Practice what you preach

    I believe educators today need to keep a growth mindset not only to set a good model for their students but also because we need to allow ourselves room to make mistakes and learn from them. It can be easy to forget that students are not the only ones learning at school, and this further supports the idea of social-emotional learning. We too are human and will eventually make mistakes or have something go less than adequate, and we need to grant ourselves the same kindness we will show our students when they make mistakes. I believe the times when teachers make mistakes are some of the most crucial moments in the classroom because it sets the expectation for students to follow. If a teacher makes a mistake and tries to hide it or react to it in a negative manner, that subconsciously tells the students that making mistakes is a negative thing that they must avoid doing to whatever extent they decide to take it. If the teacher takes the time to address the mistake and displays a collected and logical approach to fixing it, they are destigmatizing making mistakes and giving normalcy to seeing mistakes as opportunities for learning and improvement. 

    We may only have students for one calendar year, but the habits they pick up in school regarding their study habits, self-esteem, problem-solving, and bravery to take risks stays with them until they have to actively work at unlearning those habits. It is in their best interest as future functional members of society, and for us as educators serving hundreds of them to keep in mind just how mouldable their minds are as children, and we need to take caution of the hidden curriculums and unspoken rules that might be communicated. Transparency, a collective group effort to identify problems as they arise and solve them as a team, and open and respectful communication can go a long way for students, especially those that may not have healthy relationships in their personal lives.

The One True Learning Theory Doesn't Exist

About Culturally Responsive Teaching

Article here: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/culturally-responsive-teaching-strategies/           

Trying to teach Black students by rapping or Latinx students by talking about Cinco de Mayo tokenizes students. I was never motivated to participate by being compelled to act as “the Jewish expert” when I was growing up.

The way to activate and engage students is through genuine, authentic connection. Without achieving authentic connection between students and teacher as well as peer to peer, learning will be stilted at best. Trust is the first step in learning.

We know that many children have Adverse Childhood Experiences (https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/index.html) during K-12 education, and that these experiences can scar them for life. What can we do to better support the children in our classrooms as they are going through one of the most formative periods of their lives?

I feel quite strongly that the first few weeks of school, and whenever a new student is added to the classroom, must be spent building authentic connections.

We have to acknowledge that all of our students are from diverse backgrounds. Each one of them is unique, a human being with a human being’s story. Family, or no family, friends, or no friends… we all come to the table with everything that we’re born with and that we have lived. What is most important is that everyone has a voice, and that their voice is heard and valued. Listening skills are key. Many paths to knowledge and different pieces of knowledge depending on capacity must be available and easy to access. Technology is one of the necessary paths that must be widely available and utilized regularly.

I have been feeling frustrated by the theories of behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. This idea of one theory being correct above all others doesn't make sense to me and seems too simplistic. I believe that reality is internal, external, and interpreted; and I believe that knowledge is both innate and acquired through experiences, thinking about experiences, and constructed.  

These things all go together. How learning happens is both clearer and more nebulous than I have seen properly articulated by any learning theory I have yet read. It almost seems as if there’s a desire to find the “One True Path” when such a thing does not exist. Teachers must meet students where they are and provide them with genuine connection and a broad range of social and academic activities.