Dweck, Walton and Cohen (2014), state, “effective teachers and schools understand that it is through challenge that students learn and achieve over time.” They go on to say, “whereas effective teachers and schools challenge their students with high performance standards, less effective ones cater to the presumed limitations of their students by setting low standards (p.22).” Courageous teachers uphold the challenge throughout the lesson, never giving into the pull of their heartstrings when seeing students struggle. They understand that struggle is needed to grow. They understand that academic press is the key to student success.
Teachers today understand the importance of social emotional learning. But with limited budgets, most educators don’t have hundreds and thousands of dollars to spend on products and programs to increase student social, emotional and academic development. Educators without access to the district credit card want research proven, teacher tested, kid-approved strategies they can implement easily, effectively and cheaply.
