How to raise student self expectations pt. 2

How students view themselves shapes their expectations. For example, if a student looks in the mirror and sees someone who "isn't good at school" it is difficult for them to outperform that picture. To help students raise their expectation, they need to shift their self-image so that they can see themselves putting in the work and achieving great results.

Referenced Source: https://rb.gy/1buj0t

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Great leaders have high expectations of allof their students. But the question is
how to get every student to tomatch your expectations, to to to meet
your expectations with the with that levelof the required level of effort in order

(00:25):
to produce the results that match yourexpectations. You see, you have high
expectations of your students. Your studentsshould have high expectations of themselves. And
as a result, what this doesis in times of struggle, in in
in times of stagnation, when theonly way forward for your student is to

(00:51):
take a risk and it could workout one of one or two ways,
either you succeed or you learn,you need your students to have those high
expectations because eventually that's going to causethem to move forward, to take that
risk to try to problem solve inyour absence, when you've gone off to

(01:14):
help another student and you're gonna bea little while, you need all of
your students to have those high expectationsof themselves so that they can do what
they can until you're able to getto them. You've joined us in a
series where we're talking about how tohelp students increase their self expectations, and

(01:38):
this is part two of that series, and the last episode we talked about
one way to help improve student selfexpectation and that was self talk. So
I encourage you to check out thatepisode of the Marvin Bird Show. I'm
your host, Marvin Bird. Herewe believe that teachers are leaders, and

(01:59):
so here we share ideas and differentthings to help teachers equip them with the
skills and information that they need tolead their students to success. So today
we're going to give We're going togive another tip to help students, to
help students increase their self expectations,to help increase their expected outcome. Now,

(02:27):
again, we don't want just highexpectations for the sake of having high
expectations of the students. We wantthem to have high self expectations because of
the effort that they are able toput in. And what this does is
it gets them on a winning streak. It increases their self efficacy, which

(02:50):
that is something that we really wantbecause what can happen is once they come
up against an obstacle, they canin their mind, they can remember what
they did a month ago to overcomean obstacle, the work that they put
in, and that's going to increasetheir confidence and their self expectations are going
to remain high because they know whatthey did a month ago, they know

(03:14):
what they did three weeks ago,two weeks ago, one week ago.
They know that they have the skillsin order to meet the demands of this
challenge. Another way that you canhelp students improve their self expectations is by
is by helping them shift their selfimage. Once again, helping them shift

(03:39):
their self image. Now, whenwe talk about self image, we're talking
about the mental picture that a personhas of themself. Everybody has a self
image. Everybody has inside of them. They have that mental picture of the
way that they see themselves, andit is shaped by a number of things.

(04:02):
This picture is shaped by It couldbe shaped by the beliefs that a
person has about themselves. It couldalso be shaped by the environment, and
you know, definitely with children,it's also shaped by what others say.

(04:23):
And that's why it's so important thatas teachers, as schools we do a
great job in terms of in termsof character education, in terms of community
building, because you know, youcan you can praise students all the day
long, but you know, forfor some students and some depending on where

(04:47):
they are in life and in theirconfidence. If they see you know,
a snapchat, a text message orsomething like that from from their peers,
it can it can really be detrimentalin terms of their self image. And
and that's why that that work interms of community building, character education,

(05:11):
it's so important because those things kindof go into students shaping their self image.
Those things factor into that mental picture. But what you want is when
we're talking about helping students improve theirtheir their expectations, raise their expectations of

(05:33):
themselves. This is important. Thisis important, and this is why we
do this work. This is whywe have this this podcast here, because
it takes it takes a leader.It takes a leader to to to dig
into these things, to do theresearch and learn about things that they can

(05:56):
do to to influence the student decisionmaking in the classroom so that they can
bring about success. And this ispart of it. When we talk about
teaching the whole student, this,this is part of it. I know,
I know, life would be soeasy if all you had to do
was execute your lesson planned, butit's just it's it's so more than that.

(06:17):
So again, when we talk aboutwhat goes into that self image,
that mental picture. I've given youjust three things that go into shaping it.
I want you to focus on thebeliefs of a person's belief about themselves,
their environment, and what others say. Now, we do this,

(06:39):
we do this often. You know, as teachers, we we dabble in
this area in terms of shifting selfimage. Because it can be as small
as some of you out there whoare listening. You call your students,
you call them scholars, and youcall them scott and and the the purpose

(07:03):
of that is to shift that selfimage, to shift that self image.
Scholar is another word for it's anotherword for student. But it it sounds,
it sounds sophisticated, it sounds itconveys I think it it also conveys

(07:27):
a level of expectation like when youwhen you when you put that title on
someone of scholar, it just itjust has a nice sound and it conveys
expectations. So it can be assimple as that, ladies and gentlemen,
it can be as simple as that. And you know, as I said

(07:47):
before, this is this is soimportant. But it's because it's closely related
to to that, to that selfworth, and so energy put into this
energy and time devoted towards shifting thatself image is time well invested. Now

(08:09):
let's talk about ways to help studentsimprove their self image. But before we
get to that, what I wantto do is I want to talk about
I want to talk about my newbook is coming out soon and very soon.
And the title of that book,the title of that book, are
you ready. The title of thatbook is Teachers Are Leaders. Teachers Are

(08:33):
Leaders. So that book is comingout soon. Please stay tuned, you
know, to this podcast. Checkthe website Marvinbird dot com for more details
with That book is coming out soon, and I will let you know when
it's available for pre order. ButI'm very, very very excited about that
book gonna it's gonna, I promiseyou it's going to add a lot of

(08:54):
value. It's going to help alot of people to lead their students to
success. I'm looking forward or toit so excited. So one of the
things that you can do to helpyour students shift their self image is by
having one on ones with your students. Now, I know many of you
probably already do this with your students, but it really is important to be

(09:16):
consistent. And when I was inthe classroom. I had a student desk
next to my desk because that's howoften I would, you know, have
my students do group work or independentwork, and then make time to call
students up individually to have one onone conversations. And during these during these
conversations, you know, we couldhave been doing a number of things.

(09:39):
We could have been setting goals,we could have been talking about, Hey,
how was your weekend, what's goingon, how are you feeling?
And it could it could just behey, let's let's let's talk about let's
talk about your grades. I notice, I noticed this is going on.
Is there anything that I can doto help having those one on ones with

(10:01):
students? There is? There isso much value in having those one on
ones with students. I actually rememberI had a lot of students they just
they look forward, they look forwardto coming up to my desk and having
those one on one conversations with me. That's that's because I was consistent with

(10:22):
it, and it wasn't always aboutgrades. You know, students they know
how they're doing. You know,especially students who are are not doing well,
they already know and and a lotof a lot of instances they were
harder on themselves, and they wouldbe surprised that I would start with praise

(10:43):
and start to start by pointing outthe positive things. And so they at
that point they they may have theyhad a low self image and their expectations
were low. And so my jobin that conversation was to raise those expectations
by helping to build their confidence,not by piling on and say hey,

(11:03):
you're missing this, this, thisand this and this. No, just
start with some positive things, orstart and or maybe not even address the
grades at all, because they knowwhat they need to do. Maybe it
was just a maybe it was justa little a little bump in the road
and they know what they need todo. Maybe they just need just a
little bit of encouragement. But again, it takes It takes leadership and knowing

(11:28):
your students, knowing who they are, knowing how they where they are in
terms of responding to feedback. Soit's so much deeper. It's so much
deeper. It takes knowing your knowingyour students and how they are going to
respond when we talk about these oneon one conversation. Okay, so I

(11:48):
want to share this article with youabout one on one conferences with students.
The title of the article is empowerStudents through individual Conferences, and it's written
by Donna Schrum. Donna, Ihope I pronounced your name correctly. Thank

(12:09):
you so much for writing a wonderfularticle. So she's given us a few
tips on how on the benefits ofone on one conferences, and I just
want to go through maybe the firstthree here with you. So one students
through one on one conferences with students, students learn how to expect more of

(12:31):
themselves. That's what we're talking abouthere, ladies and gentlemen, and that's
what we want. That's what wewant. It goes on to say here
in his nineteen seventy eight book Mindin Society, The Development of Higher Psychological
process name I camp pronounced, observedthat children grow into the intellectual life around

(12:56):
them, but some don't yet havethe confidence in their abilities or growth mindset.
Again, those are things that we'vebeen touching on. Confidence, growth,
mindset, ability, you know,all of those need to be high
in order to have high expectations ofoneself. Discussing where they are and how

(13:22):
to get where they need to beproduces emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities.
Intellectual environments that produce not mere technicalcompetence, but caring, secure, actively
literate human beings. Those conversations withyou, they can be so fruitful,

(13:52):
so beneficial for students, and soultimately so helpful in shifting that self image
to the positive side. Let's goon, let's see what else they have
here, all right? Number two, The teacher and student constantly renegotiate the
teaching learning process and connect each stepto larger learning goals, always just beyond

(14:18):
their current comfort level. And itspeaks to what I said before, it's
not about having high expectations just forthe sake of having high expectations. We've
got to the student has to dostuff, they have to show growth,
they have to take steps. It'sgot to be the confidence and the high

(14:39):
expectations. It's got to be rootedin something that they can point back to,
something in their history that they canpoint back to and build their confidence
on, which is going to leadto those high expectations. All right,
So let's move on a little bit. See that third one third one,

(15:01):
Students receive constant, timely feedback andclarification. That makes the student the lead
learner. Now, one of thethings that I tell students is this when
when it comes to feedback, feedbackgives us the opportunity to try again with
better information. Let me repeat that, feedback gives us the opportunity to try

(15:26):
again with better information. Like really, feedback is something that should be celebrated.
Now, there's gonna be times whenyou need to help your students learn
how to receive feedback because you know, sometimes some students they just if it's
not perfect, then it's then it'sa problem. And that's and that's just

(15:50):
something that you're gonna have to workwith your students. Again, you thought
that you were just executing a lessonplan. No, No, it's so
much more than that. Teachers orleaders, and because we're leaders, we
have to we have to look atevery every aspect of running a classroom,
of leading people, of managing people, of influencing people, and and doing

(16:17):
whatever you can as a leader toaffect the environment so that students make good
decisions, so that students are achieving, all students are achieving. So those
are just three tips from this article. Again, I will I will share
this out with you in the descriptionsection, But ultimately, yes, those

(16:40):
one on one conferences are so important, and ultimately, what you want to
happen is you want the Going backto that third point, is you want
the student to be the one leadingthe conversation, the student doing most of
the talking, the student doing thereflecting. The student look looking at the

(17:00):
details, looking at the data,looking at what has happened, looking at
their past decision making, their pastperformance, and going through that information and
ultimately interpreting it with you as theirguide, and then creating new action steps,

(17:21):
new goals as a result of it. Again with you as the guide.
But you're leading the effort. Youare leading the effort by sitting back
and letting the student take ownership oftheir learning. It's such a beautiful thing.
Here's a tip. When we talkabout having these one on one conversations
with students, you want to youwant to focus on observations. You want

(17:48):
to focus on observations, no judgment, because ultimately, what you want to
happen in this one on one conversationwith students is you want to you want
this student to see it for themselves. You want to guide the student to
to to see the adjustments they needto make now. Definitely, if they're

(18:11):
if they're if they're talking is negative, if they're saying things like, oh,
I've never been good at social studies, you have to step in and
correct that. We talked about thatin the previous episodes. Self talk is
so important. You can't have highexpectations of yourself if you if you're saying

(18:33):
negative things, if you're if you, if your talk is negative, if
because in a way, you're justlimiting your capacity to do more with your
words. So you've got to stepin in this one on one conversation and
correct that talk with students. Butlargely you're focused on observations. You're trying

(18:55):
to get the student to see theadjustments that they need to make. You're
trying to get the student to makea mental investment in setting this plan and
and creating this plan and creating theaction steps once they've once they've created a
plan, once they've set a goal, you want the students to to get

(19:17):
it themselves. And what this doeslargely is it helps It helps to It
helps the students to to to putdown their guard. It helps the students
to put down their guard because ultimately, what you're trying to do is it
said an article which again I'm goingto share with you. It helps to

(19:37):
make the student the lead learner becauseultimately, what what you would like is
you would like for the student todo more the talking. They're the ones
sitting there there doing the reflection.They're they're thinking through the process. They're
they're thinking through their their actions thatthey've taken. They're thinking through, you

(20:02):
know, some of the results,the actions that they need to take in
the future, maybe a little bitof adjustment here. They're they're coming up
with all of that. That's whatyou ultimately want because that's going to improve
their self efficacy, that's going toimprove their belief in themselves. So in
the next episode, what we're goingto do is we're going to go a

(20:22):
little bit deeper into these one onone conferences. I'm going to give you
some templates that you can use andas you as you plan your time with
students so that time is focused,it's beneficial, and ultimately it's going to
help students increase their expectations of themselves. So thank you so much for taking

(20:45):
the time to watch, and untilwe meet again, please don't forget that
teachers are leaders.