Friday, December 21, 2012

Aha Moments

     Thank you, Oprah, for coining the term "aha moment." Otherwise I wouldn't have quite the right phrasing to describe this week's post. Yes, readers, this post is dedicated to sharing three "aha moments" I have had this week while conferencing and collaborating with some of the teachers I work with as an instructional coach. Sometimes when I observe a class, or have a discussion with a teacher about issues he or she is experiencing, an idea will just occur to me -- a new way of looking at something, a fresh perspective, an aha moment. (Side note -- this is why I think that, as educators, we need to watch each other teach more often and we need to have more and more open discussions with one another about issues in our classrooms, because often it is through these experiences that new ideas will come to us!)
     Here we go . . .

Aha Moment #1
     Lately I've worked as instructional coach with several teachers who are having difficulty getting their class's attention -- a problem all of us have experienced, for sure. We've talked about using quiet signals and about which quiet signal will work the best. The answer is that no one quiet signal is "the best." Truly this is the case since, if there were said magical signal, we'd all be using it. Here comes the "aha" -- it doesn't fully matter which quiet signal you use (whether it's clapping a pattern, ringing a chime, a call and response, etc., etc.). What matters is . . . drum roll, please . . . specifying your expectations for students. What should they do, specifically, when this quiet signal occurs?? I'd venture to say most of us (including myself before this particular aha moment) simply assume that of course our students know what we want from them at this quiet signal moment. But have we been explicit enough? Have we said, while practicing the quiet signal, "Students, when you hear this chime (or insert alternative quiet signal here), your eyes should be on me, and you should be absolutely silent. This means you are ready and are waiting to see what the next set of directions or what the next transition will be"? Have we posted these expectations in our classrooms? I think students need for us to be this explicit. Why leave it to chance that they just inherently know what the heck we're talking about?

Aha Moment #2
     This aha is sort of tied to a memory of mine. Lately, I've also been working with several teachers on using summarizers at the end of a lesson. Mainly, we've discussed avoiding falling into a rut with these summarizers. Tickets To Leave are great, but do students start becoming numb to them when they see them too often? My aha moment answers a resounding "yes." And I'll tell you why. While discussing repetitive summarizers with one of these concerned teachers, I was visited by the Ghost of In-Service Workshops Past. In a former district of mine, we teachers would be given a 3-2-1 exit slip at the end of each in-service. Reflecting on the workshop, we were to write 3 things that had interested us, 2 things we still had questions about, and 1 thing we could immediately start using in our classrooms. The first few times this type of exit slip was used, we all dutifully and thoughtfully filled out the 3-2-1 reflection. However, this went on for years. And years. By the time we had been filling out 3-2-1s at the end of each and every in-service workshop for four or five years, no one was being all that reflective or thoughtful about it anymore. Honestly? It was boring. It was old. We were tired of it. I can't help but think that students who are presented with the same summarizer day after day start to feel the same way. Aha! Variety is the spice of life!

And Finally . . . 
Aha Moment #3
     Lately, several teachers have lamented to me about students who repeatedly call out during a class discussion or during a question and answer session. This has frustrated all of us from time to time. And we know as teachers that this is not a good behavior to encourage in the classroom. It's unfair if only certain students' voices are heard, especially since these students are being heard due to behavior that can be interpreted as rude or inconsiderate of others. This is not the lesson we want to teach our students about how to be heard in life. But, what to do, what to do? And then it hit me! Get into the habit of asking questions by asking students to raise their hands. For example, instead of phrasing your question as "What is the main character struggling with in this paragraph?," phrase it as "Raise your hand if you can tell us what the main character is struggling with." Seem too simple of a solution to be true? Ah, my friends, but I've seen it work! With the latter phrasing, students are following the main direction being given to them, which is to raise their hands if they know the answer. With the former phrasing, no such direction is inherent. Another point for explicitness!

     I realize, having just written all of the above, how vital a tool reflective writing is. If I did not have this blog, this outlet for sharing my thoughts of the week, would I remember and retain these aha moments? Or would these realizations (simple and "common-sense-y" as they may be) slip my mind eventually, causing me to consistently struggle with the same issues? Reflective practitioning works, readers! Jot down those ahas!

     No more posts from me until I resume work during the first week of January. Happy Holidays, readers, and to my fellow educators out there -- have a lovely vacation!

Friday, December 14, 2012

When the Teacher Sneezes

     I've been reading a book by Todd Whitaker lately entitled What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most. It's an easy little read that (unfortunately at times) doesn't delve into too many specifics, but does offer a nice educational philosophy. Whitaker has conducted several studies on great teaching, theorizing to his readers that there are certain things that great teachers consistently do as part of their practices that set them apart from their colleagues. I thought I'd share some of these with you this week:
  • Great teachers set -- and stick to -- expectations. Whitaker explains that establishing expectations is vastly different from establishing rules. He claims that "great teachers don't focus on 'What am I going to do if students misbehave?' They expect good behavior -- and generally that's what they get" (2004, p.18). (Remember I warned you about the lack of specifics?? Whitaker doesn't go into much detail about how great teachers expect good behavior -- about what that looks like and sounds like, etc. But his philosophy is a nice starting point for us all to start thinking about what that might look like for us.)
  • Great teachers have a bag of classroom management tricks, like using eye contact or proximity. Great teachers know that a teacher never wins an argument with a student: "As soon as it starts, we have lost. If their peers are watching, they cannot afford to give in" (p. 26). And great teachers recognize that yelling doesn't work. (I learned this last lesson the hard way when I first started teaching. During my very first year, I yelled full volume at a very talkative class. It resulted in pin-drop silence . . . for about five minutes. I had lost my cool, my control. My students had won. They had been able to do that to me. I never yelled at a class again because I knew it didn't work.)
  • Great teachers know that they want all students on their side. Whitaker offers this scenario: It's the first day of school. There are 25 students in a class and 24 of them are on their best first-day-of-school behavior. But #25 is not. As Whitaker insists, and I agree, right now the remaining 24 students are on the teacher's side. They want the teacher to take steps so that #25 will stop misbehaving. However, because #25 is one of them, they want the teacher to deal with #25 in a professional and respectful way. If the teacher does so, he's got the class on his side. If he does not, other students will begin to shift their allegiance to #25, and now the teacher has several #25s on his hands. Whoops. Whitaker claims that great teachers demonstrate respect for their students.
  • Great teachers have high expectations of their students, but even higher expectations of themselves, says Whitaker. As a former high school ELA teacher, my expectations of my students and of myself were tested each time I assigned a major essay. I knew that if I expected my students to be able to complete this essay within a certain time frame, that I also had to be able to assess the essays within a certain time frame in order to provide feedback to my students. My expectations for my students kept my own expectations for myself in check.
  • And, finally, when the teacher sneezes, the whole class gets a cold. As Whitaker says, "Our impact is significant; our focus becomes the student's focus" (p. 56). We as teachers set the tone for our classes each day. The teacher is the variable in her classroom. Whose behavior can she control? Her own. Whitaker recognizes that how teachers respond (to misbehavior, to a majority of a class failing a quiz, etc.) is the variable. "Good teachers consistently strive to improve, and they focus on something they can control -- their own performance" (p. 38).
     Now, I fear at times Whitaker might get a little "preachy" or a little simplistic -- and I've already remonstrated the poor man for his lack of specificity (give us some examples -- jeesh!) -- but all in all I enjoyed his common sense approach to what great teachers are doing in their classrooms every day that sets them apart as "great." I like that the above (though abridged) list is full of attainable mindsets and ways of thinking about teacher ownership over what occurs in a classroom. I hope this list sparks some thought and reflection -- I know it did for me!

Friday, December 7, 2012

John Dewey Throw-Back

     Hi readers. Just a quick post this week -- sorry (I'm a bit under the weather and not at my blogging-best!).
     Remember all that John Dewey you had to read as a undergrad education major? Well I stumbled upon some wise words from the father of progressive education just the other day on -- of all places! -- Facebook. I think I first saw the quote on Edutopia, a Facebook page that I "like" due to some interesting education blogs they sometimes post. Imagine my delight as I came across the following quote while scrolling through recent status updates:

"We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience."
~John Dewey

     Teachers, surely we can relate. We can have those wonderfully magic days in our classrooms where every objective is met smoothly by smiling students, every minute is well-paced. But, is it really just that 50 minute experience, the in-the-moment of teaching that lesson, that we learn from? Or does our learning truly come when we take the time to be reflective practitioners, when we sit down after teaching that lesson and reflect upon just what made it all work so well, and how can we replicate this magic in the future? The same can be said for those wonderfully horrid lessons -- if we take the time to reflect, these can also be excellent learning opportunities.
     But this doesn't stop with the teachers. Students should also learn from reflecting on experience. Of course, the first step has to be (as I wrote about in my previous post) making sure that the students are the ones doing the work and having the learning experiences in your classroom. But, as Mr. Dewey reminds us, the next step is equally -- if not more -- important. We must provide our students with opportunities to reflect on their learning experiences. Students must also engage in metacognitive practices, and, in order to do so effectively, must be taught how to be self-reflective about their work in the classroom.
     There's lots of ways to help students engage in thinking about their own thinking and about their own learning. Interested, and teach in my district? Then give me a shout and we can work together on building more opportunities for students to reflect!