Three Tips for Building Teacher Buy-In. A close friend who works in a leadership role in a local school asked me an interesting question this week. "I just want to build something that teachers can buy-in to that will help kids," she said. "How do you do that? " Chances are that if you've worked in schools for any length of time, that question resonates with you, right? We've ALL had moments where we were completely frustrated by a group of teachers who just weren't interested in moving forward with a new project and/or program. The good news is that getting teachers to buy-in to change initiatives isn't NEARLY as hard as it seems.
Teachers buy into change efforts that they believe are important. The change initiative that I've spent the MOST professional energy on in my 20 year teaching career was an effort to convert my traditional middle school into a professional learning community that started a little over 8 years ago. #thatmattered PLCs were about much more than improving student learning, however. #thatmatteredtoo #doubt. Smart Classroom Management. Vocabulary Instruction That Makes a Difference.
Vocabulary Instruction That Makes a Difference In this Education Week article, Sarah Sparks reports on research indicating that the 10,000-word vocabulary gap between lower-SES and upper-SES children entering school often widens as they move through the grades. Susan Neuman (University of Michigan/Ann Arbor) and Tanya Wright (University of Michigan/East Lansing) have found that lower-income students are less likely to be taught academically challenging words.
“Vocabulary is the tip of the iceberg,” says Neuman. “Words reflect concepts and content that students need to know. This whole common core will fall on its face if kids are not getting the kind of instruction it will require.” Neuman and Wright studied kindergarten classrooms and found tremendous variation in the number of words explicitly taught – from two to 20 words a day. Earlier research suggests that students need to hear a new word an average of 28 times to remember it. Feb. 6, 2013 (Vol. 32, #20, p. 1, 16), www.edweek.org. 12 Things Kids Want from Their Teachers. Whether we are a teacher, parent, relative, boss, or community member, each of us has a chance to make a positive and impactful difference in a child’s life. But in order to do this, we must carefully consider this question: What matters most to our children? For 20 years I have been posing this question to my students. At the beginning of every school year, I would ask my students to give me advice on how to be their best teacher.
I asked them to think about the times they felt most successful and to consider what the adults in their lives did to make this success possible. The classroom would become immediately silent as the students wrote intensely for longer than they had ever written before. Surprisingly, many of the responses were the same. Here is a list of the 12 Most Important things that came out of these amazing conversations: 1.
Wish me good morning, and send me off with a “see ya tomorrow.” 2. When you look at me, let me see happiness in your eyes. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Students Share Characteristics Of Their Favorite Teachers. A few weeks ago I had a Twitter dialogue with Reed Gillespie ( @rggillespie ) an AP at Kettle Run High School in Nokesville, VA. and Angela Maiers ( @AngelaMaiers ) who coined the phrase #YouMatter and is an author, educator, and national speaker. Our conversation revolved around a post from Angela titled 12 Things Kids Want from Their Teachers . Twelve simple and free “things” students want and deserve .
Don’t we all deserve these? Reed shared his post What Students Want From Their Teachers he wrote after visiting with students at his high school during lunch. Very similar list. This got me to thinking “What do Cherokee students want from their teachers?” So, over the course of a few lunch periods from 6th – 8th grade I asked about 75 to 100 of our students “what are the characteristics of your favorite teachers from Kindergarten through now?” 1. 2. 3. 4. I enjoyed my conversations with our students. Using Essential Questions to Improve a High-School History Course. Using Essential Questions to Improve a High-School History Course In this thoughtful 2008 article in Social Education, teacher educator Heather Lattimer (University of San Diego) says that all too often, despite their charisma and talent getting students involved in classroom activities, “teachers are the ones doing all the thinking in the classroom.”
To counteract this tendency, specifically in social studies and history classes, she recommends using essential questions for each unit. Here’s why: • Essential questions get to the heart of the discipline. They address the big ideas, pose dilemmas that puzzle historians and social scientists, and bring startling incongruities to students’ attention. • Essential questions have more than one reasonable answer. . • Essential questions connect the past to the present.
When is violence justified? Such questions address fundamental concerns that each generation should ponder anew. • Essential questions reveal history to be a developing narrative. 3 Secrets to Motivating Students. Among the many titles I bear, that of cheerleader is often the most challenging. Entering the classroom day after day with a great enthusiasm, a smile from ear to ear, a little extra pep in my step, and pom poms raised high takes practice.
We all have those less than great moments but I have learned over the years, that the more excited I become about learning, the more my students will be as well. The key is motivation. Motivation is defined as “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something” (Thank you Dictionary.com). So how do I motivate my students to learn? How I Create Desire Before any lesson or new skill, a “desire to know” needs to be established. All of these methods are great spring boards into your lesson. How I obtain willingness to pay attention I find this to be easier once I have established the desire to know. Other methods of maintaining attention include: Moving around the room frequently. Let them do something Allow them to engage in group discussions.
Brain Matters: Maximizing Your Classroom for Learning. Teaching & Learning | Spotlight Brain Matters: Maximizing Your Classroom for Learning This educational consultant advises teachers to keep brain science in mind when figuring out how to help their students learn. By Dian Schaffhauser01/31/13 Teachers need to break up their lessons more during the class period and get the students moving if they want optimal learning to occur. That's the advice of David Sousa, former teacher and superintendent and current educational consultant and author of 15 books, who spoke to a colossal crowd of educators and K-12 technology leaders during the second day of FETC 2013.
His topic, how to design brain-friendly schools in an era of accountability, ranged from showing how singing in class can help students learn to how the brain likes surprises to proving that nobody can truly multi-task. At the heart of the science is the question: How is technology affecting students' attention spans. One suggestion: Add quizzes. 8 Exam-Prep Activities Students Actually Like. After Christmas break students will return to school for 8 days of review prior to taking their End of Course Exams.
I can give my students a review packet with hundreds of problems, but that would only lead to them giving up, sleeping, and not even trying. So below are 8 fun activities I created to motivate and engage my students in their final exam reviews. 1. Vocabulary Gallery Walk – Each student will be given a word to define and provide an example for. Students will use Sock Puppet or Go Animate to create a mini skit to define and example their word. Students will lay iPads around the room and walk around to review each skit. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. These are 8 fun review games that is sure to get students motivated to review for their final exams!
Visit my blog for printables, instructions, and examples! The Art of Facilitating Teacher Teams. In my last post I reflected on what makes an effective team of teachers. This is something I've been contemplating a great deal as this year I'm leading a team of instructional coaches. We work with a number of middle schools that are "transforming" and a central element in our theory of action is that leadership and instruction will transform by way of strong, effective, high functioning teams.
At these sites, my coaches support the development of grade level teams, department teams, leadership teams, and cross-site teams of teachers and administrators. This fall we've pursued an inquiry around our own coaching and facilitation actions. We're attempting to name the precise moves that we need to take in order to develop strong teams. So what steps do we take to develop strong teams? Domain One: Planning We determined that the first coaching action to break down is how we plan for meetings. This last point is something we think about when considering participation.
At the Opening. 3 Ways to Use Wordle for More Than Fluff. The visual word clouds created by Wordle and other word cloud services on the web aren’t anything new, they’ve been around for a few years. However, like a great many newer web 2.0 tools, I quite often see a lot of ineffective use of these tools in the classroom. That’s not to say I think the teachers themselves are ineffective, in fact it’s usually the most tech savvy and educational effective teachers that are using tools like Wordle. However, as even these tech savvy teachers keep up with the changing landscape of educational tools, not enough time is often available to closely examine a new website to carefully dissect what the tool is capable of, and how it might be used most effectively.
Too often a larger number of teachers get caught up in the “wow” factor of some great new ability of the read/write web (does anyone still use that term anymore?) , and immediately starts working the new-found website into a class project. Visual Data Improving Student Writing. 5 Hallmarks of a Creative Project.
Why is it that we definitely know a creative project when we see it, but we are hesitant to assess creativity, fearing that it is too squishy or subjective? Creative projects are the tangible products of creative behavior and creative thinking. If we want students to produce creative works, we need to structure student work so that the outcome is a natural result of these behaviors. A project is creative when it: 1. Asks, or attempts to answer, the right kind of questions A project that answers a question with an obvious right answer doesn’t leave much room for creative thinking.
Create is at the very top of Bloom’s taxonomy. We are probably all familiar with the concept of essential questions, questions “that pose dilemmas, subvert obvious or canonical truths, or force incongruities upon our attention.” Read more about Bloom’s and creative project work here. Most importantly, questions must be meaningful. 2. 3. That’s right. 4. Remember your students’ first PowerPoint? Why is this? 5. Feedback for Learning:Seven Keys to Effective Feedback.
From Management to Engagement. As educators, we are always looking for management strategies to try in the classroom. Note I said "strategies" -- not "solutions. " Many Edutopia bloggers have written about strategies and ideas for classroom management. I've also written a blog on PBL management strategies, but many of those same strategies can be used in non-PBL contexts. When picking strategies, we have to know that because they are strategies, some may not work. But we can still build our toolkit so that we have something to try in any context. However, there is a larger, more important issue to consider before venturing into management strategies to solve a problem in the classroom: engagement! I hinted at this in my PBL management post, but the best strategy for management issues is engaging curriculum and instruction.
It is crucial to focus on engagement rather than management. Autonomy If you want your students to be engaged, facilitate self-directed activities and learning models. Mastery Purpose. 10 simple ideas for transforming your teaching this school year SmartBlogs. Many of us will face new learners as another semester of classes begin. For some of us, this can be a frightening and stressful experience. It should be. We have an enormous responsibility as educators to inspire our students to be continuous learners, explore their curiosities and search for solutions to problems that need to be solved.
We have the responsibility to inspire our learners to immerse themselves in the beauty of learning whether it is for their own passions, curiosities or self-discovery. Unfortunately, the system isn’t exactly cut out to support students in exploration. I have often been a new teacher in my career. Then I began to grow some confidence and maybe I was also a little fed up. I want to give you permission. Ask a question that has many answers or no answer at all.Give your students the reins for one class period. Many of these ideas can be found at Teacher Reboot Camp.