AIM HIGH!

"It's likely that we underestimate what any student can accomplish"

- Chapter 6 Carol Ann Tomlinson 

Has one of your students ever surprised you?  Has someone ever done something that you never thought they could do? Have you yourself done something that you never thought you could do?  If you haven't done something yourself that you never thought you could do, you surely know someone that has done something that has simply surprised you.  Many times we underestimate our students abilities. Sometimes we are robbing them of the things that we don't have them do because we don't think that they can.  I am here to tell you that we are wrong.  WE need to "AIM HIGH" 

 "It is highly likely that students achieve much more when we present them with tasks that we genuinely believe to be beyond them."

-Carol Anne Tomlinson chapter 6.  

Once we start Aiming High with our students we then lead into the NO  excuses attitude!

"Accepting no excuses for work that is undone, incomplete, or inferior is trickier that it might seem.  Seen correctly, "no excuses" is not punitive but redemptive."

If we are going to require our students to accomplish tasks that we have "Aimed High" for them, we must make them accomplish the things that we have set for them to accomplish.  We cannot let our students give us excuses as to why they cannot/will not complete something that we have given them to accomplish.  Instead, we must provide support for them so that they will accomplish the task.  We cannot give our students "aim high" tasks and not give them support in doing those tasks.  It is essential for us to help our students accomplish those "aim high" tasks.  

"A no excuses teacher is formed with one part Mother Superior, and one part Marine Drill Sergent at the core.  The message is not so much, "If you don't do the homework, i'll line up zeros in the grade book," But rather, "If I need to provide a time, place, and support system in this room to make sure the homework or the project gets done, so be it--but the work will get done."

A GREAT classroom conveys to all students, 

"This is hard, but you can do hard 

things, and I am not willing to 

let you settle for less."