The Power of the Question

On the Excel Achievement Center homepage, we state that children learn the power of the question and find joy in discovering the answer. I pondered on this this morning as I thought about my own journey in education. How often have I asked the question and then found the answer?

I remember my very first year of teaching. I was enthusiastic and energetic. I, like most new teachers, felt that I was going to conquer the world that first year. I had 23 second graders who came to me with smiles that included missing front teeth, the energy of Winnie the Pooh's Tigger, and the enthusiasm of 100 Einsteins to learn. I felt that I owed it to these children to put in the extra time as they were not going to "suffer" because I was a first year teacher. I remember putting in long hours and still working in my classroom until 10PM at night.

That first year I discovered the power of the question as I watched my students. I had three of my second graders who could read at the fourth grade level. My question, "How can I help these children reach their fullest potential?" I had a little boy who would hold his fists so tight that they would go white whenever I taught phonics. My question, "How can I help his anxiety?" Like all teachers, I also had a few behavior issues. My question, "How can I get these children to behave?" My answers came in the following ways:

The three gifted children:
I remember asking my mentor what I should do with these children. She responded by saying that they needed to follow the second grade curriculum like everyone else. She continued to say that the school really didn't have materials for these children and that they would be fine. She was an excellent teacher, and I respected her judgment, but I intuitively felt that there must be a better way. Thus I continued to ask the question, "How can I better serve these children?" The answer came from reading books. I discovered that I could have these children read a novel at their level and I put together a literature circle without really knowing that that was what it was called. I had the children doing higher level comprehension activities and increasing their vocabulary without even knowing the correct education jargon. I had asked the questions and then found the answers!

The boy who struggled with phonics:
At this time in my career, I knew nothing about auditory processing disorder let alone any interventions that could have helped this. All I knew was that phonics was not this child's "thing." Therefore, I again asked the question, "What can I do for this child?" The answer I came up with was not to have him do phonics, but teach him reading in a different manner. I focused on his strength-visual processing- and taught him a large sight word base. This helped to decrease his anxiety, and helped him to enjoy school more. I then continued to ask the question about ways to intervene with these children, and years later did much research on auditory processing disorder and dyslexia. It was here that I discovered answers to interventions that work with these children. Today, Excel Achievement Center specializes in working with these kiddos.

The behavior issues:
Like most first year teachers, I put a lovely "behavior modification" system in my classroom. You know the one... "If you talk, I'll move your stoplight from green to yellow, then to red, etc." Yuck! I learned early on that I did not enjoy "policing" students, and that I just wanted to teach. What I learned was this, if I place my focus and my classroom's focus on behaviors, we will just focus on behaviors. If I focus on the content I'm trying to teach and get my students to focus on that as well, I didn't have behavior issues. My task became to get my students so mentally engaged with what I was teaching, that they wouldn't have time to be "naughty." I decided that my classroom would be exciting and that I was up to the challenge of competing with television. (We didn't have internet in those days)

As I look back and reflect on my 20+ years in education, I'm excited that I kept asking questions, and that I didn't think that I knew it all. In fact, the more that I'm in this profession, I've learned that it is my students who teach me the answers as long as I keep asking the questions.

Love or Fear?

As parents and teachers, we want to do what is best for the child(ren) that we are in charge of. We feel a sense of panic at times that perhaps we aren't "getting it right," or that it is all our fault if a child doesn't learn something.

One of my most recent discoveries as I'm out and about observing parents and children, is that actions derived from love have very different effects than actions derived from fear. Let me explain...

When a teacher is trying to teach the entire class a concept, and one of the children is talking, she has a choice to respond in fear or love.

Fear would say, "Susan! Stop talking right now! It is very rude of you to talk while I'm talking. Would you like me to do that to you?"

Love would say, "Susan sweetie, I need your attention because this next part that I'm going to be talking about is going to be fabulously interesting and I don't want you to miss out."

The fear response shames the child and gets the whole class to focus on the unwanted behavior. The love response cares deeply about the student's feelings and helps her to focus on the desired behavior--learning.

I have found that when dealing with children, it is always best to help them to focus on what I want them to do versus what I don't want them to do. This works with adults as well. The brain will naturally focus on what is being told to it, good or bad. It doesn't really understand "don't". If I say, "Billy don't touch that"...his brain will immediately focus on touching it. However, if I say "Billy you can't touch that because you might get hurt, come over here and let's play this game;" I've given Billy's mind something to focus on.

Teachers and parents do love their children. I have no doubt about that. Sometimes we have our own fears that get in the way of our parenting or teaching...
"What if I fail?"
"What if the principal doesn't like the job I'm doing?"
"What are others thinking?"
"What if I'm not doing the right thing?"

We have to conquer our own fears as we work to help children conquer theirs. Each day we need to ask, "Am I acting out of love, or fear?"

Ways to Help Children with ADHD

Almost every day I hear a horror story from a parent as to how much their child dislikes school.
Today, more than ever before, teachers have many demands on their time and talents. It is increasingly difficult to meet the individual demands of every child in the classroom. Below are my suggestions as to how to better assist students with attention deficit disorder. They have worked very well for me and the staff at Excel Achievement Center. My hope is that they will benefit the classroom teacher as well.

Suggested Techniques:
· Teach concepts using real-world objectives and portray the relevance in what the students are doing
· Teach concepts using manipulatives
· Have the students verbalize what and how they are learning in their own words
· Have the students learn and apply visualizing strategies to increase their visual memory
· Teach the students to compare new concepts to former ones learned
· Give appropriate processing time
· Teach the students how to draw visual representations of concepts or rules learned.
· Provide space for group work where students can collaborate
· Provide correct lighting and environment
· Give positive direction (Right-brained children thrive on praise!)
· Promote active vs. passive learning
· Coach students to break larger projects into smaller, more manageable parts
· Have a sense of humor!
· Incorporate movement