Tag: learning

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Teachers Keep Hope Alive – Happy World Teachers Day!

Teachers feed the hearts and minds of those beautiful, hungry children the world keeps trusting to us. Teachers help children develop socially, emotionally, and intellectually in ways that they, and we, find extraordinary. 
Teachers keep hope alive.
Teachers help students overcome doubts and find faith.
Teachers helps students rise from the ashes, over and over again.

Is there a struggle in teaching? Of course. Are there tears in teaching? Absolutely, and of a wide variety. Can we expect enlightenment? Every day, for sure. But mostly, as we move through each day, we reach deeper understanding of who we are and who students are, and that alone brings about a new kind of joy – a permanent joy — for student and teacher. We truly are all in this together.

Happy World Teachers Day to all Teachers!

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From Fighter To Writer: How Writing Transformed an Angry Student

Nayana goes deep with poetry and emerges
loving herself and learning

This is the second of my bi-weekly story series call Brilliant Minds, about children who have made quick and remarkable progress in reading and writing through the use of the Higher Way and the Happy Teacher methodologies (Please note the names have been changed)

A month after Nayana wrote her first story, we witnessed more transformation. It came during the admittedly difficult assignment to write a poem about loving yourself. For an hour, Nayana angrily insisted “I got nothing!” All the other students had written their first drafts, received editing, and were busy typing their poems on the computers. Nayana, meantime, kept pouting, crying, and complaining that she had “nothing!” When, finally, Nayana found something, it was practically a slap in the face. She wrote that she loved herself only when she was “fighting,” as in “punching and kicking people.”

Internally, I was somewhat taken aback.  But I remained calm and applauded Nayana for getting started. I then asked a classmate Nayana admired and trusted to encourage her to write more and gently prod her to rethink when she loved herself. As Stacie settled into cheering on Nayana, I focused on helping other students make edits.

About a half hour later, Nayana erased her paean to pugilism and began anew. She wrote that she felt love for herself when she was dancing, doing gymnastics, and outdoor activities. She concluded, “It feels powerful to love myself.”

After Nayana finished that poem, the gloves were off! This child, who had for most of the school year refused to engage in classroom discussions and who had rarely, if ever, completed an assignment, was going to land body blows on every learning challenge that arose. All we could do was back up, and be amazed.

A week later, we worked on rhyming sentences using Word Families. Rhyming was difficult for all the students. Nayana seemed dazed by it. But refused to give up. She threw herself into the world of matching ending sounds day after day, assignment after assignment. She gracefully accepted my feedback and guidance and never complained, cried, or ran for cover in a closet or underneath a desk. She simply boxed it out. After two weeks of taking punches and throwing them back, Nayana mostly, on her own, produced a series of mostly complete, mostly rhyming sentences, with much better spelling.

Nayana’s ultimate triumph was that by year’s end, she had found the confidence of Muhammad Ali as she stood at the blackboard and proclaimed, “I am a writer!”

The secret sauce: Making our classroom a safe space for all students to honestly express themselves, and grow at their own pace was critical, as was patience and praise for every effort they put forth. Providing opportunities for students to read their own stories aloud and do art projects with their written works helped make writing relevant and offered more occasions for celebration. And who doesn’t love a party? What’s not shared in this blog but will be in future blogs was that we mixed writing assignments with word games, which helped students learn from one another and in new, fun ways.

 

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Art pops the cork on reluctant student’s brilliance

This is the first of my bi-weekly story series call Brilliant Minds, about children who have made quick and remarkable progress in reading and writing through the use of the Higher Way and the Happy Teacher methodologies (Please note the names have been changed)

Nayana was a student of mine at DC school.  She refused to write a word for the first two weeks after I returned to teach at the school from mid-March to mid-June. Instead, this third grader preferred to draw, color, cut paper, or, worse, run to hide in cabinets or under tables. In many ways, she was like a volcano – quiet and serene on the outside, but roiling with intense energy on the inside.

On April 4, the Monday after Spring Break, during a journal entry warm-up, Nayana found her voice. She made an entry for six days. Every weekday, except Friday, however, was misspelled. There were errors in most words. Verbs were missing or used incorrectly. Every sentence was incomplete. Yet, Nayana wrote for the first time. And she wrote more about Spring Break than any other student. I was thrilled and so was she. I had been searching and praying for the keys to ignite the learner in Nayana. After this surprising burst of productivity, I kept pushing.

The next day, I unpacked a bunch of art supplies that came in after my plea to friends for donations. I sought out art supplies with the specific idea that giving Nayana permission to draw, paint, and color in class could open her up to engage in other learning activities.

First thing that morning, before diving into traditional subject matter, I invited Nayana and three other students to sit in front of brand new easels with brand new paint, paintbrushes, and paper. They each received a new painter’s apron. They literally jumped for joy, and instantly fell in love with the freedom of expression through art in our classroom. These daily sessions typically lasted 30-40 minutes. That day forward, Nayana became a different student, and, much to my surprise, grew to enjoy writing.

Three days later, Nayana drafted her first story based on our science vocabulary words about climates. This story also contained multiple errors but made much more sense. Best of all, it boasted a strong, witty narrative. Titled, “The Bad Day,” it was about a boy victimized by every type of climate and climate-related element: an earthquake, the heat of the desert, water from a lake, and even the sun, which thought John “looked ugly.” But John’s bad luck changed to good when, fleeing a blizzard, he ran until he found himself in front of a volcano, jumped in, and survived!

Yes, it made me laugh out loud. It also later occurred to me that Nayana was kind of like John – she had survived the most adverse situations imaginable, and finally, when she owned her only option, her volcano, she fought like mad and survived.  Nayana’s story also helped me to see clearly what had been bottling her brilliance and stopping it up with a cork. I couldn’t wait to see what else was on its way out.

I look forward to your questions about how you can inspire such a revolution in the Nayanas in your lives.

 

 

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Hear Stories, Tell Stories, Learn how to Create Stories – This Sunday at 7 pm!

Some words. Maybe it’s just one, such as: Love. Hope. Fire. Fear. Music. Tears. That’s all you need to tell a story. Some words you speak. Some words your write. Some words that come to your mind and end up as a picture. You know the saying: a picture is worth a thousand words, and a thousand words is plenty enough for a story.

This Sunday, as a follow up to last week’s discussion of The Higher Way, and my new release of 8 Ways to Engage Children Without a Computer, we’re going to talk about stories.  It’s Way #1 on the download. We’re going to tell you some stories, ask you to tell us some stories (in one minute or less!), and we’re going to talk about how you can support children to create and publish their stories and how you can do the same.

We’re going to have a good time with good old-fashioned StoryTime. You know, once upon a time, or Back in the day, or Honey, let me tell you kinds of stories. And music! We Love stories with instrumental music. So, come along, bring family, friends – all ages are welcome!

We’re going to have a story good time!

Sunday, April 19 – 7 -8 p.m. via Freeconferencecall.com Video or Phone.

Email caroline@carolinebrewer.com to receive the link!

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8 Ways to Engage Children Without A Computer

8 Ways to Engage Children Without a Computer
and support their intellectual growth and development

I love being offline much more than being online and I know how important it is for children to spend time growing and developing without devices. That’s why 8 Ways to Engage Children – mentally, physically, and intellectually  — without computers. This list could have included 80 Ways, or even 800. But I think this list of 8 is pretty substantial, so take a look, try some out some of these ways and let us know what you think.

And, of course, have fun!

Email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com with your stories and thoughts. And join us tomorrow at 7 p.m. to learn more about how to have fun with the 8 Ways.

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How to Keep Children from Plucking Your Last Nerve during #Covid-19 Times or Any Time

How to Keep Children from Plucking Your Last Nerve during #Covid-19
Home-Schooling, Distance Learning, & Literacy Engagement

Home-schooling and distance learning offer new opportunities to bond with our children and students – and also for us to snap on one another.

As an 18-year veteran of teaching and learning in classrooms, through literacy activism, and as an author, I have come to understand that the best way to succeed with children — at any time — is by adhering to The Higher Way.

The Higher Way means responding in a way that allows children to easily get back on track without feeling pressured, chastised, or humiliated. Importantly, it means responding in a way that gives them a say in how to proceed.

For instance, When Jared is not paying attention, drumming his fingers on the table, or tapping his feet; when Kayla is twisting her hair or making sucking sounds instead of focusing; this is the time to let your love and patience wrap around their sweet little souls like cotton candy on a paper stick.

Responses to nerve-plucking behavior could include: “How can I help you? You can do this. Would you like me to read today, and you just listen?  It seems as if something is bothering you. Would you like to talk about it?  Thank you for trusting me to help you. You’re doing great.”

Please understand how much power there is in your words and actions designed to open the door to a Higher Way.  Without preaching, condemning, and often without even mentioning the challenging behavior on display, I have stopped elementary, middle-school and high-school students from cursing like sailors, from fighting every day, and from throwing tantrums using The Higher Way. Using The Higher Way, I’ve seen children go from refusing to read or write to reading and writing, and declaring their love for it.

Working lovingly and patiently with children means that we seek, always, to understand the child. We put ourselves in the child’s shoes. Empathize. Learning to read or write for children who have not yet grasped how is often painful. Understand that they are suffering almost every moment they sit with you and the work before them. Your extraordinary display of love and patience will ease that suffering, bit by bit, and slowly turn it to joy – which is critical to children’s success, the development of confidence, and their trust in you and themselves.

If we create children or students who do work but are miserable,  we have failed. Because failure is not an option, we must stay on the love and patience track. Swallow our tongues. Sit on our hands. Breathe. And smile – smile a lot. Whatever it takes to let love and patience pour forth like the morning sun when inside we are a bit rattled, irritated, concerned, even annoyed.

We have everything to gain if, when they seem to go low, we go high.