Potential

I remember when I was a student and my parents were given ideas on how to help me achieve my potential. I even heard my colleagues tell parents that their students were not achieving their potential. What is potential?

According to the Oxford Language Dictionary, potential means “latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.”

To my students, the word potential is scary or meaningless.

The word potential reminds me of an old Army commercial stating “Be All That You Can Be!”

When I hear people talk about not achieving their potential, I perceive it as saying that person is useless or lazy. So, I stopped talking about potential and started showing students how to achieve it.

I listened to students talk about their wishes and their dreams. Believe me, after facing many mistakes and failures, this is very hard for students. They are afraid to wish or dream so how can we expect them to reach their potential?

I notice the things that interest my students. They may be interested in something but not know how to do it or just want to know more about a specific topic.

I observe their strengths and discuss this with my students. Many of my students are often told their weaknesses but no one seems to focus on their strengths. A lot of my students are surprised when I tell them what I see.

I help my students look to the future and set small goals that are achievable. Once they start seeing a measure of success, they can begin to hope again.

Once I meet with the students and share what I have heard them say, notice their interests, observe their strengths, and help them set goals, we can start a plan of action. Without them realizing it, this action is what moves them to achieve their potential. Without all of these parts, I don’t think achieving potential is even a possibility.

How do you help students achieve their potential? Please share.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Strength in Numbers

On Sunday, the church sermon was about strength and how a piece of wood can break but if you have a bunch of wood together, it is much harder to break.  As I listened I think about how I apply this lesson in my teaching also.

My students know they have a disability and weaknesses. They might not completely understand about the disability but they know they have trouble with academics. This is not something new to many of them because they have struggled with this all their lives.

I try to help my students understand their weaknesses and accept them and also to work their way around them. To do this, they need to find out what their strengths are which is something hard for them to do since they don’t realize that they have any strengths. Since they have failed so often, they feel they lack strengths of any kind which isn’t true. Everyone has strengths and just need to figure out what they are.

Once the students figure out what their strengths are, I try to show them that it is okay for all of us to have different strengths. When we put all our strengths together, we are altogether stronger as a group.

I try to impress upon my students that because we all have different weaknesses and strengths, we need to watch out for each other. Instead of ridiculing each other for weaknesses, we need to jump in and give help when needed. If we all take that attitude, we all can be successful over time. It is too easy to knock someone down when they are already feeling weak but it is another thing to bolster someone up when they need it.

We have many discussions about why it is easier to ridicule someone and point out their weaknesses instead of helping them focus on their strengths. Understanding why they do certain things helps my students see how they can change their behavior.

This may take some time and practice because this doesn’t happen overnight. When students miss the opportunity, I try to talk about it and see how they could have acted differently. The more we talk about it and practice it, the easier it becomes. Then when they are in different situations where I’m not available, they can feel more comfortable acting appropriately.

This is an important job skill to learn and can help students in the future become successful in the workplace.

How do you encourage strength in the classroom? Please share.

Looking for Talent

In Want kids to love school? Stop telling them they stink and find their strength. from Cool Cat Teacher Blog,  Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher asks,

"How do you look for talent? How do you spot strengths? How do you communicate such a mindset to your students?"

At the beginning of the school year, I like to have students fill out some information about them. Of course, I don’t have them write down their strengths and weaknesses because some of them think that all they have are weaknesses. Some think they have absolutely no weaknesses. So, I try to phrase the questions in a way that will give me some information for to see the students’ strengths and weaknesses.

Here are some questions that I ask:

1.     What do you like to do? (usually seen as a strength)

2.     What would your friends and/or family say that you do well?

3.     What do you like to do? (they usually don’t like to do things that give them trouble)

4.     What would your friends and/or family say that don’t do well?

5.     What are some topics that interest you?

6.     Do you like to read?

7.     Do you like to make things?

8.     Do you like ro draw things?

9.     Do you like to role play situations?

10.  Do you like to record audio segments?

11.  Do you like to make videos?

12.  Would you rather listen to an explanation of an experiment, watch a video of an experiment, or do the experiment? (Tells what kind of learner they are)

13.  For the end of a unit, would you want to write a summary of the information to show that you know the material, make a video of some sort showing you know the material, or make something to show that you know the material? (Shows how they like to be assessed)

I want students to know that their talents are also their strengths. I want to encourage and develop these talents. Sometimes students may see themselves in a different way than they think others see them. This perception is very important also. I never thought I was creative even though others may see me as being very creative. I don’t think I’m very good with working with others because I am somewhat shy in a group but others seem to think I am a great team player. This is always enlightening and makes me want to work on these skills so that I can see myself as others may see me.

I want the students to know that I care about teaching them according to their learning styles. I also want them to know that there are times that they may need to learn a different way and maybe strengthen their ability in learning that way. I also want to help them show me that skills are mastered in the best way that they can. If a student isn’t a good writer, I don’t want them to fail an essay test because of their writing even if they know the content. I need to make sure that I’m assessing the right skills.

I think by taking this time with the students, I am showing that I care about their learning and their success in the classroom. It also helps me plan future lessons and student interactions.

How do you find out about your students’ talents? Please share.

Day 19 My Students Have Grit

On the Free Technology for Teachers Facebook, the twenty day blogging challenge created by Kelly Hines was mentioned and I decided to give it a shot. So here is the challenge for today:

“Share a topic/idea from class this week. What’s one thing you did with students this week that you will (or will not) do again? Why?”

I think a great topic to teach in class is about Grit.

In the article "True Grit: The Best Measure of Success and How to Teach it, Vicki Davis talks about students having/needing grit. Then she asks,

“Can you teach grit?”

First of all, what do I think grit is? No, I’m not talking about the breakfast food served in the south. I’m talking about toughness in a person. For me, when I think of this, I picture John Wayne sitting on a horse. For me, grit is fighting to overcome obstacles.

I think many people actually have grit but it is hidden. They are taught at a young age to hide this grit. Focus is made to conform and to fit in. We are taught this from our teachers and our parents. Then when we get older, we are actually taught this by our peers. Eventually we learn to hide it even more when we get to the workplace because we want to keep our jobs.

Many people don’t realize what we need to do to overcome our personal obstacles. The main reason is that others don’t walk in our shoes. We feel that letting others know about our struggles is a sign of weakness so we don’t share about our struggles.

Most of my students with disabilities are the strongest people in the world and they don’t know it. They have spent so much time feeling beaten down and feeling bad because they don’t always fit the norm. Yet, they have faced and overcome more obstacles than most people will ever face in their life time. These students don’t give up. They persevere and continue to face uphill battles every day of their lives. Their struggles don’t end when they graduate high school but takes on a whole new life of its own.

I think it is important for many of us to give ourselves a pat on the back and recognize the hardships we have overcome to get where we are. We are really the only ones who know all about ourselves. Many times we push the hard times behind us because we don’t want to remember all the hard times. It is actually the hard times that define us and make us who we are.

So, I think the bottom line is that I don’t believe we need to teach it. I think we need to teach our students to recognize it. It is already out there but we just don’t know it. We don’t celebrate it and we should.

I believe that is the people who have grit are going to be the real survivors in the world. Not the ones who are beaten down easily or follow others without thinking about the consequences. Grit can’t be taught because it already exists.

Image: 'Why yes, yes that is John Wayne'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16272116@N03/2392390961
Found on flickrcc.net

How Full is Your Bucket? Notes

I have just finished the book How Full is Your Bucket by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton. The website with more information is found at http://www.bucketbook.com. I thought The Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket was very powerful!

Here are some notes and quotes from the book

• “Everyone has an invisible bucket. We are at our best when our buckets are overflowing-and at our worst when they are empty. Everyone also has an invisible dipper. In each interaction, we can use our dipper either to fill or to dip from others’ buckets. Whenever we choose to fill others’ buckets, we in turn fill our own.” (Chapter 1)
• “The most enjoyable part of spreading positivity for Ken is to ‘watch the energy move through the network’ once he sets it in motion.” (Chapter 2)
• “According to the US Department of Labor, the number-one reason people leave their jobs is because they ‘do not feel appreciated.’” (Chapter 2)
• “9 out of 10 people say they are more productive when they’re around positive people.” (Chapter 3)
• “…negative emotions can be harmful to your health and might even shorten your life span.” (Chapter 3)
• “The magic ratio: 5 positive interactions for every 1 negative interaction” (Chapter 3)
• “If you want people to understand that you value their contributions and that they are important, the recognition and praise you provide must have meaning that is specific to each individual.” (Chapter 5)
• “Five strategies for Increasing Positive Emotions: Prevent bucket dipping, Shine a light on what is right, Make best friends, Give unexpectedly, Reverse the Golden Rule.” (Chapter 6)
• “…try to catch yourself in the act of bucket dipping – then stop it.” (strategy 1)
• “Each interaction gives us a chance to shine a light on what’s right – and fill a bucket.” (strategy 2)
• “…your best approach is to fill a person’s bucket in your very first interaction.” (strategy 3)
• “Expected gifts do fill our buckets, but for some reason, receiving things unexpectedly fills our buckets just a little more.” (strategy 4)
• “…bucket filling must be specific to the individual.” (strategy 5)

It was truly a wonderful book and I would highly recommend that every teacher read it. I can see this helping in the classroom with how we deal with students. By filling their buckets, we can make a difference in students’ lives as well as our own.

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Autistic Boy on America’s Got Talent

This is a video from last year but I had never seen it and wanted to share it with you. It is truly heartwarming to see this and is further proof that we need to encourage our student’s strengths instead of focusing on their disabilities. This boy is autistic but extremely talented. After seeing this video the teacher in me began to think of ways to use this talent to teach this student in my classroom. There would be so many ways to incorporate his love of music and singing to teach all subjects. Information to be learned could be put into a song. Reading words of the songs would improve reading skills. Now if I could just look at each of my student’s talents, maybe I could help them all be successful in the future.