How Can I Set Up My Space to Encourage Self-Efficacy?

First, we must come to an agreement: Students do not want to arrive “unprepared”.

Students do not intend to come to class without a pencil, without paper, needing to go to the bathroom. They do not mean to leave their notebooks on the kitchen counter. They did not want to be have a tussle at lunch with the person sitting across from them.

Our students may have a real struggle with what we call “prepared”- the organizational bent needed to have everything in place upon arrival to our rooms.

Students are whole human beings. They have real lives, real worries, real preoccupations that we will sometimes be aware of. More often than not, we will not be aware of their current troubles.

It is easy to miss tending to their worries while we are focus on what we need from them: the lessons, the movement, the scores.

What if we removed the low-level worries of paper, pencil, tissue…?

What if they knew they would have what they needed, even if they forgot to bring it?

What if they knew they could move to a quiet space if they needed a moment?

It might not sound big until you notice the relief in a student’s eyes when they know they will be taken care of.

In the space you create, they are able to both figure and solve the Tier 1 problems of their days.

Self-efficacy in the classroom empowers the students.

Self-efficacy in the classroom removes the mundane from the teacher’s concerns.