Today’s post has me focusing on a professional read that has had an impact on me. I have read so many professional books, but this one struck deep to the heart of me.
This book stresses how by focusing on the heart of a child you can affect the head. In Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives, Peter Johnston shows how the words teachers choose affect the worlds students inhabit in the classroom, and ultimately their futures.
This book, recommended to me by our Title One Coordinator, solidified everything that I’ve believed in from the beginning. If you show a child, a parent, a community that you care – you can change the world. . Students will work their hardest for you if they know you care about them. Parents will support you no matter what, if they believe that you care for their child. A parent may not be able to help their child with algebraic problems, scientific notation or euphemisms – but they can tell their child, “You will not misbehave in that teacher’s classroom, because I know they care about you and they want what’s best for you.” And that is the best gift they could ever give me – their trust.
Until the next time,
