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Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Decisive Element

As noted in the last post, I have been consumed with thinking about how to best help students prepare for and cope with high stakes assessments that loom in the near future.  I've used excel spread sheets that span 60 columns to analyze data and reflected on the diverse needs of our students (at least thiose that excel spreadsheets can determine). 
While it is important work, it is not the decisive factor.  

Paraphrasing Ginnott 's ideas
WE ARE the decisive element in our classrooms.
It is our personal approach that creates the climate.
It is our daily mood that makes the weather.
As teachers, we possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.
We can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.
We can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, how we responsd decides whether a crisis
will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized

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