I heard a story on the NPR News app about teachers' expectations influencing students. I had to listen to it twice, because I thought it held valuable information. Here's a link to the story, in case you are interested.
Teacher Expectations Story
I'll be honest - I've heard my own voice say the audio clip from the beginning of the story. I try hard to stay positive, but sometimes it's hard! I can honestly say from experience that when I decide to focus on the positives in students (and sometimes entire classes!), I can see a difference in them. I don't know if it's because they are reacting to my changed expectations or if I am just searching harder for the good parts. Either way, the results are positive!
Listening to the story inspired me to think about how to keep my expectations high in my classroom, and how to continually remind the students without having to stop class all the time. I came up with an idea: I have a wall above a white board that is currently blank. I might just make posters of my expectations and hang them on the wall for the students to see. That way we can all reference it whenever necessary.
After coming up with that brilliant plan, I then thought about what my expectations for myself as a teacher should be. There are definitely areas I need to work on: consistency, positive energy, focus... I think it would be great for me to have some of my expectations for myself hangin on a wall opposite of my expectations of the students.
If I actually end up making those, I'll take pictures and post them here.
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