Job vs. Gift

Love this quote by Dale Lumpa.  Replace your subject are for reading and writing if that's not what you teach!

Teaching students to read and write is a teacher's job.  Teaching students to love reading and writing is a teacher's gift.

Building Blocks for Success

Students are  motivated when they believe they have a chance to be successful.  Too often, we have students who have never been successful in a school setting. Students need to set and achieve goals in order to build a sense of confidence, which leads to a willingness to try something else, which in turn begins a cycle that leads to higher levels of success. Success leads to success, and the achievements of small goals are building blocks to larger goals.

Part of raising expectations is to help students believe they can be successful. There are many ways you can build students’ confidence in themselves.  Here's a few:

• Provide questions or assignments that are open-ended and for which there is no wrong answer. This also provides another opportunity to get to know each student.
• Provide additional support during lessons, such as graphic organizers, learning guides, etc.
• Use multiple intelligences activities linked to students’ strengths.
• Encourage students and provide feedback and praise that reinforces their efforts, not just the final product. 

How can you help a student be more successful, and therefore more confident in their learning?

Grand Conversations!

Talking with other students is a great way for students to think at higher levels, and apply what they are learning.  Connie Forrester describes one of her favorite activities:  Grand Conversations. Similar to Socratic Circles, take a look at her particular use of the method.

 “I would usually introduce this strategy in October during our Unit of Study on non-fiction.  To introduce the strategy, I would ask the children if they knew what the word conversation meant.  After some discussion, one child would usually come up with the fact that conversation is talking.  I would go on to tell the children that Grand Conversations are one strategy that the big kids use when they talk about books.  I would explain the ground rules to the children.  You would be amazed how quickly the children catch on and how much they enjoy this strategy.  They would beg to use it after we had read a book.  However, I found Grand Conversations worked best when used after a non-fiction text.”

Ground Rules for Grand Conversations

1-    One person talks at a time

2-    When you respond to a classmate, you make a comment, ask a question, or make a connection.  Your response must match the previous person’s train of thought.  (For instance, if we were having a conversation about a spider’s habitat and the next child began discussing what he had for dinner last night, the first child could pick someone else)

3-    No one raises his or her hands.  I explain to the children that when people have conversations no one raises their hands. (We would either toss a beach ball to the person to talk or the child would sit up very straight to be recognized.)

One of the interesting aspects of this activity--Connie teaches Kindergarten.  It's never too early to teach students to have higher level conversations!

Celebrating Progress

            One of the most important ways you can demonstrate high expectations as well as help your students raise their expectations of themselves is to celebrate progress as well as achievement. 

            In today’s schools, we tend to focus on whether students have achieved a certain standard or goal.  That’s great, but there are some students for whom that is an impossible benchmark.  I used to joke with my students that they couldn’t see past the end of their noses to look at our long-term goals (especially the year-end standardized test).  If you plan to help your students achieve, you’ll need to celebrate each step they make toward the goal. 

            One way to do this is to have a “Progress is Power” bulletin board.  You can track students’ improvements, and showcase the progress they are making.  In the classrooms I’ve visited, teachers use anything from train tracks to balloons to graphs to visually represent the progress of their students.  I’d offer one caution, though. Another way is to use tiger or lion paws to take time to "Paws for Progress". Stop, reflect on progress, and celebrate with those paws.  

Need a Boost of Motivation?

Feeling like you aren't making a difference?  Jacques Barzun reminds us "in teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work.  It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years."

You make a difference everyday--even when you don't feel like it, ESPECIALLY when you don't feel like it! 

It's a Great Day to Be a Leader

Yesterday, I worked with a group of principals, district leaders, curriculum specialists, and teacher-leaders. I was reminded once again of the importance of shared leadership. Although one person can make a difference, getting others on board can help spur reform efforts. One of their favorite ideas was the concept of "name it, claim it, and explain it.". As you are in classrooms, take pictures or videos of effective practices. Start faculty meetings by showing it, and asking teachers to name it, claim it, and explain what they were doing. It puts a positive angle to walkthroughs and faculty meetings. And look for examples from everyone, not just your superstars. You'd be amazed what a difference it makes to celebrate the positive rather than focusing on the negative. You can make a difference today, you can say something positive today, and remember, that may be the only positive thing that persons hears!

Is Everything that Seems to Be a Crisis Really One?

I just arrived in Reynoldsburg, OH for a two-day booking.  Wednesday, I'll do a keynote for leaders, then Thursday all day on "What does rigor look like in the classroom?"  By the way, there are still a couple of openings for that conference--provided FREE to teachers and leaders!  Email me if you want to come. 

Now to the point--our son called in a panic thirty minutes ago.  Without meaning to, he let our kitten outside, and now he can't find her.  Of course, it's dark and the kitten is black, so you can see the problem.  He was totally panicked and would not even tell me what happened.  His dad calmed him down, walked him through three steps to follow. 

It reminded me of my interactions with students.  At times, they totally panicked because they were overwhelmed or didn't understand what to do.  In that case, what they needed from me was to break the steps down, be sure they understood each step, and to remind them I believed they could be successful.  Is that true for you?