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Every Kid Needs A Champion

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Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.

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I have spent my anti-life either at the school house on the way to the school house on talking about what happens in the schoolhouse both my parents were Educators my maternal grandparents were educators and for the past 40 years I've done the same thing I'm so needless to say over those years I've had a chance to look at education reform from a lot of perspective so good and we know why kids Dropout we know why kids don't learn to see the poverty low attendance negative peer influences by but one of the things that we never discuss o weary this guy is the value and importance of human connection relationship James Comer says that no significant learning can occur without a significant relationship George Washington Carver says all learning is understanding relationships everyone in this room has been affected by a teacher or an adult for years I have watched people teach I have looked at the best and I've looked at some of the worst a colleague said to me one time they don't pay me to like the kids they pay me to teach a lesson the kitchen learn it all should teach a day should learn in case closed well I said to her you know kids don't learn from people they don't like that's just a bunch of hooey and I said your hair while your gear is going to be long and argue with deer niggars to say it was some people think that you can either have it in you to build a relationship or you don't I think Stephen Covey had the right idea he said You Oughta just throw in a few simple things like seeking first to understand as opposed to being understood simple things like apologizing you ever thought about that kid you're sorry there in shock I taught a lesson once on ratios I'm not real good with math but I was working on it and I got back and looked at that teacher edition I talked the whole lesson wrong so I came back to class and next day and I said look guy I need to apologize I talked the whole lesson wrong I'm so sorry that's it that's okay Miss Pierson you was so excited we just let you go I have had classes that were solo so academically deficient that I cried I wondered how am I going to take this group in 9 month from where they are where they need to be and it was difficult it was it was awfully hard how do I raise the self-esteem of a child in his academic achievement at the same time one year I came up with a bright idea I told all my student you were chosen to be in my class because I am the best teacher and you are the best students they put us all together so we can show everybody else how to do it one of the students a real I said really we have to show the other classes how to do it so when we walk down the hall people will notice us so you can't make noise you just have to and I gave him a saying that I am somebody I was somebody when I came out be a better somebody when I leave I am powerful and I am strong I deserve the education that I get here I have things to do people to implant prep places to go and I said yes just say it long enough it starts to be a part of you and so I gave a quiz 20 question student missed a t i put a plus 2 on his paper and a big smiley face he said nuts character is this an F I said yet pictures and watch you put a smiley face I said cuz you on the road you got to write you didn't miss them all I said it when we reviewed this won't you do better he said yes American do you see - 18  all the life I plus 2 said I ain't all bad for years I watch my mother take the time at recess to review go on home visits in the afternoon by Combs and brushes and peanut butter and crackers to put in a desk drawer for kids that needed to eat in a washcloth and some soap for the kids too didn't smell so good thing it's hard to teach kid to stink and kids can be cruel and so she kept those things in her desk and years later after she retired I watch some of those same kids come through and say to her you know you made a difference in my life you made it for me you made me feel like I was somebody when I knew at the bottom I wasn't and I want you to just see what I be coming when my mama died 92 there was so many former students at her funeral it brought tears to my eyes not because she was gone but because she left a legacy of relationship that could never disappear can we see and to have more relationships absolutely will you like all your children of course not and you know your toughest kids are never at 6 never you won't block them all and and emptied the top one show up for a reason it's the connection ister relationship and why you won't like them all the kids they can never ever know it so t become great actors in great actresses and we come to work when we don't feel like it and we listening to policy that doesn't make sense and we teach any way we teach anyway because that's what we do teaching and learning should bring joy how powerful would I World be if we had kids who who not afraid to take risks to we're not afraid to think and who had a champion every child deserves a Champion an adult who was never give up on them who understands the power of connections and insist that they become the best that they can possibly be is this job tough you bet you or you bet you but it is not impossible we can do this where Educators with bond to make a difference thank you so much

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