Things I am Thinking About

Since our last class I have been thinking about several things that came up in the presentation and the discussion. Rachel & Ashley's presentation was great. It got me thinking about the way I physically organize my classroom. For the past few years I have primarily used table groups ALL the time. However, that may not be the betting setting for all students to learn. This year I have a lot of students who have told me - I need to sit facing forward. I also have noticed many students who are highly distractible when they are sitting in a table group. I feel I arragned my room this way because it is the politically correct way to arrange it, it looks like we are doing cooperative learning if you (or an administrator) were to walk in for one minute. However, I have come to realize that just because the students are sitting in a group does not mean they are cooperative working. And when we are working in groups, having 2 desks between students is not conducive to whisper or low voices that are needed, so I usually move kids around the room anyway - like to the book corner, or sitting at the reading table. Maybe I don't need my desks in groups just to have it look like I do cooperative learning. I think I am going to be brave and try something different in January. If I seat my students in pairs, they have someone to work in partners with. Also they can turn around and easily be a group of 4 when needed, and they will be much closer to each other, so they can actually hear each other when they are working in groups. I have used table groups for so long, it seems strange to do something else, but I am going to try it.

I keep rereading parts of the book Teach Like a Champion, because I really like many of the strategies. Some I was already doing, so it feels like a pat on the back. Other strategies I have started using with more frequency this year include the Cold Calling and No Opt Out. The strategy I need to practice more is Right is Right. I am the teacher who often rounds up. I can't seem to stop myself. Even this week I have caught myself doing that. I don't know if it is because I am in a hurry because time is limited, so I feel I have to push through and not slow down to get every part. I need to keep working on this with oral responses. I am much better at Right is Right when students are writing down answers, particularly for reading response.

At Bats...I have had a lot of discussion with other teachers about the concept of At Bats. I feel like in math (facts) especially, students need a lot of at bats. But I feel if we do that, I am doing contrary to what I have been told is good teaching in math. For example, to learn subtraction with regrouping students need lots of at bats. Our math program does not provide for lots of at bats. I have even been told lots of practice is detrimental because it is boring. Yet it seems like more and more students are going through elementary school not being comfortable subtracting with regrouping. Or even comfortable with basic subtraction facts. I feel guilty if we practice, guilty if we don't. There seems to be no middle ground. Practicing math facts is low level tasks, but won't students be more successful on higher level skills in upper grades if they come with a strong foundation? And please don't think math facts is all I do, just because I happen to think it is important. I teach math out of the box, I teach the standards, and we practice story problems daily.

Motivation

Drive By Daniel Pink could be one of the most interesting books I've read. If any of you out there havent read it, I challenge you over the next few months to read it (on top of all that we already do).

This book contains insight into the world of motivation. What makes you and I different when completing a task. It poses many questions as to how and why we are teaching the way we teach when we all know that sitting in a desk for 8 hours a day is nothing but brain cells getting in the habit of not firing. What this book does not do however is give us a solution to how to motivate our students more.

Here is the connection I've made thus far (only 3 chapters in). People are either born with an intrinsic ability to be motivated and excited about things they are interested in, and the other half of us are not born with this ability. Thus, why the use of insentives has come into the coorporate world. Also why the government is flirting with the idea of Teacher insentive Funds which would pay teachers based on performance. Here is my question, how do we get those students to be motivated to learn that lack the intrinsic motivation? Yes, we can make the content matter to them, and yes we can be the performers up in front of the classroom ( we are competing with the x-box afterall) and yes we can give treats. But at the core of me, I feel like its a switch that has got to be in the home. If we want our students to be motivated to learn, learning has to be important to them.

All in all, I am beginning to realize that my role of a teacher through reading Teach Like a Champion, Drive and other teacher related materials is that it is my job to not only teach content, manage behavior, teach specific skills, teach life skills, but to now also teach students how to be motivated, to be successful in order to pass the benchmark exams that rachel is refers to in her post. Phew! We have alot to accomplish, good thing were all so dedicated!

Shortest Path

I have been spending a lot of time thinking about our discussion last week about Shortest Path.  In case you don't remember I was having a hard time fitting together the ideas of teaching using "the most direct route from point to point" and teaching through inquiry and asked for help.  Kim suggested (as  I remember it) that Lemov means to teach with college readiness in mind, that we should teach the things students need to be successful in college in the most efficient manner possible.

In addition to reading Lemov I am also currently making slow progress through Yong Zhao's (U of O prof.) Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization.  In what I have read of Zhao thus far he attributes The United States' success in so many things (research, business, tech, etc) during the last century to an educational system that encourages creativity and individuality.  He explains that while we try to copy the Asian style of standards and testing that folk in China are trying to copy our old system of education so that they can "Lead the Way."  That's right!  He actually says that standards are a problem - or at least that they aren't the solution to all of our problems.  It is instead more important that (once students have the basics, I would assume) they are inspired, motivated, and interested in something.  That something will vary greatly from student to student.

So what of physics or chemistry do students need to be successful in college?  For a lot of folk the answer is probably nothing. Similarly I learned nothing about art, European history, welding, or the French language in high school and college went very well for me.  I still believe these are important subjects.

At what point do we stop focusing on standards and the minimum necessarily and start focusing on inspiration, excitement, on just being well rounded and being happy?  What if one of my students is destined to be the next great aerospace engineer given the right experiences and I skip out on talking about terminal velocity and air resistance calculations because it isn't needed by all my students?

 

Behavior

I have taken the idea of "no excuses" and "no warnings" to deal with the student behavior in my classroom.  Mainly, I got tired of continually correcting kids on the same issues - blurting, making silly noises, putting their head down...it was different for every kid.

So, on the fly one day, I got out a notecard for each kid and wrote down their "No Excuses Behaviors." For most kids that was a list of two items that were specific to them.  Each student had to tape the card to their desk.  If they violated their no excuse list, they had to spend 5 minutes of recess with me.

I've seen good improvement.  One of my negative nellies who complained about everything, is no longer complaining.  And all I have to do is say "5 minutes" and the behavior stops.  Victory.  (:

What strategies are you using?

Please take time to note strategies from the book that you are using in class and tell us how it is going!

Do you have any recommendations?


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Just a little background before I comment on the technique I've been working on during September of this year...I've spent the vast majority of my teaching career (17 years) teaching high school Language Arts. Last year was my first year teaching in a 6th grade, self contained classroom. It has been a wonderful, but eye opening experience. I don't know, but somehow I thought that kids were born knowing that the heading on your paper always goes in the upper right hand corner, you never write in columns down the middle of your paper, and of course the three holes are always on the left. It never occured to me that someone actually taught them these formatting issues. This is a no-brainer for those of you that are elementary teachers - because you taught them these things. For me, it was a shock that some of my 6th graders had no idea that format matters.

So, to start this year, I have been working on the technique, Format Matters. All those little things that I never considered before, have become part of my instruction in format these first few weeks. I had to put up a poster showing how to format their assignments, I'm showing kids how to create math assignments that are neat and orderly (as opposed to a mish-mash of numbers crammed on the page). It's been a process of teaching them that how they organize and format their work matters.

In addition, I started requiring that they answer every question in a complete sentence, not allowing them to start their answer with, "No, it's not okay because..." or just answer in a short phrase. It's taken us a lot longer to complete some science assignments, but the results have been good. They now ask me, "Do we need to write in complete sentences?" on assignments, rather than just writing the least amount possible.

I hope that by the time they get to the high school, that they will understand that writing in complete sentences and in a proper format is just the norm, what people do in order to communicate clearly. And high school teachers will go on thinking that somehow these kids were born knowing that the three holes always go on the left! (-:

If you don't have time....

http://www.teachersupplysource.com/product.php?productid=91726

 

This poster has become one of my most prominent sayings in the classroom.  My students know that if their work is not their best completed work they will need to either do it again or add to it.  The poster hangs near the middle of the room for all to see and I reference it often.  My students have quickly caught on that if they put their best effort in every time they have work to do, they will succeed and not have as many redos or missing assignments.

This poster ties in nicely to the first chapter of Teach Like a Champion: Setting High Academic Expectations.  Teaching Technique 2: Right is Right and Technique 4: Format Matters speak to the theme the poster conveys.  That is, if you don’t do your best work and do it correctly, you will have to redo the work.  This can apply to the simplest of tasks to huge projects.  Right answers matter, grammar matters, correct use of words matter.  Our 5^th grade class is one where I set high academic expectations.

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Welcome to the Book Study Blog

As we read the book "Teach Like A Champion" by Doug Lemov, please enter three posts (Fall, Winter, Spring) and comment on one of your colleagues posts each time as well. In your post, please describe a technique you have used in your class and how it went. You are welcome to use this blog as a brainstorming platform to decide what strategies to use and how to implement them.

Please post your three required posts and comments by the following dates:

Posting #1 - December 16th, 2011
Posting #2 - March 16th, 2012
Posting #3 - May 18th, 2012