Welcome to Teachers At Risk
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Mar
7
Sometimes motivating students is as easy as asking a question.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, underachieving students | 2 Comments
Sometimes nothing I do seems to work with some students. There are some students that I just can’t reach. I always feel badly about that. Larry found himself in the same position a couple of weeks ago but came up with an ingenious strategy that seems to be working. He simply asked his student “Are you going to have a good day” and the student did. In fact, the student has had several good days. It was as simple as that. Who knew.
Larry says “I think the personal contact and helping him get into the mindset that he can make a choice are two reasons why it’s worked so far”. Makes sense to me. I know that personal contact can make a difference. I work hard to develop a relationship with my students and making students aware of the fact that they have an option of having a good day or not may make the difference. I’m certainly going to try Larry’s strategy. In fact, I’m going to try it tomorrow morning. I’ll let you know how it going. If you give it a try, please let me know how it goes.
Feb
7
Helping students schedule their homework into their distracted lives.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Goals, Graphic Organizers, motivating students, underachieving students | 4 Comments
There are any number of reasons why students don’t get their homework done. Some students have part time jobs after school or have to take care of siblings. Others play sports, take music lessons, just hang with friends or spend time online doing whatever. There’s lots to distract kids from doing homework, especially some of the more reluctant or struggling students I support who welcome the distractions that take them away from doing homework. I’ve found that telling these students that doing homework should come first before anything else is really counterproductive. So I don’t. I surprise them my telling them I can help them work homework into their schedule so that they can do the other things they want to do as well as homework the need to do to be more successful in school.I start by giving them a chart that lists the days of the week and the different times of the day and then ask them to record all their activities and the times they would do them. I just have them do it for one week. Then I help them schedule their homework into the open time slots. Amazingly, this works. I help them “see” the available time slots. Sometimes this involves a bit of rearranging of activities on the part of the student, but usually by the time we’re finished the student is satisfied with the homework schedule. They think it reasonable, and that’s half the battle. They don’t feel homework interferes with their life or that life interferes with their homework.
I suggest that the students tell their friends that they’re busy during the time allotted to do homework so they won’t be disturbed at that time. That shouldn’t be a big deal because they already have scheduled time to talk to friends anyway. I also suggest they don’t do any homework after 10 pm.
Some students schedule homework the same day everyday. Others schedule homework a different time every day. I leave it up to them. It has to be their plan for it to work. Of course we revisit the schedule after the first few weeks and rejig it where necessary.
The point I am trying to make here for my students is that homework can be worked into their lives. Homework doesn’t mean they have to give up the things they like or have to do. I talk about doing things in moderation- homework included. I tell them I try to achieve a balance in my life, and I think they should strive to do the same. Being a student is only part of their lives. Being a teacher is only part of mine. I think we understand one another.
Feb
4
Setting SMART goals help students succeed
Filed Under Goals, Graphic Organizers, Special Education, underachieving students | 3 Comments
When I talk to my students about goals, many of them tell me that they don’t have any goals. I tell them they actually do, but they don’t realize it. They call their goals plans. The plans that they make for later in the day , later in week or later in the year are really goals. Then we discuss the characteristics of good goals. I try to lead the discussion so that we conclude that good goals are SMART goals and show the slide show below to illustrate the idea of SMART goals. If you’d like a copy, I’d be delighted to send you one. Just leave a request in the comment box.
After we watch the slide show, I have my students set their own short term, medium term and long term goals using the graphic organizer below.
Smart Goal Setting Organizer
Goals
Specific
(What/Why/How)
Measurable
(Time/Amount)
Attainable
(Strengths to use)
Realistic
(Why you can do it)
Timely
(Target date)
Short Term
Medium Term
Long Term
If you’d like this as well, just ask and I’ll send it to you as an attachment.
I’ve always had good results with this activity. We will revisit their goals during the semester to see how things are going and to set more goals.
Jan
31
Helping students find their way to success
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Evaluation, Special Education, The way I see it, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students | 5 Comments
Some students do not have the work habits that make it easy for them to be successful in school. In class, I talk a lot about the characteristics of successful people and the role that perseverance plays in their success. Unfortunately, perseverance is not the only thing some of my students lack. They lack another important characteristic that successful people share. They lack the emotional support they need to help them be successful. Some students don’t have anyone there for them when the going get tough or even to help them celebrate life’s successes great or small. That’s where I come in. I try to give them the emotional support they need to help them find their way to success at school.
Sometimes students will work on projects and assignments but for any number of reasons don’t submit the assignments for evaluation. They seem to run out of energy, interest or whatever and just give up. I’m always encouraging them to submit things so I can give them the marks they’ve earned. I’m constantly telling them if they don’t hand things in it makes it very difficult for me to find marks to give them. I don’t find it useful to tell them that if they don’t hand work in they’ll fail. They’re used to hearing that. They’re used to failing. I take a different approach. I tell them they have to help me find the marks they need to pass them. Yes, of course it would be nice if my students just wanted to learn for the sake of learning, but that’s not the way it is for some students. I have to start where from where my students are.
I used to get very frustrated when I would see my students working on assignments in class and then not submit them for evaluation. In fact, it used to drive me crazy. I’ve learned to observe and record their progress during the time they work in class so that if for some reason they don’t submit an assignment, I still have some sense of their progress and can evaluate what I have seen. Believe me, there are many reasons why assignments don’t get handed in. Not completing them is only one reason.
It’s important to know that some of my more reluctant/struggling students are not interested in getting high marks. They feel they’ve aced the course when they get 51%. I know because they’ve told me this. Of course I encourage my students to do more than the bare minimum and will often tell them they’ve made a good start. Then, I encourage them to improve their work by suggesting if they just changed this a bit here or expanded on that a bit there I could find more marks to give them. Believe me. It works.
I’ll admit this whole idea of finding marks to give students for assignments they have or have not submitted can seem a bit strange. But, and this is a big but, I teach students who are at-risk academically, and I need to think creatively to find ways to motivate them and give them the support they need so they can find their way to success. That’s what makes teaching so rewarding.
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