Everyone Here Wants To Learn!

Yesterday I had another great discussion with my Mentor Teacher. We began to talk about the misconceptions teachers sometimes place on our students before we even give them a chance. I expressed the frustration I feel every time that we are in a meeting and as a teacher gives ideas for lessons, other teachers say, "My kids can't do that." There is a very thin line between challenging our students and knowing what can be too difficult for them, but I feel as though we shouldn't assume anything with the students. I've seen second graders and third graders on a 5th grade level or higher, so who is to say that we can't get our 5th graders on a second grade level caught up? Always assuming that something is too much or too hard for our students will only allow them to fall further and further behind.

How do we catch our students up? I think one of the most important factors is the way children view our classroom. I pointed out to my Mentor Teacher that I've never seen a child not want to come to his class each morning. More importantly, once they are there, they want to be there and they rarely want to leave. What does this tell us? It suggests that when we create a great community in our classroom, we are inviting learning to take place. The rest then becomes easy. The final thought I would like to express on this post is a statement that my mentor teacher told me when I thought the students in the class weren't paying attention. Each and every teacher in the world should hear this quote at one point or another in their career. He simply stated that, "Everyone here wants to learn." We must remember that even in our frustrations, our students want to learn, and who are we NOT to give them that opportunity!?