EP293 When students don’t want to think for themselves or put in effort, try this.

Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers

Do you feel like self-advocacy among students is a pervasive problem? As in, if students don’t know what to do, they won’t ask questions or seek out more information … they’ll just sit there and do nothing. If something is challenging, they don’t seem to be interested in improving their skills, or learning for the sake of learning. They just give up.

In response to this, many teachers feel like they have to work harder than their students are working. They have to keep going the extra mile to make lessons personalized and engaging and put all these additional supports and interventions in place to help students be successful, all while many of their students are doing the bare minimum.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few years exploring this phenomenon, and why it’s becoming more and more common. The more that I learn about student disengagement, the more I am convinced that the solution is NOT to put the onus on teachers to make their lessons more engaging and personalized. An amazing lesson isn’t going to get through to a kid who’s not willing to engage in any mental effort.

Is it possible to teach kids how to take initiative and persevere through difficult tasks?

Absolutely. I’ll share what I’ve learned in this podcast episode.

I’m also sharing 2 free resources for implementing the practices in this episode with your students:

1. Attend a free online training with me!
   • I’m conducting two in February, one for middle school teachers and one for high school teachers. Both are designed to help you reimagine student engagement in your classroom, and rethink what might be possible for your students. A replay link will be sent to everyone who registers, so if you miss it or don’t see this podcast until it’s over, catch the replay by signing up at FindingFlowSolutions.com.
2. Download a free 5 lesson unit and try it out with your students
   • All 6 high school units and 4 of the middle school units in the Finding Flow curriculum are ready now. The first unit, called Foundations of Flow, can be accessed for free. Get the free unit and see what else is available here: https://shop.truthforteachers.com/collections/finding-flow-solutions

Click here to read the transcript and participate in the discussion.