PROFESSOR PROFILE: DR. AMY SHEMA

By Imani Coaxum

Dr. Amy L Shema is a college professor at The College at Brockport. She received her bachelor's degree from Allegheny College and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Rochester- all focused on a degree in education.

“I really like learning and I think the best way to continue learning is by teaching. Because in order to teach something you have to understand it at a different level. I also like listening to people’s experiences and understanding their backgrounds and areas of interest and ways that they make sense of the world.” says Dr. Shema.

This is where social/emotional learning comes in. It is all about building relationships and understanding a student as a person rather than just a student. This is what Dr. Shema spoke of. Her interest in listening and understanding one’s background is one of the many core values to a student learning- not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well.

She has done a lot of work in after school programs regarding social/emotional learning and has worked on a few committees at the Children’s Institute, Social and Emotional Learning Center. The Children’s Institute is a center that works with Pre-K to 12th grade schools and districts, child care sites, charter schools, after schools, summer learning programs, and higher education. They have customized services, support for programs to transform systems and work in many different settings that serve to help children achieve systemic change.

“For me social emotional is looking at the whole person.” says Dr. Shema.

It certainly is about looking at students as a whole person and in her class, she considers this the heart of her teaching. She believes in the concept of relational pedagogy. This is basically recognizing that students are holistic beings. The goal for this is to create relational peace by helping to care for all humanity.

“I think one of the things we really strive to do here in the education department is modular pedagogy, we have certain constraints just like classroom or public-school teachers do, but that is not an excuse not to teach your beliefs in terms of teaching your being of beliefs. So how can you engage students in content learning in a compassionate humanitarian way.”

One of the strong points that Dr. Shema mentions is teaching in a compassionate humanitarian way. The purpose of even considering social emotional learning is to move away from just teaching students content and that only being it. She looks to teach her students how to look beyond the content and engage their own students.

“I think I try to be available to be able to meet different students' needs and instruction is a different combination of all those approaches.”

Most importantly, it is about understanding that all students are different. She works with each students’ learning ability and compiles it in a lesson, making it a lot easier for them to learn without straying away. Dr. Shema is an educator who engages her students with a humanitarian approach with regards to them being holistic people, not just students.