I had the great fortune of being able to attend the Students at Risk lecture at CSUSM this week. Shannon Garcia, Jose Manuel Villareal, Reginald Washington, and Narciso Iglesias opened my eyes to a wonderful way to look at teaching. Not as a way to ensure that students master all standards or stay on task during class but as a way to really get to know students and meet them where they are. They brought to view that suspensions and expulsions are just a way to push students at risk into a life of crime and incarceration. They introduced me to the Ace Score and how a high score is more likely to be linked with physical health issues but also mental health issues and negative lifetime patterns. I was very emotional about this because my score was in the group linked with a higher likelihood of problems. Although this should help me to connect more deeply to my students who are at risk, it also scares me. They spoke in this lecture about opening up to our students and being vulnerable with them. I do connect with my students well and I'm honest which encourages them to be more honest. But looking at my last semester placement where I likely had multiple at risk students, I realize that I did not get to know them on this deeper level to really understand what they experience in their lives. Although the school I am at this semester does not have as many at risk students, I do have a higher population of Special Education students that need support and are coming from very different places. I have been focusing on how to control them and get them stay quiet and learn math when I should be focusing on getting to know them and understanding where they are. It should be a bit easier with only two classes, but it's still overwhelming and thinking ahead to the possibility of having 200 students is daunting.
They discussed discipline during this talk and said that we should stop looking at punitive discipline and start looking instead at how to get to know our students and understand them more deeply. My discipline approach is a tiered one, but the purpose is to get to know my students. I give them a warning, but after that, ask that they come to my room during lunch so that we can discuss what is going on. I like this because it will enable me to get to know my students better. My talk will not be to put them down or make them feel bad for what they did, but rather to understand them better so that I can help them.
Suggestions given to aspiring teachers by one of the at risk students were as follows:
- Always greet students when they come into the classroom - important to understand how they feel - shake their hands
- Try and see things from our kids’ perspectives
- Enhance their learning skills and self esteem by having supportive conversations and letting them know they can do it
- Remember all kids are different and deal with things differently
These are great points to remember and I need to look back at this list on a regular basis to ensure that I do all of these things.
Shannon Garcia has a website with many support aides and I plan to spend time here to learn more about these great processes for teaching.
They discussed discipline during this talk and said that we should stop looking at punitive discipline and start looking instead at how to get to know our students and understand them more deeply. My discipline approach is a tiered one, but the purpose is to get to know my students. I give them a warning, but after that, ask that they come to my room during lunch so that we can discuss what is going on. I like this because it will enable me to get to know my students better. My talk will not be to put them down or make them feel bad for what they did, but rather to understand them better so that I can help them.
Suggestions given to aspiring teachers by one of the at risk students were as follows:
- Always greet students when they come into the classroom - important to understand how they feel - shake their hands
- Try and see things from our kids’ perspectives
- Enhance their learning skills and self esteem by having supportive conversations and letting them know they can do it
- Remember all kids are different and deal with things differently
These are great points to remember and I need to look back at this list on a regular basis to ensure that I do all of these things.
Shannon Garcia has a website with many support aides and I plan to spend time here to learn more about these great processes for teaching.