Dealing with Diversity During Holidays

The urban classroom is typically filled with students from many cultures and traditions. While this diversity can offer lots of interesting points of discussion, this same diversity can be an minefield  for teachers during seasonal holiday celebrations. 

Which holiday gets the primary focus? Student populations can represent many nationalities, languages, regions and traditions. So when it's time to celebrate holidays in classrooms, teachers have to determine the best way to be inclusive and welcoming to everyone.

Know Your Students

It's really important to get to know your students as early as possible during the year. Many cultural differences aren't always obvious.  You need to know whether your students celebrate Halloween or are religiously opposed to it. You need to know if any of students have cultural opposition to participating in politics - if so, you may need to tailor your plans to have a mock election in your classroom. In order to get to know your students, talk to them. Use "beginning of the year" surveys that students can share anything relevant with you. If your students are very young, check with parents to get the information you need.

Create an Inclusive Classroom

The classroom is a great place to learn about traditions and cultures, in a place where children can teach each other about their backgrounds. Many teaches give students a chance to explain non-traditional holidays with their classmates. Parents can also be invited to classrooms to orient students about different holidays.  If there are staff members at your school who can speak to your students, you have a built-in "speakers' bureau" that can help explain things to students in child-friendly language. 

How do you address diversity issues during holiday time?

Queen Bee

First Steps for Creating Classroom Groups

Are you nervous about managing students in small groups?

We all know that students work best when they can support each other. We also know that small group arrangements teach students critical problem-solving skills that help today's students become tomorrow's leaders. But we don't always know how to best group students for successful learning. 

Prepare Students before Grouping 
Here are a few things that you need to teach students before putting them into working groups:

• a visual signal for establishing quiet
• how to move into groups
• how to refocus on the teacher when needed
• a vocabulary of kind and motivating words 
• how to be nonjudgmental 
• how to support each other 

Once students learn how to operate as groups, and learn how to work with each other, they will be ready to work in groups.

Introduce Students to Small Groups
It's important that you assign students into groups, rather than have the students group themselves. This will ensure that cliques don't develop that could isolate students.

• When you begin the small groups, start off small. Ideally, you might want to begin by having students work in pairs. This gives shy students practice with opening themselves up to others.  
• After a brief period, rearrange students into groups of three. Make sure that they are practicing the skills that you shared earlier (supporting comments, etc.)
• When students are ready for "the big time," you can place them in groups of 4-5. This is the ideal number for small groups. Research shows that groups larger than 5 are less successful in the classroom.   

Vary Your Student Groupings

Your groups should be dynamic, and change periodically. When you change groupings, you are giving students an opportunity to work alongside different students in the class. 

It's also crucial to have more than one group formation operating when you have small groups:

• one grouping should give students an opportunity to work with other students with similar strengths (this gives students a chance to move in a similar circle of ability), 
• and one grouping that combines students with different strengths (this gives students a chance to stretch and grow).

You can schedule the different groups to operate on different days of the week. 

How do you use student groupings in your classroom?

Queen Bee

Quicken the Pace, or Slow Down?

Sometimes coming to class can be like waiting for the doctor. You wait, wait and wait some more. The typical classroom lesson approach is highly verbal, with lots of description and steps, steps, steps. This is not the life that our students live, so it's no wonder some of them start talking and playing around. Today's students are exposed to thousands of ideas and images in an instant, thanks to the speed of technology, such as:

• Gaming systems that get students to make quick decisions, 
• News accounts that come to us in videos and sound bites 
• Travel options that can take us around the world at breakneck speed. 

The speed of the digital world is impacting our students. They are not used to waiting for information to develop, become exposed or to unveil itself. This is the age of immediate gratification. So, do we teach students to slow down or do we adapt to this faster pace?

Guiding Students to Slow Down:
It may prudent to help students slow down for some things - so that they're prepared for non-digital living.  

• Close reading activities challenge students to take their time and read carefully 
• Learning how to calculate using mental power and pencil power develops logical thinking
• Reading maps, learning how to evaluate, hypothesize, and analyze are all skills that deepen understanding

Integrating Quicker-Paced Activities:

We can also make sure that we include instruction that is geared to a quicker pace.

• Add games and activities that stimulate quick decision making
• Promote physical activities that get students moving in the classroom
• Use technology in your instruction: videos/interactive learning systems/cellphones

Queen Bee

Top 5 Online Teacher Websites

 I don't always have answer to every question. But here are five online resources.

Here's a list of my top five places to find online information: 

1. Google (google.com)  Honestly, where were we before this came along? Images, info,websites, etc - it's all here
2. Discovery (www.discoveryeducation.com) All kinds of online resources.
3. The Teaching Channel   (www.teachingchannel.org)  Videos, lessons and resources 
4. Teacher Files  (www.teacherfiles.com) A place to find clip art, lesson plans, etc. for classrooms
5. Free Technology for Teachers (www.freetech4teachers.com) Tutorials and tech resources

What is your favorite go-to source for educational information? 

  

The 5 Best Ways to Make Consequences Work

Teachers know that it's important to "say what you mean and mean what you say."  That's why we need to have  suitable consequences (punishments) for breaking the rules.

This consequence was never really effective, was it?

Students should know that we mean business when we share norms and expectations. We need to carefully consider what happens when the classroom rules are broken.

Teaching Consequences:

Consequences should be taught when we share the classroom rules. We should plan a list of consequences that fit the circumstance, and share them with students. Then post them to eliminate any confusion about what happens and to keep emotion out of the process. Always include a contingency clause - clearly spelled out - for serious emergencies (like fights or breaches of safety.)

 The 5 Best Ways to Make Your Consequences Work:

1. Make sure that the consequences are progressive - from some really mild to those more severe.
2. Post major consequences and review them, so if a rule is broken there is no surprise.
3. Ensure that you are the giver and taker of consequences. Never share your power with anyone, like the dean or the principal - until the most severe consequences are needed.
4. Be sure to do whatever you promise - good or bad. If you promise a certain reward or punishment and don't deliver, it's a steep climb back to your credibility.
5. Only offer detention after a series of other measures (conference, proximity, the look, behavior contract, call home, etc) Remember that if you give detention, you have to be there - so you have to suffer too.

Also make sure that you don't use the punishments of the past - excessive writing, excessive standing, the dunce cap, missing lunch, paddling, sarcasm, ridicule, etc. Any consequences that cause physical or emotional pain are forms of corporal punishment that will land you in major legal trouble.

  Queen Bee

Teaching Classroom Procedures

We all know that it's important to follow the rules. But what about classroom procedures - are you teaching students how to use them in your classroom?

Here are some procedures that you use every day in class:

• handing in assignments
• entering and leaving the classroom
• heading papers

It's really important show students how you want  them to do these things in your room. If you don't, each student will do things differently - and you'll end up with chaos. 

How to Teach Procedures

Starting the School Year Smoothly

A new school year is beginning. Are we ready?

What comes after summer vacation - a new school year! So now's the time to start planning for a new classroom experience. Now is the time to dust off and review classroom management materials and refresh those "first days of school" lessons. New teachers also need to create these things. One thing that never changes though, is the plan to make each new year better that the one before. Do you feel that way too? Most plans include:

• rethinking the seating arrangement and desk position,  
• planning how to present information - whether  on chalkboard, whiteboard, Smart board or screen,
• creating tiered lessons, 
• developing formative assessments to gauge student levels, 
• and thinking of ways to establish working relationships.

What things can you share to make the first days of school run more smoothly?

Queen Bee

What a Long Time!

Hey Friends,

Yes, it's been awhile, but we are back in business!
I have taken a retirement break, but now it's time to get back on the damn horse!

This blog will be sharing posts once again, and offering bit of help to anyone working in the classroom. Check in when you can, and leave a note if you're inclined - don't be a stranger!

Can't wait to get this party started,

Queen Bee

Teaching: It's all about Relationships

Sometimes reflection can bring you full circle. I thought and thought, and what I found was what I've known all along - a simple truth that underscores everything that we do as educators and what most of us look for all of our lives -  solid and meaningful relationships are the most critical things that teachers must establish before real instruction can take place. I take a lot of time preaching about the need for relationships - you may have heard me remark (at least once a week) that good teachers understand that you have to have a relationship with students before you can teach them anything! 

Think for a moment about your favorite teacher and you probably can remember something that that teacher did or said that was above and beyond academics. Those teachers were able to create a drive for learning, even if the subjects were not your favorite subjects at all! I think that the power behind this is that strong teachers don't back away from opportunities to touch and connect, and this connection results in students who really, really want to learn!

What is all this relationship stuff that I'm talking about?  It's simply taking the time to get to know the students that you're teaching, and getting them to know that you care about them. It's making sure that your students are more than a name in a grade book. I guarantee that once you make a meaningful connection, things will suddenly change. Test this theory out and see what happens! If necessary, start small - tell a joke, have a genuine laugh, give a sincere handshake, and see what happens!

   Queen Bee

Accomplished Teachers and Reflective Practice: Becoming Better

It's all about becoming better, isn't it?

Each day of life is about improving ourselves, and teaching is about becoming better at instructing and learning. I've been on the road to accomplished teaching for awhile, and it's a journey with no real end. Every day that I work with teachers and students is about how I can improve my practice. 

How can I educate better? Listening - Positioning - Reflecting

1. Listening: Hearing the essence of what others say.

• not superficial listening - which is simply waiting for the speaker to stop so I can jump in. 
• not autobiographical listening - which is adding my two cents of life history to whatever is being said 

Authentic listening is being present for the speaker, acknowledging what is being said, and being able to understand and clarify and even respond to what was said.

2. Positioning:  Offering substantive support to others.

• not in a top down hierarchy - I am not the know-it-all, but I am the know-it-some. 
• planning for future opportunities is not always about just following what I say, it's about using what I say to plan your way.

Successful positioning is more about how to position myself  to become a more successful mentor. Successful mentors will  collaborate and offer guidance from the side, instead of standing up front, like beacons in the night.

3. Reflecting: Thinking about what was done. 

• how are our conversations the basis for real change?
• what can we do to increase our practice as teachers?
• do we really reflect, or do we sometimes just rehearse what we've done? 

Do we really think about how to improve our work? And if our work is with other teachers, do we really offer them a chance to improve themselves?

After all, isn't every day another chance to improve ourselves?

  

Consistency and Practice in Your Management System

Students can behave in wild ways  sometimes...

Are you just about ready to pull out your hair?

In a previous post, consequences were introduced as a way to enforce your rules. The posting, Consequences: the Backbone of Classroom Rules, detailed the reasons behind having consequences for your rules. What happens when you are    using consequences but you are still  struggling with behavior issues? Take a look at these quotes:

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop talking?"
"You should know how to behave by now!" 

If this sounds like the daily song that you sing to your students, perhaps you should reflect on your management system. Remember that the highlights of your system include your rules,  consequences and procedures:

1. Rules - the established list of acceptable behaviors in your classroom. 
2. Consequences - what happens when students fail to follow the rules of the classroom.
3. Procedures - how you want students to perform specific activities in the classroom.

These are the main highlights, but what drives the management system is how you enforce these parameters. How you do it boils down to two techniques: using consistency and practice, practice, practice.

Consistency: 

Take a look at your rules. Are they an important ingredient to your classroom management system, or are they just another poster on the wall? Do students follow the rules? How do you enforce them? It's important to do what you say, and say what you do. If you don't treat your rules and consequences as if they're important, don't expect your students to follow them. Being consistent means having a meaningful response to any breach of the rules. And the responses (whether they are a look, a conference, or a phone call home) must come immediately after the infraction, so the students know what to expect. And you can't break the rules either - if you expect students to raise their hands to speak, don't answer questions or comments that students blurt out, ever!

Practice and Procedures:
How you address your procedures often makes the difference in how students handle these expectations. You may have issues if your procedures are:

*overlooked or ignored on a regular basis

*debated and argued instead of followed

*goals instead of classroom habits

* something that you don't enforce regularly

Now, take a look at your procedures. How do you regulate them? If a student doesn't do things the way you want them done, you need to reteach your procedures, and have the student(s) practice them.

Let's see how to put teeth behind your rules and procedures!

  

Creating a RAFT - A Teaching Strategy

Are your students adrift when it comes to developing their writing skills? Why not throw them a raft!  

Rafting adds excitement to learning!

RAFT is a strategy that helps develop creative writing skills, and helps students practice writing for different audiences.

What is a RAFT?

When writers use RAFT techniques, they look at each element of a sentence and use those elements to create a unique perspective. That perspective helps during creative writing. This is how writers will learn how to write for different audiences.

Consider the letters of the word RAFT:

• R - the role  (are you an astronaut, a kitten, a molecule)
• A - audience (are you addressing  a parent, the principal)
• F - format (journal entry, letter, poem, poster, brochure)
• T - topic (what are you writing about?)

How do we use this strategy?

The best way to introduce this strategy is to use it as a whole class exercise.

1 -  Explain each letter of RAFT to your students as an important element to your writing.

2 -  Offer an example of each element

role: a Revolutionary War soldier

audience: your family at home

format: a letter 

topic: what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill

3 -Show a completed sentence after the RAFT elements have been put together

This is the  constructed sentence: 

 As a Revolutionary War soldier, write a letter to your family at home that describes what is happening during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

4 - Give students another example with each element identified, and together with the class construct the sentence.

5 - Now give students the constructed example, and see if they can identify each element of RAFT 

4 - Have students choose one of the constructed examples and complete the activity.

When do we use this strategy?

What you want your students to achieve?

to activate prior knowledge - use RAFT before reading

to engage students during a lesson - use RAFT during reading

to assess content knowledge - use RAFT after reading 

This can be a whole class activity, small group activity or individual activity. You can also offer students a choice of RAFT activities by placing several Roles, Audiences, Formats and Topic options in a table. Use your creativity, but if you are at a loss, simply google RAFT strategy, and you will find lots of examples. I found this example for science journaling from www.readingrockets.org: 

Role	Audience	Format	Topic
Plant parts	Plant	Picture	We’re made for each other
Roots	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Letter	You’d be lost without me
Flower	Stem, flower,  leaf, seeds	Ad	I’m more than just a pretty face

Have fun rafting! 

  Queen Bee

Pinterest + Teaching Channel = Great Teaching Resources

Are you looking for a few good ideas? Well if you haven't tried Pinterest or the Teaching Channel, you're missing out on  great resources for your classroom!

Check out what teachers are sharing on Pinterest and the Teaching Channel!

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social network that shares information by way of interesting images. It requires a free subscription, but once you are on it, these are things you can do:

• Scroll through loads of different images. 
• You can save information or images that you like by  creating   boards for later reference. 
• Once you've opened a "pin," you can find additional information and resources.  That's where you'll find a host of information at your fingertips.  
• There's a search bar that you can use to focus your search of specific resources and strategies.
• You can even link to Pinterest from this page (click on "follow me on Pinterest") to find the boards that I've developed.

URL: pinterest.com

What is the Teaching Channel?

This is a wonderful resource that is created for teachers by teachers. It is a free subscription site that offers videos tailored to your subject and grade. Here's what it includes:

• Video clips: These are developed by educational experts and teachers. The clips  include discussion points that can be used to generate active discussion and professional development.
•  Blog: Tchrs' Voice is a blog that is dedicated to teachers' concerns. It is moderated by several noted professionals, including Pat Wesley, Sarah Brown Wessling, and Lily Jones. 
• Newsletter: The Tch Newsletter gives informational updates on new videos, ideas on lesson planning, and info on the Common Core and the Teaching Channel itself.
• Teachers' Workplace/Notebook: An area set up to save videos and notes that you want to refer to at a later time. 
• Teachers' Roll Call: Once you register your subscription to Teaching Channel, you join a pictorial listing of teacher members. Last week, the 100,000 member joined the ranks! 

URL: www.teachingchannel.org

  

Whip Around - A Teaching Strategy

How about a strategy that will snap your students into focus, and provide an easily planned and delivered formative assessment?

The whip-around strategy is quck and easy to use!

Teachers need a way to check on student understanding, and be able to do it with the least strain on planning and lesson intrusion possible. Whip-around to the rescue!

What is the whip-around strategy?

The whip-around strategy is a quick gauge of how your students are understanding topics. It can be used as a formative assessment because it monitors achievement. It can also be used as a check of understanding, because it provides a snapshot of what your students are absorbing in the lesson.

How does this strategy work?
Just follow these steps:

1. Present a topic to your students. Ensure that you are offering students enough support to understand the topic.  
2. Provide guided examples where you show students how to address the topic or solve the problem
3. Have the whole group practice the skill or solve a problem together, based on what  you have just presented to them. 
4. Now create a whole class question that has several responses. Explain the strategy to the students (no "gotcha") and give students a couple of minutes to create their answer. 
5. • Examples of questions:
   • What are the parts of an insect?
   • How did Scout express her feelings about Bo?
   • What can a hurricane impact the economy of a city?
   • Using the periodic table name an element from the halogen family?
6. Ask for an answer to this question as you travel up and down the seats - have each child provide their idea of the best answer for the question. No pauses, no judgments, just quick answers from each student. If there are repeats, that's okay (it will reinforce the information.)
7. Afterwards review what has been said- clarify any misunderstandings. If a misunderstanding has been repeated by several students, then you must reteach the skill to the class. If a single student is not clear, then you need to support that student individually.

There you have it. You have just whipped around the classroom and assessed student understanding with one single question. 

Why should you use this strategy?
This is an easy strategy that will give you critical information about what students know in a quick way. You have an idea of who is paying attention, who is following the lesson, and who is struggling. If this is presented as a formative assessment, you have information about how each child has mastered the information, and you can use it as an oral assessment. 

Quick. Simple. Easy.

What strategies do you use for a quick assessment?

  Queen Bee

Handling an Out of Control Class: A Teaching Strategy

Have you ever walked into a chaotic classroom?

Well I have, and I usually witness a familiar pattern:

• There is a center of activity, with other students watching
• It is a loud and noisy atmosphere. 
• Students will be seen looking for a reaction from an adult presence. Without an adult reaction, it's "party time!"

When you see this, what should you do?

Establish authority. You must be in charge of the situation, and you must establish the leadership of the classroom. It's important for you to create a sense of adult presence - this will bring calm to the classroom. Here are some examples of what to do and what to say:

What to do:

1. Look around the classroom and establish eye contact with the students. Look around the room slowly.
2. Stand apart from the chaos and be a center of calm.
3. Have your feet apart and your body fully visible. Have your arms crossed or on your hips.
4. Do not lose control, yell, or bark orders. Speak in a medium volume with medium energy. 
5. Do not apologize "Would you please be quiet?" or ask  politely. Demand attention and compliance.
6. Give time between brief verbal orders. Walk towards the chaotic centers, but keep at a distance from it.
7. Do not copy the frenetic energy or loud volume of the classroom - be a center of calm.
8. Have an activity (a hand-out or a simple activity on the board that the students can handle independently.)

To establish calm and get students to ease away from a high energy situation, you have to speak in simple commands, using  medium volume. Speak in measured tones - don't yell!
Only thank students for on-task behavior when they are on-task.

What to say:

1. "All right, students, it's time to calm down and sit in your seats." 
2. "Students, play time is over.  (pause for effect) "It's time to get back in your seats."
3. " Let's stop this and get back to work."
4. "You need to sit down.  Now let's get to work."

Keep this mantra until students have settled down. Accept zero tolerance of off-task behavior. If individuals start playing, give eye contact and repeat your commands. Proximity may be helpful. Do not isolate or give public ridicule (this will backfire and agitate the situation.)

Safety issues must be addressed at once. Call for assistance if there's a fight or students are engaged in harmful activities that will hurt themselves or others. 

Even veteran teachers look for ways to address volatile classroom behaviors. Remember that there is no one successful way to get students under control.

What do you do in these kinds of situations?

  Queen Bee