pygmalion

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When I think of the self-fulfilling prophecy in relation to working at Running Brook I do often think about the many comments I have heard (and maybe said myself) about "our" families. I think that as a staff we need to hold back saying generic statements about our families because we may be limiting our own expectations. For example, many families may want to be more involved in the school, but we have not found a way to welcome them so they feel apart of the school. The point is that we need to avoid overarching statements that might be influencing how we interact with the families at RBES. In terms of how I feel about individual students, I would hope that I really do let each student make their own impressions. Personally, what I believe I need to monitor is how I allow a student's impression to influence my own expectations. I do believe initially there is a blank slate, but when the impression is set I think it is important to bring these thoughts to the conscience. I can think of some current fourth graders that have made a big change in the last year and I am glad that so many staff members at RBES remained positive and hopeful. What a great team!- ES

Just the other day, I witnessed this scenario: A first grader read a level E instructionally, which meant he would be marked below grade level on his report card. The teacher had expected MORE from this child. She was a little disappointed and she could have chosen to stop the long benchmarking process here, but she didn't. She tried the F and the G with him. He passed the F and scored instructional at G. The teacher's high expectations and benchmarking stamina, means that there is no question that this child will be marked on grade level. This is only **__one__** story I know. I see these things happening all of the time here at RBES and that is one of the reasons that working here makes me happy!!

We are testing.