My "Amens"

I'm really enjoying Empower!  

Here are my "Amens" from chapters 4-6

"It's a shift from REQUIRE to DESIRE."

"Student choice is the heartbeat of ownership and empowerment."

"Your legacy as an educator is always determined by what your students do.   You change the world by empowering your students to do the same."

"Self-managers are able to take a larger task and break it down into sub-tasks and eventually deadlines.   They can think realistically about what is needed in terms of time, resources, and concrete actions."

"Self-management begins with a sense of awareness regarding what you are doing, where you are going, and what you plan to do next.  Students with this sense of awareness understand not only what they are doing but why they are doing it."

"Point out when you see students taking charge and self-starting their own learning."

"Students will take initiative when something matters to them.  This sounds simple, but it is actually a challenge.   It requires teachers to tap into students' interests and passions."

"I was afraid that students would be lazy.   Instead, they worked harder because they cared about their work.   I was afraid they would get confused and give up.   Instead, they took more creative risks."

"Choice, whether completely free or with limitations, is what will drive our students to dive deeper into learning."

"Yet the problem is that we often fail to encourage students to try new things and instead DEMAND that they try new things."

"Whether or not you discover your talents and passions is partly a matter of opportunity.   If you've never been sailing or picked up an instrument, or tried to teach or write fiction, how would you know you had a talent for these things?"

"They rarely have a chance to choose their learning path in school and routinely treat school like a job instead of the most valuable learning experience they will ever have."