A new teaching process aimed at making kids succeed in life, not just on tests, was described for the Gilmer Rotary Club at its meeting Tuesday.

The speaker was Mike Teague, Gilmer Intermediate School sixth grade teacher, who was introduced by Rotarian Wayne Arnold.

“Capturing kids’ hearts” is “a lifestyle we’re trying to live,” Teague explained.

He told how he started the school year by each day greeting every student with a handshake and the statement, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Each was told to look him in the eye. The students were asked to name a good thing in their lives, regardless of how bad their personal situations were.

Within two weeks, he said, the students were coming to class eager for the handshake.

Youngsters want to be engaged and respectful, Teague has found.

“If you capture a kid’s heart, you’ll have his head,” he asserted.

He credited the Flippen Group with originating the “teaching to excel” mentality, which, he said, also appeals to corporations, which have sent managers for training.

He summed up the style for teachers as follows:

Engage each other and students.

Explore who they [students] are.

Communicate the content of the course, and also the ability of the students to communicate back to you.

Empower students to use the things they’ve been taught.

Launch them into society; speak words of affirmation.

Teague said 51 teachers have taken four days of training in the new teaching style. He said he spoke to an in-service session at which he advised the teachers: “If you’re not starting with their hearts, go do something else.”