Teaching Strategies to Build Student Confidence

Today’s topic comes from TeachHub.com, an organization dedicated to providing a comprehensive collection of relevant and up-to-date K-12 education news and editorials.

Teaching Tolerance: Teaching in the Shadow of Trauma

The following is an article from Teaching Tolerance, an organization that provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

When we teachers get a so-called “problem child” in class, it’s crucial to ask ourselves, “What is causing this behavior to manifest? What is occurring in this child’s life that we can’t see?”

826CHI Justice & Equity Dialogues

With social and racial injustices affecting young people on a daily basis, we — the educators, volunteers, and caring adults of 826CHI — strive to raise our awareness of these issues in order to best support our students. Once a month, 826CHI’s staff convenes for the “Justice & Equity Dialogues,” a space that allows us to take turns leading a conversation about issues that affect our students, as well as reflect upon the role we play in cultivating a diverse and inclusive third space for learning and self-expression in our students’ lives. In this place, separate from school and home, our students know that caring and supportive adults are there to help them experience success.

You can find the link to our Archived JEDI Meetings here.

Strategies for Working with English Language Learning Students

Deana Wojcik, a Volunteer of 826 Michigan shares some strategies for working with ELL Students. Read more below.

Teaching Tolerance: School Is No Place for Class(ism)

The following is an article from Teaching Tolerance, an organization that provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school.

The language that educators use to address students can maintain and reinforce class structures and classist attitudes. The antidote? Anti-classist language.

By: Nichole Berg

My Wish: Once Upon A School

Have you ever wondered where it all started? Where 826 Chicago got the name? Who thought of the amazing idea to provide free services to our students? Then watch this inspirational video from 826 National founder Dave Eggers as he talks about the 826 model and its importance in the lives of educators, students, and community members.

Working with Minors: Boundaries

New to our New Volunteer Orientation Handouts is an information sheet on Working with Minors from Carnegie Mellon University Child Protection Training. Please read on for more information on this topic.

Getting to Know Your Tutee

We know how difficult it may be to get through to your student, especially when you’re both new to tutoring. Thankfully, The Corporation for National and Community Service came up with these great icebreaker tips to help you get to know your student in a way that respects boundaries and is literary-focused!

Addressing Violence in Student Writing

Staff and volunteers at the “Vol/loquium: Violence in Student Writing” training at 826CHI.

Picture this common scene from nearly any 826CHI program: you are working with a student on a story, bouncing ideas back and forth. The story could be something made up from their own imagination, or it could be a personal memory they want to explore on the page. Just when the story gets to the point where conflict begins to bubble up, the student makes a suggestion that you think is a little too violent.

As a volunteer, you might have been in this situation before, and for many of us, it’s difficult to navigate the use of violence in a student’s writing.

Helping or Cheating? An Everyday Tutor’s Dilemma

by Sarah Stark

Where is the line between helping a student with his homework and doing it for him? That’s the difficulty. We can point out similar triangles in a math problem, but how far can we guide a student without feeling like we are doing all the work? And, even more pressing, what if he asks for too much? How can we recognize this, and how do we say no? This is a problem every tutor faces at some point, and it is difficult to find exactly where the line is and to decide, in spite of a student’s huge pleading eyes, not to cross it.