The Power of Because by Chante Jefferson

Working with children on a daily basis has reminded me that simple is often better. Children are fascinated and captivated by the simplest things in life. Somewhere in between childhood and adulthood we lose the appreciation for these simple things. When attending a highly recommended professional development, I expected to be blown away by the material being presented. However, I was blown away by a simple take away. Doctor (Dr.) Julie Jackson, the presenter from Texas State University, was speaking to use about the “power of because.” At the time I had no idea how this would drastically affect my instruction. Growing up in the public school system myself, I was accustomed to the traditional questioning methods which included asking “why.” Naturally I was defensive when Dr. Julie Jackson suggested using because as an alternative since that was the way I acquired curriculum. She went on to explain how a question posed by the word “because” instead of “why” was more inviting to students. She noticed that students backed out of answers when she used “why” instead of “because” since they felt that they were wrong. I began to reflect on the situations in my own life where I might use why. I found majority of the situations were because I disagreed with an idea or statement of another person. As a teacher, our job is to encourage children to think outside of the box although my questioning technique was doing the exact opposite. As I begin to implement “because” into my class I find that it is not only inviting but inclusive. The students feel as their ideas are being heard and more likely to participate in class discussions. Our students come from different walks of life and we need to broaden their perspective. This perspective adds to breadth and depth of knowledge we strive for in our classroom and world. Will you embrace the power of because? Because our children are longing to be heard.

Welcome to our PARK (Passionate About Randolph Kids)!

We are thrilled to start a new blog this year at JRE which will have posts written by our AMAZING staff! They have so many great things to share from insights, lesson ideas, classroom management techniques, and many more! Enjoy!