TeacherDrivenChange

Reducing Dropouts: Creating a Student Future Orientation

From a CTA IFT study of over 800 highly performing African American and Latino students and their parents, results showed that a major factor driving a high school culture of success is a future orientation.  From a theoretical perspective, future orientation is a multidimensional concept that includes such dimensions as planning, realism, and a sense of control.  From a practical perspective, a future orientation may be critical to reducing high school dropouts.  Click the comment link below if you have developed programs and strategies for encouraging a future orientation in your students.  Continue reading for more ideas on creating a student future orientation.     

School Gardens Bring the School Community Together: New Possibilities and Opportunities

School gardens present new possibilities for teachers, parents and students.  Teachers, with all backgrounds and interests can join together to create a healthy and positive environment for their students and school community.  Past garden efforts have included science, botany, social studies, history, geography, art and nutrition. 

The Master Gardener Program has been largely instrumental in implementing school garden programs. You can access its start-up kits online, where there are several informative sites on how gardens can be worked into curricula.  To join its e-mail list, go to the Common Ground Garden Program or e-mail Yvonne Savio at ydsavio@ucdavis.edu

According to teachers, gardens provide students with a multitude of learning experiences beyond the traditional classroom environment. School gardens bring students, teachers and parents together in new ways that can only have positive benefits for the entire school community. School gardens are popping up everywhere sparking new interests in community and creating a climate where students become more responsible and accountable for their own learning.  Continue reading.