At Rugby School I feel we are directing our efforts toward
important areas that will have great impact on children living in poverty and
from homes where parents aren’t engaged in their child’s education.
Research shows that standards based instruction makes a
difference on the performance scores of children. We are just starting to see this at work in
our lowest levels, but I think we all can see that it is effective when we
visit with our K-1 Teachers or observe what they are doing. It can make a big difference for parents as
instruction becomes consistent across time and across grades.
I agreed with the author when he stated that one way we can
help students in the classroom is by re-tooling their operating systems. This is similar to the studies we have
recently been looking at in our PLC where we discussed executive skills in
children and how deficiencies in these areas affect overall learning. Jensen points out that students need to
develop skills in attention, processing speed
and memory, to which I might also add goal directed persistence, task initiation and organization. We need to do a good job of teaching these
executive skills at the Tier 1 and Tier 2 level.
I enjoyed reading Eric Jensen’s comments about increasing
hopefulness in students. As teachers we
have always known our beliefs and
assumptions make a big difference in the lives of our students. For some students there is literally no one
that expresses confidence in their abilities or pictures them having a hopeful
and bright future. Jensen writes about the importance of developing a culture
of hopefulness and learned optimism for all students. He states that we want to avoid the
self-fulfilling prophecy, “Expect less,
get less, the child loses hope, the child fails.”
A teacher can help break these cycles by asking students
what their hopes are and then reinforcing those hopes. They can also talk to students specifically
about how and why they can succeed, and sharing stories of hope with them about
individuals with similar struggles and backgrounds. There is always a way to be
a purveyor of Hope!!