Reaching every student every day in every class can seem like an impossible task, but the truth is if we want to have the most significant impact, we must do just that. Recently, I decided that when I started this school year, I was going to make reaching every student a priority. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to make this happen, I just knew that it needed to happen.
I started by committing myself to the idea: I told parents at Back to School night that I was going to do it (still didn’t know how I was going to do it). The reaction from the parents told me that connecting with every student every day was essential. I told parents that I would know their child’s voice and that I would be checking to see how their child’s day was going. The smiles, the expressions of relief, and “thank yous” cemented for me that connecting with every student every day was what every parent didn’t know they actually wanted from their child’s classroom teacher. I was on a mission to make the idea of connecting with every student a reality. I decided to create a basic checklist that would allow me to know where students were with their understanding of content, how well they understand the expectations, what progress they were making on personal and academic goals, and finally how is life. These conversations would allow me to see every student, hear every student, and value every student. I wasn’t sure how the students would respond to me chatting with them every day. I wasn’t sure if they would feel annoyed that I was disrupting their efforts in class or if they would welcome the dialogue. The first day I started meeting with students, they were a little nervous, but when I asked them how their summer went, their shoulders relaxed, and they just started talking. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to meet with every student. When students entered my room on the second day, I actually had students come up to me and say, “Mr. Jones, we didn’t get to chat yesterday. Are we gonna talk today?” They noticed the conversations I was having with other students, and they wanted that same experience. The students have started to look forward to the conversations. They have remarked that the dialogue helps to keep them accountable, and they know that I genuinely care about them. I have been able to help students work through academic issues more instantly, and the students feel supported more than ever before. I want to challenge you to look for ways to reach every student every day. The smallest gesture could have a huge impact.
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Mr. Dan JonesMaster Flip Educator with 13 years experience in the classroom. FLGI Faculty Trainer who trains based on the Gold Standard of Flipped Learning 3.0. Expertise in project based learning. Archives
October 2018
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