Guest Speaker discusses how to better understand the needs of students

New Martinsville, W.Va (WTRF) – Wetzel County schools welcomed a guest speaker today to talk to the teachers about how they can better understand students and their needs, especially those that may be experiencing poverty or other situations.

Over her career, Dr. Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D., has held many different positions including high school teacher, office administrator, consultant and elementary principal.

She has also written many books including Emotional Poverty and A Framework for Understanding Poverty, both of which have sold millions of copies.

Dr. Payne has spoken to over 1 million teachers and has given more than 4,000 speeches not just in America, but around the world.

“Dr. Ruby Payne is a national speaker who has ties to West Virginia, and she really focuses on working with students that come from poverty and troubled situations and how their brains work and how trauma affects them. So, we brought her here today to just give us a better understanding of the students we work with every day. We all have the same 24 hours in the day, but because of our backgrounds, sometimes we handle situations differently. So, this gives the teachers just another layer being able to interpret what kids are coming to us with and why some of their actions or behaviors happen.”

Cassie Porter – Superintendent, Wetzel County Schools

“We talk a lot about socioeconomic levels and how you get communities to work together, how you educate individuals who come from less resource environments, what the hurdles are and how you help them overcome them. When we work with communities, it allows them to start a conversation in a non–judgmental way. The purpose of it is to provide understanding, it’s not to say that one way to live is better than another.”

Dr. Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D. – Guest Speaker

Dr. Payne spoke to the teachers of the Wetzel County Schools in two different sessions today, one in the morning and the other at noon.

Both sessions took place at the Magnolia High School Auditorium in New Martinsville.

She hopes that after today, the teachers will be able to work with their students more effectively and meet their needs no matter their background.

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