Empowering Learners

When I work with students, quite frequently I find that when they first come though my door, sit down, and prepare to work, that there is a feeling of defeat surrounding them.  After all, these may be students that “always” find themselves in small-group classes, year after year.  Truly, it isn’t because they haven’t worked hard, in most cases, but instead this feeling has built up for them over time.  Likely, even from his or her elementary school years. 

Imagine the frustration of sitting in a classroom and noticing that everyone else “gets it”, except for you.  But, perhaps you think to yourself, “I’ll get it eventually…”, and you keep trying.  Before you know it, the pace has stepped up, and now the rest of the class has moved beyond some foundational skills, and you feel as if you’re languishing behind, and you can’t wait for each day’s math class to be over.  Because it just . doesn’t . feel . very . good.

And then you see the results of your most recent standardized test, and all of a sudden the lines are low on the graph.  You think to yourself, “Well, I will probably never be very good at this.”

There are many reasons why students have barriers to their learning.  It could be the result of an organic cause, perhaps ADHD, a learning disability, or maybe they just weren’t ready for that content when it was presented, or it wasn’t presented in a way that matched the best way to acquire new knowledge for that particular student.

That is why we so firmly believe in learning the HOW of how children learn before the WHAT of what children need to learn.  In some cases, there may just be unconnected dots that need to be related to each other, and the world is now opened up.  Some students may need to see how these seemingly isolated skills can be connected to THEIR world, and then it makes sense.  Only by empowering students by showing them how they learn, can we find the best ways to reach them.  Often, we need to “jump in sandbox with them”, move through problems through their eyes, and have them join in to link concepts together.  We buy their trust, and that feeling of defeat? Well…it’s defeated!  Nothing is a more rewarding experience as a teacher, or parent, than to see a child’s world suddenly open up.

This week, I’m going to end our blog with a quote:

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.
-- Aeschylus

Sail on this week, without defeat, without discouragement, but rather anticipation of learning!

--Mrs. B

Photo credit:  Time To Study by Peter Griffin