It's so easy to blame everything under the sun for why kids don't learn. I caught myself the other day in faculty meeting realizing that I was blaming the kids for their not getting a concept. But truly the power is mine. I have the power to not blame, but to take responsibility for the kids learning or not. So rather than asking "Why won't these kids get this?" I started asking "What can I do to help these children learn this concept?" The first question made me a victim while the second question put all the strength in my hands to deal with the issue.
When I swapped from finger pointing to looking for solutions I gave myself permission to find an answer not wait for someone to fix the problem for me. Now in all honestly, I'm still trying to find how to reach each of the 64 kids I have to work with. Some are ready to learn and are rocking and rolling. The others...not so much. But I take responsibility for that and I also know that I can find a solution. I know that I can find the way to teach each of them and that I will. It's just a matter of time.
Let's see how the kiddos respond.
