New School Year - Connections are the Crucial Element in a Successful Classroom!

Connections...being connected...being a part of the community of classroom...its a bold statement to say that this is the most crucial element but I truly believe it is.  If a student is not connected, not a part of the community of the classroom, then they simply become a seat filler, another paper to grade, another voice.  Think about how often you have walked into a room, a wedding, a party where most of the people know each other, have a shared connection and you are the "odd man out".  How do you feel?  While there are a few people who could jump right in and walk up to people, most people wait for someone to approach them, to bring them into a circle.  As teachers, that is our job - to bring our students into a circle, a community, a safe place where they can learn, grow, explore.  So how do we do it?  How do we make that connection, build the community that our students need?

1.  Be tuned in.  When you are in your classroom, be there mentally as well as physically.  So often we are in our classes physically, but our minds are consumed with the forms we need to complete, meetings we need to have, our families at home, what are we doing for the weekend and 1,000 other things.  As hard as it is, we need to shut those things off or at least try to and focus on being present mentally when we are in the classroom.  How this occurs is different for everyone.  It may be featuring artwork from your kids or pictures of your family so they are "with you" but not your primary focus.  It could also be making a "To-Do" list of everything you need to accomplish so that you don't forget but can focus your mind on other things.  Whatever it is that works for you and allows you to be tuned in, do it!  Your students will thank you!

2.  Create an environment that is safe.  Students, whether they are in Kindergarten, their senior year or anywhere in-between are still kids.  (If you don't believe me, just break out the crayons and see what happens! :)  They still need to feel safe and secure in order to be truly successful.  They need to know that there will be supportive words to encourage them, a safety net if they fail and accolades when they succeed.  They need to know that they won't be ridiculed by their peers if they have questions and that it is a safe place to express their thoughts.  In order to create this safe environment I suggest starting by with clear expectations (I go into more depth about this here) about what is and is not acceptable in they classroom, establish clear norms about how discussion will occur and more importantly be tuned in to what is happening in the classroom.  Do not let behavior slide for some students but come down hard others for the same behavior.  Be fair and consistent.

3.  Partner with parents.  As both a parent and a teacher I know first hand how important it is to be in a partnership with parents and not a competition.  Communicate with parents about the spectacular things that their students do, not just the negative.  I had an experience with past year where I would get notes home from my son's teacher about how his day went.  They were a checklist of six areas of behavior and rated with a smiley face, straight face or sad face.  He got quite a few sad faces, so many at one point that I started dreading getting the note at the end of the day.  I would start to have that anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach when I would see his backpack.  This teacher never sent home a note when he had a great day, just when he had a bad day.  BTW - my son is 5.  After a few weeks of this, my husband and I requested a meeting with the teacher where we expressed our concerns.  We found a way to partner with the teacher.  The communication got better, our son got happier and the behavior improved.  You can partner with parents with written communication (notes, e-mails, etc.), verbal communication (phone calls or meetings) or through practice (become the teacher that impacts their student(s) in a positive way to make a positive impact).

4.  Make a personal connection.  Humans are social.  We love to talk, to interact, to communicate and to share of ourselves.  Being a teacher allows a million ways to make a personal connection.  Notice the things that change about your students - a new haircut, cool new shoes, etc. and comment on them in a positive way.  Remember the things that a student tells you - an upcoming vacation, a new puppy, a job interview and follow up to see how it went/is going.  Attend after school activities when possible - a club, band concert, sporting event and then mention it the next day.  Share of yourself and common interests and experiences.  The more human you are, the more you can connect with your students.

5.  Nurture skills that will help them to be part of a bigger community.  We have our students for a short fraction of their lives - a semester, a year, maybe two and it is our job to help them to move on to the next part, chapter or adventure that their lives will offer.  At the high school level this means teaching them job skills, social skills and other skills that will help them to be successful in getting their first job.  We get the opportunity to help them figure if the job market, college or the military is where their strengths lie after high school.  We have the responsibility to help mold them into the (young) adults who will lead future generations.  We can give them these skills through conversation, prodding and modeling them ourselves.

Whatever you do, make connections with your students.  They really will translate to greater success for your students and for yourself as a teacher.  How do you make connections?

Why I Believe You Should Decorate Your Secondary Classroom (and How To Do It!)

When I first started teaching 15 years ago, I was the only female in my department and the youngest teacher to boot! Needless to say I stuck out from the rest of my department (cue the song "one of these things is not like the other...). When I made the decision to decorate my classroom it made the difference even more obvious. However, looking around my very empty, bare, beige, cinder-block classroom I felt it was very cold, very sterile and just not that welcoming so I HAD to decorate. The big question, though, was how and with what? I had no clue how to decorate a secondary classroom so that it look like a high school classroom and not an elementary one. I had no idea how to get things to stay on the walls, where to find supplies or even a vision of what I wanted to look like! I just knew that I had to do something...

It was that last part - lack of vision - that led to many mistakes and wasted money (and as a beginning teacher money is definitely not something you have a lot of)! Finally, though, after 15 years I have finally feel like I have an under control, inviting, warm, educational and cohesive design! I would like to share a few tips with you to help you avoid the follies that I made my first few years!

1) Plan the space out before you begin. All classroom are traditionally either rectangular or square in design but you don't have all of that space to work with. If your room is anything like mine you have cupboards, heating vents, boards on a certain wall, bulletin boards, computer drops and of course 33 desks! Free space is a premium and you need to use it wise. You don't want to go out and get a bunch of things and then have no wall space to display them or floor space to put them. Before I started my current classroom "decor" I laid out on paper all of the thing that I had to have that I had no control over. For example, based on where the drops were, I had to

have my computer and teacher desk in the front corner. I have a huge air-conditioner/heater that sticks out 2 feet and takes up a third of one of my walls - but it is right under a window so I couldn't have used that wall space anyway. By laying out everything that I HAD to have, I was able to recognize what space I had to work with and could move on to the next step.

2) Place physical objects that take up floor space before posters or other decor. Start by placing your desks, tables, file cabinets that have to be in your room in the place that they need to go. If you want book cases, shelves, a student resource area (i.e. pencils, paper, sharpener, etc.) then they need to go in next. There is nothing more annoying than to put up posters, only to have to move them because a book case, file cabinet, etc. needs to go in that space. Placing everything physical first also allows you to see sight lines and room flow. If you want to post homework, you need to have it in a spot where it is easily accessible and visible versus someplace that it is going to get lost or cause mass congestion.

3) Decide what you want to put on your walls before you buy or make it. Do you want to illustrate your vocabulary (check out my previous post on word walls for ideas if you need them!) and formulas? Do you need to post your objectives and I-cans in a certain place? Do you want to post a list of previous homework or a homework calendar? Do you  want to do some encouragement posters (character, effort and the like?) or words to think about? Do you need to post your rules/expectations? Do you want to leave a space open to display student work?

Do you want to use a lot of different colors or stick to more of theme? Remember, the purpose of putting stuff on your walls is to not only make your room educational and helpful, but also inviting and some place that students feel encouraged and free to learn. Also keep in mind, while you students look at the walls for an hour or so a day, you look at them for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week...

4) Shop smart and frugally. When I first started out buying posters for my classroom I just went to local teacher store and bought what caught my eye. I put tape on the back, hung them up and called it done. It never occurred to me to laminate them to make them last longer, to make them myself or to shop online. Matter of fact, when I first started teaching, the internet barely existed!!! Now, there are so many options. You can go to Amazon and get them in two days for cheaper than the teacher stores offer which is fantastic - depending on what you are looking for that is! I found that while teacher stores were great for the encouragement posters, basic concept and a small portion of middle school math skills that we use at the high school level, they did not cover what we do at the high school level. There just did not exist posters covering the higher level math that I needed. Again, since this was really before the prevalence of the internet I was left with one option - make them myself! And make them myself I did! :) I ended up making over 200 "posters" that are 8.5 by 11! (If you are interested in having them for yourself, check them out in my teacherspayteachers store.) Over time, I have also bought some from other sellers on TpT and finally found a few on Amazon as well! If you choose the route of buying digital and printing them yourself, you can get cardstock pretty inexpensively at your local craft store or some of the big box stores. Also, look into the cost of printing them on your own color printer versus paying an office supply store to do it, often times they are cheaper!

5) Take care of what you have so that it lasts beyond a school year. We live in a green-conscious world and we need to conserve resources so make yours last! While I

know that laminating something and then pitching it is not good for the environment, more often than not, when you laminate a resource, it is because you plan to keep it long term! All of my posters are laminated for two reasons. One because they last longer and two because when I put tape on the back of something that is laminated, it pulls off easily and the poster can be stored easily. I also recommend that you buy a few totes or something else hard plastic to keep them from getting bent or damaged. I tried buying on the poster folders that the local teacher store had, but they were flimsy and unless stored flat, they would eventually curve and curve the posters with them.

My room has evolved a great deal over the last 15 years from a cold, empty, beige (oh way too beige) room to something full of life, color, warmth and that is welcoming! It has been and probably always will be a work in progress but it is also something that I have found enjoyable! I hope that my tips have helped you! I would love to hear what you have done to your room or to answer any questions you might have below in the comments!

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Teaching 2 - Breaking Away From the Book's Sequencing

      As we move forward in our teaching career we look back on the past and say "if I had only known then what I know now..." and have a hundred things to fill in the blank with.  While there are many things that I wish I could have a do-over on, it is what I have identified as pitfall number 2 that bothers me the most.  It is simply this:  I wish that I had known that it is preferable to deviate from the book and teach material in an order that makes more sense rather than going lock-step section by section.

       In those nervous first few years we follow the book (if we have one) because it is our lifeline.  It is what tells us where to head next and saves our sanity when we are completely overwhelmed and cannot think of one more thing before we crash from exhaustion.  So we do section 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, quiz (because they book says one should fall there), 1.4....until we get through the book.  We don't realize (often because no one tells us or we are too tired to ask) that it is only a guide, not a curriculum.  I know that for years I followed it because it was all that I had.  My notes were even labeled "1.1 Title of Section".  I look back on those days and realize that while I was teaching, I was not reaching.  I was covering every topic that was on my list and getting through the whole book (most years anyway) which was seen as a win!  I was so nervous and so anxious about keeping my room quiet and under control (see pitfall one here) that I never asked myself "are they learning"?

      One day, however, as I got over my nerves, I started to realize that the ideas were so choppy and segmented that the students were struggling to make connections.  I started examining the content and not the book and came to some realizations.  I realized that there were triangles in chapters 1, 4, 7 and 9 so why not just do a unit on triangles?  Why not rearrange the order of topics so that they flow together instead of battling with each other?  I sat down and started mapping out topics and identifying what went with what and what was foundational information versus what was the next level.  Ultimately I started rearranging my entire outlook to meet the needs of the students (while still covering the curriculum).

      When I started doing this, my whole classroom changed, improved and strangely enough, I felt like a better teacher!  I felt like I was actually in control of what my students were learning and had some autonomy to try new things.  My passion for teaching was reenergized because I was again enjoying what I was doing.  Best of all - my students were happier, learning and retaining better and more effectively engaged!

I spoke with a few other teacher-authors about how they broke away from the textbook:

History Gal shared that "history's sequencing is chronological so it is difficult to deviate too much. However, as the teacher, I can decide how much to spend on each unit. This might surprise you, but there are parts of history that are boring even to history teachers! I cover those time periods quickly and spend more time on parts of history that I enjoy.

Coach Christopher from Courage To Core  shared "I like to switch things up every few years and teach at a new school, or quit and go rock climb for a year to keep things fresh. On the other hand, one way to keep some continuity for me has been to craft my own teaching materials to go alongside the school’s preferred text. The materials were adapted, refined and expanded with each new school. After 15 years (!) the texts became ancillary to my own materials which are now under the moniker Courage To Core. The evolution continues. No lock-step allowed!"




The pitfalls are there, just waiting, but hopefully together we can navigate them, avoid them or capitalize upon them to the benefit of you and your students.  How did you learn to break away from the books sequencing to using your own?  Comment below, I'd love to hear it!

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Teaching # 1 - Talking To Your Students Instead of At Them

Although  as teachers we spend many years in college learning our subject area and in teacher education classes, nothing - not even student teaching - can fully prepare you for the day that you walk into a school and have your own classroom.  Suddenly that's it.  You are in front of a room of 25 - 35 students all of whom you need to educate, engage and manage.  Unfortunately, unless you have a fantastic support system, you are likely to commit some of the common pitfalls that can make your job that much harder.  Over the next few weeks I am going to address some of these pitfalls and how to avoid them!  Additionally, I have asked some of my friends at teacherspayteachers to contribute their knowledge as well!

Topic One:  How to Talk TO your students (i.e. facilitating a discussion) instead of AT them (i.e. lecturing)! 

When we start teaching we are nervous, especially for the first year or two until we get some experience under our belts.  We want everything to go well, we want our rooms to be well managed, we want to be that super fantastic, great, wonderful, perfect teacher whose classroom looks like one of those out of a 1950's sitcom where everything is neat, tidy, with the students all raising their hands. To achieve this lofty "perfect classroom" we walk in, put the hammer down and start talking at our students through the "stand and deliver" lecture method.  We operate under the assumption that if they are silent, they are listening, learning and perfectly "under control".  Yep, sure they are. (Just like when my kids are suddenly quiet at home it means that they are being perfect angels...)   In all reality, 40% of your students are not learning anything because they don't learn that way, 50% are afraid to ask a question (or robbed of the opportunity to do so because you never pause) and 80% are about to explode from the amount of words and energy that is building up.

   
No one can sit still, silently for 45 - 60 minutes.  I know that I sure can't.  I get antsy, I start to tune out the words around me, I doddle, I start making lists, I get BORED!  Do we honestly expect our pre-teens and teens to be any different?  At the age we are when we become teachers we've learned some of the social norms, we know how to stay in our seats and at least look tuned in.  Most of the students sitting in front of us don't.  They are in ever changing bodies in an ever changing world trying to balance school, families, sports/clubs, friends, hormones and a thousand other things.  When you are trying to compete with all of that you need to teach how they learn.

So how do you do that?  How do you teach the way they learn?  Simple - you talk with them, not at them.  You allow your students to feel that they have a stake in their learning process and the ebb and flow of the classroom.

• **  To combat their need to talk you can give them quick breaks where you say "solve this question with someone sitting next to you" or have a quick class discussion about how they see the topic (when applicable) used in the "real world".  

• **  To combat their need to move ask students to come to the board to solve a problem or have them do a quick "think, pair, share".  

• ** To keep them engage you can ask "what questions do you have" instead of "does anyone have any questions"?  Ask a student to explain what you just taught in their own words.  

In other words, you involve them in the lesson which gives them the opportunity to burn off some energy and raises engagement rates.  (I talk more about effective questioning here). You talk TO them and listen when they respond back.   If you ask them a question, listen, ask more questions to draw out more information, ask other students if they agree, disagree or have something to add.  You don't want to get them talking, engaging and interested to then just shut them out by not giving their responses any credence.

I spoke with a few other teacher-authors about how they made this shift:

Nikki from Teaching Autism found success when she formed relationships and explored other methods: "For me, it's very different, 99% of our children are non verbal, meaning it's very easy to talk at them rather than with them. It's great to offer choices so that they are independently making choices with you, using prompt cards (http://bit.ly/1M85eyw) to stir up a conversation - use iPad apps such as proloquo or symbol/communication books (http://bit.ly/1hhE93w) so that they are able to answer you, get them to point to an answer when you have offered them a choice. 

At first, it can be so hard, how do you make conversation with a non verbal child? It's something that doesn't come to you at first, so don't feel deflated when you feel like you're failing. It's something that definitely grows with you as your experience does. The more you learn about the children, the more you're able to talk with them, look for different signs of communication and promote communication that they look forward to. It's through this, that you start to build strong and professional relationships with your students. Once you have that strong relationship, then you're ready to tackle the teaching world!"

Coach Christopher from Courage To Core shared that the shift happens when you engage the students strengths: "For some years I worked at the amazing Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, a city where social capital is the subtext for almost every text, where all Instagram’s are about to go viral, and face to face interactions can feel a little like being added to someone’s LinkedIn network. The Archer girls spoke in emoji’s or hashtags or something—codes conveyed in a blink of an eye, because they knew each other and were utterly in their domain at Archer. In class they lunged to answer questions, to hear their voices and those of their peers, and it was a shame not to leverage their social skills to educational ends. When I transitioned primarily to group work in math class, it was as if they had been holding their breaths for a month, waiting to engage full-throated. It was a viral sensation."

It's Kinder Time feels that the shift happens when you make a connection: "I believe that the many years I spent in the city recreation program for children helped me learn how to have conversations with kiddos rather then talk at them. Over time I learned better ways to make connections. Finding out your students interests really helps make connection with them and can open many doors with parents once they see how much you really care."



The pitfalls are there, just waiting, but hopefully together we can navigate them, avoid them or capitalize upon them to the benefit of you and your students.  How did you learn to talk TO your students instead of AT them?  Comment below, I'd love to hear it!