Fulfilling the Promise Ch 3-4

I really liked that the author is now going into detail about the words she put surrounding the cog. One of the elements that I really connected to was the element of Persistence. I think that in our country, we have kids that are really good at accepting answers given to them and if they can't figure out the solution, they will just tell the teacher they don't get it and then the teacher will show them how to get the answer. Dr. Tuft told us about a math exam that is administered in several different countries and proceeding the exam there is a questionnaire that is netorious for being long and tedious. A lot of people don't even complete it because they just don't want to. What is interesting is that the scores on the actual math portion correlated perfectly with the completion rate of the questionnaire. Or in other words, those who were persistent enough to finish something, even if it was hard and tedious were more successful at math. I think that if the teacher is a model for this attribute (like the book suggests) that the feeling of "I can do something even if it's hard" will be applied to all subjects.

I really liked the section on communication in the classroom. I feel like every psychologist and talk show host (not that they are the best source for teaching children) talk about the importance of communication in order to maintain a healthy family and marital relationships. If we are trying to create a close community of learners in our classroom, shouldn't we base the health of our relationships on communication? Just like everything else, we have to model this behavior because, lets get real, a 7 year old is not going to have the best communication skills. I think as teachers we don't necessarily have to worry about letting things go in order to avoid hurt feelings, but better find a good way to communicate our concerns in a constructive way.