• Join Our Community

    Create an Account to join our blogging community! Need help getting started? Check out our blog guidelines. Register for our courses! SHARE: Ask questions, post your comments, recommend a book or speaker, announce an event, share your successes, tell your story; make connections.

  • About the Course

    Making Connections is an innovative, online learning tool designed to give mentors, teachers, counselors and volunteers the strategies and tools they need to build strong relationships with kids. For more information, click here.

  • About the Blog

    The Making Connections Blog is a place where mentors, teachers, counselors and volunteers who work with kids can come together to find support, resources and information that they can use to help them be even better at their jobs. It is a place to find answers, explore solutions, make connections, and share ideas, experiences, challenges and knowledge, all with the intent of finding more and better ways to build the kinds of relationships that help keep kids in school.

  • About Tobi Kibel Piatek

    Blogger, course developer, and instructor, Tobi Kibel Piatek, writes about education, designs curriculum, graphics and websites, and teaches teachers, online and in person. A long time mentor, parent and educator, her work combines a love for kids, learning and technology.


  • RSS Feed


    Subscribe in a reader

  • Blog Categories

  • Recent Posts

  • Recent Comments

  • Archives

    • « Listen and learn from each other | Home | Talking to Kids: How to Create Shared Meaning about Education »

    A Taste Of Success

    By Tobi Kibel Piatek | December 3, 2008

    “I don’t accept excuses about kids not learning. You can’t blame the kids … If a child does not succeed; it means the adults around him or her have failed.” 
    Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of     Harlem Children’s Zone, a nonprofit providing education and support programs for poor families in Harlem.  


    Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges of educating tough kids, kids  from poverty, kids who don’t want to learn, and kids who seem beyond the reach of what our schools can provide. I’ve been reading a lot, and turning to the media for ideas. One of the messages that keep coming up is that to reach those kids who are hardest to connect with, we need to find ways to make what they learn meaningful; to connect their learning to their real lives and real goals. In other words, find ways to motivate kids to want to learn. All good advice, but how?

    A blog is a great venue for sharing other people’s great thoughts and ideas. And this message, an essay for This I Believe, by Geoffrey Canada, on the NPR website not only contains an inspiring message, but expresses what I BELIEVE far better than I can. It is also a recipe for success (listen, you’ll see what I mean.)

    PLEASE TELL US: What motivated you to stay in school? What motivates you now? Please share your thoughts, and your ideas for ways to motivate kids. 

    Topics: How to Help, Inspiration, Recommended Resources |

    One Response to “A Taste Of Success”

    1. ck-night Says:
      May 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

      Some strategies I can use, and have used in the past, to helps kids develop positive peer relationships are:

      teach them to respect each others differences
      not to force their opinions onto others
      support each other
      encourage each other to do well in school
      have fun with each other in safe ways

      Strategies that can help deflect negative peer pressures and influences are:

      talking with them one-on-one
      encouraging them to stick with their gut feelings
      find out what they like/don’t like
      come up with strategies to get out of an awkward situations without looking “uncool”
      not to care so much about what others think
      reminding them that this is only a small portion of the rest of their lives

    Comments

    You are not logged in!
    Want to avoid this extra security? Please log in!