Today’s blog post comes from Site Coordinator Online Instructor Eva Askew-Houser.
Years ago (more than 32, to be honest), I was a middle school classroom teacher in Bay County/Panama City Fla., working with students with learning disabilities. While I believe a new school year holds the promise of being either a year of hope or frustration, I also believe that every student begins the year with some degree of optimism about the outcome. It became my practice each year to have a one-on-one interview with each of my students where I asked two key questions:
1. Tell me about a time when being in school was a really wonderful thing in your life.
2. Tell me about a time when being in school was an awful experience.
For kids whose academic experiences were always a mixed bag of good and bad, this interview helped me learn about the conditions under which each individual student was likely to be more successful and what I needed to guard against in order to prevent a negative experience.
After having done a number of these interviews, I began to see a pattern emerging. When these students described their most positive school experience, they painted a picture of a classroom where they felt sincerely cared for and understood by a teacher, a place where they felt safe and nurtured, and were able to experience learning with a sense of joy. They felt the personal pride of accomplishment. They had friends to support them, adults who supported them and the classroom itself was a warm, vibrant place to return to each school day.
