How to Ensure Each Student Succeeds
How to Ensure Each Student Succeeds
to 8pm. I loved watching my students’ abilities
soar to heights they never imagined pos-
sible.
Then, I was faced with a
challenge at home
so ironic; I was
ashamed to admit
to it.
Life Lesson # 103:
How to Ensure Each Student Succeeds
Author: Anastasia Leiphart
Inside of the Box? Outside of the Box? Forget the box: Look at the Student
There are not many things in my life that I am cator” in classroom. However, I am admitting
ashamed to admit.
that home school is the best option for one of
my three children.
For example, I find it difficult to sugarcoat the
truth, especially when the truth is so simple. I Wow, that is difficult to say.
do try hard to locate that sugar bowl to throw
some sweetness at statements after they have I feel as if I am betraying the very system that
left my mouth too soon. Sometimes it works. nurtured and raised me. I need to wave my flag
If it doesn’t, “Oh well. Here’s a fork, the truth is a little higher. I’m still one of you! I promise! This
meaty.”
choice did not come easy, so please hold your
hate mail.
Several more recent admissions rocked my
world, and most likely will for sometime to I have taught in classrooms in The US and around
come.
the world for over a decade. Differentiating for
every child, sometimes for upwards of 80 stu-
1. I have often been called a “Rock Star edu- dents every day, and meeting with parents up
10
SPRING 2017
Not anymore.
.
2. I have
watched
for years as
my own chil-
dren struggled
through learn-
ing difficulties.
As
a mother it has left me dis-
traught because I did not un-
derstand how I was so success-
ful in the classroom, yet my own children
struggled to such a great extent. I helped
in every way I knew how, and yet the strug-
gle continued. Motherly guilt abounds and I
found no answers.
Some colleagues offered, “It’s because you are
a teacher, it’s the teacher-mother curse,” or “I
think you are looking too deeply and putting
your career on your child. They are fine.” Or
the incredibly hurtful, “You work too much,
you are never home.” Somehow, those an-
swers never helped my own children succeed
to the levels of the students in my classroom.
This school year that changed.
A light bulb went off.
One child has a literacy
delay. Another is profoundly gifted with
ADHD. The third still young and needs a
large amount of structure. They
were all at one school and all
struggling. My husband
and I looked at each
other and asked,
“Why are we plac-
ing them in one
school, expect-
ing the same
results?”
When mov-
ing back to
The
United
States, we located
separate schools
that held bene-
fits for each child,
in the same geographic
area. Our plan is working out
quite well for two of our children.
The child gifted with ADHD - She is a social
butterfly, of course, but has grown bored
and her grades are not as
they should reflect.
When I suggested
the idea of home
school to her, she
did not, as I ex-
pected, protest.
She inquired if
she would still see
her friends. When
I said yes, she
then asked if
she could
study
dol-
SPRING 2017 11