Welcome to Teachers At Risk
An honour
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Edublog AwardsNov
15
One positive relationship can make a huge difference for “at-risk” students
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I’ve found that students learn best for me when I’ve been able to develop a positive relationship with them. That’s why I take the time to do that. It really pays off and takes just a few minutes each class.
It’s hardly surprising that students do better if they have a positive relationship with the teacher, I know that. But, what is surprising, for me at least, is that all it takes is one positive teacher-student relationship to make a huge difference in a student’s life, especially in the life of an “at-risk” student.
Studies have shown that the positive effects that occur when a student bonds with a teacher in a class extends to other classes as well. I guess we’ve always known this at some level because guidance counselors often try to match “at- risk” students with teachers who they are more likely to bond with.
I’ve been talking about the positive effects of teacher-student bonds, but students can and do develop relationships with other adults at school that influence them positively, too. This happens all the time. Former students and their parents have told me how something that a paraprofessional, a secretary, a lunch room supervisor , custodian ,or bus driver had said or done that influenced them in a positive way not only while they were in school but for years to come. These non-teacher relationships are is especially important for at “at-risk” students who have difficulty relating to teachers and are turned off by school.
At our weekly Student Success Committee meetings, we often suggest adult mentors for “at-risk’ kids hoping that the mentors can bond with the the students and help the student turn things around. Sometimes that mentor is a former student who himself was an “at-risk” student but was able to turn it around and be successful and now wants to help other kids do the same thing. Sometimes the mentor is a coach on an out of school sport or activity. Recently we had a boxing coach mentor one of our students. Other times it could be a family friend like the man who owned a garage and had the student work part time and help the student develop some dignity. Lots of people want to help. We just need to give them a chance.
One thing that I’ve always found a bit scary when I think about it is that you never know what you say that will help a student or the flip side of that. A few years ago, I saw a former student who was visiting the school and asked him how things were going. He told me things were great. (I hoped they were.) He told me what I had written on his report card influenced him to change his behaviour for the better. I was puzzled. What had I written on his report card that had had such a positive effect on him. This student had failed my grade 12 math class. He had given me a run for my money all right. He’s do things like pull out his Bible and read it while I was teaching the class. Then when I asked him to put it away , he’d give me attitude about it. He’d come late. He’d skip class. I just kept trying to engage him, but wasn’t being very successful. He failed my class and was not invited back to school the following year.
What had I written on his report card that influenced him so positively? He told me that I had written that I knew he could do it if he wanted to. That was it? Apparently so, because the next year he went to another school and passed his grade 12 math and now was just finishing his apprenticeship as as electrician and hoped to work for the city’s transit company. One little comment on a report card had that power. Wow!
I’ve found that students are really appreciative of the bond they have with tteachers. I had been giving academic support to a student who had profound learning disabilities. He worked really hard the four years of high school to graduate and was going to college. I watched him proudly walking across the stage to get his diploma remembering him when I first met him as a grade nine student. He had come such a long way. Later at the reception, he sought me out with his diploma in his hand and told me that half of the diploma should go to me because I’d helped him so much. Saying thank you to him hardly seemed adequate. You just never know the effect you have and what a difference it can make.
Nov
14
Alas, they’re already nominated for The 2008 Edublogs Awards.
Filed Under Graphic Organizers, The way I see it | 4 Comments
Nominations for The 2008 Edublogs Awards are being taken now.
Tonight, I’ve been reading several posts about the nominations for the 2008 Edubloggers Awards and have found that most of the people I want to nominate in the categories I would have chosen have already been nominated. I look forward to reading all of the nominees because they inspire me in different ways. Since I can’t honour them by nominating them because they’ve already been nominated, I’ll just have to honour them by seconding them. So I second the nomination (can I do that) of
Angela Maiers- best new blog.
Fireside Chat -best use of social networking
Kevin’s Meandering Mind- best teacher’s blog
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day- best resource blog.
Mathew Needham’s Creating Life Long Learners- best individual blog
There is one nomination however, I’m delighted I can make and that is
5. Most Influential Blog Post: Film School for Video Podcasters This particular post demystified the whole process of video podcasting for me and gave me the confidence to try it . For that, I thank Mathew. I would just love to be a student in one of Mathew’s primary classes.
Nov
13
Getting students to accept the whole show
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, motivating students | 2 Comments
My grade nine locally developed math class really keeps me on my toes. There’s never a dull moment. I’m always being challenged to find ways to keep my students engaged. They’re a lively lot.
I’m still greeting them at the door with a welcoming smile and a puzzle of some sort so they’ll feel welcome, come in and settle down right away. That’s still working well. I’m also still having them be “teacher for a minute” and explaining how they do a question. That’s working well, too. What I’m still dealing with are the effects of the frustration that some of my students experience because they’re really weak math students.These kids are in grade nine but are really working at the grade 3-6 level. They have huge gaps in their knowledge. Most of them don’t know basic things like how to find the average of a list of numbers or how to find the perimeter of a figure.
Of course they know that their math skills are weak. Many hate being in my locally developed math class. (I don’t take it personally) Some of my students insist that they should be in applied level math, the next level up. Some even think they should be in advanced level math. But, of course they need to be exactly where they are- in the locally developed math class. Their self-esteem takes a big hit and with that comes a negative attitude. Couple that with the frustration they experience because they find math so challenging and you can appreciate the challenge I face – “the effect of too much frustration is invariably irritability, withdrawal, rebellious opposition or aggressive rejection of the whole show.” (Thanks Tracy for this quotation by Fritz Redl)
My challenge every class is to get these students to accept, not reject my “whole show”. I want these kids to feel better about themselves and experience less frustration while doing math. I’m not always successsful with every student in every class. I was really discouraged this week with the whole show and wondered why I actually volunteer to teach the locally developed math classes. Ironically, it seems whenever I get really discouraged, a former student will greet me in the hall with a smile and say “Miss, I’m in your math class next semester”. That’s when I really know that a student has accepted my whole show. I answer, “That’s great. I can hardly wait”, and mean it.
PS. The circus photo reminds me of when I first started teaching and was refining 
my classroom management technique. It had been a pretty hectic class and as the bell rang I muttered under my breath that the class was like a three-ring circus. One of my students heard me and told me enthusiastically that circuses were fun.
Nov
10
Will paying kids to go to school and do their best work?
Filed Under Dealing With Stress, Graphic Organizers, The way I see it | 19 Comments
It was with some interest that I read this recently
“Desperate for ways to ratchet up test scores and close the achievement gap separating white and minority students, school officials from Tucson to Boston are paying kids who put up good numbers. The District joined the list this fall, launching a one-year study of 3,300 middle schoolers who can earn up to $100 every two weeks for good grades, behavior and attendance. On Oct. 17, the first payday for the Capital Gains program, students collected an average of $43″.
Paying kids to go to school? My students have told me many times that their attendance would improve, and they would work harder if they got paid to come to school and work. I counter by saying that some adults who get paid to work miss work and don’t necessarily do a good job at work. So it seems to me getting paid to do something doesn’t always motivate people to do it. Of course at a job, you’d eventually get fired if you were a slacker and missed work too often. At school, we over look all kinds of things to keep kids in school until they graduate.
I really don’t know for sure if paying students to attend school will work in the long run. although, given what my students tell me, I think it might. Of course, there’s lots of opposition to the idea. Some people say that the extra money that the rewards cost should be put into the system to improve it so that these kids will do well. Let me tell you, lots of money has been put into the system to try to help these kids, but as far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out. Other people say that paying kids to do well at school will kill intrinsic motivation- when the goodies are gone so will the motivation.
Well, maybe and maybe not. I’ve written here before about how I believe that you can get students to be self motivated if you observe what their needs are and then create opportunities in class for those kids to meet their needs. Many of my students come from homes where there is little or no extra money for things like cell phones, mp3 players, computer games etc. Kids who don’t have these things definitely feel left out and get really discouraged about life and school because not having those things makes them feel like losers.
If we want these “at-risk” kids to stay in school and graduate, then maybe we need to make it possible for them to meet their needs for cool stuff. I don’t know. We’ve put money into lots of other programs like credit recovery and credit rescue, and it doesn’t seem to make that much difference for some kids in the long run. Maybe the possibility of earning prepaid cellphones, mp3 players and gift certificates will motivate kids to do their best. After all, adults are sometimes motivated to do their best by offering incentives. Kids are probably no different. Maybe there are lots of corporate sponsors out there that could help make this happen, and it wouldn’t cost the school system much if anything. Who knows unless we ask.
What does the research say about all this? What makes these reward programs work?
Researchers say the commitment of all adults is essential to student reward programs. A Stanford University study of 186 charter schools with incentives showed a “consistent impact” averaging four percentile points on reading scores. The report, released in May, said the stronger and more enthusiastic the staff and parents, the larger the gain.
That looks promising. But adults have to buy into the reward program for it to work or it won’t. I haven’t really done any research on the topic. I’m just going by what my students tell me. Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard economist, who has been involved in setting up these types of incentive programs in New York and Chicago allows, “This is not a silver bullet,” … “But it’s better than sitting around and doing nothing.” Do you think! It’s not hard to agree with him. We need to do something creative, something different.
There are some questions though. How will students who don’t need the cash or cool incentives to motivate them to do well at school react? I know that there’s some resentment about students who have learning disabilities getting extra time for exams and being able to use review notes during them. I can just imagine the reaction if some students could get rewards for doing well while others couldn’t. I really don’t know how you’d get around that problem. What do you think? Can a rewards program be made to work and seem fair?
Photo thanks to Rick Audet
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