So, I've pretty much dedicated myself already to looking for a job in a low-income school district that generally correlates with a lot of high-risk, low-socioeconomic status students. With that decision in mind, I bought a book a few months ago titled
Teaching with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen and it's really caused me to do a lot of thinking about how I will have to change my class in little ways to accommodate for the variety of needs and deficits students will be bringing into my classroom. I've always said that a big appeal of teaching for me is to help every student realize how much potential they have inside them to be great and make differences in the world, but it's quite a conundrum to consider how I can get a group of students there who more often than not doesn't have support at home, or sometimes even enough food to eat.
The book is great at discussing how all "acting out" and poor behaviors is related to that child's poverty, and how the whole thing is really a cycle. A child is born into poverty, gets through school for as long as he can before dropping out, has a child before turning 20, gets a minimum wage paying job, can hardly afford to feed the family, can't afford preschool, doesn't have time to engage in conversation with their child, sends their child to public school...and that child repeats the whole process. And how can you expect a child to learn when their basic needs aren't being satisfied - when they have insecure attachments and no role models? The author points out that a classroom can be that nurturing environment, if a teacher is willing to break the cycle for those children. Coming to school in-and-of itself is not enough, a teacher needs to intervene and teach the emotions and the coping strategies and the sociability that a child is missing. It's so much more than just the curriculum.
The book's made me start thinking a bit about how I can get my students to believe in themselves and learn how to interact socially at an acceptable level that promotes success. Multiple times he suggests role playing or introducing scenarios...something that the ACT Program I'm working in advocates in
all classrooms...to help students learn emotions beyond the basic six that every human is born with. Not only would students be gaining experience in handling emotions and making level-headed decisions, they would also be addressing higher level thinking skills - problem solving. I think of it in the elementary school setting as like a detective: having a period each day where I need my students to be the "Problem Solvers" in a particular situation.
I also think a lot about how to help boost student self-esteem and make them feel that they deserve to be successful. I am obsessed with the quote from
The Help: "You are smart. You are beautiful. You are important." I know this is going to become sort of a mantra in my classroom, no matter what the grade level. I think it would also be ideal to increase self-esteem and cohesiveness amongst the group by having like a seminar circle at the end of every class or every week where the students have opportunities to compliment each other or point out something nice that someone did for someone else. Teach them how to interact with each other in an acceptable and kind way.
I don't know. I've got a while to think about it. And I've got another 100 pages or so left in the book. But...the book is really reaffirming my belief and my dedication to becoming a teacher for students that need the most help and the most love.
