High Expectations

This post is really about two things. ONE – to thank Karenne whose post brief post about the video below got my brain flooded with a thousand volts. TWO – to briefly and strongly, suggest an important point about instructing and teaching.

First the video. (because who wants second hand news?).

I have a long history with the holocaust and especially Victor Frankl. I have bought the book and given to so many people – I really think I should start my own church! Man’s Search for Meaning (or the story of Logotherapy). But my post isn’t about my fixation with the holocaust or the lesson’s within, nor Victor Frankl and myself. This post is about setting up your classroom for success.

It is like Victor says – “crabbing” . Set the goals high. If you fall short, it will be much higher than where you ever could have gotten otherwise. Also, research shows that teachers who think their students are smart, will have smart students!

Let your students know your high expectations – in your own fashion and with your own style. It isn’t an act or a game or an order. It is your belief in your students, each and every one. We are all miraculous and a gift to existence. Make each one see that and you will be landing on many a far away runway.

And then, when you are not teaching, you can sit content and be happy that many are arriving at their destinations because they had the “afront” and the “idealism” to reach high, to fly high. The wisest words I ever heard were on some sloky Sunday sermon show – the evangelist saying, “if you fall, fall looking up – because if you can look up, you can get up. And if you can get up, you can do so much more….”. Reach high, or what’s a heaven for.

I’ll end my sermon with a sermon. Martin Luther King Jr. He says it differently but the message is the same. The Drum Major Speech.

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ddeubel

Teacher trainer, technology specialist, educational thinker...creator of EFL Classroom 2.0, a social networking site for thousands of EFL / ESL teachers and students around the world.

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1 Response

  1. Alex Case says:

    Absolutely, but I wish I knew a way to aim high/ push them whilst still giving them time and space as you suggest in a post above!

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