Full course description
Too often, teachers, discuss in staff meetings how to make changes to better serve low-income families. Much too often these meetings include a myriad of excuses. We can do so much better than that. We all know that there are no magical wands to wave over all the children so that we can change the way that students come to us in school. We all know that poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and around the world. What can we do to weigh in on how schools can improve academic achievement?
We can argue that chronic exposure to poverty can result in detrimental changes to the brain. However, we also know that the brain’s ability to adapt from experiences means that poor children can also experience emotional, social, and academic success. Too many of our most vulnerable students are tuning out and dropping out because we cannot successfully engage these students. Until we make school the best part of every student’s day, we will continue to struggle with attendance, achievement, and graduation rates.
As we venture into this course we will delve into what poverty is and how it affects students in school. We will also look at effective strategies and best practices to help all students be successful. We will contemplate smart and purposeful strategies that all teachers can use to expand students’ cognitive capacity, increase motivation and effort, and build a deep and lasting understanding of content. Finally, we will discuss how teachers can effectively use their instructional time and empower all students to become engaged and take ownership of their learning. Our goal is to revitalize and enrich our practices as teachers so that our students can thrive in school and beyond.