Money in the Bank.

Most teachers will tell you that building relationships with kids is the key to teaching and learning.  Good teachers think about this when setting up structures for their class and great teachers make students feel good everyday.  The majority of us get stuck between our desire to have a relationship with the student and our stress to get this work done TODAY.  The hardest aspect of teaching is how many decisions and reactions we have in the moment that we can't think out in advance.

"What do you mean you don't have a pencil (book, homework, paper)?"
"I'm tired of people not caring as much as I do."
"Sit down! Be Quiet!"

Here is the first and only truth that matters.  Learning is emotional.  Any teacher who has been chastised in a faculty meeting will be able to remember exactly how that made them feel and how much they learned afterwards.  But sometimes that experience doesn't transfer to the classroom.  Imagine talking to adults the way we routinely talk to kids.  They wouldn't stand for it!  And yet, not only do we expect students to put up with our frustration with a smile but we expect them to LEARN afterwards.

One time I was talking to a parent about homework.  Their child wasn't turning in any homework and despite many struggles, structures, and reward systems...we couldn't get the kid to work at home.  The parent finally turned to me and said, "I'm just not willing to hurt my relationship with him because of homework."  At the time I was a new teacher and was completely perplexed.  Now, as a parent, I get what they were saying.  There are going to be lots of battles.  I'm going to need some money in the bank in order to handle them.  I can't spend all my coin on this issue.

Does this mean we give up on the kid or "let them off the hook?"  No, but it does mean that we ask ourselves at each step along the way, "Do I have any money in the bank?" This isn't easy, our emotions are involved as well as our evaluations and sometimes paychecks.  But, in the end, the student is more important than any rule.

Strategies to use
1. Plan structures in advance as much as possible.  Know the answer to the pencil, paper, homework, worksheet question and have a way for that child to learn that day.
2. Try not to make instant decisions.  Ask the child to wait for a moment and deal with someone else while you have a chance to think.
3.  Put yourself in their position.  How would you feel?  How would you want to be treated by your boss?
4.  Give respectful choices that support learning but put the student at the wheel.  For example, if a child doesn't have a pencil, you might say, "Well, you can figure out how to get one, you can give me something and borrow one from me, or you can come in after school and learn this material when you are ready."
5.  Put money in the bank!  Joke, smile, and listen.  You're going to need those good feelings when things get tough.

Bonus: Chose the student over the rule.  This doesn't mean don't have rules...but use importance and relevance to help students get the understanding.  Don't ever tell a student, "because I said so."

Creating Rainbows

I started the day this morning on the twitter feed for the ASCD conference where Maya Angelou was speaking.  She said that teachers are the rainbows in the clouds for students, encouraging them, believing in them, and pushing them forward.  So true...and yet I don't think that I have been a rainbow each day for every kid.  Teachers are human rainbows.  Sometimes we get beat down or stuck in our own clouds, not able to shine out.  Sometimes we harness ourselves to lost ideals and old worn out practices.  Sometimes we get tired of always struggling against the winds of mediocrity.  

How can we blast out and shine for all? Here are some of the amazing ideas I picked up from my virtual experience at the conference.  

1.  Kids learn when they want to learn.  Give them a reason to want to learn.  

2. Ask the kind of questions that "itch."  Students will want to answer.

3.  Create an environment of learning.  How you make a kid feel is as important as what you tell them.  

4. Use relationships to build rigor...not just longer assignments.

5. Encourage students to ask their own questions and build their own learning.  It's not about you..it's about them.

6. Stop grading students for compliance and start grading them on competence. 

7.  End questionable grading strategies like zeros that don't focus on LEARNING.

8.  Use tech to open the world to students instead of shutting the door on technology.

9.  Make sure you are assessing what you value.  Assess it often and make sure students know you value it.

10.  Don't sacrifice a relationship with a student and a future for learning over a piece of paper.

   

Change is hard

Change is hard.  This well known maxim is used in meetings across the world to help make people feel comfortable with the inevitable shifting sands.  And yet, regardless of how may times we say it...it doesn't seem to make change any easier.  The moment the C word comes out of someone's mouth, people in the room tense up and get ready for battle.  I'm sure this is true in any walk of life, but it is especially true in education, a profession that is probably 20 years behind in growth and...well...change.  Unlike business, that have to face the absurdities of people and fads everyday, education has been allowed to sit pristine and separated from society.  This is, however, rapidly changing.  School reform is here to stay.  Data, student results, and teacher evaluations, ideas that once rang out only from the ivory towers are now discussed in staff rooms and they are not leaving.  Unions and teacher leaders are growing to accept that it isn't the amount of time a teacher puts in, or the amount of experience a teacher has, but the amount of effect a teacher has that makes a difference.  School law, leadership philosophy, and evaluation systems are all changing.

Where then is the teacher?  Some are out leading the charge against testing, strict evaluation systems, and professional accountability, some are hiding in their classrooms, and some are searching to embrace new techniques and feedback systems that will be the norm in next 20 years.  As a teacher, I often wonder where my best time is spent.  There are parts of me that agree with all sides of the argument.  However, in the end, I realize each day that this change is here to stay.  I can jump on board or start swimming....but it is here.

Therefore, what will I build?  How will I integrate new ideas into my old philosophies?  How will I help struggling leaders find their voice and motivate and inspire the necessary change we need in classrooms to help our students?

I refuse to sit around the lunch table, thinking about the times 30 years ago and regretting where we are.  It is the students that matter.  They are more important than our beliefs and methods.  Their future is the only thing we should be concerned with.  Change is hard.  But only the things that are hard are worth doing and students are worth it.

Grading Adventure

What is a grade? What does it mean about the student? Are they having problems understanding the work? Are they having problems doing the work? Are they having problems communicating? Are they having problems behaving?

I am starting a new adventure moving forward with a modified version of standards based grading.  Along the way, I've read some great books and gotten a variety of ideas.  However, the key questions are still there.  What is a grade?

My personal goals for a grade are that it represents both the student's achievement as well as their growth in content understanding.  While compliance, behavior, and work ethic are important pieces of success, they are not what I want to show at the end of the day.  I want to be able to measure and show growth and achievement.

As a parent and a teacher, these are the questions I will consider when building this new system.
1.  Does it matter how many times a student tries and fails before they try and succeed?
2. How do I mathematically document growth?
3.  How much information is useful for parents?
4.  How much information is useful for students?
5. How should practice factor into the grade?
6. How should behavior and participation factor into the grade?
7. If a student is failing, not because of zeros, but because of understanding, what does that mean instructionally?
8. How can I practically manage standards tracking?
9.  What are the important skills I want to track?
10.  How will this grade shape parent/teacher/student communication?