A Crash Course in Teaching

Student Identification and Acknowledgement

June 6, 2014

Since I can remember, my household  has had a copy of The Reader’s Digest.  It was always on the reading table next to the lounger in the family room of my parents’ house, and it was one of my “go-to” magazines. After I graduated college, my mom started gifting me a yearly subscription and we keep it in our house for “quick reading” opportunities and even my teenagers confess to reading it.

That said, I found an interesting short article in the 2014 edition about how a fifth grade teacher uses an index card system to get to know her students better, in particular to keep an eye out for which students need a little extra attention in terms of personal interaction. The teacher uses it as a method to help build empathy and decrease bullying in her classroom, all in an indirect way that does not “preach” to them.

I think some form of her method would be useful in college classrooms too. Here are links to the article and a Today Show piece about the teacher:

• http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/stop-bullying-strategy/
  • original blog post by Glennon Doyle Melton here: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/01/30/share-schools/
• http://www.today.com/parents/mom-shares-teachers-brilliant-secret-fighting-bullying-easing-loneliness-2D79322114

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