Ho’ohanohano respects each students strengths and talents. Aloha teaching is not so concerned with how smart students are but how they are smart. Therefore, one of the teacher’s joys is discovering her student’s hidden talents. Here is a simple guide to help you:
- Turn a compliment into an interview. When an student does an excellent job, don’t merely praise her. Pinpoint the strengths of her accomplishment and ask her how she did it — in other words, to share her process. The interview will give each of you insights that can be transferred to new tasks. If appropriate, you might even ask her to give a class presentation about her techniques.
- Discover how your students think. It is very limiting to focus on assessment. Discover the thinking that led to the achievement. Learn about the student’s habits and disciplines. This information can be communicated on the student’s report card. For example, “Susan always finds important information, studies it carefully, and draws her conclusions.” You will communicate to the student and parent that you understand how a student processes learning and that you value what is contributed.
- Ask for the reasons behind preferences. Good teachers know what their individual students like to do (what tasks they enjoy, which projects motivate them). Great teachers find out why someone has those preferences. That kind of knowledge helps a teacher differentiate learning around strength and interest. This approach maximizes the process and honors the student.
- Inquire about people’s dreams. Learn about your students’ dreams. Knowing what they are might give you a glimpse into their motivations and preferences. Watch what they read and do in their spare time. Learn about their weekend activities. Each of these pieces, when fit together, will help you truly know your students.
Every one of your students is so gifted! Embrace differences; accentuate the value that each student contributes to the class. You will not only learn a lot about your students but teach a lifelong Ho’ohanohano lesson.
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This is a great thing to do, the one aspect of it that makes it real hard is the time it takes to do it right. With only one adult in a classroom of 20 kindergartners, there is precious little time to fully engage this.
One way my wife (the kindergarten teacher) says that No Child Left Behind can succeed would be if a second adult (professionally trained) was in all K-2 classrooms. Give the extra time and attention to the youth at the time when it would be most beneficial in their development.
Thanks Steve. Yes, it requires time and intentional planning. Of course, some of the information can be through simple observation as children play and work. I wish I had done this more as a teacher. I certainly wish more of my teachers had taken the time with me.
Another thought just came to mind…how wonderful it would be if bosses, managers, leaders…would focus on how their employees are smart! Perhaps that is the foundation for working from one’s strengths. Discovering each employee’s hidden talents…think what could happen!
Dean, I agree that focusing on the positive is the way to go. Marcus Buckingham does this with his strengths program.
Observation is key but the point I’ll come back to is the time it takes to record that observation so it can be usable later. This is one area where appropriate technology should be introduced into the classroom to enable this timely capture of the observation. Simple voice recorded notes wouldn’t achieve the end as it would take as much time (if not more) to replay the recording and then transcribe it. Perhaps a hand-held device with some check boxes to make a quick entry would be the best bet timewise.
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