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“Are you okay?”

These three little words can make the difference between closing the door on a child and opening up a dialogue. When I train teachers how to help disengaged students, I train teachers (in both online and face-to-face environments) to begin each conversation with this simple query.

But such a small thing can have such a huge impact. I’ve recently begun an interview process with teachers I trained a year ago in this technique. These teachers were chosen because there is objective evidence that students in their classes have higher levels of engagement and academic activity than students in other teachers’ classes instructing the exact same course and content. I’ve only gotten through the first four interviews so far. However three of the four teachers indicated that they used this technique when talking to disengaged students and the effect was very positive.
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