Damien at the Speed of Life

Working in an inner-city demographic as a teacher, I encounter students ranging from middle income down to impoverished. Having been working in this environment for about 7 years now, I know some of the methodology on how to “do your part” and help these kids up in life.

1. Find out where they are: Give them initial assessments. Not only of academics, but take the time to get to know them. What kind of ice cream they like, what their favorite “Nickelodeon” TV show etc. This will help you immensely in know what to offer them academically as well as relationally to bring their scores up.

2. Connect at least 3 times daily: Make sure you ask each child how they are doing in the day, especially the ones you see as troubled. This will let them know you care and that they are worthy of someone asking. I try to do three things (if not more) to ocnnect every day: 1) Say good morning, ask how they are; 2) Call on them at least once in the day; and 3) Give them a high five as they exit each dismissal.

3. Use them as positive illustrations in lessons: For example, “I know Naisha likes books, when she stacks her books neatly, she is ‘assembling’ them. Repeat: ‘Naisha assembles her books on the bookshelf.’” Make sure you get to as many as possible in the day, and don’t exclude any as you go through the week.

4. Call home once in a while with a positive comment. “I just wanted to let you know I am very proud of ______.”

5. Tell them they CAN go to college. Say this multiple times every day. Stress to them that being poor does not mean you can’t go to college. There is a wide array of grants and scholarships for underpriveleged students.

6. Give them ideas of fun things to do when out of school. Many of these kids have no role model because both the parents are working. Explain how a kid can have good clean fun, because they may not know.

7. Give real feedback on their work. Let them know they have talent (everyone does in some area).

and last . . .

8. Do research on pop-culture to their age. Know the shows, the bands, the “wrestlers.” These are all concrete scaffolds you need to get the abstract concepts of math and Language Arts across to them.

In doing these 8 things, I feel I do my small part in saving inner city kids. I’m always thinking of ways to do more, as should we all be— whether teachers or not.