12 Ways to Help Your Child's Teacher

By Samantha Cleaver

Helping in your child’s classroom isn’t limited to chaperoning field trips or bringing in birthday treats. From September through June, teachers welcome parent helpers for more than an extra pair of hands. As a new school year starts, here are 12 ways that you can help your child’s teacher. All you have to do is ask!

Sharpen Pencils
All that time that elementary school teachers spend sharpening pencils can really add up! Stop in once a week for 15 minutes after school to sharpen pencils to fill all those pencil boxes.

Help Around the Classroom
Lend a hand filing papers or organizing report cards to go home. If you have time to spare during the week, help reorganize the classroom library, make copies or wipe down desks, tables and windows.

Restock the Supply Closet
Around January, the supply closet that was once fully stocked with tissues, baby wipes and paper towels starts to go bare. Help restock the shelves with basics, and ask what other supplies teachers might need for science fairs or art projects.

Be a Reading Buddy
Lead a Small Group
During reading or math time, offer to work with small groups or individual students on specific reading and math goals, such as learning sight words, spelling words or practicing math facts.

Be a Bulletin Board Buddy
If your child’s teacher has a hallway bulletin board or classroom bulletin board that needs to be changed to showcase new student work or reinforce a new concept, offer to help put up new boards. Even better, ask your child if he wants to help design and put up a board.

Deliver a School Day Treat
At the start or end of the year when it’s hot outside, bring in fresh fruit or cold juice boxes for students mid-afternoon. A cool treat is a big help and much better than sugary snacks.

Provide IT Support
Young kids may be savvy with Facebook and video games, that but doesn’t mean they’re ready to use word processing and publishing programs. If the class is using computers to write, volunteer to help students write and edit their work.

Bring Your Set of Skills
If you have a special set of skills, ask your child’s teacher if you can be of service. If you’re a web developer, offer to help set up and manage a classroom site. If you have expertise doing home videos, offer to record and edit a classroom memories video.

Teach a Lesson
If you have a skill that you use at work or for a hobby, consider bringing it into your child’s classroom for a special presentation. If you work in a laboratory, for example, bring in a simple science experiment. Or, if you work at a newspaper, teach a writing lesson. Before you bring in your expertise, talk with the teacher to connect it to the curriculum.

Make Use of At-Home Time
Ask your child’s teacher if you can cut out words for a word wall or prepare materials for a project while you watch TV at night or over the weekend.

Record Your Favorite Stories
Read your child’s favorite stories onto CDs or MP3 files that can be used in the classroom listening center. To give the recordings a boost of cuteness, have your child record stories that she loved in previous years.

Every time you spend time putting up a bulletin board, reading with a child, simply sharpening pencils or any other way you help in your child’s classroom this year, you’re strengthening your child’s connection with school, and that’s always worth the effort!

If you have time during the school day, offer to come in and read with students during a set time each week. As you read, ask students questions about the stories to help them develop reading fluency and comprehension skills.

6 Things Teachers Wish You Would Do

By Jennifer Friend

Sure, you're the parent who volunteers in the classroom, attends every open house, and persuades your colleagues to order 50 rolls of wrapping paper every year for the school fundraiser. What more could you possibly do to show your support for your child's education? According to some teachers, there are a few things that even the most well-intentioned parents could learn about their child's classroom.

Let your child be independent

“I wish parents would stop doing everything for their children and allow them to do things for themselves,” said Judy Corn, assistant director of Island Montessori School in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Students at her school are expected to clean their plates after lunch, take turns doing classroom chores, and spend their school day working independently. Give your child opportunities to take care of himself at home. Let him help with daily chores, provide clothes and shoes he can easily take off and put on himself, and certainly don’t do his homework for him.

Communicate with teachers

Good teachers make themselves accessible to parents by phone or email and are always very happy to answer questions or address any concerns. "Don't hesitate to contact the teacher. Email or phone calls are always welcome," says Blair Williams, a third grade teacher at Carolina Beach Elementary School. Another good rule of thumb: If you have any concerns about your child's progress—socially, academically or developmentally—always attempt to talk with the teacher first before going to an administrator. If you ask the principal first, changes are she’ll turn to the teacher anyway.

Read the handbook

Parents are inundated with paperwork at the beginning of the year and are likely tempted to just sign most of it without reading any of the contents. Keep in mind teachers spend a lot of time compiling the information presented in parent handbooks with the hope that parents will take the time to read what is on every page. "Always read the beginning-of-the-year handout and keep it handy,” says Williams. “It covers many questions for the whole year."

No more apples

While teachers appreciate the kind gesture, they may not know what to do with the abundance of apples and apple-scented lotion they get every year. Believe it or not, what most teachers want are more materials and supplies for the classroom. “I make a lot of the materials for my class,” says Cheryl Blackwelder, a teacher of 1- and 2-year-olds. “When a parent buys something for my class, they're really giving me the gift of time—time that I can spend teaching.”

Look beyond the grades

Monitor your child's whole development, rather than just his grades. Teachers don’t just teach academics; they’re teaching life lessons every day. Look at how your child interacts with his teachers and peers. Is he respectful of others? Is he courteous? Is he eager and willing to do things for himself? Putting emphasis on these traits isn’t just the right thing to do—it also makes the teacher’s job easier.

Stop texting

Kids are getting cell phones at younger and younger ages each year, and many schools have abandoned their rules against having cell phones at school because they are too difficult and time-consuming to enforce. However, if you do choose to send your child to school with a cell phone, be courteous and don't text your child during school hours. If you have an urgent message to relay to your child, call the school's office, and someone will gladly give your child a message.

Ultimately, parents should understand that teachers really want just one thing: to work together. Parents and teachers should join forces to help nurture children so they grow up to be productive, responsible, and caring citizens of the world.

The Top 10 Things Teachers Want From Parents

By Amy Bizzarri

It takes a village to raise a child. We can't expect teachers to be the only ones educating our children. Research proves that when Mom and Dad become involved in their kid’s school life, grades, behavior and emotional well-being improve. So, if you want to make the teacher’s job a little easier, check out these 10 things teachers want from parents.

“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading, is reading aloud to children,” stated the U.S. Department of Education Commission on Reading in 1985. Grab a book, any book, and read to your child at least three times a week. You’ll plant the seeds for a lifetime of reading.

Get to Know the Teacher
You should be on a first-name basis with your child’s teacher. Ask for the best way to get touch with him or her, such as by phone or email. Be there for open houses and parent-teacher conferences. Don’t be the parent who only shows up when you have a bone to pick.

Encourage Friendships Outside of School
Classroom learning works best when solid teamwork is in place. Because there isn’t always time for children to get to know one another all that well at school, make sure that your child spends time with classmates outside of school by encouraging playdates and after-school activities.

Get Involved With the School
Attend school council meetings. Join the school’s PTA. If you work and these school-oriented meetings are scheduled during the day, ask if meetings can occasionally be held at night. Your voice counts—sometimes, it's the only voice that will advocate for your child. When parents unite, they can more readily affect changes in schools.

Take Part in School Events
Don’t miss school events such as talent shows, science fair nights and seasonal potlucks. Even if your child isn’t playing on the team, why not attend a school sporting event? You’ll help foster an appreciation of school life. Not only will you be helping your child be successful in school, but you'll also be making memories with him along the way.

Bring Learning Home
There are always learning moments to be made away from the classroom. Bake a cake and teach the basics of measurement. Have your own spelling bee night. Take a weekend trip to an aquarium or museum. Watch an educational, family-friendly movie. Bringing learning into the home is a great way to foster future success.

Value Education
Show your child that learning is a lifelong adventure that doesn’t end once school is over. Read a book. Take a class that interests you. Tell your child about the learning experiences you’ve had on the job. Bond over educational books, movies and TV shows.

Don’t Be So Patient
Teach Your Kid to Clean Up
Are you usually the one putting the toys back on the shelves? If your child doesn’t clean up after himself at home, he’s sure to be messy at school. Have him stow his toys neatly away after playtime. Teach him to make his bed, take out the trash and wash the dishes. When that’s the standard at home, keeping a clean desk at school won’t seem like a big deal.

“Patience is for martyrs,” says Lisa Holewa, co-author of What Kindergarten Teachers Know. When you enable your child’s urges at home, he may not get with the program at school. When you take your child to an appointment, for example, be on time … no matter what cool thing may have caught your kid’s attention. You’ll suffer fewer headaches in the meantime.

Teach Your Kid to Clean Up

Are you usually the one putting the toys back on the shelves? If your child doesn’t clean up after himself at home, he’s sure to be messy at school. Have him stow his toys neatly away after playtime. Teach him to make his bed, take out the trash and wash the dishes. When that’s the standard at home, keeping a clean desk at school won’t seem like a big deal.

Do Step-by-Step Teaching at Home

When you teach a lesson or begin an activity with your child, pretend you’re teaching a class. Make sure you have his full attention, go step by step and give very clear instructions. “Plan to stand physically near your child, bend down, and get eye contact,” Holewa says. Your little guy will learn to follow directions, and he won’t be the one lagging behind at school.

When you get involved with the school, do some teaching of your own and lead the learning cause by example, you become an invaluable part of your child's success in and out of school. The teacher will thank you, and one day, your child will too!

Striking the Right Balance

by kritika

I enjoyed school when I was growing up, but I always felt that more emphasis was given to academics, and I never got a chance to try my hand at acting or sports. Apart from one Physical Training class and one Value Education class we didn’t get to stay back after school to playing any games. After school, we had to rush straight for tuitions or home to study. If we didn’t get into any of the sports teams then we didn’t really get to play but had to sit on the side-lines and just watch. Sports day got over in October-November and after that we didn’t get to play any sports.

Now that I am parent I was hoping that things had changed and children got to be involved in extracurricular activities. We put our children in a very good school in Mumbai and though they had sports and extra-curricular activities, only those students who were really talented were given a chance to represent the team. And since both my children were average in sports and had stage fright they didn’t participate in anything. I was disappointed but then they were good in academics so I was happy.

We had to move to Bangalore in 2012 and I got a job in Electronic City. We were looking for schools in Bangalore when someone told us about Candor International that had just started the previous year. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try out a new school but then I heard that commuting in Bangalore was such a big problem and I didn’t want my children spending so much time travelling up and down. Candor International School may have not been around too long but their campus was super impressive. They had so many outdoor and indoor sports facilities, music studios, big laboratories and libraries. When I spoke to the administrator and other teachers they told me that children were encouraged to take part in everything. If they liked acting, they could be part of the drama team. If they liked a particular sport but wasn’t good in that sport they would receive special training. Even if they didn’t make any team, they could still play sports after school and on Saturdays.

My children have spent two years in Candor and they really love it.  They are good in studies and enjoy being part of other activities as well. It’s great to see that there are schools that strike a right balance between academics and extracurricular activities.  To learn about Candor’s Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) programme visithttp://www.candorschool.edu.in/cas.htm

Who will speak for the children?

by Bruce Deitrick Price

When children are not learning, where can parents look for answers? Who will tell the truth?

  The experts, you say? The same people, you mean, who shaped and controlled the schools where these kids aren’t learning? These experts do not inspire confidence. There are too many signs of failure and dysfunction. It’s as if we glanced into the kitchen of a restaurant and saw insects scurrying on counters. No matter how fancy the decor, we would be suspicious.

 Clearly the experts have a conflict of interest. If they can’t do a good job, are they going to tell us why? Aren’t they more likely to make excuses and try to cover-up?

 What we know for certain is that the USA spends more per capita than almost any other country But we still don’t place well internationally. Mediocrity is our norm. We are paying for gold but getting bronze. 

 There are many theories to explain our poor performance. The machinations of unions. The greed of publishers. The poor training of teachers. The indifference of parents. The schemes of ideologues. The lazy bad habits a monopoly or a cult might fall into. And simple dimwitted incompetence.

 Even the possible explanations are scary. Probably it is better not to be distracted by the question of which factor is the most destructive. Probably all are working together. But none is the vital point.

 So let’s stay focused on the stats, that is, the hard evidence showing that millions of children don’t learn to read properly, don’t learn to master arithmetic, and don’t learn the most basic facts about this country or the world.

 Once upon a time, an eighth-grade education meant that one had a substantial amount of learning. Now a high school diploma could mean that one has hardly any education at all. Students reach college with huge gaps in their knowledge.

 Evidently, the Education stablishment has embraced theories and methods that are not the best choices. Some critics speak of schools deliberately dumbing down students. The tendency in general seems to be toward talking a good game, throwing around pretentious jargon, and doing the minimum that each community will tolerate. 

 The question that must haunt us is this: suppose our experts engaged in rigorous comparative testing and identified the best theories and methods. If we did things at a higher level, couldn’t we easily lift every student 30, 40 or 50%? Add that up across the society, and we’re talking about a Renaissance.

  We have millions of children who are quickly classified as failing readers. If they were taught properly, they would be good readers. That’s not a 30% improvement; that’s a 300% improvement, from someone who is sub-literate to someone who can read a book for pleasure.

 Who is destroying our schools from within? Are there ruthless social engineers trying to build a new world order. We have to ask them: where is it written that dumb societies do better?

  In this complex, competitive world, the opposite would seem to be the case. We want our society to be as smart as possible. That can happen only if each student is as smart as possible.

  There is a simple answer here. Americans need to demand a reversal. Away from dumb, toward smart. Every American must speak for the children.

  It will be so easy to tell. In the second grade kids are reading little books. In the third grade they are doing arithmetic. In the fourth grade, they know where their state is on a map of the country. In the fifth grade, they know who George Washington is. 

 Just the basic stuff. Nothing unreasonable. The problem now is that American children do not know basic stuff. They are in classrooms for years and years and years but by a perverse sort of alchemy, they learn virtually nothing. Aren’t you sick of it?

 If our Education Establishment insists on doing a bad job, let's all do what we can to counter that.

Common Core Standards: Focusing on the “How” to Help Student Learning

Over the last two years, Heritage Elementary School has been able to create a laser-like focus that enables student achievement while protecting teacher autonomy in the classroom. In a time when high-stakes testing and accountability overwhelm new and veteran teachers alike, we want to empower teachers to feel confident in their abilities.

Even with the shift to Common Core standards, we have been able to increase student growth and proficiency by providing teacher training and programs that allow them to answer DuFour’s 4 Essential Questions:

1. What do we want each student to learn?
2. How will we know when each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
4. How will we respond when a student demonstrates proficiency?

We firmly believe our success of increasing School Performance (i.e. State Letter Grade from a D to a B) is the result of implementing programs and partnerships that answer the questions of “What do we want each student to learn?” and “How will we know when each student has learned it?” prior to the teacher stepping into the classroom.

This has been done though a partnership with Beyond Textbooks (a program created by teachers of the Vail School District for teachers). By using Beyond Textbooks, our teachers are given a time frame for a standard, the order to teach standards and fundamental materials teachers can use for their instruction.  

By providing partnerships like Beyond Textbooks, we eliminate tedious and time-consuming tasks, allowing our teachers to focus more time on student learning and “how” to respond if they are learning or not. As a result, teachers are able to focus on their true passion of helping students learn by planning the “how” instead of the what, when, or why.

Justin Dye
Principal, Heritage Elementary Charter School
Glendale, AZ

Watching my daughter transform with Candor!

by kritika

My daughter has been studying in Candor International for two years and we have seen her change, from being a withdrawn girl to a more confident one. It makes me so happy as a father as she wasn’t always so confident and struggled with major issues from the time she turned eight.  She was always a quiet and shy child but was good in studies and though she took long to make friends, when she did she cherished her friends and was so generous with them.  We were living in Chennai then and she was studying in a pretty famous school. Her primary years in school seemed okay, but once she went to middle school she started to change. She became withdrawn and sullen. She stopped eating and there were days when she refused to go to school. We tried talking to her and cajoling her to tell us what had happened, but she just kept silent.

The school organised a picnic in October and that day my daughter threw her first real tantrum. She refused to go and started bawling. This time we refused to let up.  We pestered and pestered her till she broke down and told us that one of her classmates was bullying her. This girl would go on pulling her hair, hiding her books, hitting her hard on her back and making fun of her along with the other classmates. We went to school the next day and spoke to the teacher who actually tried to dismiss it as all part of growing up. We went straight to the principal who thankfully took the matter more seriously. The bullying stopped but the damage had been done. Our sweet and shy daughter just became withdrawn.

When we moved to Bangalore two years back, we put her in Candor International. It was a new school but we liked the look of it. I shared my daughter’s experience with a teacher recently and was so surprised to hear that a few weeks later Candor International organised a special assembly that dealt with bullying. As parents, we were so happy that the school was taking this matter so seriously. They keep having sessions on different topics and we’ve seen our daughter transform back into the shy but effervescent little girl she is. Candor is a proactive school that really wants children to shine. We are happy our daughter is in such a good school. Learn more about Candor, at http://www.candorschool.edu.in/campus.htm

What has to be From Teacher to Student?

by Eddie

I thought my second grade educator was a heavenly attendant. She had long, sandy blonde hair and a grin for everybody. What's more, she had the best name we had ever heard: Miss Jendulana (maintained "Jen"). We knew enough about letters to think, what is that "Jen" doing there?

In her classroom, dialect was a puzzle and a delight. It could help us find our past, her name was Greek, we learned and present new thoughts that nobody had heard some time recently. She set up a perusing corner with books and monster beanbags, and urged us to express our thoughts, in our diary – a little book of penmanship paper with spaces for representations. She joined with us every separately, and made us feel that our contemplations and concerns were paramount.

However, the second grade was an unmistakable difference in first grade, where my educator was ill-equipped, overpowered, and despondent. I felt like a lot to her, and I began getting back with stomach throbs. On the outside, the two classrooms looked a great deal much the same, and it may have been the first year for both educators, yet she made me adore school once more.

Further, the effect instructors have on our lives is unquestionable. It is most likely the reason a number of us picked it as a profession – either in light of the fact that we were roused by an extraordinary instructor or spurred by the thought that on the off chance that we were in control, we could improve an occupation.

As a first and second grader, I was not and ought not have been mindful of the work that went into making those learning situations, however I could notably sense the distinction between them. Some early readiness can set the stage for a positive and effective year for you and your understudies. Here are four recommendations for beginning the year off solid:

Get to know your understudies before the first day. Converse with past educators, look through yearbooks, and read understudies' documents. Know their battles; additionally provide for them the chance to begin new. Knowing a bit about them will help you feel less apprehensive, and may provide for you thoughts regarding approaches to captivate them. Keep in mind that they will be anxious on the first day as well!

Begin right on time in securing an association with folks. In the event that they have conversed with you once, they will be more inclined to impart data later that will help you comprehend and location learning issues. It will likewise open the entryway for proposing exercises to advance perusing and learning at home.

Make a framework for normal appraisal and advancement observing. This will help distinguish frail territories early and provide for you customary criticism about your techniques.

Build an association with an accomplished instructor. A coach can answer inquiries, give help, and console you when you require.

Keep yourself energetic and motived to carry on with full spin.

When Children Fail in School: Understanding Learned Helplessness

by Carmen Y. Reyes

Learned helplessness is the belief that our own behavior does not influence what happens next; that is, behavior does not control outcomes or results. For example, when a student believes that she is in charge of the outcome, she may think, “If I study hard for this test, I’ll get a good grade.” On the contrary, a learned helpless student thinks, “No matter how hard I study for this test, I’ll always get a bad grade.” In school, learned helplessness relates to poor grades and underachievement, and to behavior difficulties. Students who experience repeated school failure are particularly prone to develop a learned helpless response style. Because of repeated academic failure, these students begin to doubt their own abilities, leading them to doubt that they can do anything to overcome their school difficulties. Consequently, they decrease their achievement efforts, particularly when faced with difficult materials, which leads to more school failure. This pattern of giving up when facing difficult tasks reinforces the child’s belief that he or she cannot overcome his or her academic difficulties.

Learned helplessness seems to contribute to the school failure experienced by many students with a learning disability. In a never-ending cycle, children with a learning disability frequently experience school difficulties over an extended period, and across a variety of tasks, school settings, and teachers, which in turn reinforces the child’s feeling of being helpless.

Characteristics of Learned Helpless Students

Some characteristics of learned helpless children are:               

1.      Low motivation to learn, and diminished aspirations to succeed in school.

2.      Low outcome expectations; that is, they believe that, no matter what they do in school, the outcome will always be negative (e.g. bad grades). In addition, they believe that they are powerless to prevent or overcome a negative outcome.

3.      Lack of perceived control over their own behavior and the environmental events; one’s own actions cannot lead to success.

4.      Lack of confidence in their skills and abilities (low self-efficacy expectations). These children believe that their school difficulties are caused by their own lack of ability and low intelligence, even when they have adequate ability and normal intelligence. They are convinced that they are unable to perform the required actions to achieve a positive outcome.

5.      They underestimate their performance when they do well in school, attributing success to luck or chance, e.g., “I was lucky that this test was easy.”

6.      They generalize from one failure situation or experience to other situations where control is possible. Because they expect failure all the time, regardless of their real skills and abilities, they underperform all the time.

7.      They focus on what they cannot do, rather than focusing on their strengths and skills.

8.      Because they feel incapable of implementing the necessary courses of action, they develop passivity and their school performance deteriorates.

The Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Learned helpless students, perceive school failure as something that they will never overcome, and academic events, positive or negative, as something out of their control. This expectation of failure and perceived lack of control is central in the development of a learned helpless style. The way in which children perceive and interpret their experiences in the classroom helps us understand why some children develop an optimistic explanatory style, and believe that they are capable of achieving in school and others develop a pessimistic explanatory style, believing that they are not capable of succeeding in school (Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, and Gilham, 1995).

Children with an optimistic explanatory style attribute school failure to momentary and specific circumstances; for example, “I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Children with a pessimistic explanatory style explain negative events as something stable (the cause of the negative event will always be present), global(the cause of the negative event affects all areas of their lives), and internal (they conclude that they are responsible for the outcome or consequence of the negative event). A typical pessimistic explanatory style is, “I always fail no matter what I do.” On the contrary, when the outcome of the event is positive, a pessimistic child attributes the outcome to unstable (the cause of the event is transitory), specific (the cause of the event is situation specific), and external (other people or circumstances are responsible for the outcome) causes.

Learned Helpless Students Need Learning Strategies

Due to this perceived lack of control of the negative event, a learned helpless child is reluctant to seek assistance or help when he is having difficulty performing an academic task. These children are ineffective in using learning strategies, and they do not know how to engage in strategic task behavior to solve academic problems. For example, learned helpless children are unaware that if they create a plan, use a checklist, and/or make drawings, it will be easier for them to solve a multistep math word problem. With learned helpless children, success alone (e.g. solving accurately the multistep problem), is not going to ease the helpless perception or boost their self-confidence; remember that these children attribute their specific successes to luck or chance. According to Eccles, Wigfield, and Schiefele (1998), trying to persuade a learned helpless child that she can succeed, and asking her just to try hard, will be ineffective if we do not teach the child specific learning and compensatory strategies that she can apply to improve her performance when facing a difficult task. The authors state that the key in helping a learned helpless child overcome this dysfunctional explanatory pattern is to provide strategy retraining (teaching her strategies to use, and teaching explicitly when she can use those strategies), so that we give the child specific ways to remedy achievement problems; coupled with attribution retraining, or creating and maintaining a success expectation. When we teach a learned helpless child to use learning strategies, we are giving her the tools she needs to develop and maintain the perception that she has the resources to reverse failure. Ames (1990) recommends that, in combination with the learning strategies, we help the learned helpless child develop individualized short-term goals, e.g., “I will make drawings to accurately solve a two-steps math word problem.” When the child knows and implements learning strategies, she will be able to experience progress toward her individualized goals.

Learned Helpless Students Need to Believe that Effort Increases Skills

To accomplish this, we need to help learned helpless children recognize and take credit for the skills and abilities that they already have. In addition, we need to develop in children the belief that ability is incremental, not fixed; that is, effort increases ability and skills. Tollefson (2000) recommends that we help children see success asimprovement; that is, we are successful when we acquire or refine knowledge and skills we did not have before. We need to avoid communicating children that, to succeed in school, they need to perform at a particular level, or they need to perform at the same level than other students. When we help children see success as improvement, states Tollefson, we are encouraging them to expend effort to remediate their academic difficulties. In addition, we are training them to focus on strategies and the process of learning, rather than outcomes and achievement.

Concluding Comments

To minimize the negative impact of learned helplessness in children, we need to train them to focus on strategies and processes to reach their academic goals, reinforcing the belief that, through effort, they are in control of their own behavior, and that they are in charge of developing their own academic skills. For example, to help a child focus on the learning process, after failure, we can tell the child, “Maybe you can think of another way of doing this.” This way, our feedback stays focused on the child’s effort and the learning strategies he or she is using -within both the child’s control and modifiable. When children themselves learn to focus on effort and strategies, they can start feeling responsible for positive outcomes, and responsible for their own successes in school and in life.

References

Ames, C. A. (1990). Motivation: What teachers need to know. Teachers College Record. Vol. 91, No. 3, pp. 409-421.

Eccles, S., Wigfield, A., and Schiefele, U. (1998). Motivation to succeed. In Eisenberg, N. (Ed.) Handbook of Child Psychology. Vol. 3 (5th ed., pp. 1017-1095). New York: Wiley.

Seligman, M. E., Reivich, K., Jaycox, L., & Gillham, J. (1995). The optimistic child. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Tollefson, N. (2000). Classroom applications of cognitive theories of motivation. Educational Psychology Review, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 63-83.