How Do We Raise Students' Self-Esteem?

Parents are the first line of teachers in students' lives.

Two Sides of a Coin: Building self-esteem in students can be harmful or helpful, depending on how it is done. It is possible to build students up so that they become "puffed up" and think they are awesome just for showing up for school. 

A Saturation of Praise

One can make students think they are awesome no matter how they perform.

Researchers found that "D" students do not necessarily think less highly of themselves than "A" students. Bullies often have over-inflated "self-esteem."

"When self-esteem is not based on personal drive, accomplishments, or positive behavior, it resembles narcissism" (Aspen 2001-2009).

Building True Self-Esteem 

Students with higher self-esteem do better in school (Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs)

"Practices that promote self-esteem produce more successful, hard working, risk-taking, ambitious, respectful, and self-directed students" (Schindler, 2010).

John Schindler writes that true self-esteem has little to do with feelings reported by students. Instead, it has everything to do with a set of unconscious self-beliefs that include "one's thoughts about one's ability to control their world" (locus of control), "one's likability, and one's sense of competence or self-efficacy."

To help improve student's locus of control:

·      Give students voice and ownership of rules and their consequences

·      Create an environment free from excuses.

·      Teach problem-solving skills

·      Give students choices

·      Use behavioral contracts when needed

To help students develop a sense of belonging or acceptance

This is essential for mental health and ability to trust and take risks.

·      Create an environment of acceptance (model, teach, attitudes and values)

·      Appreciate the different viewpoints

·      Validate student's feelings

·      Promote human respect

·      Use cooperative learning where students have to lean on each other to gain certain accomplishments

Encourage Self-efficacy

·      Give students specific feedback about what they need to work on and what they did well

·      Assess using a clear criterion

·      Find ways to make students teachers

·      Help students make their own goals

·      Help students think of ways to overcome their own barriers

·      See students through to achieve their goals.

Example: A student wants to do a large assignment. Help the student decide what they can do in a specific amount of time. Break the work up into smaller chunks and set time goals for specific days. Are there other barriers? What are they? What specific goals can we set to get over these barriers? Then follow up and keep students accountable for their goals.

Another Example: Have the students help build the class rules or home rules, keeping in mind the most valuable goals of keeping everyone safe, respecting each other, and learning as a priority. 

Aspen Education Group. Can Your Teen Have Too Much Self-Esteem? Found on http://www.aspeneducation.com/Article-too-much-self-esteem.html. 2001-2009.

Shindler, J. V., Creating a Psychology of Success in the Classroom:

Enhancing Academic Achievement by Systematically Promoting Student Self-Esteem. http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/jshindl/cm/Self-Esteem%20Article%2011.htm

Two great books on teaching students to make good choices:
Cline, F. & Fay, J. Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility.  2006.
Fay, J. & Funk, D. Teaching with Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom. 1995.   

Dads, Careers, & Learning

Fathers are very important in connecting students with careers. Dads teach their children the skills they have in their own careers whether it be golf, networking, financing, mechanics, electronics or sales.* One example of this is my friend’s dad who was principal of a school. Through him, she played basketball and golfed, learning strategies and resilience in many situations.

My dad believed that I could do whatever I put my mind to, whether it be playing the piano, college soccer, or a career. He taught me how to tune up a lawn mower, some construction, and the value and enjoyment of work itself. Once he let me help paint an apartment. Painting has been a way for me to make money on the side ever since.

I will never forget the times Dad helped me with my homework – reading and memorizing multiplication facts. Because it was so special, I still remember those exact time’s-tables and books he helped me with.

Thanks Dad! I still believe I can do anything I put my mind to.

*For her master's thesis in social work, my mother studied the influence of fathers on their daughter's careers. At the time there was not much research on this topic. Also, I learned many things from my mother. For example, it was my mother who took me with her to teach a special education class. 

Dad's Encouragement Through Difficulties

Written by a man who lost his dad last year to cancer (both named Edwin Boone)

Edited by Juanita

  

My dad really helped me in my learning.  It wasn’t really the things that he taught me, which were usually practical things and skills, such as how to keep things working, but the attitude about the learning itself.  

One of the greatest lessons Dad taught me was, when learning gets tough and the pieces just don’t seem to fit, persevere and keep trying.  Sometimes I needed to walk away from a thing for a while, go back a few lessons, or think about it from another angle. Under his influence, I learned to never give up. 

One example of my inability to comprehend what I was studying was a high school class in trigonometric analysis. Despite my best efforts and the assistance of an engineer friend of my dad’s, I steadily became more and more like a lost ball in high weeds.  I managed to barely pass the class. My last grade for the class was a solid D, by far the worst grade I ever had in school. I was very afraid that Dad was going to be angry about the D.  

That day, he taught me one of the other greatest lessons I have ever learned: If you have worked at something, have truly done your best, and still somehow manage to not succeed – keep your head high and don’t be down on yourself. You really have nothing at all to be ashamed of. 

Take joy from what you can do, and don’t be ashamed of what, in spite of your best efforts, you cannot do. 

That’s a lesson that helps me sleep at night.

  

Note to Moms about Reading and Writing

Moms are the greatest recognized influence on student reading and writing development by the students themselves – even teenagers!

Last week I had the privilege of helping a 10th grade collaborative* writing class with their essays. Students were writing a 2-page, typed essay on how their reading and writing has developed over the years. Nine (9) out of ten (10) 10th-Grade students attributed their reading and writing development to their mom’s influence. No other person was mentioned in any of the essays I read: not the dad, not a special teacher, grandma or nanny.

What does this say about teaching reading and writing?

   •    Moms know their children.
   •    Moms know how their kids learn best
   •    Moms know what their kids are interested in and inspired by
   •    Moms teach reading and writing in love.


"A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Brooks
A mother affects eternity: she can never tell where her influence stops. (Translation for Moms)


*A "collaborative" writing class means that there were several students with learning and behavior disabilities in the class who were successfully tackling this 2 page, typed essay on their reading and writing development over the years.

To Dad’s – Father’s day is coming. You can find out how Fathers influence their children’s success.

Connecting the Dots - Learning History

History was a very dull subject in school for me that seemed to be all about the dates and other seemingly empty, meaningless facts, without any connections to anything “real” to me. As a grade-school student, I could not relate to it. For this reason, I had difficulty remembering the facts I was supposed to remember. 

But stories and movies online can help students relate new information to existing information about life: Connect the "dots" between your child’s understanding of life and the information given, in order to create a new understanding and ability to remember information better. For example, in reading about Ancient Egypt, first watch one or more short videos that depict how people lived their daily lives in Ancient Egypt.

• Use short you-tube videos to add sounds, sights, people and color to written words
• Make observations together
• From observations, make a word web (a group activity, brainstorming words related to a central topic) before reading*
• Discuss the vocabulary ahead of time. If you can, link pictures to the vocabulary.
• Read, discuss more, revert back to video images and information
• Make another word web after reading
• Maybe watch the video again and see if you can find the things in your word web in the video.
• To really solidify new vocabulary, use it again in creative stories or sentences.

The "dots" of learning are words, sounds, pictures, places, people doing things that students can relate to, and things that look like things they have seen before. The connection of words to ideas is not direct.  In true learning, these connections run through many or all of the other dots. 

Another way to make history more real is have students use the information in their own creative ways:

• Create plays  of what is happening in the story. 
• Write a song
• Write historical fiction 
• Have each student study one person from the times, and make a poster of that person with pictures and words for the hallway.

*The following website is a great place to find different kinds of graphic organizers to help make a word web: http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer

Improve Reading Fluency

Learning to Read can be hard work:  

For most kids, learning to read is a challenging task.  Think about how many school days are spent going over letters, popcorn words, spelling, and so on. But you have one thing at home that the school seldom can offer - special one-on-one time with a caring adult. 

The importance of reading fluently – with speed, ease, and putting the pauses in the right places (expression):

• To understand the reading, one must put the pauses in the right places.
• To remember what you are reading, there needs to be some speed and automaticity.

How do you do this?

My favorite, research-proven strategy to improve fluency is called “Paired Reading.” Read at the same time, side by side with your student with one of you pointing to each word. Part of slowness and hesitation in reading is caused by fear of getting the words wrong. Reading side-by-side at the same time takes the fear out of the reading. If the student hesitates, then they can listen to your voice and pick up the word without error – helping with errorless learning.

In fact, research says that, when students do paired reading with a better reader for as little as10 minutes per day, the result is an increase in their reading level and comprehension in a matter of weeks. This is a temporary intervention that may be needed for a short time, until student becomes more independent.

Repeated Readings: Another way to help with fluency is to have student practice reading faster. Time the student reading the first time (# of words correct in one minute). Point out the mistakes so they can work on the mistakes for the next readings. Maybe do paired reading (have the student read with a better reader). Have students practice reading the words to themselves or to a partner, who is listening for accuracy. Time the student’s reading again after a few days of practice.

I do Paired Reading and Repeated Reading with my English Language Learners. My goal for Level One learners is to gain about 100 words per minute. Why? Reading more fluently leads to students being able to remember what they learned while taking some of the work out of the task.

Reading leads to further learning.

More ideas to help with reading from Intervention Central: http://www.interventioncentral.org/index.php/reading-comp/236-reading-com-fix-up-skills

When You Have Tried Everything

What do you do?

Your young student is just not getting it. With at least one subject, you have reached the point of thinking and saying things like:

“In spelling we have tried everything! We sign the words. We write the words. We say them out loud. He can spell the words at home, but he cannot spell them at school.” For both you and your student: FRUSTRATION!!!

1st – Remember the number one thing – you, as the parent, are the most important factor in this child’s life. Not the spelling. Not the math. Not the skill for any academics. You.

2nd – Admit to yourself that learning is not, as Western educational theory held for years, a linear process. One does not have to learn A and B in order to do D. I think of learning as connecting the dots in 3D. A person can learn task D, E and F, or even M, before learning  A, B and C. Sometimes, his learning other tasks and skills yields coping strategies that assist in working around a disability. Examples:

• A student with a math disability can learn to use a calculator, and be allowed to use it in class. If your student does not have a disability, he may use one at home as an investigative tool.
• A student with a writing disability learns to ask a teacher or teacher’s aide for help with writing. Or this student uses a computer keyboard, a voice recognition program, or learns to write in text on a hand-held device.  
• Always be aware that there are options. Keep searching for ways to help your child that might work better for the time being.

3rd - How do you connect the dots?

• - exercise – including different kinds of movements like tumbling
• - sleep – A weary mind does not learn or remember, and mental connections form while sleeping  
• - art, music, social interaction, puzzles, and anything but television. 
• - work on skills using the 5 senses 

 
4th – Celebrate your achievements: When you meet a goal, whether it is educational success or simply reaching the time goal for your study period, then celebrate. Be happy! That was a lot of work for both you and your student, so you should both feel good about it.

5th – Your student may have high aptitude and interest in some areas, but have less in others. Remember that schools thought Albert Einstein was retarded because he was interested  only in mathematics and science. Read this interesting blog note: http://apieceofmymind-sarv.blogspot.com/2007/03/albert-einstein-failure.html

6th – Always remember that, just because your student didn’t get it right today, it doesn’t mean he or she won’t do it tomorrow. You may often have to remind your student of this too. Thomas Edison failed over 6000 times before he invented the light bulb. He said “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

Learn a Language

Help your child learn a language using resources online and in your own neighborhood.

For example, learn Spanish alongside your children.

1.     Hire a neighborhood Hispanic young person to teach you and your family one-hour per week.

2.     Make use of a Spanish-English, English-Spanish online dictionary. A google search helped me find one at http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/. You can put in an English word, ask for a translation and then click on the sound button to hear how to pronounce the word.

3.     Look at your local library online. My library has a link to BYKI or http://www.byki.com/, a free online language system that teaches 70 different languages. It has programs and materials to download for free online. But if you want to use the more deluxe version, you can go through a public library.

4.     My local library also has online CDs and books to borrow. There are several Spanish learning CDs and books. I downloaded one called, “Learn Spanish in Your Car.” Another is called Spanish Lyrics. It is a CD and e-book of songs with both English and Spanish Lyrics side-by-side assist your brain in making connections between word meanings. My children and I especially enjoy this CD. 

Towards Understanding Students with Disabilities and Their Families

Watching certain movies has really helped me understand some of the challenges that students with disabilities and their families face.

On the average, one out of every 110 students may have an autism spectrum diagnosis. If your school (or school district) has 650 students per grade level, the likelihood is that will be 6 students on the autism spectrum per grade level.

There are many movies about people with disabilities. Here I have included 3 with a short description and links.

Temple Grandin’s inspirational movie uses the visual analogy of life as a series of doors, each of which she must go through to reach the next level of success. She proves to be so determined to get through those doors. It is one of the images that helps her overcome her fear of new things. The young Temple continuously wows teachers and students with her many gifts. The movie sneaks in details such as her ability to focus on a task, like writing an entire Master’s Thesis in less than a week. She works hard, in spite of the opposition, to change to world, and demonstrates that, because of autism (which often inhibits the ability to – consciously or subconsciously – ignore ‘background’ sensory input, such as cows’ constant mooing), she can perceive things other people simply don’t see or hear. February 6th at 8:00 pm on HBO. See her webpage: http://www.grandin.com/

I found the movie Adam to be very encouraging. Adam in an autistic man whose father and sole caregiver dies. Before his death, Adam worked for his father’s company designing toys, but soon finds himself jobless. As a hard-working and focused individual, he applied for 82 jobs in one day. He practiced and practiced in order to be able to perform job interviews. If he can do it, I can do it. http://www.foxsearchlight.com/adam/

“I Am Sam” is about a man with disabilities who lives in an assisted living situation and has nights out with the guys. After his girlfriend has a baby, she abandons him with a child. He loves the child so much and is determined to be a good father to her in spite of his own learning challenges. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277027/


Least Restrictive Environment
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 officially requires that by law students with disabilities be placed in the least restrictive environment possible. Studies show that integrating students actually raises test scores for all students. Advanced students learn more by teaching other students. Lower students learn from being with advanced students.

People with disabilities are like all people in that we have strengths and weaknesses. Some strengths and weaknesses can be extraordinary on both counts. As educators, we have to remember to see the strengths.

Time to Organize

Is your craft bin getting the best of you?

Are the markers, scissors, beads, papers, glue, fusion beads, craft sticks, crayons, stickers, stamps, and McDonald’s toys getting OUT OF CONTROL?

The time has come to teach your children the life-skill of organizing:

1. Present the problem. “We are going to get new craft things for Christmas, and we need a place to put them.”
2. Make it a challenge and chance to spend time together. 
3. Ask you child to make decisions “What do I do with this?”  
4. Model organization.
5. If children struggle with organizing and the job is overwhelming, give specific jobs to do.
   For example, my daughter organized the crayons. She found all of the crayons in all of the drawers, made a to-go bag to take places, a bag to keep in the drawer and a bag to make into candles.
6. What can you use to sort things?
   Sandwich bags, snack bags, little jars, pencil bags, organizers you buy in the store or build from cardboard.
7. Make a give-away bag and a garbage bag.
8. When you get frustrated or tired, save the rest for another day. 

What other ways can I teach my children organization?

• Model organization by using shopping lists, to-do lists, and calendars.
• Give your children calendars. Highlights makes a fun kids’ picture-find calendar with stickers for special days.
• Make lists with the kids on paper of what they want to do for the day. Check off things on the list as you do them.
• Review the lunch menu for school every day to see if your kids want to take a lunch or not.
• When students start having homework calendars for school, make sure things are written down and checked off as students complete tasks. This seems obvious, but many students struggle with this undertaking.

Another article to view: 10 Ways to Organize Your Children

Ask Your Child’s Teacher

If you think you are the only one who wants your child to succeed, guess again. Your teacher, your school principal, and the state in which you live have a vested interest in the success of your child.

Do not be embarrassed if you don’t know how to do your child’s homework (even if it is 1^st  Grade). Other parents don’t know how to do it either! So be your child’s advocate and an advocate for all of those afraid to ask.

 

Over the last 20-30 years, the philosophy of teaching has changed,

• the funding of school has changed, 
• school leadership has changed,
• school accountability has changed,
• and teacher’s average knowledge and ability has changed significantly!

Also, if your child is having learning difficulties, teachers can share strategies they are teaching at school. You can reinforce these. Teachers have a life-long collection of helpful learning tools and suggestions.

Your child’s teacher has so many ideas, so much pressure, and so little time to teach what they have to teach!

More advice for parents, including free printables. At www.teachervision website.

Thinking Outside the Box

One of the great things about being a parent and not a teacher, is that you do not have to stick to the school curriculum. You can do things that are fun, creative, and help your child grow in different ways.

Idea – tooth picks connected by mini marshmallows. See who can build the tallest structure – if you want to be competitive. Allow marshmallows to dry overnight and display crafts on a dark piece of cloth.



Gumdrop Tower

Better idea – Make a Gumdrop Tower to support a candy bar.
- Use tooth picks and gum drops.
- Or instead of the tooth picks, use a bag of spaghetti.
- Give each group the same number materials to begin. See who can make the tallest tower to support a candy bar.
- This was done by teachers at a university.


Find more fun activities to keep you young people busy through the cold months of the year. These activities help grow their brains too! http://pbskids.org/zoom/printables/activities/

Helping Young Readers with Comprehension

Good readers do not just read a text. They think about it before, during and afterwards. They predict, connect vocabulary and meaning to prior knowledge, draw conclusions, see causal relationships, compare, contrast, and visualize.     Wow!

There are things you can do to start good comprehension thinking habits in young children before they can read for themselves.

Anticipate – Before reading, look at the front cover and discuss what you think the book might be about. Then if you want, peek at the pictures inside and guess the story.

Read the story. Discuss words and ideas children might not understand. Help them connect words and ideas to things they already know.

After reading, discuss what you thought the book would be about and then what it really was about.

For beginning to intermediate readers a great exercise during or after reading is to make a diagram (“graphic organizer”) of what the story is about with a circle around the main idea in the middle and spokes around it, representing supporting details.
For free graphic organizers of different types go to http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer.

Make a Book Together

It has always been my dream to write books together as a family.

One day, my 5 year-old daughter decided she wanted to make a book with me.

• She put the pages together, stapled them, put stickers on and colored in the sky.
• Then she said that it was my job to put in the words.
• I asked her what she wanted to call the book. “Zebras of Cazooby” was her reply.
• She also wanted me to write everything on the cover that a regular book has, such as the author (me) and illustrator (her).
• After it was finished, she showed the book to people, reading the words to them.

Other book making ideas have you punch holes in the paper and thread yarn through the holes.

You can use any kind of paper, cardstock, colors, stickers, glitter glue, crayons, or cut out pictures from magazines.

Other Resources:

• Make Books on your computer using Real E Writer, FREE download.
This simple program allows you to insert photos, scans and words before printing out small books.

• Order inexpensive empty books with hard covers from Barebooks.com!

More online great book making ideas: http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/makingbooks/makeown.htm

A Word & Its Meaning – Put it Together with a Picture

In kindergarten, my daughter refused to read words in isolation. So I started drawing pictures around the words to give them context.

Upon looking for flashcards with pictures, teachers told me about the Bob Books. They are the only kind of reading system that incorporates words with pictures. Cheaper yet, we turned to the Dick and Jane books. These books have the sight words and pictures with enough repetition to learn the words.

How can we make learning sight words fun and effective?

Make your own pictures that go with word meanings.

In fact, have your child dream up pictures that go with word meanings – preferably with a friend! Use a white board as this takes a lot of erasing.

This is an effective learning strategy for primary, intermediate, and ESL students to connect the meanings and spellings of words.

 At the bottom of this entry is a page from Purple Cows & Potato Chips (1995) which gives more examples of how words can be turned into pictures.

One More Spelling Helper

http://www.spellingcity.com/ is a fun place to work with spelling words.

At the end of a long day, you and your child might not feel like doing formal spelling exercises. Instead, you can enter and save the word lists on Spelling City. The server automatically creates context sentences for the words and generates games.

Your child can learn new words, test themselves online, play hang mouse, matching games, cross-word puzzles, word finds and make printable worksheets.

Free!

Spelling Strategies 2 & 3

Strategy 2: Make Observations about the Words.

Make flashcards of the words. Write on the flashcard. Outline the word to emphasis the tall letters and short letters.

Poor spelling has to do with poor visual memory of words. So the outlining process reinforces visual memory. For example, the word “corn” has no tall letters or letters that hang low. This will help one to remember that it starts with a c and not a k.


Strategy 3: Constant Time Delay

Constant time delay gives students time to think of the correct answer. If they do not know the correct answer, then the teacher or parent shows them the correct word after a few seconds. This way, students form only correct connections in the brain. This is called “errorless learning.” This is better than forming incorrect connections with guesses, having to break those connections and then forming the correct one.
Clear step by step directions

Spelling Strategies

Good News! There are things you can do to help your students learn spelling words!


Strategy 1: Cover, Copy, Compare

This strategy is a good way for students to work by themselves on their words. They cover the word they want to spell, write it, and then compare it to the original.

Small white boards and markers are good for this, because students usually enjoy white-boards more than pens and paper. In fact, you could save the white board just for this purpose to keep it special.

Also there are many sites online that will make worksheets of your list of words.

Click here for more directions.

Rewards – A Great Way to Encourage Learning and Desired Behavior

STEP 1: Make a list of every kind of reward you can think of.
After making the list, check with your child to see if there are any rewards you missed.
Which ones are the most important?

Example List: computer time, movie time, ice-cream or other food, story time, special activity, sitting in the front seat instead of the back, stickers on a chart that lead to larger rewards, surprises, a treasure box, surprise gifts, special necklace or shirt, McDonald's or Chucky Cheese's, play time with a friend.
In the end, almost everything good can turn into rewards.

STEP 2: Think of a behavior you want to encourage. For example, you can reward a week of good behavior at school, reading every day, or a great score on a spelling test.

STEP 3: Find appropriate means to record data where your child can see it. For example, my kids really like the Ladybug chart for tracking their reading time each day. The following web link has more chart ideas and how to use them.

Vary Rewards: If people (not just young people) receive the same reward for too long, that reward loses effectiveness.

IDEA: Build rewards into ordinary plans.
- When my children are watching a movie and need to get ready for bed, I stop the movie early, have them brush their teeth in a timely manner, and watch a little more movie as a reward.
- After the kids pick out their clothes for the next day of school, they go out and play.
- If the kids brush their teeth on their own, they can use a pink fluoride mouth rinse.
- Once in a while, a treasure from a treasure box encourages good going-to-bed behavior. But children do not get the treasure until they are all ready for school with hair brushed and shoes on the following day.

Even I find it easier to accomplish my tasks when looking forward to positive rewards.

Math and Money

Money is a great way to teach young people math concepts like adding, subtracting, multiplying, decimals and then dividing and fractions. Everyone needs to learn how to use money. Children are naturally interested in money so that learning does not seem like work.

The first step is teaching kids what money stands for.
- Rewards: With my kids, we’ll be riding in the car or in the middle of our routine. I will hold up a nickel and say, “What is this?” They answer. Then I say, “How much is it worth?” If they answer correctly, then they can keep the nickel, dime or quarter.
- If the kids find a pile of change somewhere, they might be able to keep it or some of it if they can count it correctly. If this is too frustrating, then they can count it with an adult.

Change game for learning: One can play games by rolling a die and earning pennies. Then as the pennies add up, trade for a nickel or a dime. When players get 10 dimes, they trade for a dollar.

o This is the base for our primary number system (Base 10).

After children learn what money stands for, they can start learning how to write money (decimals) and later move towards learning fractions (one tenth, one quarter of 100 = .25 or a quarter).

Note about online games: There are many free games online for math, like http://www.apples4theteacher.com/java/counting/money.html. However, children learn better when they can actually move coins around and have personal interaction. Online games can be one reward for learning concepts or working for 10 minutes, counting money.

More online game ideas:
- http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/games/mad_money_flash.html
- http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/Math/math.htm
- http://www.moneyinstructor.com/games.asp

Have fun!