I learned my third year of teaching that only 28% of my students
were going to college, and out of that, 50% would drop out within a year.
When I dig deeper, I discovered that the rest of them were going to work
at minimum wage jobs.
I knew that was going to lead to a cycle of intergenerational poverty,
and I knew something had to be done, so I decided to do something about this,
and went on a quest to figure out how to help my students
live meaningful lives beyond the classroom.
What I have learned led to the creation of the morning class.
Why is it called the morning class?
Because when I came up with the concept, I had no name.
Teachers. We know how that works.
One of the students said, "Well since it's going to happen in the morning,
let's just call it the morning class."
The morning class is a before-school program
that empowers kids to live a meaningful life in the world
socially, professionally, academically. and economically.
It is built on five essential skills:
developing the right attitude and mindset,
creating a clear goals and vision for the future,
communication skills, leadership, and financial management.
My idea is that teaching is all about cultivating and nurturing relationships.
It doesn't matter how great our lessons are,
or how skilled we are at delivering those lessons,
or how knowledgeable we are of our content area,
if the students we are teaching do not feel how much we care about them.
Every student in our classroom is asking three questions:
Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you?
When students are able to feel "yes" to these answers,
that's when they are fully present and engaged with us
throughout the school year.
While I was jumping up and down about the importance of the French Revolution,
the child in front of me did not eat breakfast that morning.
While I was raving about the importance of passing the standardized exams,
the child in the back of the room slept in a homeless shelter the night before.
Did I know any of this? No, because my focus was
helping them to understand the curriculum,
instead of taking the time to learn their hopes, their dreams, and their fears.
But I started to shift my approach during my second year of teaching.
It was this moment when I realized that in order for us
to inspire our students to achieve greatness,
we first have to take the time to learn their stories.
We need to help our students to develop the right attitude and mindset.
And I started to implement those elements in my classroom,
during my second year of teaching.
I taught my students about growth mindset,
I taught them about the importance of having certain goals,
I taught them about the importance of developing the confidence
and the belief that they matter.
And one of the things I discovered at the end of that year
was that when students' personal lives develop,
their academic will follow.
Because I had the same cohort my first year like my second year,
but the first year, their standardized test scores was 29%,
and then the second year it went up to 69%.
That, however, while it was impressive, it's not necessarily unique
because in a 2012 Loyola University study, which analyzed over 213 schools,
concluded that schools with strong social and emotional learning curriculum
on average outperforms their counterparts by 11 points on the standardized exams,
which goes to demonstrate that when we focus on meeting the needs of our students,
we could ensure their academic success.
During my first year of teaching,
I had this student who would come in every day at 9:15.
Our school starts at 9:00 a.m
And he did this purposefully.
He would come in and he would go to every table to shake his friends' hands.
And as a first year teacher, I would stop in the middle of my lesson
and yell at him for distracting my class.
And we would go back and forth.
This went on, believe it or not, for an entire year.
The following year, when I changed my approach,
and my focus became meeting the needs of my students,
there was a day I was teaching this lesson on human needs psychology,
helping my students to understand why people do what they do,
what is the driving force behind human behavior,
and how could they uncover what drives them.
One of the things he realized that there was that his top two needs
are significance, and love and connection.
That's what he valued the most in life.
So in the middle of that lesson, he raised his hand and said,
"Mister," I said, "Yes?"
"Well do you know why I gave you such a hard time last year?"
I said, "Ah no." He paused and said,
"All I wanted was to connect with you, and I couldn't.
But when I disrupt your classroom, you had no choice but to pay attention to me."
And that was another turning point for me,
because at that moment I realized that there is always a story behind the story.
When we are seeing students misbehaving in our classrooms,
while it's important to look at the behavior, I think it's far more crucial
to inquire about the reason or reasons behind that behavior
because behind every behavior, there's an underlying cause,
and if we could uncover that cause, we could help our students
to meet their objectives in a positive manner,
just as I was able to do with that student.
Because in that second year, he became my assistant,
and in that process he was able to meet the top two needs that drive him the most,
which are, he felt significant because he was my assistant,
but more importantly he was able to get the connection that he craved so much,
not only from me but also from his classmates,
because they saw him as a leader, and in that process,
he thrived and became one of our top students by the time he graduated.
If somebody is interested in starting the morning class program,
I think what I would advise is it started, for me, it started in my classroom,
but it first started with taking the time to learn and understand my students' stories.
The most important ability that a teacher can have is the ability to influence.
When you are able to influence your students,
you can help them to achieve almost anything.
But how can you influence somebody,
if you don't know what influences that person?
During my second year of teaching and beyond,
I start every school year with this activity called, "Begin with the end in mind."
I ask my students to write letters to their future selves about their hopes,
their fears, and their aspirations,
and I ask them to write a letter that they will be proud to read
at the end, on the last day of the school year.
When they write those letters, that's–
that goes on to become my guiding principle in how I engage with that particular student
because I know that student's hope and fears,
I know what motivates the students, and I know what they are aiming for.
But I also know what they are worried about.
So that is one activity that I always do with my students.
The second, another one would be, I always start every class with an affirmation
because whatever you say to yourself over time, you tend to believe it,
and we start every class with an affirmation to instill in my students
that they matter,
and then we end the class with gratitude and appreciation.
And in that process, it's not only about me, but it's we,
what can you appreciate about what happened in this class over the past 60 minutes?
And through that organic process, I was able to build,
I was starting to personally
building meaningful relationships with my students,
but also fostering a community whereby they could feel safe
to share some of their vulnerabilities.
Every Wednesday, I ask my students,
what have you done in the past seven days to improve the human condition?
It is extremely important for teachers to share their ideas with the world.
Teachers are professionals, and in order for us to be treated as professionals,
we need to strive for collective autonomy.
And collective autonomy would depend us willing to share with each other
our best practices.
You know, our stories are our most prized possession
and the most valuable gift that we can give to each other.
An idea that you might be doing in your class that you feel is insignificant,
that could end up being transformative for another educator somewhere in the world.
For example, I always give my students this prompt
whenever we read a text or watch a documentary
or analyze a historical document,
whenever we are done with those activities, I always ask my students,
"What did this author overlook in their argument?"
I've been asking that question for years, never thought it would mean anything,
never thought much about it, but then couple of years ago,
I had an educator who was visiting my classroom,
and I asked that question and my students were able
to look at what that person overlooked.
Because what I tried my, what I attempt for my students to understand
is that no matter how compelling somebody's argument is,
there's always something they might be missing in there
or they might not even thought about,
and for that teacher, that became a game changer for him,
because what he struggled with the most with his students
was to help them with their analytical skills,
and he told me that by asking that question,
his students analytical abilities were able to expand,
and he is able to see more growth in that area of their academic development
than in previous years.
That's something I would have never thought about sharing,
because it's like that's not a big deal at all, but it actually is.
Not all teachers want to become an administrator, but all teachers are leaders,
and we are the first example to show our students how to use their voice.
We need to model what we expect of our students,
and the best way to do that is to put ourselves out there and share best practices
so that together, we could finally achieve that collective autonomy
and be treated as the professionals that we are.