Friday, February 4, 2011
Chapter 4
I fully agee with this chapter that we need to expect more from our students. I love the quote "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them" by Lady Bird Johnson. It is sometimes hard to push the students especially when they are struggling and it takes them several tries to get it right. It also makes it difficult when not everyone is on board with your expectations of the students. For example, other teachers in my building wanted to make up some schedule for walking students to the title room. I don't agree with that. I expect my 2nd graders to be able to walk down the hall and go the the correct room quietly. They have to be given the chance to prove what they can do. The same principle applies in academics also. Unless they try new and harder things, we will never know how far they can go. I feel that one area of difficulty is with the special ed students. Often times the special ed teacher doesn't want her students pushed too hard. I believe that we should raise the expectations of all students whether they are low achievers or gifted. When we raise the expectations the students might sometimes feel some frustration. I think this is okay. It is a part of life. When we continually make things easy for our students we aren't doing them any favors. Students need to know that it is okay to find something difficult. From this they can learn how to push themselves and expect more from themselves. This is a life skill that will serve them well in life.
photo from: jimallder.blogspot.com
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As an academic support teacher, the only kids I go get are kindergartners because they can't tell the time to be able to come to me. Otherwise, 1-5 walk in the hallway by themselves to my classroom. If they have trouble in the hallway and I have to use my time to escort them back or forth, they owe me recess time to pay for it. It doesn't take too much of that before they get it together.
ReplyDeleteMissie- Special Ed students can be tricky business. It think it helps to know each one (regular students as well), condition, triggers, etc. We can push all students, but those with conditions that may cause an abnormal or disruptive reaction may require adaptions to the pushing. Does that make sense? I am thinking of some students I have worked with who were academically low, some behavior issues, but generally wanted to learn. I had to watch for when "shut down mode" was looming and either back off for a bit and come back or alter my strategies. Otherwise, a situation could/would arise that was disruptive to the rest of the class or caused the student to "shut down" for a long period of time.
ReplyDeleteThis is an area that I feel strongly about. I agree that students need to be challenged, expected to behave. We give bulldog bucks as a behavior plan which I am terrible at because, honestly, I feel my students should be expected to do certain things--not get a reward everytime they pick a piece of paper off the floor. I do feel I may go too easy on my special ed kids. Unfortunately, I think I do them a disservice when I do this. Jobs in the real world are not going to take their abilities into consideration. They will be expected to perform to certain standards, and I feel it is my job to prepare students for the big, bad world.
ReplyDelete"When we continually make things easy for our students we aren't doing them any favors." I love this statement! It is so easy to get caught up in avoiding roughing the waters, ruffling feathers, etc. but in the end, we are not helping our students by doing this. Real life is not easy and it's usually the things we have to work the hardest at that have the most meaning in the end. I need to work harder at communicating this to my students.
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