Mary's Compilation of Beliefs about Teaching

 “It’s more work to ask students to think than to just fill them up with what you want to teach them.”  Rehak (1996)



“Creativity is power, and children have so much in them that can be transformed into personal power.”  Kogan (1999)

Ten Factors Essential to Success in Urban Classrooms

According to a blogpost at  http://blog.lib.umn.edu/gust0124/blog/018570.html,

this was handed out by Lisa Delpit during a talk on “The Silenced Dialogue”.

1. Do not teach less content to poor, urban children, but understand their brilliance and teach more.

2. Whatever methodology or instructional program is used, demand critical thinking.

3. Assure that all children gain access to "basic skills," the conventions and strategies that are essential to success in American education.

4. Challenge racist societal views of the competence and worthiness of the children and their families, and help them to do the same.

5. Recognize and build on strengths.

6. Use familiar metaphors and experiences from the children's world to connect what they already know to school knowledge.

7. Create a sense of family and caring in the service of academic achievement.

8. Monitor and assess needs and then address them with a wealth of diverse strategies.

9. Honor and respect the children's home and ancestral culture(s).

10. Foster a sense of children's connection to community - to something greater than themselves.

A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. ~Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, translated from Turkish

This is a good list of ideas to ensure sustained parent involvement that I found on the web http://www.teachervision.fen.com/ .

• Encourage parents to participate continuously throughout the length of the school year.
• Be patient with parents. Some may be reluctant to get involved due to any number of extenuating circumstances. Keep trying, and never give up on any parent.
• Encourage parents to participate in the affairs of the unit through volunteering, observing, or sharing their hobbies, vocations, or vacations.
• Use your students as “recruiters” to get their own parents involved. Solicit their ideas as much as possible.
• Reward and/or recognize parents for their efforts, however small. Everyone likes to receive some form of recognition, and parents are no exception.
• It is vitally important that you be friendly, down to earth, and truly interested in parents and their children.
• Most important: communicate to parents the fact that their involvement is ultimately for the benefit of their children.