Consultant Tells Teachers to Get Involved, Encourage Kids
Follow-through should extend to beyond high school graduation, educator says.
By Phil Attinger
LEDGER MEDIA GROUP
Published: Friday, August 17, 2012 at 11:58 p.m
LAKE WALES | “Every child deserves to have one person to be crazy about them. They just want to know you will be here tomorrow.”
That was the heart of the message Salome Thomas-El brought to about 375 teachers from the Lake Wales Charter Schools and the Polk County School District during a session Monday at HighPoint Church.
“Smart is not something you are. It’s something you can become,” Thomas-El told the educators to teach their students.
He learned this from being a teacher and principal over a 20-year career in Philadelphia, before he became a national education consultant and wrote two books.
Start encouraging students that they can succeed from the beginning of the school year, and then follow through — all the way until they graduate from high school and college, Thomas-El advised.
Local teachers are already doing that, including going to college graduations of former students, said Jesse Jackson, superintendent of Lake Wales Charter Schools.
“As a system, to promote that, that’s a good direction to go into,” Jackson said.
…
To give students “intellectual capital,” Thomas-El taught them to play chess. Chess trained them to think about the consequences for each move, and to work hard, Thomas-El said.
“At some point, you have to be honest with students, that you’ve had trials and tribulations,” he said.
“The turning point for me as a teacher was when I was open with them.”
Between the life and chess lessons, his students started winning chess matches, he said.
“We taught them to work hard,” Thomas-El said.
The team eventually went to a national competition and beat 50-year-old chess masters to win eight national championships.
Full article here.
Great stuff.