First-day advice for students

[Ed Hitchcock]

It is a while yet until school starts, but I was pondering my first day back, and what advice I would give my students - particularly the grade 9's, who may be a little shell-shocked at the transition to high school. I'm sure most people are familiar with Syke's list from Dumbing Down our Kids (reprinted here: http://www.n0rm.net/LifeIsntFair.htm), and though it is a tad harsh, it is never too early for a bit of a wake-up call. I also think kids need an introduction to metacognition.
So I have begun compiling a list of suggestions, or rules for success. Please feel free to add to it:

Don't memorize everything. Understand the process, and you can figure it out. Memoriziing doesn't let you apply your knowledge in new ways. Also, I will not accept the textbook definition for an answer.

Getting a good mark in this class is not a right. It must be earned. But doing well is not that hard - read, review, understand, practice, pay attention, and take the assignments seriously.

Remember the difference between an amateur and a professional: the amateur practices until he gets it right, the professional practices until she cannot get it wrong.

If I give you praise for a half-assed job, it does not boost your self esteem. It just lowers your opinion of me, and ratchets your own standards down a notch.

Civility and politeness should be expected, respect is earned.

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Ed, this is a GREAT topic. For my students, the biggest downfall is time management - they are in such a rush with everything, overcommitted to the EXTREME, so a lot of my opening "pep talk" is about time management, and also technology-related issues, since my classes are 100% online. I've got a list of Strategies for Success here which everybody reads the first week of class - and my personal favorite is the last one on the list - Don't Panic!

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Whatever happens: DON'T PANIC. Have you read Douglas Adams's genius book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...? If so, you already know that the very best advice in any situation - including an online course - is: DON'T PANIC! Life is full of unexpected events - and the same is true of online courses. But don't worry: there is really not anything that is going to happen during this course that you need to panic about. If there is a problem, please let me know right away, and I am sure we can find a good solution. But whatever the problem is: Don't panic. Just stay calm and send me an email... we'll be able to find a solution before the world comes to an end, I promise! :-)

[Mike]

Hi All... hope this finds you well.

Love the picture Laura!

Ed.... i am not a big fan of Syke's list from Dumbing Down our Kids.

Very uninspiring list of ideas to give to our youth!!!

There are many lists available that could help us begin to shape the world kids will encounter in our classrooms............. here is something i had posted in my classroom....along with others that the kids found or that i also thought might have someone---pause and think!

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE - Dali Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three R’s: Respect for self Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

What other "truth signs" may we gather for our kids???

Be well...mike

[Ken Messersmith]

My favorite is, "Effort trumps ability." There are several million guys on the planet with the physical ability of Corey Pavin. He is only 5' 9" tall and weighs just 155 pounds but has won 25 professional golf tournaments including the US Open. How does he do it? He outworks everyone.
You can build your mind just like you can build your body. You build your body by making it do increasingly harder work each day. You have to choose to do the harder problems, read the harder book, write and rewrite the paragraph in order to make your mind stronger. It doesn't happen over night but over time you will look around and find that you are smarter than those people who chose to do the easier work.

[Mike]

Hi Ken..hope this finds you well!

Effort does trump ability.... however, we humans put effort into things that we enjoy doing.

Corey Pavin.... may have physical limitations however, i would suggest he also has an enormous passion for playing golf!!! He outworks everyone not out of drudgery...but because he loves what he does!
Corey may not outwork someone else in another area.... maybe even in what ever it is you teach!

It is easy to teach someone with an internal passion that connects with our subjects...yet that certainly will never be the majority of kids that may end up in our classrooms.

The questions then gets dropped right into our laps: "WHY SHOULD I???"

THIS IS A CRITICAL QUESTION FOR TEACHERS TO BE ABLE TO ANSWER FOR THEIR STUDENTS!

IF WE AS TEACHERS CAN NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION FOR ALL OUR STUDENTS.... WE WILL HAVE DIFFICULTY GETTING THEM TO DO THE HARD WORK INVOLVED IN LEARNING ANYTHING!

As teachers we have to come up with the answer!

be well...mike

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Mike, I am SO WITH YOU on inspirational stories to share with students. At the beginning of the semester, students start out by making their first webpages and I ask them to add a quote. They are split about 50-50 between inspirational quotes (from the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Helen Keller, etc.) and cynical quotes (in the same kind of tone as the Sykes list, Demotivators, etc.). I can understand why students often feel cynical, and we all have plenty to feel cynical about, but I am always glad that a lot of the students put inspirational quotes on their pages. :-)

[Ed Hitchcock]

Oh, another thing I often show my students is this:

[Kathryn L. Keene]

Connie,
I believe that I first learned of this video via Fireside. I plan to introduce it early in the school year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY. It's the "Where the #@*% is Matt" (title is not announced in the intro) You Tube that is light, fun, engaging, and exposes viewers to the beauty of diversity and all the world holds for those who dare to enter! I smile every time I watch it. it would be a terrific intro to any class destined to engage adolescents...It's a great way to interest kids in a current Harvard (Gardner?) term, "glocalization", which in essence is thinking globally and acting locally...

[Laura Gibbs]

I am a big fan of those Matt Harding videos too, and it was actually one of my students who turned me on to them - my students relate really strongly to the idea that he is just a regular guy, like them, but who has traveled the world and found such a beautiful way to share that adventure with others! :-)

[Kathryn L. Keene]

Got another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN_LPTNQEqM. Whatever the "culture" or tenor of the classroom, I find adolescents (all of us?) are struggling to find how important we all are to each other, the world, etc. Consequently, I quickly introduce Margaret Wise Brown's, The Important Book, and Nancy Carlson's, I Like Me, (yes, to 9th-12th graders!). They love it. We then create our own "Important Book". It's crucial for adolescents to know that they are valued. When they are certain that they are valued, they are open to learn so much more..r

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ed,

How wonderful, silly, geeky, intelligent, stupid, ironic, strong.

It'd be fun to make a collection of videos along this line--

Anyone have any to add in? What might you show your students early in the year that imparts a message about you and the class culture?

Thanks for sharing this, Ed. Sure is a good forum topic. I'm going to keep thinking about it.

There's a bunch of research going on at Harvard Graduate School of Education called "Cultures of Thinking" which is basically about the learning dispositions that are cultivated in a classroom or school. Absolutely fascinating, very powerful stuff. I'll more up about it when I get a bit rested.

[Ken Messersmith]

Mike,
That is exactly my point. Students need to know that they can excel at anything for which they have or develop a passion. They need to realize that ability has much less to do with their success than their desire to put out the effort. Convincing students that they can be the best at something is an important step. Too many kids think they aren't good at anything and believe it is because they don't have the ability.

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ken,

Here are things I try to convey to my students as early as possible.

We are a community of learners (I teach elementary kids and actually use the phrase "class family") and the job of everyone is to give to the community and help each other out all the time, as much as you possibly can. We are a community of learners and there are many places to turn when you need help; the teacher is only one possible resource.

The mindset needed for the best learning is the "active mindset." I go through Carol Dweck's theory in a simplified way, and see what I can do to start moving all learners in that direction. For many, it's a gradual change. When the "static mindset" students hear that the other stance works better, they're actually motivated to change... but it takes a lot to make that shift. Liz Davis and I have talked about designing a curriculum together to help students understand Dweck's research; I hope we get to it some day. (Does anyone know of curricula like that that's available for free?)

My whole year's plan is also based on the development of self-discipline, self-motivation, and students being in charge of themselves. So we talk a lot about things like how in our class freedom is associated with responsibility, that those things increase in parallel.

Another thing: creativity is highly valued, as is risk-taking, and humor.

But support of each other is the most essential ingredient. It increases the learning power of everyone. So I make it really clear that the class must be a safe place, safe emotionally for risk-taking, being inventive, trying things out. That's communication as kind of a Supreme Value.

Thanks for asking such a good question!