Eric Marx High school teacher, Tiverton Eric Marx teaches psychology, sociology, and world history at Tiverton High School. A favorite assignment in Mr. Marx’s sociology class is to conduct and videotape interviews, often with people from a different generation from the students. During the assignment, students must initiate a relationship, ask questions, and listen carefully to the responses. The exercise is a wonderful opportunity to develop empathy for other’s views and experiences.

Sociology and psychology courses speak to students in direct ways. Sociology focuses on society and the larger world around them and psychology touches upon individual behavior and, basically, themselves. The sociology course contains many opportunities for students to learn and think in a social-emotional manner. Topics like “Race and Ethnicity” and “Culture” ask students to practice empathy, imagining themselves in the shoes of others from around the world.

In a section in Mr. Marx’s psychology class called “Emotions in Motion,” students bring pictures of themselves to class and evaluate the emotions expressed in the pictures. This allows the students to talk about the basis social emotional principles involved in correctly identifying emotions. As Mr. Marx notes, “With this information, students can identify constructive and destructive ways of expressing their feelings.”

“Students can identify constructive and destructive ways of expressing their feelings.”

Mr. Marx also encourages his students to do work in the community. For example, students in his sociology class held a concert and recorded a CD to raise funds for the Station Fire Relief Fund. Guest speakers are invited to his classes and he organizes field trips for the students. By expanding his students’ horizons and encouraging them to see themselves as part of a larger community, Mr. Marx incorporates the principles of social emotional learning into the daily life of his classroom.

“I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.”
- Dr. Haim Ginott