Monday, December 8, 2008

3 Things I Believe About ALL Students

While catching up with the people I keep up with (their blogs) I read Vicki Davis' response to a "meme" from Nicole at Teaching Tomorrow.
1. Share three things that you believe about all students.
2. Reflect on your thoughts in your blog. (If you do not have a blog, you can share your ideas in a comment from this post.)
3. Be sure to link to this post and to where you were first tagged.
4. Tag your response with AllStudentsMeme
5. Invite others to join the conversation by tagging them to be a part of the meme.

I wasn't tagged either -but here are my thoughts:

Three Things I Believe About ALL Students

1) We Get By in Life on the Things We Do Well
While working in the business world I realized that adults get by AND SUCCEED in the things they are good at - especially in a collaborative world - while in the world of education everyone must "pass" every subject, every test - even the ones we aren't very good at. For some students, for whatever reasons, continue to fail areas of state testing - this has discouraged them enough to drop out of school. What a loss for the world. I believe that each child has gifts they bring to the world, and like Vicki Davis, I believe they are special gifts that only they can give to their world. School should be another place (in addition to home, community, church) where students can discover and develop those gifts. Sometimes it may be the primary place.

2) All Students Can Learn...
I believe in giving students every opportunity to learn and grow, and setting high expectations. One of the beautiful things about kids is that given high expectations, they often surpass them. But one size does not fit all. The challenge remains for teachers - to help their students reach their learning goals, and realize their potential & value in the world.

3) Every Student Needs to Learn How to Be a Good Digital Citizen
The students in school right now are living in a world that is different from the one their parents and teachers grew up in. As educators, we are encouraged to imagine these students' future and prepare them for it. The more we can help students learn to use digital tools to learn, connect, and communicate with the world and people around them, the better prepared these students will be to use the digital tools they will encounter in their future. Ethics, people skills and relationships are an important part of learning to be a good digital citizen.

Tag! you're it!
Claude Cunningham

E. Young

C. Petty

2 comments:

A Special Kind Of Teacher..... said...

What an interesting concept...This post had me stop and really think about what are the things that I believe about students and here it is.....

1) All students need to be taught in safe and secure environment in order to maximize their learning. No student enjoys being bullied, and when we as teachers can create a peaceful climate the disruptions with decrease throughout the year.

2) I belive that all students need to be fluent in the language of technology by the time they finish. With so many jobs asking for applications online, we need to start teaching our students how to become familar with the tools in order to have a successful career.

3) All students have some kind of motivator....it's our job as the teacher to find it. Once we find out what drives them, the learning will eventually kick in full speed.

S. Kennedy said...

1) I believe that all students live up to our expectations, whatever they are.

2) I believe that technology is revolutionary but only if teachers are willing to reinvent school.

3) I believe that students who are engaged by any means will knock our socks off if given choice, chance, and someone who believes in them.