. If they are wearing an orange band, we may speak slower and calmly, if they are wearing yellow, we may celebrate their feeling of happiness. At the end of the session, everyone removes the wristband and take turns saying something positive based on their feeling and those of others.
One way I am encouraging self-awareness in my sessions is by asking my students to think about their feelings as well as their peers. To do this, I start off my groups by asking everyone how they feel. Students then select a colored wristband that corresponds to that feeling. For example, orange- anxious, yellow-happy, blue-sad. We talk about our feelings and wear the wristband throughout the session. Wearing the wristbands increases our awareness of our feelings as well as those of others. If someone is wearing a blue wristband we may try to encourage that student or give them an extra compliment. If they are wearing an orange band, we may speak slower and calmly, if they are wearing yellow, we may celebrate their feeling of happiness. At the end of the session, everyone removes the wristband and take turns saying something positive based on their feeling and those of others.