Okay, I am on a youth retreat in Myrtle Beach with students from Riverland Hills Baptist church and I have having technical difficulties, so I am attaching my post to this until I have better connection and can sign up for the blog correctly. See below for my first post:As a lovers of all things Regie, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the first two chapters and the beginning of the third. I always appreciate that Regie is an advocate for teachers and students and also sets high expectations. I especially appreciated this quote, “I am passionate about making life easier for teachers and students everywhere while at the same time increasing achievement and raising expectations for what is possible.”The way that Regie requires teachers to move beyond their low expectations for children and see that all students are capable. It must be a team effort of all resources working together in order to support struggling readers and writers, but that isn’t always the case in every school.Creating an “I Can Do It!” environment reminded me of Robin Cox’s phrase, “Believe them into being.” It is our job as teachers to help students believe that they can do anything they set their mind to through raising the expectations set for them. In order to do that, we must use choice words, proper tone of voice and body language in order to provide a welcoming and safe environment for students to feel comfortable taking risks. We also must treat each other, as professionals, this way as well. Through constant celebration of the small things that students accomplish, we CAN “believe them into being.”Finally, having teachers who are more confident and more knowledgeable about the content in which they teacher is crucial in order for us to see test scores and student achievement improve. Only through school wide professional conversation and collaboration can this happen. When teachers show their students that they are life long learners themselves and share that learning with the students and their co-workers, the knowledge base and confidence of the staff can improve.I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book and growing deeper in my knowledge base and confidence. I CAN do it!
June 7, 2010 8:33 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bravo! Well said, Angela!! I totally agree that professional conversations, and constant growth as teachers, will always benefit us and our students. I liked that you expressed the importance of treating each other as professionals. While we all essentially returned to grade school, it doesn't mean we have to behave the way we behaved while we were students there! :) I thought what Routman said about facial expressions and body language expressing our thoughts, even when we don't realize we're doing it, is something we all need to be more careful about.
ReplyDelete