Meet Your Students Where They Are.

As we talked about in the cultural proficiency training yesterday it is essential that we figure out who our students are. We began this journey a couple of months ago talking about ourselves and explaining what has shaped us into the people we are. We have also participated in an activity that forced many of us to feel the isolation that many of our students feel each day they walk through the doors at Antioch. Yesterday, we focused on how to meet our students where they are.

I challenge you all to take a minute out of your day to look at your class roster and think about the baggage the students you serve may be carrying. Take the activity we conducted and do the same for your students. Do the policies and procedures you have in place hinder these students' success? If so, what changes can you make to help them feel comfortable at school? Ask your students the questions Adam talked about. How do they feel at school, what do they think you value, what do they think their parents value? All of these questions should help you to better understand where they are. If we don't know where they are how can we meet them there?

I hope that the training was beneficial and you took what we discussed to heart. As Adam stated it is our job to prepare our students to be successful citizens. We need to reach them and pull them as far as we can. If they come to us with baggage, which many do, we cannot dump more baggage on them. Take some time and reflect and make sure we are helping to lighten the load of baggage the students are carrying. Go and meet them where they are and do the great things I know you all can do.