# data[].attributes.body
Carmen Winstead: An Internet Urban Legend

There are many stories on the internet that are designed to frighten people. Some are based on real events, while others are completely fictional. One of the most famous examples is the story of Carmen Winstead, an internet urban legend that became popular through chain messages and social media. The story is often presented as if it were a true account, which is one of the reasons why it has frightened so many people.

According to the legend, Carmen Winstead was a teenage girl who attended school with several other students. The story claims that she was treated badly by a group of classmates who did not like her. One day, something terrible supposedly happened at school, and Carmen disappeared from the story. Later, a message began circulating online claiming that Carmen had died and that the people responsible had never properly admitted what they had done.

The story became even more frightening because of the way it was spread. Instead of simply being posted as a normal scary story, it was often shared as a chain message. People were told that if they did not forward the message to several other people, something bad would happen to them. This created a sense of urgency and fear. A person who received the message might not even believe it, but they could still feel nervous about ignoring it.

This is one of the most interesting aspects of the Carmen Winstead legend. The fear did not come only from the story itself. It also came from the way people interacted with it. Before social media became as widespread as it is today, chain messages were already common on email, forums and messaging platforms. People would copy and paste frightening stories and send them to their friends. As the message travelled from one person to another, parts of the original story could change.

The Carmen Winstead story is therefore an example of how quickly information can spread on the internet. A person may receive a message from someone they trust and assume that the information must be true. However, the fact that many people are sharing something does not prove that it is true. Rumours can become much more convincing when they are repeated again and again.

Another reason the legend became popular is that it uses an idea that many people can relate to: school. Most students spend a large part of their lives in schools, so a scary story set in a school environment can feel more realistic than one set in a completely imaginary world. Ordinary places can become frightening when they are connected to a mysterious story.

The story also touches on the serious issue of bullying. Although the Carmen Winstead legend itself is not a reliable historical account, its popularity has sometimes led people to discuss how harmful bullying can be. Students who are bullied may feel isolated or afraid to speak up. This is a real problem, and it is much more important than the fictional parts of the internet legend.

However, it is important to separate the legend from reality. Carmen Winstead is generally regarded as an internet hoax or urban legend rather than a verified true story. There is no reliable evidence supporting the dramatic version of events that is commonly circulated online. The chain messages associated with the story are a classic example of how an internet hoax can be presented as a warning while actually being designed to frighten people into sharing it.

This teaches us an important lesson about information on the internet. We should not automatically believe something just because it contains someone's name, a specific location, or a dramatic explanation. Stories can include realistic details while still being completely fictional. When we encounter something suspicious, it is better to check trustworthy sources instead of immediately forwarding it.

The chain-message part of the legend is especially important because it uses fear to encourage people to participate. A message might suggest that ignoring it will lead to bad luck or danger. This is a common technique used in internet hoaxes. The goal is to make the reader feel uncomfortable enough that they pass the message to someone else. Once that happens, the cycle continues.

Today, social media has made this process even faster. A frightening story can be shared with hundreds or thousands of people within a short period of time. Videos, screenshots and edited images can make fictional stories appear even more believable. This means that being able to recognise misinformation is an important skill for everyone who uses the internet.

In the end, the story of Carmen Winstead is more than simply a scary internet legend. It shows how rumours can spread, how fear can influence people's decisions, and how easily fiction can become confused with reality. It also reminds us that stories involving serious subjects should be treated responsibly rather than simply being used to frighten others.

The Carmen Winstead legend may continue to appear online because scary stories are naturally memorable. However, the best response is not to panic or forward the message. Instead, we should question what we read, look for reliable evidence and think carefully before sharing information with other people.

The internet can be an amazing place for stories, creativity and entertainment, but it can also spread misinformation extremely quickly. The Carmen Winstead story is a good reminder that not everything we read online is true. Sometimes, the scariest part of an internet story is not the story itself, but how easily people can believe it and pass it on.

# data[].attributes.headline
i do not like this class it is the worst class ever and the techer is sooooooooooo jusy ew

# data[].attributes.subject
i do not like this class it is the worst class ever and the techer is sooooooooooo jusy ew

# data[].attributes.headline
Empathy means listening even when you might not understand 

# data[].attributes.subject
Empathy means listening even when you might not understand 

# data[].attributes.body
empathy helps might us understand how others are  feeling so we can respond appropriately to the situation people  who are good at reading others  emotions, such as manipulators, fortune-tellers or psychics might also use their excellent empathetic skills for their own benefit by deceiving others .

# data[].attributes.body
I would use the Think, Puzzle, Explore activity to assess prior knowledge, as a mid point check and for a student reflective tool. I t is a good idea to have students think about different resources they can use to meet their needs. The article 53 Ways to Check Understanding was full of many good ideas and is quite helpful.

# data[].attributes.body
I actually used this activity (connect the dots) in the beginning of the school year in my Calculus class. I wanted them to know that the course may seem so difficult because the problems are not always straightforward. they have to think outside the box to have a chance to be successful in the course. A lot of times a problem that seems to be difficult is actually very easy if you're not focused much on the details but rather taking a time to see the big big picture. I have some kids who were really frustrated by the activity and I used it as an example as how they would deal with their frustrations throughout the duration of the course.

# data[].attributes.headline
We use literature to teach empathy regularly.  It also helps the kids get engaged in the literature. 

# data[].attributes.subject
We use literature to teach empathy regularly.  It also helps the kids get engaged in the literature. 

# data[].attributes.headline
(Jen) One thing that resonates with me is getting to know students stories. It's important to know background on students as well as what is occurring in their every day life. Each class period we do something for a few minutes where students share a positive or negative about their day/week. 

# data[].attributes.subject
(Jen) One thing that resonates with me is getting to know students stories. It's important to know background on students as well as what is occurring in their every day life. Each class period we do something for a few minutes where students share a positive or negative about their day/week. 

# data[].attributes.body
Give an example of when you used one of these strategies?

# data[].attributes.headline
Write a short opinion paragraph about this article.

# data[].attributes.subject
Write a short opinion paragraph about this article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Each week, in hundreds of classrooms around the world, elementary school students sit cross-legged in a circle, surrounding a baby clad in a onesie with the word "Teacher" on the front. Over the course of a year, students learn to label the baby's feelings and to interpret his or her actions. They learn to look beyond language to identify underlying emotions, whether joy, fear, frustration, or curiosity. In so doing, they learn to understand their own emotions and those of others.

They're in a program called Roots of Empathy, part of a growing education trend broadly referred to as "social and emotional learning" (SEL), where children-and often their teachers and parents-learn to manage emotions, and to develop the skills required to establish relationships, de-escalate and resolve conflict, and effectively collaborate with others. Kids burdened by loss, anger, and feelings of rejection need, proponents suggest, a way to regulate those emotions.

A growing number of educators and social entrepreneurs across the country are discovering that the secret to learning empathy, emotional literacy, self-awareness, cooperation, effective communication, and many of the other skills classified as "social and emotional learning," lies in experience, not in workbooks and rote classroom exercises.

Mary Gordon is Roots of Empathy's founder and president. (Full disclosure: She and others mentioned in this article are people with whom the author has worked extensively through Ashoka's Empathy Initiative.) In her words, "You can't teach empathy. You unleash it."

In the months after 9/11, New York City school officials were concerned about the psychological impact of the attack on the city's schoolchildren. Dr. Pamela Cantor, a renowned child psychiatrist, was asked to join a team to assess that impact. She discovered that most of the children were traumatized less by what they had witnessed that day than by the violence and deprivation they faced every day growing up in poverty. She found schools ill-equipped to educate children with such intense needs.

Today, one in five U.S. children-by some measures, one in four-is growing up in poverty, placing the United States second only to Romania in the child poverty rate among developed nations.

Decades of research in neuroscience have revealed that poverty has a marked effect on students' ability to learn.

Under stress, the brain triggers a surge in cortisol, a hormone that produces the "fight or flight" response and inhibits the ability to absorb new information and to connect emotionally with others. Stressed children are anxious, tuned-out, emotionally volatile, and have diminished energy, stamina, and memory. The result is a vicious cycle: Students experiencing trauma at home come to school unprepared to learn and unable to forge trusting relationships, leaving them more isolated and subject to failure, which further increases stress levels.

Together with a team of educators, Dr. Cantor began developing an approach designed to target the key factors driving stress and chronic failure in the high-poverty schools she'd visited. Her decades in the field had taught her that our brains are malleable, particularly in childhood. With the right training and support for teachers and staff, no student was beyond reach.

The result eventually led her to found Turnaround for Children, which today works to provide what Dr. Cantor calls a "fortified environment" for teaching and learning: one capable of mitigating the stresses of poverty by connecting kids growing up amidst trauma with counseling and support and equipping teachers with a set of practices that promote positive relationships between children and adults.

The Fresh Creek School in Brooklyn is one of 10 New York City schools currently partnering with Turnaround. Opened in 2011, the school is about a half-mile from the New Lots stop on the L Train-worlds away from the microbreweries, hipsters, and leafy parks of Brooklyn's more gentrified neighborhoods. Of the school's roughly 200 students, about 10 percent are homeless. Many more hail from households trapped in poverty-their parents incarcerated or struggling to find work.

In the school's first year, teachers had difficulty maintaining basic order; some repeatedly sent kids straight to the principal's office. Lacking knowledge of outside resources, they were ill-equipped to meet the kind of student needs that would confound all but the best-trained social workers.

Tyler had long struggled in school. He was prone to severe tantrums and was accustomed to life in the principal's office.

When he arrived in Akilah Seecharan's fourth-grade classroom at Fresh Creek this past September, things began to change, thanks to a new partnership between the school and Turnaround.

In many high-poverty schools, up to 60 percent of children experience stress levels that can impair functioning.

Seecharan understood that Tyler had trouble managing his emotions, and she understood the reasons for that struggle. Tyler is one of four children growing up in a single parent household. His story is, in a sense, unremarkable-mirroring the daily struggles of kids growing up in poverty across the country. His outbursts, and the impact of those circumstances on his development, are likewise shared by thousands of students like him.

She and Tyler worked out a signal that he could use any time he felt his temper rising. Wordlessly and without interrupting the rest of the class, Seecharan would give him permission to take a walk. The agreement put Tyler in the driver's seat: in effect, he had permission to calm himself down.

In many high-poverty schools, up to 60 percent of children experience stress levels that can impair functioning. Dr. Cantor understood that addressing those needs was the work of every teacher and administrator, not just one or two guidance counselors.

For one period each week, Seecharan and other teachers at Fresh Creek receive intensive training and feedback in techniques to improve classroom management, defuse disruptive behaviors, and help students learn to better communicate and cooperate.

Yet even the combined efforts of everyone within the school may not be enough. Dr. Cantor found that teachers frequently spent most of their time focused on the roughly 15 percent of students experiencing the most acute symptoms of trauma, whose disruptive behavior threatened to derail the rest of their class. By connecting schools with local mental-health care providers, Turnaround ensures that those children receive the help they need.

Today, Tyler is working one-on-one with the school social worker, and he and his family receive free mental health services from the Institute for Community Living, the school's local mental-health-care partner.

As a result of the partnership with Turnaround, "I have a better pulse on where students are," says Fresh Creek's principal, Jacqueline Danvers-Coombs. "We have far fewer incidents in which students come to the principal's office simply because teachers don't know what to do. There are systems that have been put in place that are just part of how we are doing things now."

Turnaround is part of an effort to wholly reengineer schools to respond directly to the unique psychological and emotional needs of young people growing up in poverty. It holds vast implications for how we train teachers, for how we approach school culture, and for the very way in which we design a school.

Like Roots of Empathy, Turnaround for Children reflects a growing recognition of the role of empathy in fostering effective learning environments and healthy child development.

Empathy has long been seen as key to effective teaching. Addressing the host of unmet social and emotional needs that students carry into the classroom demands that teachers be able to look below the surface and understand what's driving a particular set of behaviors.

It's not just teachers who can benefit. According to a recent Harvard study, cultivating empathy among students has been linked to a variety of desirable outcomes, including positive peer relationships, better communication skills, and fewer interpersonal conflicts.

Yet the study's authors found that the stresses caused by trauma-including feelings of inferiority, envy, and depression-can act as obstacles to empathy. Children confronting acute stress may struggle to take on others' perspectives, not out of an inherent lack of ability, but because of the way stress impacts the brain.

While Turnaround makes no attempt to "teach" empathy directly, its efforts to remove the obstacles to empathy help to create the kind of environment that naturally encourages acts of empathy.

Increasingly, schools themselves are taking up the charge and working to cultivate empathy less through what they teach than by how they teach.

Kathy Clunis D'Andrea teaches 4- to 6-year-olds at Mission Hill School in Boston. Founded by celebrated education pioneer Deborah Meier, Mission Hill is one of 21 Public Pilot Schools in the city, established expressly to serve as models of educational innovation. Situated in Jamaica Plain, a mixed-income neighborhood, the school has a diverse student body; roughly half of the students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.

Mission Hill was founded with the goal of helping students develop "democratic habits of mind": the capacity to step into the shoes of others and to listen to and examine other viewpoints with an open mind; to evaluate evidence, and to understand the many possible consequences of a particular action; and to grow up to be-to quote its mission statement-"smart, caring, strong, resilient, imaginative and thoughtful."

In the fall of each presidential election year, Clunis D'Andrea and her students study a theme called "Who Counts," examining voice: who is using their voice and how, and whose voices have historically been silenced. To kick off the unit, she asks students how they would use their voices if they were president.

Some answers reflect the interests of a typical five-year-old: One student declared that he would give hot dogs to everyone. Others provide a glimpse into their world outside the classroom: "I would make it possible for people to not lose their homes," said another.

As a group, the students decide how they want to use their voices. In 2012, Kathy's class decided to take on three projects to educate others about recycling, tree-planting, and endangered animals. They wrote a public service announcement on planting trees in collaboration with PBS for the show Arthur. They worked with a local organization to plant more than a dozen trees in the schoolyard, and started a recycling program at the school. They shared their message with other elementary schools, a group of high school students, and the mayor.

Unlike many of its peers, Mission Hill has never held an anti-bullying rally or hosted a motivational speaker on the subject. There are no classroom minutes allotted to teaching emotional literacy, self-regulation, perspective-taking, or cooperation-the hallmarks of many traditional SEL programs. And yet the kids in Kathy's classroom demonstrate through daily deed a high capacity for emotional intelligence and hone an array of the kinds of skills not measured on standardized tests: learning to listen and work collaboratively, to take on others' perspectives, to share across lines of difference, to resolve conflicts, and to empathize.

On the surface, it seems a far cry from Roots of Empathy and Turnaround for Children-from bringing babies into classrooms, or training teachers to respond to the pernicious effects of trauma.

While each was born out of different circumstances and each employs different strategies, all are attempts to change the very hard-wiring in the brain, influencing how children interact with one another and how they view themselves, how they play on the playground, and how they behave years later. They have less to do with what students are taught than with the relationships between children and adults, teacher professional development, school-wide disciplinary practices, and the underlying culture of a school.

Thanks to the work of Mission Hill, Turnaround for Children, Roots of Empathy, and others like them, we now know children growing up in poverty will flourish given the opportunity and the tools. And we know that, for today's high-poverty schools, cultivating empathy and other social and emotional learning skills-and creating the kind of fortified environment that nurtures them-can have a profound impact on every other measure of school success.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Unleashing Empathy: How Teachers Transform Classrooms With Emotional Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Each week, in hundreds of classrooms around the world, elementary school students sit cross-legged in a circle, surrounding a baby clad in a onesie with the word "Teacher" on the front. Over the course of a year, students learn to label the baby's feelings and to interpret his or her actions.

# data[].attributes.body
How could these stations be used other than in a classroom setting?

# data[].attributes.body
How did this activity get you to think differently? Would it work with your students?

# data[].attributes.body
No response required

# data[].attributes.headline
Resources for Cognitive Empathy Stations on Shared Drive/Faculty/Professional Development/Dec 7 2017:

# data[].attributes.subject
Resources for Cognitive Empathy Stations on Shared Drive/Faculty/Professional Development/Dec 7 2017:

# data[].attributes.body
CSI, Dot Activity, Shoe Activity, Scavenger Hunt , Creating a Mnemonic

# data[].attributes.body
How could this activity influence student's attitudes?

# data[].attributes.body
Describe how you might use one of these activities?

# data[].attributes.body
List some ways you could implement Chalk Talk to develop empathy in students.

# data[].attributes.headline
Give some feedback on the content of our whole group Equity presentation.

# data[].attributes.subject
Give some feedback on the content of our whole group Equity presentation.

# data[].attributes.body
View and reflect.

# data[].attributes.body
How would you modify this pledge to fit your class?

# data[].attributes.body
Ideas on who you would send these to and when?

# data[].attributes.body
What other questions could you poll your students on using the Sticky activity?

# data[].attributes.body
Which would work in your classroom?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy has the capacity to transform individual lives for the better while helping to bring about positive social change in schools and communities worldwide. In psychology, there are currently two common approaches to empathy: shared emotional response and perspective taking.

Shared emotional response, or affective empathy, occurs when an individual shares another person's emotions. An example from our own lives came when a group of friends joined Marcus as he crossed the finish line of a half-marathon-they threw their arms up just as he did, mimicking his stance. Individuals in an audience involuntarily mirroring a speaker's smile is another example of this type of empathy.

Perspective taking, also known as cognitive empathy, occurs when a person is able to imagine herself in the situation of another. A good example is a line spoken by Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird: "If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

Here are some strategies our graduates around the world use with their students to help develop both affective and cognitive empathy.

Modeling

Teachers can be role models who, by example, show students the power of empathy in relationships. It is the teacher who leads individuals to care for the feelings of the others in class. As teachers model how to be positive when learning, students mirror optimistic and confident learning behaviors.

Teaching Point of View

We use the numbers 6 and 9 to teach students about different points of view. First, have students look at the number 6 and then the number 9. Explain to students that the idea for this exercise came from an old Middle Eastern legend in which two princes were at war for many years. One prince looked at the image on the table and said it was a 6, while the other prince said it was a 9. For years the battle raged, and then one day when the princes were seated at the table a young boy turned the tablecloth around, and for the first time, they could see the other's point of view. The war came to an end, and the princes became firm friends.

Illustrate with an example from your own life in which something similar has happened in terms of you arguing with somebody simply because they had a different point of view.

Ask students to break into small groups and discuss how important it is to understand that many people disagree with us simply because they have a different point of view. Debrief the student comments.

Using Literature to Teach Different Perspectives

In the classroom, literature can be used to help students see a situation from different perspectives. For example, everyone knows the story "The Three Little Pigs." We sympathize with the pigs because we see the wolf as a ravenous villain, but is it possible to see the story from the wolf's point of view? That's exactly what Jon Scieszka undertakes in his book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. In this humorous retelling, the wolf didn't huff and puff to blow the pigs' houses down; instead he suffered from a terrible allergy and, when stopping by to borrow a cup of sugar, accidentally blew the houses down with a big and powerful sneeze.

Listening Actively to Others

One of the most common obstacles to empathic relationships is that effective listening is difficult, and often individuals don't listen to one another in conversation. We designed the HEAR strategy to help students recognize and block out that noise as they devote their attention to listening to one another. The HEAR strategy consists of these steps:

Halt: Stop whatever else you are doing, end your internal dialogue on other thoughts, and free your mind to give the speaker your attention.

Engage: Focus on the speaker. We suggest a physical component, such as turning your head slightly so that your right ear is toward the speaker as a reminder to be engaged solely in listening.

Anticipate: By looking forward to what the speaker has to say, you are acknowledging that you will likely learn something new and interesting, which will enhance your motivation to listen.

Replay: Think about what the speaker is saying. Analyze and paraphrase it in your mind or in discussion with the speaker and other classmates. Replaying and dialoguing the information you have heard will aid in understanding what the speaker is attempting to convey.

Being Metacognitive About One's State of Empathy

Be aware of your feelings and thoughts about your ability to understand and share in the feelings of others. With metacognitive awareness, we can all become more effective at taking another's perspective throughout our lives.

When we encourage students to become more empathic, we help them create more opportunities for success in school and other aspects of their lives. This valuable skill deserves more of our attention.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Proven Strategies for Teaching Empathy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy has the capacity to transform individual lives for the better while helping to bring about positive social change in schools and communities worldwide. In psychology, there are currently two common approaches to empathy: shared emotional response and perspective taking.

# data[].attributes.body
What idea in the article resonates with you?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
February 2012 | Volume 69 | Number 5
For Each to Excel Pages 88-90

Your Story Is Important

After watching Steve Jobs's 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, in which he drew lessons from three pivotal events in his life, I wanted my students to do something similar. So I created the Three Crucible Events assignment for my sophomore English students. Each student had to tell (not read) three stories of events that shaped the trajectory of his or her life. Students had five minutes to tell the stories and tie them all together in a culminating takeaway.

After a couple weeks of prep work on storytelling and public speaking, we spent four emotionally draining, but class-unifying days listening to students enlighten their classmates on what made them who they are. In the realm of high school, usually filled with artifice, these students were authentic to the core. Since then, we've been the closest classroom community I've ever experienced. Discussions, debates, roundtables, group work, Socratic seminars, and daily volunteering all work better because of the connections built during those four days when the students held the stage.
-Steve Schultz, English teacher, Fountain Valley High School, Fountain Valley, California
I Know Your Name

My favorite part of the job is getting to know my students. As a high school and formerly middle school principal, I take pleasure in learning students' names so I can connect with them. During lunchtime in the cafeteria, I introduce myself to the students and have them introduce themselves to me. I use mnemonic devices to keep the hundreds of names straight. The fact that I can address students by name, have real conversations with them, and greet them when I visit their classrooms or pass them in hallways means something to them. I believe this knowledge has increased students' learning: They know I care about them, and they want to live up to the high expectations I have for them.
-Pam Davidson, principal, Bert Church High School, Airdrie, Alberta, Canada
You're the Top Card

When you're a secondary teacher, it can seem impossible to ensure that you're connecting with every one of your 150-plus students. I asked each student to provide information on an index card at the beginning of the year: birthday, interests and hobbies, school activities, out-of-school activities (such as jobs and volunteer work), and other conversation starters. Every day, I paid special attention to the student in each class whose card was at the top of the deck. For example, I would greet these students at the door, call on them for an answer or to share a thought, ask them to be the assistant who wrote announcements on the board, or talk with them during seatwork. In a little over a month, I had interacted with each student in a way that made him or her feel special.
-Mary L. Bigelow, retired secondary teacher, Middletown, Pennsylvania
You Have a Choice

I had a 5th grader who had a tough home life, constantly shuffled among family members. Because she had little control over her own life circumstances, she didn't like being told what to do. One morning, as students worked in collaborative groups solving math problems, she sat on the table refusing to participate. When I asked her how her morning was going, she said she had moved to another relative's home the previous evening. We chatted about her new living arrangement, and then I asked her about the math activity. She told me she didn't want to do the work. I told her I respected her decision not to participate but explained that these activities were not designed for my benefit: "After all, I can already solve these math problems. It's your choice whether to participate, but please don't tell anyone that you never had the opportunity to learn these important concepts." With that, I walked away. A few minutes later, she was engaged in solving the exercises.
-Sue Valdes, president, Valdes Educational Services, Minnetonka, Minnesota
I'll Be There

I attend every event, school and otherwise, that my students are a part of. I cheer the loudest, and I sit where they can talk to me. When I was able to go on a weeklong bus trip with the music department, it solidified how important students are to me. Going to so many events is time-consuming, but it saves so much time when I deal with discipline issues during the day that it's worth it!
-Sarah Updegraff, principal, New Hampton High School, New Hampton, Iowa
Your No. 1 College Booster

In our community, many students are the first in their families to plan to attend college. For many students (and their parents), the admissions procedure can be daunting, so I invite families to my house to get to know them, discuss the college entrance procedures, begin the online work, and coach them through the process. And yes-sometimes I even do house calls! This is my way of paying back educators who did the same for me more than 40 years ago. My wish is that someday my graduates will pay it forward.
-Jacquelyn Drummer, gifted and talented coordinator, School District of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin
We're Listening

About a year ago, my principal came back from a professional development experience excited about a new idea-student panels. Administrators would meet with all students in the school in groups of 10-15 students. We would talk with them for an hour about their experiences in the classroom, the kinds of teaching that worked for them, and how they used technology as a learning tool. At first my head spun; I couldn't imagine finding time to speak with so many students. But I soon found that listening to these students was more helpful and productive for our school than all the other things I could have done during that time. Our students know what helps them learn, and they were ready and willing to share that. This time investment will help us decide how to use our time better in the future.
-Christopher Julian, assistant principal, R. L. Turner High School, Carrollton, Texas
You Are a Part of Things

During the 1980s, as dean of discipline at an urban junior high school, I initiated a noontime sports league called the Five-on-Five. Students formed their own five- or six-member football teams, basketball teams, softball teams, and soccer teams. Each team was guaranteed a minimum of two games, and each tournament continued until I declared that we were in the playoff round. Despite skepticism from other teachers who warned that it would never work, we soon had 40 football teams and 40 softball teams. Little by little, some of the teachers even got out on the field with their students.

My Five-on-Fivers felt proud to belong to something. Their attendance improved because they didn't know if they had a game until that morning when I posted the schedule. To get students to a mental place where they can learn, you have to make them feel they're a part of things, rather than "apart" from things.
-Ron Klemp, CSUN adjunct professor, Santa Monica College, Los Angeles, California
Computers Make Literacy Personal

I teach literacy at a vocational/technical high school where we have access to computers and the Internet in every classroom. When I began making almost all of my literacy assignments open-ended and had students do them on the computer, I saw two important benefits: (1) Students' completed assignments told me a lot about them as individuals; and (2) While each learner worked at his or her own computer, I was able to move around the classroom and have one-to-one and small-group conversations. The result was a more personal relationship with each student and more in-depth awareness of how to accommodate each student's learning preferences.
-Jason Renshaw, literacy teacher, Geelong Technical Education Centre, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
It's Your Birthday

I create a birthday section on a bulletin board, and I make a poster celebrating each student who has a birthday that month. Among my 90 students, we usually have between four and six birthdays a month. We sing "Happy Birthday" and share our favorite birthday stories. I teach grades 9-12, and the students love seeing their posters as well as those of their friends.
-J. B. Mahli, teacher, Princess Margaret Secondary, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
The Name Game

At the beginning of each year, I spend time going to each table in the lunchroom learning the names of new students. I try to have fun with it and go back and forth testing my memory while talking with the students. It is a little thing that can garner big results in creating an atmosphere where everyone feels respected and well-known.
-Christopher Chew, headmaster, North Middlesex Regional High School, Townsend, Massachusetts
Math-It's About You

The first day of school sets the tone for the rest of the school year. Because I teach math, I start by having students do a "Math About Me" activity. The students fold construction paper into eight rectangles. In each rectangle, they create a math equation using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, and they write a statement about how it relates to them on the back of the rectangle. For example, the equation on the front might be, "2 x 1 = 2"; and the student might write on the back, "I have 2 pets." Students enjoying sharing their sheets and solving one another's equations.

Throughout the year, I create story problems that involve things my students like or problems that incorporate their other teachers. For instance, when we were learning about making change, I gave the students six word problems in which each of their teachers went to the concession stand at a baseball game, spent a certain amount of money, and gave a certain amount to the cashier; the problem was to figure out how much change each teacher received. Students were careful with their answers because they didn't want to give the wrong change to their teachers, even if it was just pretend!

Getting to know each student individually enables you to find ways to connect and help that student. You find out you have more in common with them than you may think!
-Stephanie Ramsey, 4th grade teacher, Washington, Illinois
Your Principal Checks In

In our school of 850 students, monthly Student-Principal Powwows are a great way to regularly check in with my students by grade level. Classroom teachers send one representative to each powwow each month. We work to include each of our students throughout the school year.
-John D. Ewald, principal, College Gardens Elementary School, Rockville, Maryland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How You Get to Know Your Students - Educational Leadership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
February 2012 | Volume 69 | Number 5 For Each to Excel Pages 88-90 After watching Steve Jobs's 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, in which he drew lessons from three pivotal events in his life, I wanted my students to do something similar. So I created the Three Crucible Events assignment for my sophomore English students.