You can tell stories, show film clips or images, make jokes, or do any number of things that will briefly activate the emotions of your students and prepare them to learn. You can leverage the power of emotions to heighten the cognitive capacities of your students at the opening, midway point, or closing of a course or a class period. Psychologist Michelle Miller, the author of Minds Online, encouraged instructors to ask themselves the following two questions: “What is the emotional heart of the material I am teaching? And how can I foreground this emotional center to my students?
