Seeing Is Not Learning

One of my mistakes as a teacher was assuming if my students read or saw something, they learned it.  Even if they didn't, we could just do the same thing again.  But repetition does not lead to learning.  Why do I say this?

What are the colors of the word google on their pages?  Don't know? Neither did I.  Thanks to my 14 year-old for another reminder of the importance of teaching. 

An Organized Environment!!

I always like to share guest blogs, particularly from good friends.  Frank Buck, author of Get Organized! always provides a jumpstart for me to make some changes! Enjoy!

Focused or Fragmented?

Cell phones ring. Texts and e-mail come rolling across the screen. Our constant urge to check Facebook and Twitter take us away from the task at hand.

We live in an age when our time is fragmented. We feel the need to be constantly available, and in doing so, we are constantly interrupted. Who is to blame for our fragmentation? From the words of a 1970 poster, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” 

Barbara has defined “rigor” as, “…creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels, and each is supported so he or she can learn at high level, and each student demonstrates learning at high level.” It is the phrase “creating an environment” that is central to this post.

One of my favorite books is The Effective Executive written by the late management guru Peter Drucker. Despite its 1966 copyright date, it remains a hallmark book on time management and the solution to our fragmented society. One of my favorite passages is this one:

"To be effective, every knowledge worker, and especially every executive, therefore needs to be able to dispose of time in fairly large chunks. To have dribs and drabs of time at his disposal will not be sufficient even if the total is an impressive number of hours." (Page 29)

While opportunities to fragment our day increase, the fact remains that nothing of much worth is going to be accomplished without some degree of focus. How can we create the "chunks" of time in an age that so desperately tries to fragment our lives? How can we do all of this whether our age is 8 or 88? Below are five suggestions:

1. Allow things to "pile up" and handle them in one group. Avoid the ring and ding of the electronic gadgets and the lure of other distractions. Stay with the task at hand and work to a logical stopping place. Then, turn full attention to handling that pile of interruptions.
2. Stay ahead of deadlines. When we bump up against deadlines, we are invariably causing problems for other people. Naturally, they phone, text, e-mail, and drop by for a "status report." Staying ahead of the game eliminates the need for others to "check up" on us and provides more time to focus on the project at hand.
3. Visit other people on your own time schedule. If interruptions come from the same few people, drop in on them first. Call them or drop by in person, and get the anticipated interruption out of the way so that you can focus. In this way, you are doing it on your schedule. As a principal, I made it a point to be in the halls before the start of school and circulate through the building. If a teacher had a quick question, my presence coming down the hall provided the perfect opportunity. Those quick interactions in the hall reduced the number of interruptions throughout the day.
4. Plan your work, and make it easy. We interrupt ourselves. We often do so by turning from the difficult job at hand to some diversion that is easier and more fun. To combat that temptation, make what is at hand easy, and hopefully make it fun as well. Break the overwhelming goal down into manageable tasks that are clearly worded. All too often, the to-do list contains items which have rolled from day to day simply because they are ambiguous. Clear up the ambiguity by making decisions and asking questions.
5. Group related tasks. Grouping applies to more than e-mail and voice mail. When a few quick face-to-face meetings are needed, handle them all in a group. Go from one person to the next as you make your way through the building. Do the same with errands. Once you get in the car, go from one to the other. Teacher your students to do the same kind of thing in their world.

If our history books have taught us anything, it is that we are a people capable of great things. Great things happen when human beings focus and turn potential into accomplishment.

Focused or fragmented? It's a choice. It’s our choice. It’s a choice between an environment which encourages high levels of accomplishment versus one that leads to something much less.

Can you recall a particular time when you were focused? What were the results? How did it feel? What if you could feel like that all the time?

Frank Buck retired from public education after almost 30 years as a teacher, principal, and central office administrator. As a consultant specializing in organization and time management, he works with school systems and businesses throughout the United States and into Canada. After writing Get Organized!, Dr. Buck authored a book just for teacher entitled Organization Made Easy!: Tools for Today’s Teachers. Both are published by Eye on Education. You may visit his blog (FrankBuck.blogspot.com), website (FrankBuck.org), or contact him directly at Frank@FrankBuck.org.
**Don't forget to vote in the poll to the right!!

Positive vs. Negative Comments

Whenever I taught adolescent development, I invite Suzanne Okey, a former special education teacher, to speak to my students about working with special needs students. Before she comes, they have one assignment: Pick a class (or one block of time) and count the number of positive and negative comments they make. They can make marks on a piece of paper, or they can use two colors of marbles and move them from one pocket to another. The process doesn’t matter as long as the teachers unobtrusively keep a count. When she starts her presentation, she asks them how they felt about the assignment. Most of the teachers say they were surprised; they didn’t realize how many negative comments they say.

Students recognize this far quicker than we do. Read one student’s perspective (http://www.whatkidscando.org): “What’s also discouraging is when people never mention the good things. Instead of saying ‘Our geometry grades are up, we’re sending kids to good colleges and stuff,’ you hear, ‘We only have 90% attendance, which means that 200 of you are absent.....’ You know, encouragement creates encouragement. What helps is having a powerful and honest leader that we support and who supports us.”

Think About It...
What is the ratio of positive to negative comments in your classroom?

The Power of an Individual Teacher

Who was your best teacher?  I'm guessing that it wasn't hard for you to answer that question.  It's easy to name those memorable teachers from our lives.  One of the foundational beliefs that guides my work with teachers and leaders is the power of the individual teacher.  There are a myriad of suggestions for improving schools, and I'm not undervaluing those efforts.  But in the end, it boils down to what a teacher does in the classroom.

I was visiting a school where there had been an increase in learning and achievement scores.  As I talked with teachers, everyone said, "Oh, we improved because of a new computer program for reading we purchased (name deleted)." I understand the program helped, but it wasn't the program that increased scores--it was how teachers used it.  I worked for two educational publishers and one educational software company, and they would love for you to believe materials make a difference.

But here's the bottom line--the best program or materials in the hands of a poor teacher doesn't make much of a difference.  And the worst program or materials in the hands of a great teacher makes a positive difference.  The best program or materials in the hands of a great teacher is magic.

Implement strategies that make a difference, embrace reforms that work, use materials that help.  But never underestimate your role--you make the difference in your classroom!

Starting School from a Student's Perspective

My son starts 8th grade today, so I asked him a question--What are three things you would tell your teacher to do to start the school year off right?  Here are his answers, with my comments in italics.

1.  Be chill. He's had a stressful summer with some family illnesses and losing his foster brother.  He'll be stressed enough starting a new year, so he doesn't want his teacher to be stressed.  I wonder how many other students come to school with outside stresses?
2.  For the first couple of days, give us a break on homework.  It is sort of a bad start.  Of course students will say no homework, but his point is valid--give students a break every once in a while. When I was teaching struggling students, homework was always a battle.  So I explained to them that I would not give them homework every night, but when I gave it, it was important and needed to be done.  They asked for no homework on weekends and game nights (I had many football players) and I worked with that.  Homework became a learning activity, not something that HAD to be done every night.
3.  Get to know the kids more than just teaching at the start.  Don't we all know this?  The old adage, kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, is really true!  It's important to build relationships with your students, not only because you make a difference for your students, but also because the more you understand them, the more you can help them connect with learning.  

 What do you think?  How would your students respond to this question?  It might be worth asking them! 

My Foundational Beliefs about Teaching

Try to think of a time when you or someone you knew, or about whom you read, thrived under conditions that did not challenge them. The two ideas essentially negate each other because in order to thrive, people must be challenged. In addition, however, they must have the necessary skills and belief in their abilities to use those skills in order to thrive. This is the idea behind rigor in the classroom. When teachers combine high expectations with genuine belief and solid instruction, students perceive that they are capable of excelling and achieving, and they readily welcome rigor. Throughout my experiences as en educator, I have learned countless valuable lessons, among them:
- An individual teacher can exert immense influence over students just by holding them to high standards, and believing in them.
- Students reflect our perspectives of them. Much like the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies, students will attain success at whatever levels they perceive that others—particularly their teachers—believe they are capable of doing so.
- As teachers, we must focus on what we can control. By virtue of our humanity, this tends to be a difficult frame of mind to adopt. However, it is vastly wise in its simplicity. Avoid becoming a victim to circumstances beyond your reach or control. Instead, learn how to seek and create alternate options and possibilities. This kind of level-headed persistence and determination can help you meet your students’ needs, your students’ parents’ needs, and you own needs.