Speak Up, You're Brilliant

When Obama was 10 he told his class that he wanted to become the President of the United States.

It always amazes me how much of an impact our words have. There's a little girl in our class who has been referred to as a 'wild cat'. She was disengaged, unmotivated, and clearly did not enjoy school. She was that kid who sings to herself in the middle of lessons, sprawls around the room and crawls around when her classmates are sitting. I am ashamed to say that in the beginning, I would respond to her nagging with "Stop being lazy, I know you know your sounds so sound the words out." (god i don't even want to think about the potential damage my language had). Fortunately, realizing the lack of investment I had in her translated to her own lack of investment when it came to her education. I pulled her aside and told her how smart she was and how disappointed I was that she constantly was wasting her learning time. I asked her what she needed from her teachers to enjoy learning. She did not respond. I told her that she needed to think about that and I would come back to her in five minutes, expecting an answer. Two minutes later she taps me on the shoulder and says "Ms. Yuen, I decided I want to get smarter."

Since then, she has been engaged, writes complete sentences, and follows directions.

These kids have the potential to be brilliant, all we need to do is tell them.

Highlight of the day: Our ADHD girl's behavior specialist came in today. He asked one of my collab members, 'where's she teaching', my collab member replies, 'Philly, why?' he responds saying 'because she's a damn good teacher'. :)