Sticking with winners- part 2

Sticking with Winners part 2- Being a Winner for your Students.

Posted by Tricia Spencer at 3/4/2011 12:00:00 AM

Sticking with winners is not just something we can do for our own children. We can be winners for our students as well. We are the first in line after parents to be winners for these students. Just as we would be winners for our own children, we should do the same for our students. It may look a little different but it still will bring great dividends in the effort you get from your students. Webster dictionary defines being a winner as: one that wins admiration or one that is successful especially through praiseworthy ability and hard work. In other words, a winner is someone who is inspiring and good to be around. A winner is someone who sets an example and is a good role model.

Sometimes we may be the only winners in a student’s life. Most of our students grow up in families where parents work two or three jobs, work out of town, or work a shift where they are asleep during the time the child is home. They also may live in a one parent family and do not have good role models. So what would being a winner look like?

• Welcoming them every morning with a smile no matter how you feel- every day.
• Giving them time to work on homework they may not have completed the night before because they had to babysit a sibling or couldn’t figure it out.
• Giving them a chance to complete homework during the day because you know they will not be supported at home.
• Praise them for improvements. Even if they made a D on a test this week…it is an improvement from the F they made last week.
• Listen to them. Give them a chance to share their life with you.
• Sit with them at lunch and share some stories of your school experience with them.
• Start each day as a new day…what happened yesterday is over. Today they are your favorite student again.
• Let them believe you are proud of them.
• Let them know you believe in them.

My three most favorite teachers were teachers like this. I was an at risk child in school. I lived in a single parent family, my parent worked all the time so I was left alone a lot. I had lots of opportunities to get into trouble, to skip school or be a behavior problem. Fourth and fifth grade were really rough years for me. My teachers just knew I would never finish school and so they gave up on me. Ms. Greenwood was my 6^th grade teacher and she was incredible. She hugged me every morning and made me feel important. She would help me with my homework or give me time to finish it. But, the greatest thing she did was to listen to me. She may have thought I would never make it through high school or even make it out of the 6^th grade, but she never let me know that. She always encouraged me, helped me, and told me she was proud of me. The other two teachers were my 7^th and 8^th grade teachers. They were a lot like her. It is because of these women, these teachers, these winners, that pushed me towards education. I wanted to be a winner for other students like these women were winners for me.

If you do these things and the students know you care about them, they will gravitate toward you. They know that you are worth sticking with. They know you are a winner for them and they will stick by you.