Recognize when you “otherize” someone – when you [erroneously] see them as some completely not connected to you. Then cast the world through their eyes. What are they experiencing? Log the entire experience on the dedicated website. What you think, what you feel, what you learn. Students often have a difficult time with this. Empathizing with someone doesn’t mean you agree with them, or think that they are right. It just means you see things (at least for a moment) how you think they are seeing them.
I would always get very mad at my mom because she wouldn’t let me drive late at night. It was very frustrating and I would always argue with her about why she cant just treat me like the adult I am. However, I eventually came to look at the situation from her perspective and understand why she wouldn’t want us to be out. She has experienced friends dying in car crashes and other accidents and she just doesn’t want the same thing to happen to me.
