I TEACH MY HEART OUT EVERY DAY: What More Do You Want From Me?

By Regenia M Rawlinson

I Teach My Heart Out Every Day: What More Do You Want from Me is a transformative guide for educators, designed to elevate both teacher and student experiences in the classroom. This insightful book delves into how negative feelings and attitudes can impact student achievement and offers practical strategies to foster a positive learnin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Village Concepts Consultants, LLC
• Release date: May 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869385130

Regenia M Rawlinson

Rawlinson has an extensive background in education, having served as a teacher, school counselor, and district administrator. Since 1997, she has been sharing her insights on enhancing student achievement and teacher efficacy. As a local, state, national, and international presenter, she has also authored nine books. Residing in South Carolina with her husband David, they are the proud parents of three adult children and delight in their role as grandparents.

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I Teach My Heart Out Every Day

What More Do You Want from Me?

Regenia M Rawlinson

Copyright © 2018 Regenia M Rawlinson

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Published by Village Concepts Consultants, LLC

ISBN 1547127244

e-book formatting by bookow.com

Dedication

Writing this book and developing this model has been a challenge. I would like to thank my family for their confidence and assistance in completing this work.

Gratitude to my husband, David, who is my strongest advocate, and to my children—David, Bradford, and Brittany—who taught me more about myself than I thought I needed to learn.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of educators everywhere.

Preface

Recently, I attended a family reunion held at the public school where I attended 1st through 12th grade. As I walked the halls and peered into classrooms, memories flooded my mind. I could hear the noise of students and the voices of various teachers. For the first time since I left that school, I remembered how I felt about being there.

My school was not a comfortable place for me because I did not feel nurtured, inspired, or that people held high expectations for me. I imagine people did not expect me to do well because I lacked some of the academic and social skills other students had acquired. My family was poor, and with seventeen children, my parents did not have the time to devote to reading, writing, and math before we entered school. Coupled with lacking in various simple social graces (e.g., eating properly, using proper English, and issues with voice pitch), not having acquired basic skills in math, reading, and writing made me appear unintelligent. This false perception of my ability to learn fueled the negative comments my teachers made to me, including the following remarks: How many times do I need to explain this to you? If you were paying attention, you would know what to do. You should know this already.

These comments helped shaped my academic self-esteem. I introduce this term here because I have concluded from my work as a teacher and counselor that academic achievement is linked to how students feel about their environment and about the people in that environment. Academic self-esteem is the perception students hold about their academic abilities. In the school environment, teachers are among the most important people to students. What teachers say and how they interact with students has a profound effect on how students will feel about learning. Students who feel that teachers like them and hold high expectations for them will work harder to perform well.

The following story of Cary illustrates the impact of positive messages that teachers communicate to students. Cary was enrolled in Algebra II. Apprehensive about taking the class, he came to my office to change it to a less challenging math course. He was hesitant because math has always been a struggle for him. As his counselor, I advised against dropping the Algebra II class because his standardized math scores and his previous grades in math indicated he could do the work. He agreed to stay in the course.

In his Algebra II class, Cary earned his highest math grade ever in high school. I asked him to explain why he thought he performed better than usual in the class. He said, "The teacher thought I could do it, and I did it because I didn’t want