Are students coming to your class lacking focus, having difficulty
connecting with you and their peers, falling behind, or acting out
when you instinctively feel they could do better? Do you sometimes
feel like you don't have the capacity as a teacher or school leader
to give students the support they need to learn and thrive? This
book makes the case that societal realities-such as poverty,
racism, and social marginalization--result in depleted cognitive
resources for students and for those who are trying to help them
succeed. Each of us has a finite amount of mental bandwidth, the
cognitive resources that are available for learning, development,
work, taking care of ourselves and our families, and everything
else we have to do. These "attentional resources" are not about how
smart we are but about how much of our brain power is available to
us for the task at hand. When bandwidth is taken up by the stress
of persistent economic insecurity or the negative experiences of
racism, classism, homophobia, religious intolerance, sexism,
ableism, etc., there is less available for learning and growth.
This is as true for young children and youth as for their parents
and teachers. The first half of the book makes the case that
poverty and these "differentisms" deplete the bandwidth of
students, parents, and teachers. The second sets out concepts and
strategies that help people recover the bandwidth they need to
learn and thrive. Cia Verschelden describes strategies that can
help students recover bandwidth, including acknowledging the "funds
of knowledge" of students and their families, promoting growth
mindsets, using reflective practices to build a sense of belonging
for all students, fostering peer collaboration, and implementing
restorative practices in lieu of punitive measures to deal with
problematic behavior, as well as a rich selection of Ideas in
Practice contributed by experienced teachers and school leaders.
Cia recognizes that many teachers are working in schools with
inadequate support systems and facilities and with scarce
materials, and may be spending their often inadequate pay on school
supplies for their classrooms and food for their hungry students.
She offers practical ideas for creating more teacher-supportive
systems and addresses how principals and administrators can harness
teachers' ideas and energies to create inclusive and successful
learning environments for all students. The book includes a case
study of Rochester, New York - where the economy has been decimated
with the closure of major employers - and how its financially
strapped school system worked with colleagues at the University of
Rochester to use the distributed leadership of its teachers, with
the active support of principals and superintendents, to revitalize
its schools to better serve its diverse and low-income student
population. This book is for teachers, parents, school leaders, and
members of communities who are interested in the well-being of
children and youth and the education of all our children. All of us
have a stake in a public school system from which students emerge
as fully-formed learners and thinkers and who believe in their
ability to affect what happens to them and their communities.
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