How to help students raise their self expectations pt. 3

Each student has a mental picture of themselves. This picture is shaped by many factors and it does affect their self-expectations. In this episode, we discuss the importance of One-on-One meetings with students as a way to help them improve their mental picture.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
When it comes to helping students toimprove their expectations, to increase their expectations,
as as leaders, we have totake intentional steps. And so you've
caught us in the middle of aseries we're talking about how to help students
improve their self expectations. Because ifyou're able to address this successfully, just

(00:24):
imagine you've got students who are confident, willing and able to take on any
challenge that is before them. They'rewilling and able to solve any problem that
they encounter while they're in your classroom, and with your leadership, with your
teaching, that's going to not onlyhelp them in your classroom, but that's

(00:47):
going to help them well beyond thefour walls of your classroom and once they
leave school altogether. And so that'swhy it's really important. It's really important
that this message that we're talking abouthere to help students improve their their self
expectations. And as we've gone along, we talked about and we're talking about

(01:10):
tips that help students improve those selfexpectations. And the first thing I submitted
to you is that we have tohelp students work on their self talk.
They've gotta they've gotta they've got tosay things to themselves that are going to
They're gonna fill them with uh encouragementthat that are going to motivate them to

(01:34):
to to move forward when it getsdifficult. I gave you the quote your
brain is like a supercomputer, andyour self talk is the program it will
run. Now that's a quote byJim Quick, and that's just that's that's
awesome if you really think about it. That's how how important the self talk

(01:55):
is. So we got to getstudents to say positive things to themselves.
Now, definitely there has to besome corresponding action, but we can't get
to that corresponding action if they're sayingnegative things to themselves. So that's one
way that we help students to improvetheir self expectations. Now this second thing,

(02:20):
this is a little bit more intentionso we're we're gonna take a little
bit more time on this tip.It's we have to help students, help
students shift their self image. Ifstudents have a poor self image, it's
going to be very difficult for themto take the necessary steps that they need
to take in order to find thesuccess that you want for them. And

(02:44):
we talked about how the self imageis. It's a mental picture that everyone
has of themselves, and it's basedon the beliefs that they that people have
about themselves is based on the environment, and sadly, unfortunately, what other
people say that goes into the picturethat we have of ourselves now and sometimes

(03:08):
that's a that's a good thing,and then in some instances that's that's a
negative thing. And so where weare now is we're we're right here when
we talk about improving that that selfimage, that mental picture, that mental
picture that your students have of themselves, that's going to help them increase their

(03:32):
self expectations. That's going to helpthem better their self talk. And then
as a result, as we said, that's going to help them increase those
self expectations. So let's talk alittle bit more about that when we talk
about that self image. One ofthe ways that we as leaders in the
classroom, we help students increase theirself image is by having these one on

(03:57):
one conferences, one on one conferenceswith students. Now here are the huge
positives out of having one on oneconferences with your students. Now, when
I was in the classroom, Iat a desk right next to mine because
I made this just a part ofmy part of my routine, part of
my habits. I didn't get toevery student, every class, but every

(04:23):
you know, every pretty consistently.Every now and then, I was going
one on one with my students.It's very important for you to do.
Now. It gave me an opportunityto build relationships with students. Obviously we
all know that that is key.Now when you go one on one with
the student, obviously, that givesyou a chance to really build that bridge.

(04:45):
And then also when I'm going oneon one with the student, it
gives me the opportunity to give themspecific affirmations, specific affirmations. Now,
when you give students affirmation, whenyou give them positive affirmations, you want
to be specific. It can't bejust a vague. Good job. You
know that you want your words ofaffirmation to pack up punch, and so

(05:09):
you need to be specific. Andso that's what one on one conferencing what
that gives you the opportunity to bereally specific because it's you know, when
you go one on one with thestudent, you want to have some structure
to it. And that's what we'regoing to talk about today. And then
also it gives you know, it'san opportunity to give students the benefits of

(05:31):
an an individualized learning plan. Youknow, not everyone has has one of
those, and it's it's somewhat difficultto execute something like that. We're just
not there yet, but it givesyou the opportunity to take some benefits from
that. So let's talk about theframework. I'm going to give you the

(05:56):
framework for two types of conferences.Like remember, teachers are leaders. I'm
Marvin Bird and this is I'm yourhost. The purpose of this podcast is
to equip teachers with the skills andinformation that they need in order to lead
their students to success. And so, as leaders, we need to be

(06:18):
intentional about everything that we do inthe classroom. That lesson has been planned
out. We've got that down now. When we talk about leadership, when
we talk about affecting mindset, we'retalking about improving student self expectation, we
have to be intentional as well.So I want to share with you.

(06:41):
I have an article here, it'sby John Spencer. I will link it
in the description. I'll tell youthat link will take you to that article
or I'm yeah, so I'll takeyou. I'll give you the link to
that article. In this article,mister Spencer, he offers us, I
believe it's four different frameworks for oneon one conferences with students. Now today

(07:05):
we're gonna focus on two of theseframeworks. We're gonna focus on two of
these frameworks. But before we getto that, I want to talk about
birdlinks dot com b y R Dl I n ksbirdlinks dot com. Birdlinks
dot com. That is the placethat I would like to encourage you to
go to get your daily education news. That site is just a really easy

(07:30):
site to just flip through really bigtiles. It's got the headlines of each
individual story. I'll update it withthe top seven news stories out of education
on a daily basis. So Iencourage you to make that part of your
routine when you seek your news,your education news. So that's birdlinks dot

(07:54):
com. Thank you for that,all right? So John Spencer, he
wrote an article. Let me giveyou a little piece of that right now.
Check this out. So, thefirst type of conferencing, the first
type of conference in meeting with students, he gives us, is the advice

(08:15):
conference. The advice conference, Now, the purpose here is to learn about
specific skills that the students are missingsays here, each student must ask the
teacher a series of questions based uponan area where he or she is struggling.
This is a chance for targeted targetedthere, it is there. It

(08:37):
is targeted one on one attention andexplicit help with a strategy. Now,
notice here it also says two thatthe students are the ones who guide this
process, tapping into the teacher's expertise. Now, depending on what level you'll

(08:58):
have to, you're gonna have toYou're going to have to make a few
changes, adjustments, adaptations so thatit fits the age level of your students.
But definitely, definitely students have toenter your room seeking something, you

(09:20):
know, education, It's just notsomething that you just you just sit back
and spectate. That's what I wouldtell my students. I actually had a
sign on my door that said terseeking. So I love this type of
conference because it challenges students to askspecific questions. Is that difficult? Absolutely,

(09:43):
absolutely getting students to pick up thingslike this. Yes, it's difficult
to get students. You know,it can be difficult. You know,
not all students. It's not difficultwith all students, but yeah, it
can be difficult to get students tothink this way, and so you have
to guide them. You have toguide them. And on my on my

(10:07):
website Marvinbird dot com, I havea blog post about encouraging students and equipping
students to ask better questions. Andso what I want to do is I
want to encourage you to check thatout and I've I've linked to that in
the description section as well. Sowhat I would say with this too,
as you're starting out, is thatyou let students know in advance, Hey,

(10:30):
I want to have a meeting.I want to talk about, you
know, certain skills in that thatyou that you're going to need in this
classroom. And so you may youmay give students a number of those skills
that, Hey, in order tobe successful in this unit, on this
test, in this class, theseare these are the certain skills sets that

(10:54):
you're going to need to have andI want to see out of you.
And so we're going to have adiscussion about skills. So what I like
for you to do is I'd likefor you to prepare let's say, at
least three questions, three questions aboutskills. It could be skills that you
feel really good in that area,or it could be skills where you feel

(11:18):
like they're man there's some opportunities forgrowth, and I wonder what I can
do to grow in that area?What am I missing? And you take
it from there. Now, sometimeswhat you're going to have to do is
during that meeting you're going to haveto help students with follow up questions and

(11:43):
as you as you go along,just like anything as student, As you
maintain that consistency, students are goingto get better. They're going to get
better at doing this because ultimately,what you want to happen is you want
them to want want them to leadthe process. And as it says here,
the added bonus of encouraging students toembrace the idea that mistakes are a

(12:07):
part of the learning process and whenwe talk about increasing self expectations and improving
that self image, students need tounderstand that this is important, like it's
okay to make mistakes, but ifthey engage in this process, they can

(12:33):
try again with better information and theyhave a better chance of finding success down
the road because they were a partof this process and trying to understand,
Okay, what is it that I'mmissing? Why did I miss the mark

(12:54):
here? I wonder why, andso one on one with my teacher to
try to figure that out. Again, students taking taking ownership of their learning.
So how does this how does thisbuild self image? Well, students

(13:16):
see and experience that learning is it'sa journey. And as I said before,
it's okay to make mistakes. Youdon't Students don't have to They don't
have to worry about looking aside akind of way in front of their peers.
They don't have to avoid they don'thave to try to avoid getting answers

(13:41):
wrong in front of their peers,because everybody is on a journey and it's
okay because you can engage in thisprocess it's one on one with the teacher,
so that you can learn from yourmistakes and get better. You know.
It's it's uh, you know,I tell my kids this, Uh
it's yeah. It's supposed to bechallenging. It's supposed to be challenging.

(14:05):
And that speaks to because we talkedabout self talk, Yes, it's supposed
to be challenging, but I cando hard things, you know. That's
that's that's something that we want studentssaying to themselves. That's what I tell
my children. You know I cando hard things. I want my I
have my children repeat that I cando hard things. And that means that

(14:31):
there are going to be things inlife that are going to be challenging.
But if you take specific actions youcan get you can you can overcome those
challenges. Specific actions like engaging inan advice conference with your teacher. That's
an action that a student can take. All right, So let's talk about

(14:52):
the next type. The next typeof meeting or one on one conference you
can have with a student a reflectionreflection. Now check this out. I
wanted to well, no before Iget to that reflection. This is from

(15:20):
John Spencer's article says, reflection conference. Instead of telling students what to do,
the goal is to draw out studentreflection. This is very important,
and it's often it's it's skipped over. Reflection is very important. And one
of the things that I'm trying todo right now is I'm trying to build

(15:41):
this into my day, even youknow at the beginning and end of the
day. It's challenging, but it'sso important. And what I do is
I put I put pen to paper, I reflect on it, and I
think what I found. Now I'mstill struggling and making this a habit.

(16:02):
But what I found is that itjust really helps to focus my efforts.
I get more done, I'm moreefficient. All right, So let's get
back to this. Instead of tellingstudents what to do, the goal is
to draw out student reflection. Theteacher uses a series of reflective questions to
lead students through the process of metacognitionand into the setting and monitoring of goals.

(16:27):
All right, So reflection, students, they sit back and they reflect.
Now Here, I want to giveyou this. This is an article
that will I will share with you. It's from a college I think Purdue
website, and it's all reflective writing. But I want to share this with

(16:48):
you. So I hold that thought. So we're talking about reflection. It
says here, a reflection a processwhere students describe their learning and how it
changed and how it might relate tofuture learning experiences. And it is a
skill that often goes undervalued in classroomsthat are packed with content. And that

(17:10):
is so true. We've got thispacing guy. We've got to get through
all these things. But reflection isan important step in the process. And
as a matter of fact, there'sa twenty fourteen Harvard study that this article
references, and I'm gonna just I'mgonna link to that because I'm running out

(17:34):
of time here, but it's justreally interesting. In this study, what
they found is that there was anincrease of over twenty five percent in an
efficiency of results over the control group. So they had one group. Their

(17:56):
job was to what they did afterthey completed the exercise, is they reed
on how things went, and thenthere was another group that reflected and also
shared how things went. And thenthere was another group that just did the
exercise, completed the task, andthey just moved on. But this study,

(18:17):
this twenty fourteen Harvard study, theyfound that they were able to prove
that there is value in reflection.It was value and reflection. So this
process goes like this. The teacherasks questions of the student that causes them

(18:37):
to go into reflection. Now,I found a PDF of a number of
questions to ask students to cause themto go into reflection, and I'm going
to link to that as well,so you'll have that. But just here's
an example, like, what areyou most proud of about your project?
What's the most interesting thing that youlearned from this? If you had it

(19:00):
to do all over to do itall over again, what would you do
differently? And again there's a there'sa document that I'm going to give you
as well, full of questions andprompts that you can ask students to cause
them to go into reflection, whichis just so very important. So the

(19:22):
the idea is that these students,these questions are ultimately on the mind of
students before they sit down with you, because they know that in advance you
want to have a reflection type oneon one conference with them. Now,
how does this build self image?Well? Again, feedback gives us the
opportunity to try again with better information. And if we know that we're gonna

(19:48):
have we have better information and wecould try again, that fills us with
confidence. And if we have confidenceabout what we're doing and how we're doing
it, that's that's that's going toimprove our self talk and that's going to
allow us to open ourselves up tothe possibility that you know, what,
I can do hard things. Ican I can up the expectations that I

(20:10):
have of myself because now I've gotfeedback here, I can do I can
try this again with better information.And as they make other attempts, and
they they sense how they're how they'reimproving, they feel good about that,
and they want to they want tohave that feeling again. And so there's
just this internal process, this internalprocess that changes the thinking, that changes

(20:33):
the talking, and as a result, actions change. I can do hard
things. Now, I'm gonna gohave this meeting with my teacher and figure
out what action steps that I needto take, what goals I need to
set so that I can get towhere I want to go. All right,
So that is our episode for today. There's going to be plenty more

(20:56):
to follow in this series on helpingstudents increase their self expectations. So I
encourage you please join us as wecontinue on this journey, and please don't
forget that teachers are leaders.