“Do you have what it takes to succeed when working with children of poverty?”
This is TCOP Standard 1: Life in poverty.
STANDARD 1: Life in Poverty: Teacher candidates exemplify their understanding of students’ behavior and learning differences that may occur as a result of a life in poverty. Teacher candidates apply acquired knowledge, skills and dispositions grounded in current research to create learning environments that value, engage and support children of poverty as capable learners.
Following is one of the elements that we work on in our class.
SC-FMU-TCOD-P-2009.1.1
ELEMENT: The candidate will apply current research to interpret the effects of a life in poverty as it impacts learning.
I just wanted to point out to you how important research is to our studies of children in poverty and health. Have you noticed how much empirical research Jensen provides in his writing? And that at the beginning of most chapters he cites a list of supporting research for us to use to continue our work and to validate his.This is very important. Teachers must use research to keep current in their field. It is critical toward becoming and remaining a quality teacher.
In chapter 5 he states, “the more you examine the research, the greater the perspectives offered.”
Let’s pretend that you are already teachers. You are teaching in a school that performs well on standardized tests, has a skilled staff, and 80% of the students are children of poverty. What can you do to improve your classroom for children of poverty? Dr. Jensen considered the research, and what he knew about the effects of poverty and he came up with a plan to use the instructional strategies that he believed would matter most. I want you to do that.
He shares the classroom level SHARE factors with us (Chapter 4; pages 66-69):
• Standards-based curriculum and instruction
• Hope building
• Arts, athletics, and advanced placement
• Retooling of the operating system
• Engaging instruction
For this comment imagine and describe your future classroom and the strategies that you believe will matter most to help all of your students succeed. Include the SHARE factors, make connections to health, and tell me what grade you are teaching. Remember everything must be developmentally appropriate for elementary and/or middle level students.
I look forward to reading about your classrooms.
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8 comments:
My future 5th grade classroom will be composed of beautiful, intelligent and hardworking Elementary students. My classroom will be in a school, located in a high poverty area. There are numerous of strategies that I will use to help all of my students succeed. Such strategies that I will incorporate in my classroom are, establish goals day one of class, time management, attendance, note taking and exam preparation. On day one of my class, I will stress how important it is for my kids to set at least 3 goals that they will reach during the school semester. It is very important for them to come up with at least 3 goals because it gives them an opportunity to push themselves to move forward and work hard, instead of stopping and giving up. The next strategy that I will enforce is time management. I will explain to them each and every day, but very brief those they should all use their time very wisely. I will inform them that it is not a great idea to wait to the last minute to complete any work, because it will not be their best work. Last minute work is just a rush to get it complete and it all turns out to be a complete mess. The next strategy that I will use to help my students succeed is attendance. I believe that regular class attendance is necessary. I feel that students learn best through active participation in class discussions. If you aren’t present there is no way you can be ACTIVE in class. The next strategy I would enforce in my classroom is note taking. Note taking is a method I consider as studying. I have learned throughout my high school years that if you take notes along with your teacher, you are recalling the information at the same in your brain as you write it. The last strategy that I would use in my class to help my students succeed is exam preparation. I like to think of exam preparation as a review process. I find it very helpful to ALWAYS study for an exam a couple days ahead of the test date. Studying for a test gives your brain time to process the information word for word. It is not a good idea to cram the night or day of the exam. One of the basic share factors that I would use in my classroom is engaging instruction. I would ask of my students to bring in their favorite tasty fruit or vegetable and from there we would conduct a class activity consisting of the food pyramid, and developing topics such as why is it important to eat healthy? My students would be engaged in all classroom activities, lessons and willing to make a life changing goal of becoming a healthier individual.
I am teaching the third grade. To help my students succeed I am going to try to focus on caring staff and faculty, academic press for achievement with high expectations, structure, and use of assessment data to improve students achievement and instruction. I think that these are the most important because it keeps the teacher, myself, heavily involved in the student’s academic success so that they can continue on in life with educational success. Some of these strategies overlap each other but they are still important in my student’s success. I need to be a caring teacher because it’s going to show my student’s support and know that I am going to be there through their struggles with academics. My students are going to know that I will do anything in my power to help them understand concepts in my class. I will stay after or come before if they need help. This goes with the academic press for achievement because they need to know that I don’t accept anything other than success. When I was in the third grade, I had trouble with the times tables and with my students in my class I will have quizzes every week to make sure that they understand how to do it, which goes back to me being there for support if they have troubles like I did when I was a student. Having a good structure will eliminate chaos which may cause my students to become unfocused when they need to be learning the times tables. Having a set of rules and making sure my students know them and the consequences of not following them is important because if they know the rules, it’s going to be less likely to disrupt my classroom. Using pre and post test questions will help me teach them because if I start out with the basic information and my students already know it then it will make more time for me to focus on the stuff they don’t understand. It will also help me because if they don’t understand a concept such as the times tables and I think that they already do then it will show me that I need to go review more to make sure they understand. Dr. Jensen used the SHARE factors which are:
• Standards-based curriculum and instruction
• Hope building
• Arts, athletics, and advanced placement
• Retooling of the operating system
• Engaging instruction
I will use standard-base curriculum and instruction as a guideline of the information I will be teaching to my third graders. I will go directly by the guidelines because if I veer off too much it will cause confusion in my students. I need to build hope because they need to have belief in themselves and know they can do it successfully and continue to grow academically. Using arts, athletics, and advanced placement will motivated my students to grow even more because if I give incentives of going outside to play and being placed in honors then my students will be more excited to learn and try something new out. I will have engaging instruction because if all I am doing is not involving my students and just talking then my students are just going to be going to sleep and zoning out and not wanting to learn. I will involve my students with in class projects and group activities.
Question of the Week
I want to be a first or second grade teacher and I want my future class-room to be inviting and peaceful. I will make sure I use Jensen’s five factors to make my class-room is just that. I will do my best to build a good relationship with my students. I will definitely let my students know that I am always here for them and I’m not going to give up on them. When you are working with children of poverty they usually don’t have the support they need at home to help them through school and need someone that they can trust and rely on to be there to help them. They need someone that is going to push them to their full potential and make sure they learn everything possible. I want my students to be able to come in the class-room and be comfortable with the environment they are in. I will want my class-room be clean and organized. If it is cleaned and organized it will help me and my students greatly. An organized class-room can make anyone feel good because it feels more opened and not cluttered. It almost makes it feel like you can breathe easy. I would also keep hand-sanitizers disinfectant sprays so that I can keep the spread of germs down. Neither students nor teacher can really enjoy the class-room if they are sick. I really want my class-room to be full of colors and pictures. The colors I will use will be colors that are happy and warm. The reason for the warm colors is to brighten my room and make it comfortable and give the students something to look at. I wouldn’t use really loud colors because it would distract my students. Then with the pictures I would hang their pictures up that they make so they can feel good about their work they do. Which they need a boost of self-confidence because it can help them feel good about going to school and learning. I would also put up educational pictures, quotes, and my classroom rules. I will also have plenty of books that I could read to my students. Reading is something I would try to plan into my day because I feel it is one of the most important things I could do for my students. So all in all my class-room will be inviting, comfortable, colorful, and full of pictures and book so my students will be comfortable in their learning environment and enjoy being there for eight hours of their day.
In my future classroom it will be an 7th or 8th grade English or Social Studies class, it would be a calm color so that my students will stay focused, and feel comfortable in their learning environment. Bright colors are said to be distracting to students and prevents them from learning. In order to have an healthful school and classroom environment, as an educator It is also critical that as a teacher that the environment of my classroom is always a place where my students feel comfortable and can learn. I need to be sensitive to my students and their needs. I believe that as a teachers that are several strategies that could be used to contribute to the success of my students. Strategies such as role play, buzz group, brainstorming, cooperative learning, student presentations, problem-solving/decision making, debate etc. can all prove to be beneficial for your students. For example, cooperative learning gives students a chance to work together with others and increase communication skills with their peers which is very healthful for them. It helps them learn how to work together effectively with others to accomplish a task. Problem solving and decision making gives students a chance to analyze and make sense of the situation and figure out possible solutions. It keeps their minds going and focused on positive things. Also the SHARE factors that Jensen mentioned in the book seem very beneficial for students as well, and seem that they would be very effective in the classroom. Standards- based curriculum and instruction is not only beneficial to the students but the teachers as well. It helps the teachers be clear on what the students need to be knowledgeable about. It gives the students a chance to learn the material mapped out for them. Engaging instruction is very beneficial to the students as well. This type of instruction will keep students attentive and alert, and have the desire to learn and make good grades. I feel like all the strategies I’ve listed along with Jensen’s will all contribute to the success of students. Being that these are students of poverty teachers need to always be sensitive to their needs and their home life, and understand that they need some positivity in their life and school is probably the place they get in most. They need to be told that “they will make it” and “they can succeed.” Teachers are role models for students so its our job daily to lead every child to success which is not always possible but it will be my goal. I will do whatever to make sure I can get as many children to success as possible. It will start as soon as they walk in my classroom. Success is important and I will incorporate all educational strategies that are beneficial to help my students.
My classroom is going to full of bright colors and hopefully sunshine if the classroom has windows. I will have posters that will keep the attention of children and bulletin boards that are both academically enriching and eye catching so that everyone will want to be in my classroom. Everyone will want my students because I will be able to help them hopefully one on one so that if they have any questions they will get them answered. In regards to the strategies I will use the one that interested me the most in arts, athletics, and advance placement. Advance placement is as important in a 4th grade classroom, but I can incorporate arts and athletics. The way I can incorporate the arts is to assign my students to write a song or a commercial about why exercise is important and then have they present them to the class. For athletics I can have stations set up outside or around the classroom and teach them about the science of heart rate and physical activity and how they correspond to one another. Another strategy that Dr. Jensen mentioned was hope building. I will use this everyday just by telling my kids they can do whatever they put their minds to and by showing them that whatever they want to do they can do it. I will be the best teacher because I will constantly build my kids up instead of tearing them down, which should be the goal of all teachers. These two strategies that I mention are the easiest to implement, however, without them the kids would not be as well-rounded or as confident without them.
In any classroom, it is important that a teacher (meaning myself and other teachers) include activities and learning strategies that will allow all types of learners to participate in the learning process.
My dream is to teach the second grade. For any type of lesson, including a lesson that integrates health education, it is important that I remember that not all students learn the same way. Some students may need to read the information, hear the information, write the information, or do some sort of hands-on activity to be able to understand the lesson that I am trying to teach. Therefore, it is important that I include discussion, writing, reading, and activities in which the students are able to see and touch something related to the concept that I’m teaching in order for all students to learn.
Obviously, a teacher needs to know the standards for what he or she is teaching. Knowing the standards will help a teacher better come up with a lesson plan for each designated content area.
It is also very important to praise students when they are doing well, and try to encourage student’s to do better if they are not doing well. This will help motivate the child to learn.
When I imagine my future classroom, I see 4th or 5th graders. The first strategy that I would implement would be an emphasis on reading. This would align with “Standards based curriculum and instruction” part of the SHARE factors. The reason that I would implement this strategy is because reading affects all other subject areas. If a student cannot read, then they will struggle to understand word problems in math, how to conduct a science experiment and why certain events happened in history.
Next, I would address “Hope building.” To address this factor, I would have a belief that all students can succeed at high levels. Students who are made to feel like they are not as smart as others tend to become depressed and to withdraw from the learning process. Instead of secluding struggling students, I would never down the student or let them know that I thought they were struggling with a specific topic. Instead I would use small groups with a mixture of high, average, and low level learners and allow them to feed off of each other. By doing this, I am not only helping the students to keep a healthy self esteem, but also healthy social interacts with people that they may not associate with all the time.
I would most certainly make sure than my instruction was engaging to my students. To make sure that I follow through with this factor, I would I try my best to apply the topic being taught to something that would be meaningful to each of my students. For example, when learning a new topic in reading, I could find several stories that would apply to the many different types of students within my class. For the guys I could find a story on sports, for my students who enjoy learning about nature, I could find a more scientific book. Also, I can make my lessons interactive where the students are constantly moving and exercising. Having an active classroom will help to promote physical activity in their lives and motivate them to be for physically healthy.
By implanting these strategies and “SHARE” factors in my classroom, I will be better able to educate my kids while keeping them in an physically and mentally health state of mind.
There are many factors that will make your classroom an optimal place for learning. Dr. Jensen is an advocate of share, his personal policy, and the book lists many other practices that help children of poverty learn. Share is supporting the whole child, hard data, accountability, relationship building, and enrichment mind set.
Supporting the whole child makes alot of sense for children who live in poverty. At home they ususally recieve the least amount of human access, resulting in emotional defficiencies, but more importantly classroom help. On this subject it is very important to get parents involved. Whether the child is impvorished or wealthy, parent stipulation is crucial for success. However as a teacher it is your job to fill those outlets that children of poverty do not have if you cannot get parent involvement inside a students life.
Hard data involves holding themselves to a higher standard than what is expected. Each student has their own way of learning, and that is very rarely taken into account. With proper data teachers can adjust their teaching stratagies to optimize learning. This is not necessarily contained to such data tests like IQ scores. Most students perform way above what their IQ is, and it rarely takes into account what is learned. Effort is key. As a teacher you are also and effort builder and it is your responsibility to make sure every childs output is optimal.
Accountability refers to the standard that teachers and the schools general surroundings hold themselves to. This is especially prevelent when dealing with students who have a life in poverty. While it is easy to think that their surroundings are what usually yields failure, it is actually the teacher who attempted to teach them in a manner that will not work. It is not that the teacher or the student is inferior; it is the manner in which the lesson was taught. Teachers have to teach in creative ways in order to reach different students.
The relationships that a teacher has with their students is crucial for optimal learning. Lower income students have a tough time understanding healthier relationships. It is hard for them, at such a young age and in such a bad situation, to build relationships with adults in any arena. A teacher is no different. What must be understood about lower income children is that they are more complicated to understand, not easier. Their situations are delicate and their understanding of the world as they know it is complicated. Teachers have to be personal yet professional in building relationships with these children.
Enrichment mindset refers to the understanding that these children are different, but not impossible. Success will be reached when lower income students are challenged with intellectual curiosity, emotional engagement, and social bonding. The cirriculum should be easy to understand and at the same time it should be challenging. Participation will be boosted and childrens potential is raised.
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