“Assuming the best is essential for long-term learning and positive connections to take place in our classrooms…The most effective classroom management comes in the form of strategies that prevent acting out before it occurs. And those strategies arise primarily from assuming that our students want to be here, want to participate, and, specifically, want to learn good behavior. When we internalize and act from this assumption, our students behave better and learn more” (Smith and Lambert, 16, 2008).
All posts by Katie Herring
Cosmetic Neurology: The Next Big Thing?
“While cognitive enhancers were originally developed for the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients, they can also be used as biochemical memory aids for the general population. In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, what struggling junior or senior in high school wouldn’t welcome the edge a memory pill could offer? What about university students, overworked air traffic controllers, medical students, and aspiring actors whose livelihoods depend on being able to flawlessly recall large quantities of information?” (Philip, 2006, 182)
“At promise,” NOT “at risk”
“Layered over in demonizing public policies and struggling within and against the social ravages of economic disadvantage, silenced needs, desires, hopes, and fears are provided possibilities for voice in a dedicated school context. The persistent pathologization of these youth as ‘at risk’ and ‘abnormal’ denies them the possibility of empowering themselves and attributing educational value to life experience. New Ventures Academy provides the space for students to envision themselves in opposite terms, ‘at promise,’ leading lives that they themselves have had a hand in shaping” (Proweller, 2000, 100).
OMG WHAT?!?!
“Despite adults’ tendency to dismiss them as a distraction, these messages written on 8 ½ x 11-inch notebook paper, an old Spanish assignment, a math worksheet, or a history note card are binding missives that chronicle some of an adolescent girl’s most meaningful thoughts, feelings, and relationships in the context of the school day.” (Collins, 2008, 98)
Adolescent Immigrants or Immigrant Adolescents?
“ ‘The moment you open your mouth, they’ll know you are not one of their own’ ” (Suárez-Orozco et al, 2008, 57).
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