Cast Down Your Bucket

I always find it funny when we acknowledge simple practices in one aspect of our lives, but cannot apply that same practice to something else. The phrase "meet them where they are" has become a little cliche' in the education world, but the practice is really quite simple. I've been met with this idea is so many different places lately and this seemingly simple concept becomes quite difficult to practice. Think of a water well. It's just a deep hole that meets ground water. When you want water, you send down the bucket, fill it, and bring it back to the top. Simple. Easy. Anyone could see that if you only sent the bucket down halfway and asked the water to meet you in the middle, that you would never be satisfied. The well analogy is an old one. Booker T. Washington popularized the concept at the turn of the 20th century as others made the argument for African Americans to return to Africa in response to discrimination in America. Instead, Washington encouraged African Americans to "cast down your bucket" and pull up the best of African American culture here. They had to start where they were and focus on moving up, not away.

This week I have had several data conversations about EVAAS and conversations with parents about student behavior and performance that fell within this same analogy. As adults and educators, we want and even expect students to be at a certain level of behavior and education. That doesn't always happen. It frustrates us. How can we work on higher order thinking skills when a student reads or does math significantly below grade level? How can parents talk to their children about college and life if all they want to discuss is their friends or music? We have to meet them where they are to start. Otherwise we are just sending our bucket halfway and asking the water to come up. Understanding this analogy requires us to change as the motivator or teacher and that's hard. But refusing to adapt is only as effective as yelling down the well for water to come up.

Mirror Neurons

The story goes like this: In Parma, Italy, researchers in the 1990s were studying the neurons of monkeys. Devices were attached to the monkeys and brain scans showed when individual neurons in their brains activated. The purpose was to determine what neurons activated as the monkey made reactions. While studying a monkey, a scientist walked into the room eating something (the story varies here) and the neurons of the monkey begin to fire as he sees the scientist eat. The strange thing was that the same neurons fired in the monkey watching someone eat as they did in the human actually eating. Who knows if this is how mirror neurons were actually discovered, but the point is that they actually do exist. People (and we think several other species as well) actually have neurons in our brains that are wired for empathy. We can see someone in distress, happy or in fear and we can instantly feel the emotion that they feel. This probably explains why we watch feel-good movies during the holidays or get that creepy feeling when we see someone else with a spider on them.

Knowing this, just think about the impact this knowledge has on education. As the teacher, you have the power to directly impact student attitudes and emotions based on your own. The key is to controlling ours and not letting the student emotions control our neurons first! In our Grit book study this week, I shard a thought that I have long held about teaching. I strongly feel that great teachers are also great actors. They perform for an audience several times a day. The best teachers change the story or the main character's actions based on how the audience reacts. They can recognize what the audience needs and can ad-lib appropriately. By doing this, science says that they are literally controlling their minds.

So just think about this the next time you start that tough class period or have to deal with that difficult student. Both of you are wired for the power of mind control, but only one of you gets to use it first.