Teacher’s Bag of Tricks

The new podcast Conversations kicked off this weekend with a discussion about praise for students. Positive words from a teacher are some of the most impactful communication a person can receive. The cliche goes that teachers shape lives. Stated another way, a teacher defines a student through verbal praise.

Nowhere is this more evident than in my experience as a freshman at Scottsdale Community College. My English teacher, Harry Hude, was instrumental in igniting my love for learning and defining me as a writer. I identify myself as a writer because Mr. Hude told me that I was good at writing. He shared my writing (anonymously) with the class. He communicated to me that I had ideas worth sharing, and I was good at stating those ideas clearly.

Specific praise shapes a student’s image of himself. We develop identities based partly on how other people describe us. I know that I excel in skateboarding because I enjoy it, I feel myself get better as I practice, and other people tell me that I’m good. If I enjoyed skateboarding and felt like I was getting better, but no one ever mentioned anything, I might not pursue excellence as intensely. Imagine how my attitude would shift if I only heard about the things I did wrong on a skateboard. I’d probably quit.

Fortunately, most people are shaped slowly, and they generally bounce back from negative comments. And, praise can be a powerful agent of healing in the life of a bruised student. Teachers have daily opportunities to speak success and confidence into the lives of their students. Maria Knee and Lisa Parisi gave me a great reminder of these opportunities in the upcoming school year.

Make sure to check out the recording of their show: EdTechTalk.

Edutopia comes through with some quality coverage on the new effort in P.E. From yoga to rock walls, students are finding that exercise and fitness do not live exclusively in traditional team sports and weightlifting. I came away with several class exercise actvitities for my sixth graders. I heard about “state changes” in a seminar in college, and exercise is a perfect application of this principle. Basically, if a student stays in one static state for too long, his attention will decrease as well as his ability to construct understanding. The exercises mentioned in the video are great ways to give students state changes that refresh their blood streams with oxygen and refresh their brains with new challenges.

As a bonus, the bottom of the page contains links to some other great resources for classroom exercise and physical activity.

Update: Edutopia’s flash video code is not playing nice with Wordpress. Sorry for the inconvenience and sheer lack of flashiness in this post.

One of the most effective methods of classroom management is triple A treatment:

• Acceptance
• Approval
• Affection

Students want to like you as a teacher, but even more, they want to know if you like them.

Acceptance happens as students recognize they belong in your class. Give them this sense by greeting each student at the door every morning and thanking each one at the end of the day, putting their work on the walls around the room, giving them jobs that help the class to run smoothly, and designing class rules and procedures together. A class meeting once a week does wonders for building acceptance in the teacher-to-student relationships and among students.

Approval is communicated first and foremost through your words.

“I’m glad to have you in my class.”
“You add such good ideas to our discussions.”
“Your assignments are always in on time.”
“You’re so good at making your classmates smile.”

Extending extra approval to the students early in the year will give them the sense that you really like them and you really enjoy being around them. Calling a student’s parents to tell them about a good test score or other achievement will go a long way with that student. Students on the teacher’s good side will bend over backwards to stay on that good side. Of course, it helps when you actually like your students. When a student misbehaves, focus on the sin, not the sinner. “You’re a good student, and you made a bad decision this time. I know you’ll do better next time.” Don’t withhold punishment, and don’t punish by withholding approval.

Affection seems difficult to express in school these days. Use strategic touches like a pat on the shoulder or a high five to incorporate affection into your interactions. I give my students the choice of a high five, hand shake, or fist pound every morning as I greet them at the door. Special connections during the year like birthday notes to individual students and stickers on good test scores let a student know that you notice him and care about him. Again, don’t punish by withholding affection. Affirm the student after she completes her consequence so that you end the interaction on a positive note.

Consider a student’s emotions like a gas tank. A student running on empty is a management crash waiting to happen. We have to fill up that tank with positive emotions and experiences, because students (and adults) often make decisions based on emotion. If their tanks are filled up on positive emotions, students will be more likely to make positive decisions, even in tough situations.

The website Mind Tools features a brief interactive quiz about motivating team members in the workplace. The questions and suggestions are very applicable to the classroom, as well. Taking the quiz gives an overall rating, and then a detailed run down of suggestions for increasing motivation. Two quotes that are classroom ready:

Effective motivators understand that work design has a strong impact on performance. When a person finds a job inherently unsatisfying, there’s not much you can do to motivate him or her. Job design and enrichment combine to match characteristics of the job with workers’ skills and interests: The more variety, challenge and autonomy there is to a job, the more intrinsically satisfying it will be.

You have to be in a position to show or tell people everyday that you appreciate their contributions. Once or twice a year in formal review process is not enough!

So, TBoT readers, what are your best strategies for motivating students?

In the middle of the year, lessons can become predictable. How do you measure the quality of your teaching, especially when your audience is extremely familiar with your delivery? Shift your focus to a new set of measurements to engage and surprise your students.

• Teach bigger. If you stand in one spot and position your body and hands in the same places every lesson, then get out of your body language box. Place your podium on a different side of the room, consciously move your hands to punctuate your words.
• Teach quieter. If you’re like me, you talk loud and often. Stop. Replace as many spoken words with written words, drawings, or even sign language. Save your words for praise and encouragement directed to your students. Manage your class with posted expectations and behavior correction forms.
• Teach lower. I’m usually taller than my sixth graders. When I explain concepts and answer questions, I’ll get down on one knee to better connect with the student.
• Surprise them. Playing to the unexpected improves retention (of knowledge, that is). Break out a puppet, wear a goofy hat when you open the door, flip your daily schedule backwards (be careful to consider special needs students on this one).

What do you do with a socially immature student who struggles to stay on task, and therefore struggles to grasp academic concepts?

• recommend one of the school counselor’s small groups for self-esteem or peer relationships
• after-school Math tutoring
• design a behavior plan that targets three specific goals and a checklist to track daily (or hourly) successes
• set up read-aloud sessions where the student can read books to a younger buddy student.
• schedule one-on-one time with an instructional assistant to work on multiplication facts and spelling
• use a timer and give the student micro-assignments (”complete this problem in 2 minutes and then come and show me”)

The first step to getting teaching done is to capture and collect all the stuff in your classroom and in your brain. By collecting everything in one place you can take one important step to freedom: you can stop worrying about the things you think you’re forgetting.

Get an inbox. Get a plastic, letter-size tray or a wire basket. Use it to collect the physical (paper) stuff. If there are
things that are too big to fit in your inbox, write the name of that thing on a piece of paper and put that paper in your inbox.

Get geographical. Start in the messiest corner of your class, and move foot by foot, picking up papers, books, supplies, everything you can physically move to your inbox.

Carry a notebook. Whether it’s a spiral or a smaller form factor, use this to collect your mental stuff. You probably won’t get it all out sitting at your desk, so take it with you everywhere. Write things down as they pop into your head when you teach, or as you eat lunch, or as you sit through those captivating staff meetings.

Next in our series on Getting Teaching Done, Google hosted a talk with the man who sparked the GTD fire. It’s 45 minutes long and it’s a great way to learn about the process and the inspiration for Getting Things Done.

A new series on the blog, Getting Teaching Done is all about
enhancing productivity in the classroom. From planning to teaching to
assessing to meetings, teachers have plenty to do and extremely limited
time to get it all done. By capturing, processing, organizing,
reviewing, and acting, we can keep our classes running smoothly and our
students learning.
Much of what we will cover is inspired by the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. His strategies and ideology
promote low-stress productivity and creativity through the use of a
trusted system of capturing and processing things to be done.
Other sources of inspiration include:

Students benefit from clear, stated expectations. Many teachers post their class rules on a wall so that students have a constant reminder.  I’ve improved my behavior management by putting my procedures, rules, and consequences in writing in the form of a class handbook. I’ve got sections for rules, consequences, rewards, and procedures like how to enter the class, how to leave to use the restroom (always important), and how to successfully complete an assignment. Check out these examples to get ideas for your own handbook. What sections and topics would you add?

Mr. Zehring’s Class Handbook

Mrs. Nelson’s Class Handbook

 Ms. Cook’s ABCs of Upper Primary