Children learn what they live. So do teachers.
You will not reach some children academically until you have reached them on the human level first. That is not sentiment. It is the foundation the rest of teaching stands on, in the classroom and at home.
Dr. Javia McKinney began as a missionary teacher traveling with missionary families, then taught in public and private schools after returning to America. Across 30 years in the field she has trained, mentored, and encouraged educators in excellence for the profession they have chosen, because they will make a difference in the lives of students. Today she is a national trainer with the Center for Teacher Effectiveness in both Classroom Management and Student Engagement and Motivation, CEO of a non-profit serving families, and a pastoral counselor.
She keeps her teaching philosophy simple, and she borrows it from Madeline Hunter: kids do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. People hear that as warm and fuzzy. Dr. McKinney hears it as a strategy, because you will not reach some children academically until you reach them human to human first. Her mother, also an educator, put it another way: children learn what they live. It is the same truth the Unconditional Positive Regard strategy in Time To Teach training is built on.
It was a teacher who once helped me overcome shyness, fear, and the effects of childhood emotional trauma. That minor miracle happened in a classroom, led by an enthusiastic, well-prepared, loving drama teacher.
Like her Time To Teach mentors, she believes teachers do not need any more theory or trendy programs with catchy names. They need research-based, proven, practical strategies they can put to work immediately, without discarding anything already working in their rooms. Educators hold the toughest job in the world, asked daily to be mom, dad, nurse, counselor, advisor, judge, and jury. Students arrive with backgrounds, cultures, abilities, and experiences as wide-ranging as the world itself; sometimes their age is the only thing they share, and the one-size-fits-all approach stopped working long ago.
She is also honest about the assumption too many people make, especially outside education: that children arrive at school ready and willing to learn. Educators know better. A generation is arriving largely un-socialized, learning behavior from screens and social media, which makes teaching those expectations part of the job. From 8:00 to 4:00 she helps teachers, and parents, resolve a great deal of it, through motivation, inspiration, humor, and a common-sense approach to stress, and she leaves every room with as many proven, practical strategies as she can hand over.
Traveling and teaching with missionary families, learning that children everywhere learn what they live.
Bringing that experience home to classrooms across the country, and to parents raising children at home.
Certified in Classroom Management and in Student Engagement and Motivation; training educators in Florida, South Carolina, and across the U.S., on site and on Zoom.
Education Advocate, pastoral counselor, and founder of Loving Lambs, Bible-integrated learning resources for parents of toddlers and preschoolers.
This was the best logical presentation on discipline I've had in twenty-three years of teaching. I have practical ideas I can use immediately. He demonstrated great knowledge of classroom practices, management, and what life is actually like in the classroom. So few do.
"One of the most immediately useful workshops I've taken. Even after 20 years."
"I've never seen anything like this. You get tools you can apply the very next day."
For K-12 schools and districts ready to give their teachers a day that actually changes Monday morning. Available across the United States.