Dr. Tommy A. Watson, Ed. D., ACC
Thank You…
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Overview
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 Interactive time together (Like Southern Baptist Church
Experience)
 I hope that you like your neighbor
 Message: Our expectations matter
 Share my story of hope and educators who helped me to
be motivated
 Research on expectations
 Interactive questions
 3VS to student motivation
 Short Q & A
The Educator’s Creed
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Above all, do nothing to diminish hope.
What does it mean to have hope?
What are the benefits?
My Story…
Dr. Tommy A. Watson
web: www.tawatson.com
tawatson@tawatson.com
704-944-3555
Bestselling Book: A Face of Courage
Twitter @DrInspiration1
Denver post news
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Tommy Watson doesn't blink when I ask for his
parents' names. He just asks me not to print them.
The names give me access to their criminal records,
and as I leaf through them, I wonder how Tommy
Watson made it…
The Power of a Teacher
by Haim Ginott
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I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.
It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to
make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a
tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I
can humiliate or humor, hurt, or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides
whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated
and a child humanized or de-humanized.
What do you see?
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 http://capitalogix.typepad.com/public/2010/1
0/awareness-test-your-attention-span-is-shorterthan-you-think.html
 What did we expect to focus on starting out?
 We see what we are directed to see.
 How often do we do the same with our
students?
 Do we see students as At-risk or At-resilient?
 How do we see ourselves?
Research on Expectations
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 Our expectations become self-fulfilling prophecy
 Pygmalion In Classroom (Ground breaking study on expectations,
1968 Rosenthal and Jacobson)
 High expectations always trump circumstances
 People w/ poor expectations internalize their label (blue-eyed vs.
Brown-eyed Experiment (Jane Elliott)
 Educators/schools with low expectations blame school failure on
student behavior, poverty, lack of support from administration,
inferior facilities, uninvolved parents, and bureaucracy at the district
level.
 Educators w/ high expectations focus on student learning, building
relationships, classroom management, and professional development
to support their efforts.
 Students live up to or down to educator expectations
 Students most impacted by low expectations: Black/Latino, male, lowincome, special education
 High Expectations= High Demand & High Care
3Vs to High
Expectations/Motivation
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 1st-Values
 2nd- Vision/Visuals
 3rd-Verbal Affirmations
1+2+3=High Expectations/Motivation
Values
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Connecting content and future to value of students
Uninterested #1 reason for dropping out of school
The value one puts on the perceived outcome or reward.
What’s in it for me?
Relevance—when they think the learning goals and assessments
are meaningful and worth learning (Marzano, 1992)
Must have clarity of individual needs, desires, goals, dreams
Belief in value of outcome
My example
How do you (will you) find out what your students value
(interest/dreams) and connect those things to content and to
their future?
Vision/Visual
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 Search Institute identified: Positive Personal view of future (key
asset)
 Showing students a clear path
 Providing students with examples of people who have been in
similar circumstances
 Is the belief that if I complete certain actions then I will meet my
achieved outcome (Clear Path).
 In the classroom-Clearly state expectations and evaluation for
expectations upfront
 Task clarity—when they clearly understand the learning goal and
know how teachers will evaluate their learning (Marzano, 1992)
 Students are provided with work examples and rubrics for
academic outcomes Vision of what is possible
 My example
 In what ways have you or will you provide examples of success
(inside and outside of the classroom) to your students?
Verbal Affirmations
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 Research shows: Negative words dominate our language
 Letting students know that you believe in them
 “Look at a man the way he is, he only becomes worst. But
look at him as if he were what he could be, then becomes
what he should be.” Johann Goethe
 Does the person making the request believe in me?
 Speaking positive words into the life of your student
(greatness, over-comer, college, etc.)
 Examples: My example, Ryan Vernosh- I am Somebody,
Harvest Prep School, CDF Freedom Schools Something
Inside so Strong :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGi02rGwuQY
 What words of encouragement (poems/song) do you (or
would you like to) share with your students to let them
know that they are capable of meeting the desired
outcomes and that their efforts matter?
Expect to Be the Hero that Your
Students Need
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Story of Hope
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Q&A
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