Connecting with students is key to success for any educator

University of Missouri, Kansas City Professor Etta R. Hollins was the guest speaker at the recent College of Education Dean’s Speakers Series event in FIU’s Graham Center.

Despite news headlines indicating that urban schools are failing students, researchers say all is not lost.

For urban teachers to successfully educate their students, they must find a way to connect with students so they’re excited about school lessons, according to University of Missouri, Kansas City professor Etta R. Hollins, who addressed College of Education students recently as part of the Dean’s Speakers Series.

“It’s fixable, but it’s not fixable if you go through business as usual,” Hollins said. “Teachers need specific information on students – they should collect a class profile – to learn more about their students.

“Is there a child who is at least 2 years or more older than everyone in the class? That may indicate large gaps in the knowledge base. Perhaps those are prerequisites in what you teach,” she added.

Hollins cited National Assessment of Education Progress data provided by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) showing that only 36% of high school seniors are proficient in math and 28% are proficient in reading.

This problem affects minority students most, she said. Of the roughly 47 million students in urban school districts, 65 percent are minorities, according to the DOE.

South Florida is home to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest urban school district in the nation, which was recognized for significantly improving its performance in 2012 when it won the Broad Prize. Currently, 35 percent of the district’s teachers are FIU graduates.

The College of Education has also partnered with the school district to create a master of Urban Education program. The College’s CLAVE program has also paid for three cohorts of MDCPS teachers and administrators to obtain the master’s degree in Urban Education.

Progress can be made as long as teachers listen to their students and develop a lesson that resonates with them, Hollins argued.

For example, Hollins shared how she was able to get teenagers in the California Department of Juvenile Justice’s custody to learn to read.

Noticing that those students smoked cigarettes in between classes, Hollins began by helping them learn to read words such as explosive and combustible so they wouldn’t smoke in a dangerous area.

Their first textbook? The California Driver Handbook – because what teenager doesn’t want to learn to drive.

“When they say they don’t want to learn to read, what they’re really saying is they don’t want to fail any more,” Hollins said.

It made perfect sense to education students who attended Hollins’ discussion.

“When I was a teacher, I learned quickly that I had to change my approach for my students from period to period,” said Princess Briggs, an Exceptional Student Education doctoral student who taught in Liberty City schools for 17 years. “I think if we just stop trying to find a solution and just get in there and do the work, we’ll find what works with a group of kids and move forward.”

Hollins’ presentation also resonated with Benjamin Robles, a master’s student in the Higher Education program.

“Professor Hollins gave a very insightful lecture that echoes practices the arts community values in K-12 education,” Robles said. “Her emphasis on teaching models that stress true interaction with students is the only way music can be taught because music is very interactive.”