From Cannot to Can!

I want to take a look at the fabulous textbook once again. I recently read chapter three and I felt that many things in the chapter needed noting.
Teaching individual students and becoming connected to them can so easily be excused away. We can say that there isn't enough time in the day. There are too many students to maintain a connection to each. There is only one level in the textbook in the class. There aren't enough materials to do I want. Students don't come to us, they can't learn independently. The Job is all consuming. There are many, many more excuses out there. I could find my favorite excuse and it could be very valid, but how does having that excuse make me a better teacher? If I lake in being a normal teacher how can I expect to be a teacher of Differentiation? We need to push past all these excuses and make that effort!! It's sooooo important, our students are counting on us to be their guides, friends, and mentors.
We are the dispensers of information to our students, but we need to be more than just that. We need to design our classroom to be places that democracy, dignity, and diversity can be forged. Meier promoted this ideal. She goes on to say, we need to look beyond what we cannot teach to what we can teach! She said that her faculty was not remarkable because they are more gifted that other teachers or because they went to more exclusive colleges. They are remarkable, because they live what they believe. They say to themselves, "I want to be a leader in creating a place where each of you becomes more keenly aware of the possibilities in yourself, the people around you, and the power of knowledge. In this place, I want us to find together a good way to live." We don't need a road map to direct us, we just need to find North and forge our own path with our students. Create a unity in the class and work along side students.
A key component it how we respond to our students needs. There are five key points to focus on:

1. Invitation
• I have respect for who you are and who you can become
• I want to know you*
• You are unique and valuable
• I believe in you*
• I have time for you*
• I learn when I listen to you
• This place is yours too
• We need you here*
2. Opportunity
• I have important things for you to do here today
• The things I ask you to do are worthy things*
• The things I ask you to do are often daunting
• The things I ask you to do open new possibilities for you*
• the things I give you to do here help you become all you can be*
• You have specific roles that us all more efficient and effective
3. Investment
• I work hard to make this place work for you
• I work to make this place reflect you*
• I enjoy thinking about what we do here
• I love to find new paths to success*
• It is my job to help you succeed*
• I am your partner in growth*
• I will do what it takes to ensure your growth
4. Persistence
• You're growing, but you're not finished growing
• When one route doesn't work, there are others we can find
• Let's figure out what works best*
• There are no excuses here, but there is support*
• There is no finish line in learning
5. Reflection
• I watch you and listen to you carefully and systematically
• I make sure to use what I learn to help you learn better*
• I try to see things through your eyes*
• I continually ask, "How is this partnership working?"*
• I continually ask, "How can I make this better?"

*I love these phrases and supports. Students need to hear and feel all these things in the classroom as often as possible.
There was an idea I really liked from the book, it was about collecting troubles in a trouble basket. In Esme Codell's book (I mentioned in the previous post) she talks about three things she must do in her class each day. 1. Say good morning to every single child in a real and chipper voice. She will wait for them to say it back. 2. She collects "troubles" in a "Trouble Basket", a big green basket into which students will act out unloading their worries at home so they can work. 3. Each student must give her a word at the beginning of the day, it can be any word and she keeps it in an envelop on the board. Preferably it should be a word they heard and don't know the meaning of it. They go over the words when they do private reading conferences.
Give each student an opportunity- work in pursuit of a dream. I love that thought! I want to use dreams as a theme in my class, every person needs a dream in life. This phrase specifically means enlivening the classroom and minds. Creating experiences we would want for us, for our children, or something we experienced that we treasure.
These teachers are invested and invested teachers:

• Share their thoughts about the classroom with their students
• Make links with students lives outside the classroom
• Act as mentors, advocates, and partners for students
• Personally engaged in what they ask their students to do

We need to provide the roots and wings for learners to embrace their dreams and ideals. We need to see that every students is unlike every other and that we need to form ties with those students!