I'm curious to hear thoughts on this: what do you do when a student is going through some tough times that you yourself have gone through? How do we support them without crossing lines?
Tracy, This is a fantastic question. An approach I've always used, when sharing my experiences with the hopes that others learn from those experiences, is using a silent partner/make believe character or scenario. For example, I remember reading about this boy who couldn't go home after school because of an unstable environment (it's good to leave out details and assumptions cause the student might think you know something you don't) so he decided to volunteer at the local "Boys & Girls Club" over in Ypsilanti. He was able to coach little kids basketball teams, excercise if he wanted, the staff director would even find him a quite room to study if school work started to pile up.
I've found that creating a third party to express individual learning experiences that wouldn't implicate yourself or lead to the student thinking you're "preaching." Hope this helps, if you haven't thought of it already:-) Cheers, JP
Tracy,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic question. An approach I've always used, when sharing my experiences with the hopes that others learn from those experiences, is using a silent partner/make believe character or scenario. For example, I remember reading about this boy who couldn't go home after school because of an unstable environment (it's good to leave out details and assumptions cause the student might think you know something you don't) so he decided to volunteer at the local "Boys & Girls Club" over in Ypsilanti. He was able to coach little kids basketball teams, excercise if he wanted, the staff director would even find him a quite room to study if school work started to pile up.
I've found that creating a third party to express individual learning experiences that wouldn't implicate yourself or lead to the student thinking you're "preaching."
Hope this helps, if you haven't thought of it already:-)
Cheers,
JP
JP, thanks, that's a reaaaaaaaaaaaly good idea.
ReplyDelete:)