How to Help the Teacher of Your Energetic Child
We value the work that good teachers do to empower our children. It is an often thankless job. Sometimes, even with best intentions, certain teachers are unable to maximize the learning environment for certain students who may not fit the ideal mold for certain classrooms. A student who is lively and energetic, intelligent and social does not necessarily thrive in an environment where often the student who repeats back what the teacher says, remains compliant and regurgitates what s/he is told—can be the one most favored.
Below is a letter I recently wrote offering a different perspective to a teacher who was unable to maximize learning opportunities for a camper who had thrived in our camp environment.
I’m writing as a fellow youth development professional, seeking to help maximize the development of [Student]. In conjunction with [Student]’s mother and my wife—also an experienced third-grade teacher, and given my unique perspective regarding [Student] by knowing her as an empowered camper at our overnight summer camp, we have some thoughts on potential strategies that may work well in your school setting.
ELEMENTS OF POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
“A young person will not be able to build essential skills and competencies and be able to feel safe, cared for, valued, useful, and spiritually grounded unless their family and community provide them with the supports and opportunities they need along the way.” http://cyd.aed.org/whatis.html. For our best school teachers, positive youth development is an intentional process; it is about being proactive to promote protective factors in young people. See http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/positive-youth-development/key-principles-positive-youth-development. For our best teachers, positive youth development involves youth as active agents. Adults may set the structure, but youth are not just the recipients of services. Youth are valued and are encouraged to bring their assets to the table. Adults and youth work in partnership to frame the solutions. See http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/positive-youth-development/key-principles-positive-youth-development http://cyd.aed.org/whatis.html. For our best school teachers, positive youth development is an intentional process; it is about being proactive to promote protective factors in young people. See http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/positive-youth-development/key-principles-positive-youth-development. For our best teachers, positive youth development involves youth as active agents. Adults may set the structure, but youth are not just the recipients of services. Youth are valued and are encouraged to bring their assets to the table. Adults and youth work in partnership to frame the solutions. See http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/positive-youth-development/key-principles-positive-youth-development
In schools and at home (and wherever our young people go), the focus should be on the development of the child. There are multiple areas of necessary focus.
- As youth development professionals, we must understand that young people are assets in the making and not just problems to be fixed; we must move beyond deficit-based models(addressing on the problem behaviors) to models that focus on developing youth capabilities (assets). Principles and Theories of Youth Development (Successories, Inc.)
- We must focus on developing a wide range of knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Id.
- We must involve adults from the family and community in fostering youth development. Id.
- We must support youth in being essential players in their own development. Id.
- We must design youth development supports, opportunities, and programs deliberately. Id.
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF CHILD IDENTITY
A teacher’s job is difficult; there are constraints associated with dealing with multiple children with varied needs, including that of the teacher’s necessary role as a classroom manager. The great teacher is aware of the special challenges surrounding individualizing development despite those constraints. In doing a teacher’s important job, the teacher must be aware of maximizing five important aspects of child identity. See http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youth-topics/positive-youth-development/key-principles-positive-youth-development:
- Sense of Safety and Structure,
- High Self-Worth and Self-Esteem
- Feeling of Mastery and Future
- Belonging and Membership, and
- Perception of Responsibility and Autonomy.
SCHOOL APPLICATIONS OF POSITIVE CHILD DEVELOPMENT FOR AN ENERGETIC, SOCIAL, INTELLIGENT CHILD
Regarding [Student], we have a few ideas on how aspects of child development apply specifically in her case, along with suggestions on strategies that can work well within a school setting.
ASPECT 1: Perception of Responsibility and Autonomy
APPLICATION TO SCHOOL: Creating opportunities for working alone
[Student]’s mother notes that: “[Student] was sent to work in the hallway one day and it turned out to be the best thing yet. She was excited to tell me how much she was able to concentrate on her work.” This strategy also can provide additional intellectual challenges for intelligent children such as [Student] by allowing the potential for more challenging assignments. One potential challenge of maintaining supervision if necessary can be accommodated by having an aide (or teacher) check in every now and then, or having a student check-in system at prescribed times.
ASPECT 2: Feeling of Mastery and Future
APPLICATION TO SCHOOL: Incorporating a game called “Beating the Clock”
[Student]’s mother notes that: “This one we use at home too. I often time her depending on the assignment/task. If I set a timer for a set of math problems she has less time to second-guess her work and daydream. She gets so focused on meeting/exceeding that she gets a one-track mind as she completes her work efficiently. This strategy is doubly effective in facilitating the completion of in-class or at home assignments, and avoiding potential negative issues of distraction or lack of focus by facilitating her staying on task and being engaged.
ASPECT 3: Perception of Responsibility and Autonomy
APPLICATION TO SCHOOL: Allowing [Student] to do special individualized projects
[Student]’s mother notes that: “[Student] loves TV and movies. I get her a RedBox movie and she gets to write a “movie review” telling me what happened, and if she would recommend it. This satisfies my need to make TV purposeful and also lets her do more of the in-depth projects she enjoys. [Student]’s mother additionally notes that, in class they have extra credit assignments that allow [Student] to dive into subjects (dioramas, biographies etc.) about which she has a personal interest. As above, this strategy can also avoid potential negative issues of distraction or lack of focus by facilitating her staying on task and being engaged.
ASPECT 4: High Self-Worth and Self Esteem
APPLICATION TO SCHOOL: Facilitating movement in the classroom
For many children, including [Student], we can foster high self-worth and self esteem by encouraging and facilitating movement in the classroom. Not only is this better for their learning, it also avoids punishing children for age-appropriate, natural acts endemic to their personal character. Children will also stay “on task” and engaged better.
“When we keep students active, we keep their energy levels up and provide their brains with the oxygen-rich blood needed for highest performance. Teachers who insist that students remain seated during the entire class period are not promoting optimal conditions for learning.” Teaching with the Brain in Mind, 2nd Edition, Chapter 4. Movement and Learning by Eric Jensen (as downloaded from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx) Educators should purposefully integrate movement activities into everyday learning: not just hands-on classroom activities, but also daily stretching, walks, dance, drama, seat-changing, energizers, and physical education. Id. Strong evidence supports the connection between movement and learning. Evidence from imaging sources, anatomical studies, and clinical data shows that moderate exercise enhances cognitive processing. Movement activities should become as important as so-called “book work.” This attitude has become more and more prevalent among scientists who study the brain.
Below are a few easy-to-use strategies from the book:
Drama and role-plays. Get your class used to daily or at least weekly role-plays. Have students play charades to review main ideas. Students can do an extemporaneous pantomime to dramatize a key point. Do one-minute commercials adapted from television to advertise upcoming content or to review past content.
Energizers. Energizer activities can (1) raise blood pressure and epinephrine levels among drowsy learners, (2) reduce restlessness among antsy learners, and (3) reinforce content. Use the body to measure things around the room and report the results. For example, “This cabinet is 99 knuckles long.” Play a Simon Says game with built-in content: “Simon says point to the south. Simon says point to five different sources of information in this room.” Do team jigsaw puzzles with huge, poster-sized mind maps. Have young students get up and move around the room, touching seven colors on seven different objects in a particular order. Teach a move-around system using memory cue words. For example, “Stand in the place in the room where we first learned about . . .”
Quick games. Use ball-toss games for review, vocabulary building, storytelling, or self-disclosure. Have students rewrite lyrics to familiar songs in pairs or as a team. The new words to the song can provide a content review. Then have the students perform the song with choreography. Get physical in other ways, too. Play a tug-of-war game in which everyone chooses a partner and a topic from a list of topics that every student has been learning about. Each person forms an opinion about his or her topic. The goal is for each student to convince a partner in 30 seconds why his or her topic is more important. After the verbal debate, the pairs form two teams for a giant tug of war for a physical challenge. All partners are on opposite sides.
Stretching. To open class, or anytime that you and your students need more oxygen, get everyone up to do some slow stretching. Ask students to lead the whole group, or let teams do their own stretching. Allow learners more mobility in the classroom during specific times. Give them errands to do, make a jump rope available, or simply let them walk around the back of the classroom as long as they do not disturb other students.
ASPECT 5: Belonging and Membership
APPLICATION TO SCHOOL: Facilitating group interaction via team building exercises or group activities
At our camp, we recognize the variety of comfort levels that children have with social interaction. We find that by having a regular time each day when the children focus on team building activities and group exercises helps all of them thrive interpersonally. The social cues gleaned from their peers, combined with reinforcement from adult leaders goes a long way in addressing individual interpersonal competencies. For [Student], this helped her greatly in recognizing and alleviating issues such as talking over others or at socially inappropriate times.
Thanks very kindly for your time and consideration. We certainly appreciate your work and effort. Please feel free to let me know if you’d like to discuss anything further. Thanks!
Peace
Kevin Gordon
Owner/Director, Camp Kupugani
A.B. ’91 (Psych), Harvard College