Learning Goal Cycle, Asset Based Learning, and The School of Hope with Cathleen Beachboard

Published: May 21, 2023, 9 a.m.

Today's conversation is with Cathleen Beachboard. She is a teacher, author, and researcher. Her research focuses on psychological tools schools can use to help students and staff increase psychological hope, resiliency, achievement, and happiness. 

Topics Discussed:
1. Psychological Hope rewires the brain and it allows you to form grit, determination, and the ability to think, evolve, change, grow, and thrive. 

2. Agency, Goals, and Pathways combine to form psychologic hope.

3. You can strengthen these. 

4. You can start building hope in your classroom by measuring your students hope level.

5. Take high hope kids and put them near low hope kids. They will raise up the psychological hope for students around them. 

6. Create a google slide show that is blank for every kid. Tell them to go online and create a slide show about who they want to be when that are 40 years old. Create them about who they want to become.

7. Focus on who you want to be as a person. 

8. Little goals ultimately project who we are going to become. 

9. Learning goal cycle - you put the criteria for success  - I know I am successful when ______”

10. Have students set their own goals. Every time they reach a personal goal they reach higher and set tougher goals. 

11. The whole goal of learning is to get better.

12. Growing fuels hope.

13. Interweave hope into your day.

14. Start the day intentional good. We can’t control everything, but interweave those intentional moments.

15. Have protected time during the day that you can use to do something that resets you.

16. Behaviors are a form of communication.

17.  Create a self care plan for yourself and help your students develop one. Create a plan for what you will do on your worst day and your best day. 

18. Every child has their own coping mechanism.

19. Little acts can help save us and keep us hopeful 

20. To fight learned helplessness show students that they can. 

21. Help students see what their good at. 

22. Have students write letters to adults in the building thanking them. 

23. Point out students strengths (You write such beautiful stories you tell me. I just need you to write them and I believe you have the ability to get there)

24. Have students list all their strengths. Ask how can you use your strengths to help solve their problems.

25. Don’t focus on the problem, focus on the person. 

26. Remind people that you are more than your problem.

27. Use hope from the past to fuel future hope. 

28. Make phone calls home to point out the great things students are doing. 

29. End your day intentionally. Remind yourself that your are grateful for this child that did ________________.

30. Send out three emails a day to colleagues who support you everyday. Be a cheerleader for others.

31. Have students write a thank you for those who helped them. 

32. As soon as you take ownership of your problems you control the outcomes. 

33. Create a staff strength directory. 

34. It is important to remember that you are not alone. 

35. When you start looking for the good you’ll realize there’s more good than bad

36. Book recommendations: Dr. Schneider - The Psychology of Hope

37. Podcast recommendation: Brene Brown’s podcast

38. Teacher’s you are valuable and you can lead from where you are.

39. Hope is measurable and malleable within 90 minutes of intervention 

Book: The School of Hope https://us.corwin.com/books/school-of-hope-278455
              40% off code: AUTHOR40

Website: https://theschoolofhope.org

Social Media: 
Twitter: @CathleenBeachbd