You Can’t Correct if you Don’t Connect…

We are nearing the end of the first few weeks of school for many educators.  As we begin to understand the data attached to the students that we have on our various class lists and rosters, we must keep a few things in mind.  Bad teaching cannot be erased, but it can be corrected.  In order to correct the varied misconceptions, we must connect with our students.  A part of this connection is through knowing our students’ data.

In order to assess student knowledge, we must know the “whole” student by walking through their data.  Data tells a story like no other.  We hasten to call any teaching bad teaching, but many times students are not introduced to the best or most efficient ways to approach a topic or problem.  These strategies must be retaught and in every case, relearned by the student.  As we connect with students it is essential to observe the ways in which they approach problems, not as a punitive measure, but in an effort to assess whether or not we can enhance their ability in that area and thus, improve their data.

We are just meeting the babies that we will interact with and they come with experiences, some good and some bad.  Our job as educators is to help them process these experience and create a sense of synergy so that they may in essence begin to learn from us as well.

Students trust the process when they understand the process.  Let’s work through the misconceptions that exist to help our students grow in the most productive ways possible.  Although our students may encounter a bump in the road, it cannot and should not derail their entire learning process.  Let’s work to connect with our students through their previous data so we can be a positive change in next year’s data.