Fostering (all) of the Resilient Learners!
Resilience Definitions:
- The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
- The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
Resilience in the classroom:
As a teacher you will experience all different kinds of resilience in the classroom. Some students will be resilient in doing their school work, others will be resilient in letting you in emotionally. You will even see students who are both resilient to let you in emotionally and resilient to do their school work. As teachers we must be able to take the resilience and foster it into a positive classroom experience for all students.
Fostering Resilient Learners
ACES scores: An ACE score is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems.
Examples that will increase ACE scores:
- Substance abuse in the home.
- Parental separation.
- Mental illness in the home.
- Suicidal household member.
- Death of a parent or another loved one.
Trauma Video:
Helping Students be more resilient as science learners:
- “Rather than attempting to ‘save’ a particular student, it’s more effective to concentrate on being safe enough for all the students who enter our domain.” (Souers, 2016)
- “We must find out what students are asking for, help them make sense of that need , and teach them to express it in a productive way.” (Souers. 2016)
- “All to often we wait for the tornado to hit and then react. Implementing healthy interventions strategies before hand diverts our students’ reactionary responses, equips them with the appropriate options and intercepts the tornado.” (Souers. 2016)
Provide strategies, specific activities, ideas and resources for other teachers to use to foster resiliency:
As a teacher you must…….
- Provide students consistency
- Encourage them throughout every assignment and situation.
- Stay positive so all students will stay positive.
- Make a connection with every students, so they really know you care.
- Create an opening and welcoming classroom.
https://twitter.com/MissChasteen/status/1121131099143458816
Bailey,
I loved your mentioning of the ACE scores. I believe its super important to keep in the back of our minds that there are things that are always going to put these students at a disadvantage in terms of motivation to do school! What’re some ways “stay positive” will look like in your future class??
-Wyatt
Wyatt, thanks for all of the positive feedback. There are a few ways I will encourage myself to stay positive and my students as well. The main way I will help make all of my students stay positive is just being persistent with giving all students important feedback and I believe that will help all students stay positive throughout the school year.
Loved your post Bailey! I like how you concisely explained things and gave suggestions for teachers. Your quotes from the book were perfect ones too. I really like that you emphasized not trying to “save” a student, but rather trying to be safe for all students who enter your classroom. Do you think that most teachers are aware of the trauma in students’ lives? Or do you think most teachers turn a blind eye?
Great job!
-Margaux
Hey Bailey,
I don’t think you’ll have a problem maintaining students’ attention and staying positive throughout the year. I am curious though how hard you think it’ll be? And also how you think you can handle it, emotionally? It’ll definitely take a toll on us as time goes on and we have to take care of ourselves too. Great post!
Katie, I believe the main thing that I will do to foster resilience is just really getting to know all of my students and what triggers them so we have less resilience in the future. Being able to get ahead of the resilience will lead to a more successful school year. Thanks for all of the feedback!
Bailey!
Nice post! I really enjoyed reading it 🙂 I like how you mention the definition of resilience at the beginning, it really tells us readers what your blog is going to be all about. Realistically, what do you see yourself, as a teacher, doing every single day to foster resilient learners? Your TED talk is spot on. My favorite quote you included from the book was the one about “waiting for a tornado to hit.” It’s true!
Great post!