What’s the Secret to Student Success?
Post written by Willona Sloan and originally featured in Education Update.
Educators today face many exciting challenges: preparing students for life and careers in the 21st century and helping every student overcome obstacles and experience the joy of learning. To meet these challenges, every teacher and every administrator must work together within their schools and across schools, breaking free of their silos and collaborating. Just as principals can no longer stay in their offices, administrating behind closed doors, teachers also cannot seal themselves inside of their classrooms.
Research proves that when teachers collaborate effectively to analyze student performance, create interventions for struggling students, and continue their own professional learning, they can increase their efficacy. When principals empower teachers to do what they know is best for kids, children learn more and teachers find more satisfaction in their work. Collaboration creates a win-win-win situation for students, teachers, and
Educators today face many exciting challenges: preparing students for life and careers in the 21st century and helping every student overcome obstacles and experience the joy of learning. To meet these challenges, every teacher and every administrator must work together within their schools and across schools, breaking free of their silos and collaborating. Just as principals can no longer stay in their offices, administrating behind closed doors, teachers also cannot seal themselves inside of their classrooms.
Research proves that when teachers collaborate effectively to analyze student performance, create interventions for struggling students, and continue their own professional learning, they can increase their efficacy. When principals empower teachers to do what they know is best for kids, children learn more and teachers find more satisfaction in their work. Collaboration creates a win-win-win situation for students, teachers, and
The Unknown Students
How well do you know your students? How well do you know each student? Many schools use the following activity or something similar as part of professional development.
Step 1: Arrange all the students' names by either year level or in the whole school, depending on size of the school, onto a large wall.
Step 2: Give each adult a Post-It note and ask him or her to stick it next to each student he or she "knows." Knowing can include knowing what sports the students play, what their interests are, or how many brothers and sisters they have—in short, knowing each student as a person.
Step 3: Step back and look at the wall. What do you see?
What typically happens is that there is somewhat of a bell curve represented across the wall. Then there is silence as the adults realize what they are looking at.
Step 1: Arrange all the students' names by either year level or in the whole school, depending on size of the school, onto a large wall.
Step 2: Give each adult a Post-It note and ask him or her to stick it next to each student he or she "knows." Knowing can include knowing what sports the students play, what their interests are, or how many brothers and sisters they have—in short, knowing each student as a person.
Step 3: Step back and look at the wall. What do you see?
What typically happens is that there is somewhat of a bell curve represented across the wall. Then there is silence as the adults realize what they are looking at.
- There are 15–25 percent of students that everyone knows. These may be the outgoing, exuberant, or popular students. They may also be the more disruptive students. They are the ones that make
