Prompt 2: Impact on Professional Practice
What are some things that you will implement (or have already implemented) and/or do differently regarding your interactions with children and/or adults resulting from your understandings of Payne's framework?

After reading Payne’s framework I feel that I am better equipped with the knowledge that is needed to be an instructor, mentor and role model to my students that are of poverty and those who are not. I think that all people, whether they are born into poverty or make decisions that put them there, have the choice to stay there. It is my job to educate and implement the knowledge and skills needed to escape poverty. If I can teach my students how to be well in all aspects of the word and be there to guide them in the resources necessary to survive outside of poverty, I have done my job well. I already am not judgmental of my students and their backgrounds, no matter where they come from. I treat them as individuals and tend to their needs from person to person, with compassion and their best interest always guiding my way. What I can do, is continue to be a positive role model in the lives of my students through education and assisting them in building healthy and responsible relationships so that they can successfully move out of poverty. “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship”- Dr. James Comer (Payne, 2005, Pg.9). I will be a part of one of those significant relationships that is a necessary resource to move out of poverty while maintaining my role model status with my students that is informative, nurturing and appropriate.

Payne, R.K. (2005). A framework for understanding poverty. (4th ed.) The Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.