Daily Archives: September 19, 2012

Sep 19 2012
Leave a comment
Student Motivation Link

Link Between Student Achievement and Poverty an “Inconvenient Truth”

“Standing up for Teachers” by Eugene Robinson

This week in the Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson defended the Chicago teacher’s strike in a thoughtful and compelling opinion article.

My only beef with the piece is the continued use of “hero” language to talk about teaching and teachers. Teachers do critical, even sacred, work but we are not heroes. Being a hero in my mind must involve some kind of personal sacrifice for the greater good beyond what might be considered normal. The bottom line is teachers are paid for what we do. Yes, we all occasionally must work on evenings and weekends but we typically do not have school in the summer months. Unfortunately, most of us work beyond what is required by our contracts – again, not for the money, but because we love what we do. While some may call this heroic because it stems from the noble motivations of teachers I would argue again (click here for my other anti-hero post) that it is actually a tragic misappropriation of resources has lead to teachers working beyond the school day for pay that is often below what might be necessary.

Sep 19 2012
5 Comments
Student Motivation

The Key to Smarter Students: Effective Effort

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who point out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust & sweat & blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again & again; because there is not effort with out error & shortcomings but he who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows great enthusiasm, great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement & who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold & timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

In 2007 I read a really gripping article from Scientific American Mind called “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” by Carol Dweck (click here to download the article). Dweck argues the secret is that children learn to believe their effort will determine their outcome. In other words, if they succeed or fail they attribute that result to either hard work or not enough or ineffective effort. This prevents children from becoming defeated when they fail or fatalistic when they don’t reach their goals (ex. “I’m not good at anything! I’m so stupid”).

I like to teach students what effective effort actually involves. The Skillful Teacher (a book that I love and wrote a post about here) identifies the following aspects as qualities of effective effort:

  1. Time
    •Take enough time
    •Too little time = bad job
    •Too much time = wasted effort
  2. Focus
    •Work efficiently (don’t waste time with too much detail or on aspects that don’t matter much)
    •Work without distractions (quiet, no TV, no multitasking, no cell phone)
  3. Resourcefulness
    •Know when to get help
    •Know who to ask for help (or where to go to find help on your own)
  4. Strategies
    •Use smart tactics
    •Know what to do when a strategy isn’t working
    •Keep in mind tips you have learned
  5. Use of Feedback
    •Get feedback (from friend, teacher, etc.)
    •Apply or use the feedback in order to improve your performance
  6. Commitment
    •Don’t give up
    •Find ways to get around problems
    •Try your hardest

I have student evaluate their effort based around these qualities (ex. How well did you use your time?) after we finish a project/paper or in regards to studying for our exams. Although it may seem obvious to you that Bobby failed that test because he didn’t study, Bobby may walk away from the experience believing he failed because he is stupid and just isn’t good at whatever subject you teach. If you’re interested in teaching effective effort to your students I recommend making a poster with the qualities on it and guiding students to reflect on the effectiveness of their effort at least on a weekly basis. I have also uploaded a power point I’ve used to introduce effective effort here – feel free to give it a shot or adapt it so it works for your students.

Sep 19 2012
1 Comment
Education Policy

How does your school district’s performance stack up?

The George W. Bush presidential library has an interesting (although, really over simplified) tool that enables you to compare average math and reading exam results for any public school district (both charter and traditional) with state, national and international figures (see above for an example of my hometown compared internationally). This tool is called “The Global Report Card” and is fun to play around with; but keep in mind that in addition to being a cool little application, the site is definitely promoting a pro-reform agenda.