Educational Issues (Tip 4)

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Issue #4: Many high school students are unaware of valuable resources such as the college center and/or the public library.  They often find out about it a month or two before graduation instead of discovering this information at the start of their high school year or even sooner.  By this time, it’s too late.  Statistics show that graduation rates and college acceptance letters are decreasing.  I believe this is due to the fact that children don’t value education like our parents and grandparents did.

 

Tip #4: Children must be taught the value of education at an early age.  This includes familiarizing them with the library, the college center, tutoring facilities, test prep courses, bookstores and more.  The more knowledge and information they have, the smarter they will be which will result in better decision-making.  Take a trip this weekend to the library or the bookstore.  Show your child the different types of non-fiction and fiction books that exist.  Pick a particular topic of interest and browse through that category.  Practice doing this a few times and hopefully one day, your child will get the hang out it.

 

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

Teachers Who Care

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Taneeka Bourgeois-daSilva

Teaching really isn’t about the paycheck.  It’s about changing lives, building futures, and creating leaders.

Being a teacher can be overwhelming and exhausting at times especially if you teach from your heart and soul.  Many students will fight you tooth and nail about every paper, every test, and every assignment.

What inspires me to teach year after year? These two simple words, Thank You!

At the end of each year, two or three students either apologize for their misbehavior or they thank me for all of my hard work.

Food for thought: Appreciation and gratitude go a long way.

There are millions of teachers around the world that really care about their craft and how effective they are at implementing it.  I always tell people that I teach to the student and not the subject.  Since I am an English teacher, my primary job is to focus on reading, spelling, and grammar.  That being said, I am willing to put a perfect grammar lesson aside in order to motivate a student about life and goals.  At the end of the day, it’s their heart that we are after.

If you are a teacher, mentor, pastor, counselor or tutor, please use every moment as a teaching moment.  If we work together, we can change one mind at a time!!

This article can also be viewed on the Children’s Writers’ Guild website.

About 

Taneeka Bourgeois-daSilva is an authorpreneur, teacher, blogger, educational consultant, and writing coach. She wrote the award-winning Broccoli Chronicles and is the CEO of Building Voices and TCD Kids Foundation. She tweets at @taneekabdasilva.

Educational Issues (Tip 3)

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If it takes a village to raise a child then where is the village?

Issue #3: One major issue in our educational system is parent participation.  Most parents work and have their child’s best interest at heart, but they fail to realize the importance of their presence at school.  Regardless if you’re attending Back to School Night or Coffee with the Principal, it is imperative that the school, the teachers and your child don’t view you as an absent parent.   There is a direct correlation between parent participation and academic achievement.  See articles below:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020099/

http://voices.yahoo.com/effect-parent-involvement-students-academic-6494222.html

Tip #3: At the beginning of each school year, make sure that you obtain a school calendar.  This is important because it lists the events for the year.  Make sure you attend as many things as possible, especially Back to School Night, Open House and Parent Conference.   If you are unable to make an important event, make arrangements for a family member to attend in your place.  It takes a village to raise a child, but it first starts at home with the parents.

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