Even on Your Worst Day, You Can Be a Student's Best Hope by Manny Scott

Author:Manny Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781416624943
Publisher: ASCD
Published: 2017-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Bridge Building 101

As we discussed in Chapter 3, connecting with students is only possible when we've done the work to understand their culture. Only after getting a sense of how our students actually think, feel, and behave should we begin focusing on what we believe our students ought to think, feel, or do. In addition to instilling learning habits that can help students succeed academically, I think it is equally important to teach them habits (or patterns) that can help them develop as a whole person.

For example, because many students are not learning healthy life skills at home, I believe they need to learn those things at school. As such, struggling students should be taught more than math, spelling, grammar, reading, writing, social studies, and science. They should also be taught how to cultivate a healthy self-image, self-confidence, and high moral standards. I think school leaders should teach about integrity, picking the right environments, selecting the right friends, and identifying the right mentors. Furthermore, students need to learn about goal setting, planning, and developing the habit of taking daily action to reach their goals. They need to learn about the importance of delayed gratification, budgeting, money management, conflict resolution, and social etiquette. They need to learn how to have a productive conversation and how to represent themselves online (via social media). Theymight also need to learn about personal hygiene and other things that they may have not learned at home. Attending to these kinds of things in schools can produce a much richer, broader set of outcomes for our students than academic success alone.

As the diagram (The Critical Gap) illustrates, there can be a significant gap between where your students are and where you'd like them to be. Your charge is to bridge the divide.

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