Do We Really Have High Expectations for All Students? By Barbara Blackburn Do you have high expectations for your students? I’ve never met a teacher who said, “I have low expectations for my students.” One year, early in my teaching career, several teachers “warned” me about Daniel, a new student in my room. Right from the start, no matter what anyone tells us, we have to be on guard to ensure that we keep high expectations in place for every single student. Our behaviors speak loudest Of course we may believe in high expectations for all the kids in our classroom but not translate those expectations into actions that support our beliefs. Robert Marzano has spent decades researching effective teaching practice. How often do we fail to use these same strategies with struggling learners? I know I made that mistake as a new teacher. Even though I said I expected all my students to learn, I didn’t really show that to Quinn. That was an eye-opener for me. The problem isn’t that we do not care Another year, I had a similar situation with Clarissa.
Handling Difficult Students The First Week Of School Hoping to head misbehavior off before it starts, most teachers try to be proactive with difficult students. Even before the bell rings on the first day of school, they peruse their new roster looking for those few whose reputation precedes them. They chat up previous teachers. They scrutinize student files. They nervously begin conjuring up creative ways of dealing with them—all before they even set foot in the classroom. And so when Anthony or Karla or whoever shows up for the first day of school, they can feel the bull’s-eye on their back. They can feel labeled right out of the gate. And when students feel labeled, they’re pulled inexorably in its direction—fulfilling the prophecy it foretells. To ensure this doesn’t happen on your watch, and to get your reputed difficult students headed in the right direction, it’s best to make them feel like just another member of your classroom. Here’s how: 1. 2. Kids are smarter than most adults give them credit for. 3. 4. 5. One Standard
How To Handle Misbehavior The First Two Weeks Of School Your new students will likely be on their best behavior for the first few days of school. But by the second week, you and your classroom management plan will be tested. After all, your students don’t really know you. Maybe you’ll be like the pushover teacher they had last year. Maybe you’ll be inconsistent or easy to fluster. Maybe you won’t really mean what you say. Maybe some of your students have never had firm boundaries. And because you haven’t spent enough time with your students to earn their confidence, you’re going to be tested. But when it happens, when Anthony says something crude to try to shock you, when Karla talks back and disrespects you, when your students interrupt you, ignore you, and misbehave three feet in front of you… You’ll be ready. Here’s what to do: Pause. Your first reaction to misbehavior should be no reaction. Hide your disappointment. Never show hurt over misbehavior or disrespect. Lose the battle. Follow through. Move on immediately. Don’t take it personally.
Fostering Relationships in the Classroom Students and teacher need to develop positive and trusting relationships in an effective classroom. It is also critical that all students, especially English-language learners, develop trusting and enriching relationships with each other. There are many activities which can be used for both introductory purposes and throughout the year to build and maintain positive relationships in the classroom. 1) Sharing Weekly Reflections Each week, we have students write about two positive events that occurred in their lives and one not-so-positive event (along with what they could have done to make it better or what they learned from it). 2) Introducing Me/3 Objects This activity is sometimes called a "Me Bag" or an "All About Me Bag." 3) "I Am" Project There are many variations of the "I Am" activity. 4) "Find Someone in this Class Who . . . " Scavenger Hunt A scavenger hunt is an easy way to get students out of their seats, talking and interacting within minutes! 5) Two Truths and a Lie
7 First Day of School Activities Students Love The first day of school will be here before you know it. Most teachers face the big day with enthusiasm, but they dread the inevitable challenge: what to do on the first day of school. Every teacher’s approach is different. Whatever your goal, here are a few things to try to get the school year off to a great start! Goal: Getting to Know Your Students How well will your incoming students know you? If you’re teaching kindergarteners (or high school freshmen, who often seem like kindergarteners), you may need to spend the first day – or the first several days –getting everyone comfortable. Teaching strategies for improving friendship skills at the elementary school... The School of Education at Gardner-Webb University has received national... We examine the classroom management characteristics of effective teachers. A few useful classroom management ways to get information from your students on... 7 great technology in the classroom apps to use this year. Plan a Scavenger Hunt Do a Self-Portrait
A Classroom Management Strategy For The First Days Of School At the start of a new school year, it’s common for teachers to send home a packet of information for parents. This packet typically consists of school policies and procedures, daily schedules, papers to be signed, and hopefully a classroom management plan. This is all fine and good. But by throwing all this information together in a single packet, you’re missing an opportunity to get classroom management started with a bang. The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to send a pleasant behavioral shock wave through your new class of students and their parents. After all, they’re ripe for a change. The students who have had behavior problems in the past are either hopeful to turn over a new leaf or chomping at the bit to wrest control of the class from you as quickly as they can. Either way, the strategy I’m going to share with you sets the tone for the upcoming school year and is an important first step to creating the class you really want. The Classroom Management Packet 1. 2.
Students Tell All: What It’s Like to Be Trusted Partners in Learning Inquiry-based learning is not a new pedagogy, but it has come back into fashion in progressive education circles recently because of new emphasis on the power of students’ innate curiosity to drive learning. Inquiry-based learning asks students to discover knowledge on their own with guidance from their teachers. Rather than receiving information up front through lectures, students research guiding questions, ask their own follow-ups and get help along the way. Learning through inquiry requires more student agency and demands that teachers and administrators trust that students will ask when they need help. It also places the responsibility for completing tasks and meeting deadlines on the shoulders of students. Science Leadership Academy students spoke about their learning experience at the school. Nomi Martin-Brouilette said she appreciates the trust SLA’s teachers place in students to be partners in their learning. All photos by Bailey Collins Katrina Schwartz
5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students My first year teaching a literacy coach came to observe my classroom. After the students left, she commented on how I asked the whole class a question, would wait just a few seconds, and then answer it myself. "It's cute," she added. Um, I don't think she thought it was so cute. So that day, I learned about wait/think time. Many would agree that for inquiry to be alive and well in a classroom that, amongst other things, the teacher needs to be expert at asking strategic questions, and not only asking well-designed ones, but ones that will also lead students to questions of their own. Keeping It Simple I also learned over the years that asking straightforward, simply-worded questions can be just as effective as those intricate ones. #1. This question interrupts us from telling too much. #2. After students share what they think, this follow-up question pushes them to provide reasoning for their thinking. #3. #4. #5. How do you ask questions in your classroom?
Smart Strategies That Help Students Learn How to Learn Teaching Strategies Bruce Guenter What’s the key to effective learning? To put it in more straightforward terms, anytime a student learns, he or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: knowledge about the subject at hand (say, mathematics or history) and knowledge about how learning works. In our schools, “the emphasis is on what students need to learn, whereas little emphasis—if any—is placed on training students how they should go about learning the content and what skills will promote efficient studying to support robust learning,” writes John Dunlosky, professor of psychology at Kent State University in Ohio, in an article just published in American Educator. “Teaching students how to learn is as important as teaching them content.” Research has found that students vary widely in what they know about how to learn, according to a team of educational researchers from Australia writing last year in the journal Instructional Science. • What is the topic for today’s lesson?
Ten Takeaway Tips for Teaching Critical Thinking Suggestions from educators at KIPP King Collegiate High School on how to help develop and assess critical-thinking skills in your students. Ideally, teaching kids how to think critically becomes an integral part of your approach, no matter what subject you teach. But if you're just getting started, here are some concrete ways you can begin leveraging your students' critical-thinking skills in the classroom and beyond. 1. Questions, questions, questions. Questioning is at the heart of critical thinking, so you want to create an environment where intellectual curiosity is fostered and questions are encouraged. In the beginning stages, you may be doing most of the asking to show your students the types of questions that will lead to higher-level thinking and understanding. 2. Pose a provocative question to build an argument around and help your students break it down. 3. 4. 5. Lively discussions usually involve some degree of differing perspectives. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
50+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media Imagine a world where resources were limited to what was found in the classroom or the school closet known as the "Curriculum Materials Room." Picture a world where students wrote letters with pen and paper to communicate with other students and adults outside of the building. Due to postage costs, the teacher either sent the letters in bulk or paid for stamps out of his or her own pocket. Can you recall a time when student interests like skateboarding or video were never used as part of learning curriculum because the tools needed were either too expensive or not yet conceptualized? Do you remember a time when non-traditional learners struggled, and absenteeism meant a high likelihood of students doing poorly in school, and possibly having to retake the course? If you experienced none of these scenarios, then you live in a world of possibility because you grew up with the many social media tools available to support all learners. Selecting the Right Tool Readiness Interests
Helping Diverse Learners Succeed My career got off to a bad start when I was hired to teach in a Minneapolis Ojibwe Survival School. That was the year that Prince's Sign O the Times dropped -- the year most of my lesson plans failed. More terrifying was the fact that I had no backup plan. I'm embarrassed now to admit that I sent over 15 kids to in-school suspension in a single morning. A chair was thrown at my head and later a waterfowl-sized stone. At a school event, a masked student threatened me with a hunting knife while I stood at a public urinal. The attempted assaults weren't fun, but I classified them as aberrations and moved on. It took a decade for me to figure out what I did wrong -- a lot of little things, but one big thing. Today we know more strategies for helping all kinds of students succeed. Research-Based Strategies for Working with Diverse Learners A review of the research (PDF, 119KB) on teaching diverse learners sorts the "best practices" into four categories, summarized below: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Are Teachers of Tomorrow Prepared to Use Innovative Tech? Getty Images With a new generation of teachers coming into the work force, there’s a discrepancy between what principals expect of teachers-in-training and what they’re actually learning in school. A new Project Tomorrow report surveying principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences. But student-teachers report that their tech training focuses only on simple management tools. At the same time, the report concludes that those who have the biggest influence on new teachers — veteran educators — don’t always embrace new ways of using technology to engage students. Only half of current working teachers believe they can use technology to motivate students to learn, compared to 75 percent of incoming teachers. Teachers-in-training say coursework focuses on technologies that help a teacher stay organized, rather than ways to engage students. Related