EDUCATION PORTFOLIO

       Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It a book written by Eric Jensen touches on what it means to be poor and how it affects students in school.  It gives details on how poverty hurts children, families and communities (Jensen).  Jensen believed that if people who live in poverty tried harder and had better values they would succeed which is what drove him to write the book.  In doing his research and traveling through poor neighborhoods he now understands that he was wrong in his thinking.  He realized that his thinking was prejudice.  He says that change can happen but it can happen through life experiences and these experiences can be given through teaching.   Jensen states that lack of cognitive thinking, motivation, determination and depression is derived from chronic stress associated with poverty.  Their environment becomes more of a struggle to survive within it than that of an enrichment opportunity.  Jensen gives effective strategies to help low-income students succeed in their environment but most importantly in education.  Jensen explains that practices such as engagement and active participation can be skills used in a classroom that will produce cognitive thinking and better results in learning.