Empowering Girls to Take a Chance

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Empowering GirlstoTake a Chance

• Laurie LaMondie, Joan Plavchan
• Woodward Elementary

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• It is very hard to be a female leader. While it
  is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has
  a soft side . . . any female leader is assumed to
  be one-dimensional.
• Billy Jean King

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Name Pantomime

• Participants stand in a circle, arms distance
  apart.  Ask each person to think of an verb and
  action which starts with the same letter as the
  person's first name e.g., "Jumping James".
• The person does the action and yells out their
  action-name.  Everyone then repeats the action
  and the action-name.
• This requires pretty high level of instructor
  energy and drama, people are pretty shy to start
  with. Really encourage everyone to join in and
  say the name and action of everyone else.
• To really drill names home, go around again, it
  should be faster and really get the blood moving.
• For participants who say "I can't think of
  anything", I say "Keep thinking, we'll come back
  to you".  If they still don't come up with
  anything, I ask the group to help.
• Note I don't allow duplicate verbs either - must
  use a unique verb.

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Smart girls arent cute.
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Breaking the Stereotype

• In 1992, Mattel Toys put the first talking Barbie
  doll on the market.
• Barbie's first words were, "Math class is tough."
  Mattel thought they were simply expressing the
  feelings of most school-age girls. Many parents
  and teachers, though, thought Barbie should keep
  her mouth shut.
• As a result, Barbie stopped talking.

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The Road to Success

• Setting the Tone
• Teachers are risk-takers
• Provide positive female role models
• Incorporate literature with strong female
  characters

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Challenging Our Girls to be Risk Takers.

• Include in your classroom
• frequent use of cooperative learning
  opportunities,
• frequent individualized learning opportunities,
• use of practical problems in assignments,
• frequent use of hands-on opportunities,
• frequent use of competitive motivational
  strategies,
• frequent activities oriented toward broadening
  views of mathematics and physical sciences.

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Have High Expectations for Girls

• Avoid rescuing girls. Encourage girls to make an
  imperfect product, to get dirty, disheveled, and
  sweaty in pursuit of a goal to make big,
  interesting mistakes.
• Encourage risk-taking and problem-solving. Don't
  be too eager to solve a girl's problems for her.
  Learning about options and consequences is a
  necessary and valuable step for all youth on
  their road to becoming confident and mature
  adults.

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High Expectations cont

• Expect and advocate for homework that includes
  complex problem-solving and requires analytic
  skills beyond simple computations.
• Stress the importance of math and science even if
  these are not your own strong points. Being
  positive about math and science and communicating
  that they are important enhances the chance for
  girls to seek math and science as attractive
  learning and career opportunities.

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• Social Lives
• Drama
• Talk, Talk, Talk
• Cliques
• Building relationships

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• Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always
  remember, you have within you the strength, the
  patience, and the passion to reach for the stars
  to change the world.
• Harriett Tubman

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• Room setup
• Dim lighting
• Personal space
• Cooperative
• Grouped
• Softer voice
• Multi-tasking
• Organization

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• Discipline
• Delayed response
• Teacher pleasers
• Personal contact
• Hugs
• Smiles
• Tone is important
• Group points
• Character building
• Words
• questions

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• Cooperative learning
• Buddy reading
• Playing teacher
• Reading
• Overhead/board
• Solving problems in front of the class

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Questions?
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• For any further questions feel free to email
• Laurie LaMondie lalamond_at_volusia.k12.fl.us
• Joan Plavchan jplavcha_at_volusia.k12.fl.us