Following Up Part 2

More responses:

2.  "Thank you, you gave a good overview.  I found the tips you offered helpful and I plan to put some of your ideas in place.  Ex:  mesh bags, 85% goal, 2 pencils"

The earlier the intervention, the smaller the strategy needed and the bigger the long term impact.  If young kids have a simple and consistent system for getting organized, then they are more likely to get started and, ultimately, find success.

3.  "Spend less time on Power School ... Great talk; insightful and love your style; will employ your ideas w/ MS and HS."

I chose to focus on Power School as the most (albeit, still subjective) objective tool we have as adult advocates as we teach our kids how to "play the game of school".  Everything else is subject to more, problematic interpretation.  I get more traction from looking at trends and data in Power School than anywhere else.  The agenda (if managed and checked consistently) is a good second to Power School in this regard.  

4.  "Knowing that there's going to be help for my son currently in 5th grade when he reaches M.S.  He has a big challenge ahead..."

Middle School teachers are a special breed.  Regardless of the increased complexity in the 6th - 8th grade program, there is support in equal measure.  In this regard, kids can really help themselves by learning to self-advocate early and often.  


5.  "Great talk:  Concrete examples of how you get kids to take ownership.  What I'd like to see in another talk:  Study Skills specifics."
 
Study skills are definitely in my wheel house.  They're tricky to share in a talk, though.  Perhaps a work shop on Effective and Efficient Study Skills is on the horizon.  I am currently working with a couple of kids on getting ideas out of their heads and onto paper using strategies.  It's one of many "study skills" that might be interesting to this community.

6.  "Great job; enjoyed it a lot.  Spent too much time telling us what you did with your kids in your class.  It wasn't relevant to our kids.  Spend less time on Power School specifics and how to manage it on a higher level."

Again, this was on purpose.  I wanted to point out that if these strategies and procedures work with middle schoolers struggling to "play the game of school" it should work for all kids.  But, I get it.  Jim Collins talks about the importance of the flywheel in From Good to Great.  Flywheels, he points out, aren't as exciting as fear, technology or crisis.  However, flywheels are stable and predictable.  Once they get moving, they continue to gain momentum.  The momentum is sustainable and predictable.

In the same way, kids need a set of sustainable and predictable skills to go from good students to great students.  Setting the Stage for Success Utilizing Efficient & Effective Strategies is what I do for kids.  These strategies, procedures, tools and protocols help kids filter information in order to make it useful.  Setting the Stage is the flywheel.  I don't purport to make kids smarter just more efficient and effective in their pursuit of success.  

In this regard, Power School becomes one of the factors that Collins describes as contributing to avoiding failure; accountability. 

Motivation is the magic potion for transcending average and achieving greatness.  But motivation doesn't happen without ownership.  The journey can seem exhilarating or like drudgery depending on the perspective of the individual on the journey.  Ownership is one of the only sustainable ways (that I can think of anyway) to help kids find the motivation to succeed in the long run. Ownership comes from understanding how to do the task and the ability to wield tools to make tasks manageable and meaningful.  

In the end, motivation trumps all.  But, like the flywheel, it takes hard work to find the meaning and vision for a task.  But, once these are internally-reconciled = ownership for the task, that wheel begins turning.