Kids Cooking for Life is proud to offer professional development sessions for its staff. Our first session was with Rachael Katz, author of the book ‘The Emotionally Intelligent Child.’ Rachel is an expert in evidence-based social-emotional learning, especially within children’s education. Her focus is on helping children to become effective communicators who are more able to regulate their behavior and ride the waves of their emotions.
Rachael discussed ways to enhance lessons by tapping into the student’s own creativity, and troubleshooted with our instructors on common classroom issues. Memorably, she suggested teachers reply to students fixated on the idea that they don’t like vegetables with, ‘Ah, so you don’t like vegetables YET.’ This instantly opens them up to the possibility that they can grow to like them, and is based on a growth mindset perspective.
The seminar was fascinating and our teachers came away with many constructive strategies to promote deeper learning.
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Rachael Katz, MS, Ed, teaches social and emotional learning skills to parents and children. She has over twenty-five years of experience as an early childhood educator and school leader. Rachael was head of the Discovery School at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, head of social and emotional learning for Early Years at Dulwich College Beijing, and an elementary classroom teacher for preschool through third grade in public and private schools. In addition to working in school settings, Rachael has created and written television for Nick Jr. and Radio Television Hong Kong, and was a consultant for educational programs at Children’s Television Workshop. Rachael holds a master’s degree in education from Bank Street College, and a BA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Her recent book The Emotionally Intelligent Child