Here’s what I mean.

In my 4th grade classroom, a focus of my Math curriculum each year is the standard algorithm for double-digit multiplication and long division.

I enjoy these instructional days because as a Type-A teacher, I like to solve multiplication and division equations with the standard algorithm.

Standard means the way most people do things, or the common way. Algorithms are the step-by-step problem-solving method for completing the given task. Therefore, a standard algorithm is a stepwise practice for solving a problem. I have a standard algorithm to start each day in my classroom. I have a stepwise practice for setting up my day for success.

Taking ownership of your morning flow

I have a practice of entering my room the same way each day. I have chosen each step in this entrance. I turn on one of the overhead lights and head to my desk. I turn on my desk lamp and place my lunch box under my desk. Next, I switch on the library lamp, and then the smartboard. I pick up the smartboard’s keyboard and mouse after switching the reading group tag that hangs on the keyboard’s shelf. I deposit the keyboard and mouse along with my backpack at the standing desk and log into my computer. While the computer is loading, I move to the nearby schedule to switch the schedule cards for the day of the week and special area class. Finally, I complete the full circle around my classroom by turning on the back counter lamp and hanging my coat in my closet.

You get to set the practice of this in your own room. Take ownership over the space and how you flow into it. Choose menial tasks that are both necessary and helpful. These are the first things I check off my mental checklist to feel success each day.

Tech shortcuts for efficient mornings

To prepare for teaching that day, I return to my smartboard and start opening all the programs I need. To batch this task, I have put all of my daily needed websites into one folder titled Morning: Pandora, GoNoodle, Google Classroom, Google Drive, Planbook. With a click on the folder, then selecting open all, I have all the websites open in two clicks! Not only did I choose the resources to group together, I have purposefully chosen this order. I want Pandora always open on the far left to easily access play/pause all day by both myself and my students.

Since making the decision to get rid of my PC for more space on my desk this year, I had to adjust my Morning bookmark folder. I use my smartboard for both instruction and my non-instructional tasks during my planning period as well as before and afterschool. So students would not see confidential information, I have a bookmarks folder for instructional items and another for my school email, Google Drive, and Class Dojo. I have two Google Chrome windows open and click “Morning Smartboard” to get all the instructional materials set and then click “Morning Teacher” to have my needed resources in another window.

To create a folder, I simply clicked on the bookmarks bar and selected “add folder”. I then decided which websites would be used daily and dragged and dropped them into this folder. (An alternative way to complete the same procedure would be having your needed websites open upon startup, found in the settings for Google.) I have made folders for not only my daily morning needs but also each subject area. When I am using a slideshow or resource for instruction for several days or weeks, I move that into my Morning bookmarks folder as well.

Your practice of opening each site separately can be streamlined. Choose which websites you need and even the order in which they are placed in the folder or startup list. This small change, using technology shortcuts, will save minutes and create another moment of success as you lay out your day.

My slideshow strategy for efficient morning meetings

Another resource I have in my Morning bookmarks folder is my Morning Meeting slideshow. I have three slides for each day in my Morning Meeting slideshow:

• 1 – Welcome with morning routine and morning work directions
• 2 – Morning Meeting with greeting, sharing, and activity
• 3 – Morning message

Having the daily check-in directions displayed helps students to build independence, as I refer them to the slideshow as I spend time greeting students by the door.

I am so thankful for the duplicate option! I was able to duplicate these three slides to create an entire month, then duplicate the entire month to create each month of the school year! Although I have to adjust the dates or rearrange the activities, for the most part, these slides are ready for the entire school year after creating them in one year. The September Morning Meeting presentation always makes me thankful for my past productivity! Having all my extra introductions, procedural lessons, and classroom rules with my morning meeting procedures helps me to streamline planning during the dizzying rush of the beginning of the school year.

I look over my Morning Meeting slides when planning the upcoming week, update the dates, tweak the minor changes needed, and I am ready for the week. I can fill in the morning work ahead of time or each morning. I will rotate this slideshow in my Morning bookmarks folder on a monthly basis.

Your productivity can be increased with simple copy and paste. Take time to make a resource you can benefit from both now and later. Success sometimes means reusing and adjusting.

Achieving a “Tidy Inbox”

With my tabs all lined up and ready, I first go to my school email. From my backpack, I take my agenda, a combination of the list-making system from 40 Hour Teacher Workweek, and monthly calendars. I read emails with my agenda so I can immediately add to my calendar or to-do list then reply, file, or delete each email. I find “zero inbox” to be a lofty goal, so rather I shoot for “tidy inbox.” In order to do this, I do not look at email until I can give it my full attention with my calendar and to-do list present. Otherwise, emails get lost, requests get lost, dates get forgotten.

After getting the Morning Meeting slides on the one needed for the day, I move on to Planbook. I review my plans for the day. I adjust the schedule and write the lesson objectives on the board.

Strategic resource organization: Subject area copy bins

I gather the necessary resources from my subject area copy bins. I have spent planning time in previous days or weeks copying the upcoming items so I can be more prepared. If a copy needs to be made, I can do that right away if time allows or put it on my to-do list for my planning period. With my agenda still out, I can also see what tasks I have delegated to this morning or work ahead on tasks I have slotted in for the following day. The power of the one-stop agenda has allowed me to dump many of my worries into the weeks ahead and pressing to-do items into today, tonight, or tomorrow.

On some mornings, I arrive one hour prior to school and my morning process takes that whole time. On other mornings, I choose to leave home earlier to get more time in the morning for planning and preparation for the days and weeks ahead. Some afternoons, I leave right at contract time after just a quick clean up. Other afternoons, I spend time preparing for the day ahead, checking off some prep for the next day prior to leaving. The choice of the time to arrive or leave the classroom may be an area of reflection for morning success too.

Achieving productivity through thoughtful, intentional morning routines

Wikipedia states that “Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill.”The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the noun practice as “the condition of being proficient through systematic exercise.”

My morning practices lead to productivity, both in the morning and throughout the day with my students. I have chosen repeated, systematic behaviors that are both necessary and efficient. My productive morning helps me feel in control of my classroom environment.

On a daily basis, teachers make so many decisions: countless adjustments to instruction, assessing and logging behaviors, responding to interruptions to the schedule… and teachers do not have control of many of these decisions. So every morning is your time to choose personal proficiency. Define the practices you need. Choose the practices that will make you successful from the start of your day. Repeat these practices until they are routine. Monitor and adjust your practices until they help you achieve mastery of your morning.

The post Productive morning routines: How one teacher creates intentional practices for daily success appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Sandra comes into the classroom before you can step outside to greet her, and she immediately starts telling you all about her weekend as she hangs up her backpack. Jordan, who you wish would talk to you a little, walks in sullenly and sulks at their desk with their backpack still on. You try to finish listening to Sandra but are relieved when Meg comes in and can continue the conversation. You walk over to Jordan to ask, “How’s your day going? Do you want to talk about anything?” You hear, rather than see, Dan and Jack come into the room literally bounding on all fours and neighing like horses.

Instead of getting to the root problem of Jordan’s morning, you take Dan and Jack outside to be able to discuss the appropriate way to enter a classroom and let them try again. Brody says something rude to his brother before entering the room and immediately sinks into the bean bag, and you have no idea what transpired between them in the morning. You are torn between greeting students at the door (like you’re supposed to because greeting kids can reduce behaviors throughout the day) or helping Brody right now so that he doesn’t have an outburst later (which you’ve experienced and know is likely).

Many other students walk in nicely and chat with friends as they get ready, but you hardly notice as you try to solve emotional problems that started before your school day even began.

You manage to get everyone ready to learn and start the day with a good morning meeting. The next couple of hours pass by alright with typical, minor problems. When you pick students up from lunch, however, there are a whole host of other issues. Someone didn’t listen to the monitor and stood on their chair. Someone else threw the corn out of their salad and all over someone else’s lunch in their haste and disgust.

You convene the class to discuss, yet again, appropriate lunchroom behavior; everyone seems to understand and agree with you. You purposely take a brain break before the social studies lesson, but students are calling out before you can get to the main idea. Someone is blocking someone else on the carpet; someone else brought a pencil and is jabbing a classmate and calling it an accident.

By the end of the day, students are wired and wild and can’t listen to your read-aloud which you painstakingly chose to be interesting. You manage to share highlights of the day in a closing circle for the last five minutes before the bell. Then, students are trying to entertain themselves for another 15 minutes as you wait for the final buses to come since runs take so long due to bus driver shortages. You’re spent as they leave, but they literally run down the hallway as a patrol tells them to walk.

It seems like no matter how many strategies you implement, how much time you allow for brain breaks and meditation, how many fidgets you allow, how many times you email parents, how much you discuss in class meetings how to meet expectations, and how much energy you put into solutions … it’s never enough.

I hear you. The scenarios listed above are not imaginary. While I changed names and minor details, this is my teaching life as a 2nd-grade teacher. Some days, I am truly exhausted by students. It does seem at moments (or even for a week or two at a time) that nothing I’m doing is making a difference in student behavior.

In the grand scheme of a year, though, I do see improvements or changes in behavior. I can sense what helps me on my best days. My great days are not free of challenging behaviors; no day as a teacher has zero interruptions, zero need for redirection, zero conflict between students. I think teachers have been saying for years that students are more active, seem to have undiagnosed or diagnosed ADD/ADHD, have difficulty focusing, are emotionally dysregulated, and struggle to calm down and readjust. This is a problem that’s facing teachers as a whole, but here are the ideas that seem to be helping me the most.

I would encourage you to approach these solutions with the Swiss Cheese Model in mind that Angela discusses here. These solutions are not one-size-fits-all, one-and-done, checklist-type strategies. You will need more than one solution to a problem, and you’ll need to layer those solutions. It’s important to have multiple strategies for each problem so that you can move on to a new solution when one stops being as effective. Layering solutions allow you to swap out strategies throughout the year.

The Swiss Cheese Model: Letting go of “all or nothing” thinking

One thing I have noticed about students with increased frequencies of behaviors is that they need different things throughout the different seasons of the school year. Sometimes, just specific praise works. Other times, an intense behavior plan is needed. Then, when that behavior plan feels too stale, it’s time to shake things up with a different plan.

I’m listing multiple solutions to common struggles in the classroom with the idea that you can do more than one strategy when needed. If the behavior increases, add another strategy and/or double down on what you were doing a month ago but had lessened. This list can serve as a set of reminders of strategies you probably already know and therefore you can draw from this for ideas to implement when you get worn down by the ongoing issues in your classroom.

Try something different, and you’ll feel like you are taking action which is a powerful motivator in and of itself. You’re in control of the strategies you choose to use, and you can make a difference.

Here are the 10 issues I’m discussing in case you want to jump down to one that stands out to you.

1. Calling out
2. Fidgety bodies
3. Emotional regulation
4. Focused attention
5. Following directions and creating consistent habits
6. A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connections
7. Other students are frustrated
8. Need more space and activity
9. Impact is from home
10. You’re personally overburdened

1. Problem: Calling out

Strategies: Take a Break, Buddy Classroom Break, Reteach/Clarify Procedures, Repeat Procedure

• Reteach procedures: At the beginning of the year, you will teach procedures such as raising your hand. If you skipped explicitly telling students when they need to raise their hand vs. when they are allowed to call out, take the time to do that. One of the most confusing things for students is when you are (probably unintentionally) confusing in your expectations. If you’re validating responses when some students are calling out and then getting upset when other students call out, you are not clear in your expectations. Likewise, if you are sometimes encouraging students to shout out answers and just share openly without raising hands but then other times you are telling them they should always raise their hands, that’s frustrating. Take the time to get clear on when you want students to just call out. Is there a particular activity? Can you point to the class with open hands to show them it’s their turn? Can you explicitly say “you can call out ideas” for certain times you’ll accept those responses? Will you accept calling out in a small group only?
• Repeat procedure: When a student calls out, immediately respond, “What do you do when you have something to share?” or “Show me what it looks like when you want to share.” If expectations are clear, they will say “raise my hand” or they will actively raise their hand. You can tell them to “try again.” Then have them raise their hand, call on them, and then validate their response. In this way, you are re-training their body and mind to follow the procedure. If you keep this up, you should not have to repeat it frequently.
• Take a break is a Responsive Classroom practice. I have found Responsive Classroom to be extremely helpful. I send kids on Take a Break as a response to calling out or being disruptive. At the beginning of the year, I read aloud the book, “When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry” and explain how Sophie is able to calm down when she focuses on nature and gets away from the upsetting scene. While students can’t climb a tree and hide, they can find a comfy spot in the classroom (I have a bouncy ball and a child-size beach chair) and practice breathing techniques. I have other tools in my take-a-break spot: a whiteboard to write down their feelings and wipe away because feelings come and go, a stress ball, a glitter wand that can act as a timer. I explain how to use these tools. We also learn about the different parts of the brain. We can get upset and not be able to be as focused in the decision-making center of our brain at the front which is like being the driver of a car. You want to be the driver of your own car. I explain that when you’re making a choice that’s showing you’re distracted or you’re distracting others, you need to take a break to get back in the driver’s seat. Later in the year, I often just have to look at a kid and they tell me, “I’ll go take a break.” You can read more from Responsive Classroom about this system here.
• Buddy classroom break: Similar to taking a break in the classroom, students can also take a break in a buddy teacher’s room. If you have a teacher who’s next door whether they teach the same grade as you or not, try to build a system between you where if you need a break from a student, they can go take a break in the other teacher’s room. Similarly, you can be a safe space for a student who needs to take a break in your room. Often, students do not want to take a break in another classroom. I’ve had students really struggle with accepting the consequence of behavior to go to another room. I persist in this agreed-upon consequence and follow through, and it truly helps prevent repeat behaviors in the classroom. It also gives me a chance to clear my head while they are away so that I can appropriately discuss behavior with them later. If you have never tried this, I would highly recommend it. Here is an article about Buddy Teachers to learn more.

2. Problem: Fidgety bodies

Strategies: Chair Bands, Take a Break, Calm Strips or Velcro Dots, Weighted lap bands, Chair Push Up, Chair Pull Up, Wall Push Ups, Hallway Break, Brain Breaks, Classroom Jobs, Classroom Games

• Take a break: There are several logical consequences you choose in response to behavior, but taking a break is useful for many of the typical disruptions to “classroom management.” If a student is talking when they are not supposed to be, distracted and not focused, doing a preferred task over the expected activity, take a break is a great strategy. See problem #1 for more explanation.
• Classroom jobs: I love my classroom job system. I had always used a job system, but this was one thing the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club helped me improve. I keep jobs for a month or two at a time and students apply for them, so it works really well to have an active job that a student is motivated to do. Some of my favorite jobs to assign my active students are:
  • Bouncer — student answers the phone for me, answers the door, closes the door as needed, turns on/off lights
  • Messenger — student is a buddy to go to the clinic, take something to the office, etc.
  • Paper Passer — passes out papers
  • Recycling/Trash — they walk around with a recycling bin whenever we cut things up
  • Manipulatives Manager/Supplies Manager — passes out calculators, math manipulatives such as counters or base ten blocks, individual whiteboards, etc.
• Chair bands: These are like exercise bands that get wrapped around the front two legs of a chair. Students can push on the band. They can break eventually, but they last a long time.
• Calm strips/velcro: Calm Strips are a brand name tool that is a piece of tape with texture so it has some resistance as you rub it. I have found strips of velcro to be very effective stuck to desks. They are cheaper and even tend to last longer.
• Weighted lap bands or weighted stuffed animals: This can be used in conjunction with a take-a-break spot. For some students, this can be an effective tool to have a weighted item to calm their body and give them a sensory outlet.
• Chair push-up: You can teach students how to get out some excess energy by pushing their hands down on either side of their legs and lifting up their body.
• Chair pull-up: Students push themselves down as the sit at the same time as they pull up on the sides of their chair. I find this one better for frustration than the push-up. Students can alternate push-ups and pull-ups on their chairs with deep breaths.
• Hallway break: I will allow a student to take a break in the hallway if they need an alternative spot to take-a-break spot in the classroom and don’t need the consequence of a buddy classroom break. This can be helpful for stretching out legs or pacing. We used to have an area at my school that a counselor set up that had a little walking exercise for students to do. They had to type their name on a fake keyboard, follow the winding tape in circles, then jump, then do wall push-ups, then hop like a frog, etc. This really helped a few students I’ve had who needed to go take a break elsewhere. I could call the office to have someone take the student over for 5 minutes then return. This would need to be something that the school collectively prepares, but it could be a good solution to offer to administration.
• Wall push-up or wall sit: If a student is taking a hallway break, a good strategy is a wall push-up or wall sit. A wall push-up is where you lean against the wall and just do a standing push-up. A wall sit is where you start standing then slide your back down along the wall and put your feet out so that eventually your legs are at about a 90-degree angle or a little higher. This can help a student focus on their body and use up some energy — good if they have a tendency to want to punch or kick.

• Brain break: Consider building in more brain breaks throughout the day. I like to have one calm quiet independent brain break (I call this quiet time) and one active brain break where we are doing an exercise or dance. I think having these two types of brain breaks are helpful. Throughout COVID, I heavily relied on how-to drawing videos for brain breaks which were fun.
• Academic Games: Consider using classroom games to make learning more active. Here is an article I wrote for 24 classroom games that can make learning fun. These help break up longer class periods and long days with movement.

3. Problem: Emotional regulation

Strategies: Zones of Regulation, Yoga, Mindfulness, Special Place Boxes, Trauma-Informed Practices

• Zones of regulation: This is something that the counselor and social worker use at my school to help students choose strategies appropriate to their feelings. This framework can be helpful in talking through options with students and building their own self-awareness. I like to use this as a check-in for students about their feelings and readiness for learning. You can read more about this framework here: https://zonesofregulation.com/ Below is a short encapsulation of what I’ve found helpful.

• CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning or CASEL has a lot of information on schoolwide implementation of SEL resources: https://casel.org/ They also offer a playbook to support morning meetings and other resources.
• Mindful schools: Many educators love using Mindful Schools and those resources. Here is their site: https://www.mindfulschools.org/ While their official trainings cost money, they have mindful moment videos for free as well as monthly community practices for free.

• Yoga4Classrooms: Here is their website: https://yoga4classrooms.com/ While they recommend their official training which costs money, one easy-to-use resource they offer are yoga activity cards which are specifically designed for use in a classroom setting. It’s only $29 for one set and you can use them right away with limited yoga experience. If you’re looking for a set of mindfulness and yoga activities that can be used in a classroom, these are a great option that I’ve used with lower and upper elementary.

• Special place boxes: When I taught 6th grade, I had students make special place boxes out of used Altoid tins. I collected a bunch of random craft supplies, pebbles, shells, thread, beads, different textured papers, and all sorts of tiny objects. I also printed some mindfulness strategies on cardstock that fit inside the box. Then, I let students decorate the outside with paper and hot glue objects onto it. I let them fit whatever tiny objects they wanted inside. I got this idea from a trauma-informed teaching seminar I went to as part of my professional development. Everyone in my class loved making these boxes and then they were a traveling calming corner for them. I told them to think about it as their special place and try to put things inside that would make them feel safe and loved. They carried them around in their pencil pouches and could use them anytime in any classroom. One student told me later that she used it a lot during online learning throughout COVID and it really helped her focus and feel better. That was over a year after I gave her the box!
• Trauma-informed practice: Often, students have difficulty regulating their emotions or understanding what an appropriate response would be to a situation or feeling because of trauma. Here is one article on the Truth for Teachers site that has more ideas specific to trauma-informed teaching.

4 trauma-informed approaches that help kids with ACEs (and benefit your entire class!)

4. Problem: Focused attention

Strategies: Timers, Stations, Small Group Teaching, Teach student habits

• Stations and small group teaching: I try to cut down on my whole group teaching as much as possible. The days I try to do more lessons and activities as a whole class are always my most exhausting days because I’m working to maintain the attention of the group as long as possible. As a goal, I keep mini-lessons to 10 minutes. I recommend a workshop model of teaching where you have students listening to a minilesson and spending the majority of a class period writing, reading, doing a science lab, practicing math skills, etc. I know it can feel like more work to plan different stations and activities for students to do, but keep in mind that you can repeat stations. Since the students are doing different activities on a daily basis, they can repeat those activities often. I have found it so much more efficient to teach in small groups than whole group because I’m able to adjust my pace in the moment with students.
• Independent work habits: It’s imperative that students have independent work habits in place so that they can reserve energy and teach in small groups and use station models in the classroom. Set goals with your class to be on a website without interruptions for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes depending on the age of your students. Then, practice doing worksheets as a whole class or everyone reading independently for 10 minutes without needing an interruption. Work towards the goal with small increments and let students know that you can introduce more free choice stations and games as they prove to you that they can handle independent work.

• Timers: It can help students focus if they know how long they need to focus. If you can clarify that everyone is going to be writing quietly for the next 15 minutes then they know how much they can get done in 15 minutes. You also can teach students your expectations for that amount of time (1 page of ______ or _____sentences or ______problems). You can project a timer on the board or you can use individual timers for students at desks with only those who most need the reminder.

5. Problem: Following directions and consistent habits

Strategies: Teacher Language, Redo Procedures, Echo Instructions, Write Down Instructions

• Teacher language: Another Responsive Classroom practice is using teacher language. This article has multiple specifics on different types of teacher language, and I’ve found it helpful. Teacher Language helps me know what to say when. When I want to reinforce a behavior, I say “I notice…” and give specific feedback. This ideally is 70% of your feedback to students throughout the day — noticing the positive. Personally, that’s a goal for me that I don’t think I’ll ever reach but it’s good to try! I use reminding language often; having go-to language such as “How do we..?” or “Show me how…” helps me stay calm and not say something I’ll regret out of frustration. I just remind the student of the expectations we have. Redirecting language is when you need to stop something. It helped me to distinguish between reminding language and redirecting language since I’m only redirecting when I need to immediately stop unsafe behavior. Now that these are part of my typical language, I think it makes me a much better teacher because students know what I will say in response to behavior which means my consistency is high which is so important with behavior management.
• Redo procedures: One of the most effective strategies I’ve found in my classroom is just the phrase “Try again.” If a student ran to get in line, I respond, “We walk in the classroom. Go back and try again.” If the whole class is too loud coming to the carpet for a read-aloud, I’ll say, “That was not an appropriate noise level. Everyone go back to their desks.” I’ll select a few students to model if needed, then I can even ask, “What did everyone notice?” and we can discuss the few things I’m looking for. Then, I ask everyone, “Let’s try again. Show me how to come to the carpet.” The more you do this and take the time to repeat procedures and try again, the fewer times you’ll have to do it. I have also found that trying again prevents some arguments or disagreements with me over unfair treatment (someone did the same thing yesterday and you didn’t say anything!) because my expectations are very clear even if I miss something every once in a while.
• Echo back instructions: While students should be listening to you, we know they do not always do that. It can help to have students echo back a specific direction such as where this paper gets placed, where to put something away, when it’s due, or what page they should be on. This way students who were not listening as intently will hear it loud and clear. Even if they ask you, you can ask them to think about what the class said out loud.
• Write down essential instructions: I have a section of my board at the front of the classroom where I write a summary of directions. This helps students know where to look. While it takes those students who struggle to know what to do several weeks to get into the habit of looking there, it does eventually help a lot. I finally start seeing all students look at the board when they get confused by the end of the first quarter, and I notice that I am answering far fewer questions about what to do next, what their options are, and so on. If you teach early readers, consider using visuals with the numbers 1 and 2 next to it so they know first I do this, then I do this.

6. Problem: A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connection

Strategies: Positive Behavior Plan, Lunch Bunch, Mentor, Buddy Readers/Helpers

• Positive behavior plan for individuals: An individual behavior plan is good if you have 1-2 students that really require a ton of energy from you. The idea behind this is that you will set up an agreement between you and the student that if they meet ______ expectations then you will give them ____ reward. A couple of tips would be to ensure that the student knows exactly what you’re looking for and you have clear goals (not perfect student goals but manageable goals within the reach of this student), to have a motivating reward, and to start small. You can and should increase the goal as the student is meeting goals. The best ways I’ve found to track behavior plans are beads on a pipe cleaner or stickers on a chart. A special education teacher at your school may be able to help you create a plan or another classroom teacher who has used one successfully. I write more about how to create an individual behavior plan on my personal blog here if you are interested.
• Whole class behavior plan: If a decent handful of students are creating daily disruptions for you, then you can set a goal as a class with rewards built in. I’ve used beads on a pipe cleaner with the whole class before if there were just too many kids who needed constant attention and reminders from me. They get a bead each time I catch them doing something well. Then, whenever they get to 30 beads they can choose a prize (fancy sticker, fidget, bag of chips, whatever). Checklists on desks can be helpful to implement whole class. I used to see it as a bit of a failure when I tried one thing and it stopped working, but now I don’t. I just readjust and introduce a new strategy to the class. It helps to try a few different small things. The past few years I’ve used the game Kerplunk at the end of the year. Each time the class does great we pull a stick and when all the marbles fall, we draw a reward from a pile such as a virtual field trip or outdoor game or extra indoor recess. It is not something I’m interested in doing throughout the whole year, but for particularly busy seasons where it’s hard to focus, this type of motivation can be helpful.
• Lunch bunch: Often students really are seeking connection and attention. Having a lunch bunch can help. Let them invite a couple of friends and spend time with you in the classroom. I used to avoid this because I’m naturally introverted and need recharging time to myself, but I found that this was a good strategy even for me. It helped me have a positive relationship with a student outside of an academic setting and gave me energy instead of draining it.
• Mentor: If your school or community has a mentorship program, see if you can have parents, community members, and other teachers be mentors to students who need someone to talk to and require more interaction. There is only so much attention you can give an individual student, so see if there’s a structure set up where someone can come in. High school students might be a great option as mentors for elementary students.
• Buddy readers/helpers: I have had groups of students where I felt they needed interaction with others to develop certain skills. When older students buddy read with younger students, it actually is proven to help the older student even more than the younger student. The act of teaching how to read to a younger student can build confidence, fluency, and increase motivation and skills. I’ve had a buddy classroom a few times where we connected with another grade level. Older students would read with younger students in purposeful partnerships that I created with the other teacher. Both classes loved having a buddy. It also built excellent community school-wide because students recognized each other and students were able to interact with another teacher in a meaningful way. I’ve had a small group of students be reading buddies before. You might think it’s best to choose stronger older readers to support the younger students, but it really helps the older students, so choosing readers who actually need to work on their reading skills can be the best fit. One year with a difficult class I had them take turns supporting in a special education classroom with one teacher who knew those students. These 12-year-olds ended up practicing a lot of kindness and humility in that other space. They became more compassionate and loved helping in another classroom. It taught them skills that I could not just by talking to them about behavior.

7. Problem: Other students are frustrated

Strategies: Sharing Emotions, Quiet Times, Calm Classroom

• Empower students to share how it affects them: I let other students share how they feel when someone/a group of someone’s is not meeting expectations. I might share honestly that I feel frustrated right now when I can’t finish the lesson. Then, I might ask anyone if they would like to share an I feel … statement. I did not use to do this because it felt like I would just be blaming a student or shaming them,  but I think it was helpful for some students to understand the impact of their behavior on others. Try to model the “I feel…” statement in a calm voice for students to set the expectation that this is a productive sharing time and not a complaining time. “I feel [emotion ] when [description of action occurring]. While some particular students may wish that others made no noise at all or never touched them on accident, that’s unrealistic. There is, however, a range of control each child has, and they can work within their own range of control. I talk to kids 1-1 about that in behavior conferences, too.
• Quiet time: I have a 10-minute quiet time in my classroom every day. This is often midday after lunch or recess or specials classes depending on my schedule that year. Students can read, draw, play with play dough. It might double as a snack time or time to catch up on unfinished work depending on the time of day. It’s a choice time and if students can handle the freedom, then I allow them to move in the classroom to read in the library or sit somewhere else. This time is essential for me, too. It gives me a chance to check in with a student if needed, solve a peer conflict, input a couple grades, sort some papers, or check my email. I love this 10 minutes and have gotten so used to having it. Students also understand the idea of “quiet time” and can do it if I suddenly get called out of the classroom for a moment or my meeting goes long and the sub needed an extra activity.
• Calm classroom: There are many ways to create a Calm Classroom. Here is one article with some ideas you might find helpful. One of my favorite ways to infuse calm is by playing quiet music or using the site Noisli which plays different sounds such as fireplace or ocean waves.

8. Problem: Need more space and activity

Strategies: Get Outside, Brain Breaks, Flexible Seating/Standing

• Get outside: If there is a space on your school grounds to get outdoors, this is a great way for students to burn energy, express themselves, and learn about their world without you having to put as much energy towards anything. You will need to set up parameters, boundaries, and expectations, but once students are out, often the activity will be far more exciting and engaging than if it had been indoors. Some activities might include writing outdoors, monitoring plants, doing a mindful search for something (ex. living vs nonliving things), measuring objects, taking notes on the weather, growing plants, reading outside, observing forces such as push/pull, and so much more. Here is a Truth for Teachers article that talks more about teaching outdoors.
• Brain breaks: My second graders love YouTube videos that are indoor obstacle course runs. Coach Corey Martin is a favorite in my classroom, but there are tons of other videos. Go Noodle is a popular site with many dances. With older students, a 5-minute free choice time to just talk might be what they desire most. I like to share drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub which can be applicable to a wider range of ages. I previously mentioned the Yoga4Classrooms cards. I have found older students to be more engaged with the visualization exercises from that deck.
• Flexible seating/standing: Even in tight classrooms, there’s often some space available for students to sit in a different location (on a floor, bean bag, stool, fuzzy bathroom rug, etc.) or stand at a tall table. Flexible seating doesn’t have to be fancy; just having a different option other than a desk can be quite liberating for many students and offer movement.

9. Problem: Impact from home

Strategies: Communicating Needs to Parents

• Talking points: One point of frustration and difficulty can be communicating with parents. I have found the site Talking Points to be enormously helpful for students with home languages other than English. Here is their site https://talkingpts.org/ where you can create a free teacher account. This is a translation service that translates to 150+ languages. While not perfect, I’ve found it to be a pretty good translation. Families can communicate with the teacher by using a text feature on a phone or using the app. Sometimes we as educators don’t want to overburden parents who might already have a lot on their plate or aren’t sure how to communicate misbehavior in a way that builds rapport. This service can make it really easy to stay in communication with parents in a way that’s at their fingertips. It can truly help that family-school partnership stay strong.
• Sleep: Sometimes students are just tired even if they appear hyper. Ask students casually about when they go to sleep and when they get up. You can discuss their schedules and with older students you can even problem-solve together. Some parents may not be aware that their child isn’t getting the sleep they really need due to work schedules. Instead of jumping to criticism, start with curiosity. You might be able to educate parents on the importance of sleep and let them know that their child is tired and not doing well because of it.
• Screen time: While we as educators can’t dictate to parents what to do in their homes, we can provide resources to them and educate parents on the negative impact of screen time and the developing brain. Parents love their kids and want to make the best choices for them. As a teacher, I have used their digital citizenship curriculum to teach students about how to be a good digital citizen; these are age-appropriate lessons that are ready to use and can give students the strategies they need to set their own boundaries. They also have a parent toolkit for early childhood (ages 0-8) and a wealth of articles for all ages across topics such as screen time, cell phones, and social media. We do have some influence, and we can use that to support healthy habits.
• Social workers and other professionals: I know that different schools have varying amounts of access to counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists. The wellness team, as they call themselves at my school, can be an excellent support system for you and can help communicate. They might be able to have a lunch bunch with students, do a 6-week-long intervention and give you strategies to implement, come discuss some ideas with your whole class, or just be a listening ear and sounding board.

10. Problem: You’re personally overburdened

Strategies: Seek Support and Advocate for Yourself, Mindfulness, Give Yourself Credit, Positive Closing Meetings

• Get support: Advocate for yourself. If that means asking a counselor 5 times to talk to the same kid until they finally clear their schedule and make it happen, do that. If it means going to your administrator and asking them to observe something, come to a parent conference, or pay for a resource you really need, be ready to propose your solution to them and ask for what you need. If you still don’t get support where you are after asking directly and being solution-oriented, maybe it’s time to find other administrative support in a different school or district.
• Embrace resources provided/free resources: While I’ve listed several resources throughout this article, I recommend focusing on one framework vs. pulling from a million places. It can be overwhelming to go in too many different directions or get too many resources. Start with one website or framework that appeals to you and go from there. That one resource will likely give you a ton to work with. It may not make sense for you to try a particular program or resource because it requires training that you don’t have and can’t pay for or it requires more time than you can offer. Almost every paid program out there has some free resources associated with it. Use what you can and if you end up wanting the resources or professional development that requires more funding, you can look into scholarships and grants and ways to make that happen. If your school has already picked one particular program, lean into that and try to make it work. The resources are there for you and hopefully a support system of other people who are also trying it out.
• Positive closing meetings: I had been doing closing meetings intermittently in my classroom for years. I often liked to have a reflection question to discuss or a “highlight of the day.” My teammate did “peaks and pits” at closing meetings. A peak is something that went well and a pit is something you wish was better. I have also used “rose, thorn, and bud” where a rose is a positive thing that happened, a thorn is something that wasn’t good, and a bud is something you’re looking forward to. I used to do “thank you’s” in my class where I put one popcorn kernel in a jar for each example that someone could give for being helpful or kind or supportive that day. They could also notice a kind act that someone else did for another person. They could also point out that the whole class did well with an activity or transition throughout the day and I would put one popcorn kernel for each person in the class (ex. 27). These closing meetings are such a nice way to end the day as an elementary teacher. If I taught middle school, I might do them at the end of the week only. I am often surprised by students when they say they “have no pit” or “My peak is that we had a good day as a class.” My first reaction might be to think, “But you were so cranky this morning” or “The class was so loud in math!” Their interpretation is that the day was great and they literally can’t think of anything to complain about. Why can’t I take that interpretation to heart as well?! I can embrace that mindset. Even if I feel tired or a little annoyed about one part of our day, if everyone in the class is listing how positive their day was, I should take some credit for that. I helped our class function and flow. It’s important for us to end on a positive note; it personally gives me fuel for another day.
• Mindfulness: I mentioned mindful strategies for students, but you can also use mindfulness for yourself. In Angela’s new daily encouragement podcast she offers weekly mindful moments. There are lots of meditation and mindful moments online for free through YouTube. There are podcasts dedicated to this practice. Headspace and Calm are both apps that offer mindfulness and meditation strategies.

Finally, give yourself credit

I see posts on Facebook about how teachers are stressed out with the expectation for students to make a year’s growth in reading and math and how impossible that feels, yet these teachers who are saying they’re not doing enough are also saying in the same breath that most of their class DID make a year’s growth. So are you truly not doing enough? You are honestly succeeding. That is what success looks like.

Trying different strategies and adapting to student needs is a success. You made it through another year or another day with a group of students with hugely diverse needs, and you taught them so well that despite their challenges they learned a whole year’s worth of material. If you’re thinking that you wish you could have done more or you wish you could have done better at this one thing or many things. You are right. Of course, hypothetically you could have done more or done better at something, but in reality, it wasn’t possible.

You did what you could do. Look at what you DID. You are amazing. You have done enough, and you are enough.

The post 10 common problems and layered strategies for supporting dysregulated students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

This is partly because of my own professional development around different classroom management philosophies, partly from my own mental adjustment in response to student misbehavior, and also partly from listening to the way other teachers and myself talk to students. I feel enormously blessed to work at the school I do, and I think teachers in general have the best interest of students at heart. There are phrases, however, that I’ve heard both uttered from myself and other teachers that have made me wince. It’s not that any of these phrases below are inherently bad, rude, or would only be said by a teacher who is out of touch. These are just phrases that have left me questioning after I’ve heard or said them.

As I turn these phrases over in my mind, I want to think about the impact of our language as teachers. There is a lot of gray area when it comes to things like jokes and sarcasm, but more and more, I think about how something might be misinterpreted or remembered in a way that doesn’t put me in a positive light. I don’t want that to be my legacy in a student’s mind. I want to leave behind a positive, professional impression. I also don’t know what my off-handed comment might lead a student to think, either positively — in that they never saw themselves as a writer or good at math — or negatively — in that now they think I don’t believe they are capable or happy.

For these reasons, the phrases below are ones I try to actively avoid. Below I will also offer the replacement phrases that I have tried to use in my interactions with students. I believe that this is a work in progress, not just professionally but personally for me. Our language should be flexible and mindful. One of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done is record myself teaching and watch it back, but it really helps me reflect on what I’m doing and what I’m saying. This is the power of reflection, and I hope that this article, even if you don’t agree with everything I say, helps you reflect on your own teacher language.

#1 You must say yes if someone asks you to play.

Replacement: Is it possible to include them? What is your choice: play the game with ____ or play a different game? Is there a reason you don’t want them to play (talk to the student off to the side)?

As an elementary school teacher, this phrase is actually an expectation within my school that has been stated by the assistant principal and counselor, and it has bugged me for a long time. The intention behind it is that no student is purposely excluded from a game or bullied. The way this is often phrased to students is: “What do you say when someone asks you to play?” “Yes!” I think it is important to make space for students in a game, teach them to compromise, and work out our differences; however, I have found that when students don’t want to play with someone, it might be for a reason that’s more complicated. This is a chance for problem solving which requires nuance and not merely a command: you must play. Here are some problems I’ve come across:

• They just spent 10 minutes sorting out groups and don’t want to renegotiate teams
• That person was mean to them the last time they joined
• The group is getting too big for the game to work effectively
• That person tends to cheat, and they are tired of dealing with it

In these instances, saying “yes” and letting the person join in does not solve the problem. Instead, maybe consider these solutions to talk through with students:

• Let’s discuss what’s important and not important. Since this is just a game at recess, anyone can join in anywhere, and it’s okay if the teams are not perfectly balanced.
• Share your feelings with an “I statement.” I feel worried that you will be mean to me when you play this game. Can you be nice? If you are not nice to us, I will not want to play with you and will leave the game.
• Can we split the group into 2 separate games? Is there another game we can play instead that’s better suited to a large group?
• If you don’t want to play with them, you can leave and play a different game.

I personally think it’s helpful to teach students that if they are mean, if they cheat, if they are physically rough, others will not want to play with you. That is a logical consequence. As an adult, I love to play board games, but if I pitch a fit over rules, try to cheat, or brag about winning, others will not want to play with me. As a result, I will not be invited to play at other people’s houses. Perhaps we should be more open with that information with one another. If my behavior is inappropriate, I should not expect others to just include me because I want to play.

This whole scenario of being forced to say yes just because someone else asks is also an issue of consent. There is mutual consent going on when people are playing together. I do not think that consent is something that can only be taught as students get older. In fact, the earlier we can teach the idea of consent, the easier it can be applied to situations where it is more harmful if not followed. If someone asks you to do something, do we want to teach students that you have to say yes? Is that the message we want to send?

I think I have been taught that I have to say yes to someone’s request if someone asks me nicely, but I now believe that I can say no, even when someone asks nicely. I think there is a difference between bullying and targeting someone, telling them no repeatedly, and just being able to tell someone no in an isolated instance. So many teachers (women) were trained as children (girls) to say yes and be helpful and include someone regardless of how it made them feel. I think forcing a “yes” out of someone is a consent issue, and it’s one we can address better.

#2 “Friends”, “Boys/Girls,” “Gentlemen/Ladies” for students

Replacement: Scholars, Writers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Readers, Students, [4th…] Graders, Everyone, Caring/Kind/etc Students

There are many names we use for “students” and “class.” I personally have always told students that they were not my friends. A friend is a dynamic where the two participants are equal. They do not have to be the same age, but a teacher/student dynamic is not equal. As a teacher, even when I feel powerless in the school system at large, I have power in my classroom and authority over students. I determine many things about our space and time together. Therefore, I do not call students “friend” or “buddy”.

While this is arguably more important when teaching older students, younger students also need that professional line to be drawn. I have noticed that teachers or adults who use “friends” to address students tend to be more personally affected by misbehavior and students and they tend to experience a lot of disrespect from students in small ways (calling out, talking back, etc.)

One trend that is fading out is naming student genders (boys/girls, gentlemen/ladies). This approach varies widely where some teachers feel it is respectful, some teachers feel it is harmful to our LGBTQ+ students, some parents are upset when it is said, some parents are upset when it is not said. When I moved grade levels to teach younger students, I often felt that they were more obsessed with gender and more vocal about it than older students. They see things in black and white and want to know if an ambiguous character or video persona is a boy or girl.

I do not think we need to reiterate gender separation with constant reminders that this is who you are – a boy or a girl. With our language, we can give students an identity. If a student is unsure of their gender identity, then I am reminding them of that all day long if I use gentlemen/ladies. If a student easily identifies as a girl but feels like they are different from other girls, we might be reminding them of that feeling all day long without knowing it. Instead of making students feel respected and included, we are likely alienating certain students.

However you feel about pronouns, one small shift you can make is to not use gender-specific naming for your whole class. According to the Trevor Project, “having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among LGBTQ young people by 40 percent.” We as teachers are constantly informing the identity of students and their role socially. I believe this gender-neutral language is important at all levels of education. You can read more about LGBTQ-Inclusive and Supportive Teaching Practices here. 

#3 Sit down. Be quiet. 

Replacement: Show me how we listen to our classmates. How can you show respect to your classmates? What are the options for sitting on the carpet? Think about what you need to start class. Show me how to sit at your desk. What are the expectations for ____?

When we redirect behavior, we do not want to get into a power struggle or debate over our choices as educators. Since we do not want to linger and have to explain a myriad of reasons why a student should just be following the rules, we can clip our language to statements such as “sit down” or “be quiet.” I have heard these words come out of my own mouth when I was frustrated, but I did not like the way it made me feel even if everyone started behaving afterwards.

I’ve been trained in Responsive Classroom which is a classroom management philosophy. The teacher language I’ve learned through that course and their books has revolutionized my practice, and it’s something I continually try to improve. There are 3 types of teacher language: Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting. Reinforcing language is positive, and I’ll talk about that next. Reminding language is a chance for you to help students adjust their own behavior. This is the difference between telling a student what to do and helping them recall a procedure they’ve already been taught.

Phrases such as “Show me…”, “What did we…”, “How can we…”, and “Think about…” are great sentence starters. I will force myself to just say “Show me…” and try to finish the sentence with an expectation so that I’m training myself to not just tell students what to do but help them be more successful in the long term by thinking about the consequences of their actions and how to participate in the classroom more fully. If you’d like to learn more, The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton and The Power of Our Words for Middle School are great resources.

#4 I like how….is doing it

Replacement: I notice…Did you notice…I see…You _____

Something I heard stated over and over again in classrooms when I was first in practicums by other pre-service teachers and younger teachers whom I felt I wanted to emulate was “I like how the class is getting started. I like how John is starting his work. I like how Bella is working quietly.” I heard these affirmations and thought they sounded like cheap praise which felt a little gross, but it also seemed to work. I was confused by what I didn’t like exactly. I never picked up the practice because it just didn’t work for my personality, but I wanted to provide encouragement to students and let them know when they did something well.

The solution I needed but didn’t know I wanted was reinforcing language. As I mentioned above, Responsive Classroom names 3 types of teacher language. Reinforcing Language should be the majority of our language with students. As most teachers will quickly tell you, some students need a large amount of attention and positive language. It is often those students that we end up reminding about behaviors so often that also need the most positive language reinforcement. We need to balance all of that redirection and reminding with reinforcing language about when they are meeting expectations.

These are not shallow statements meant to just praise following rules; these should be statements that specifically identify a strength in what the student is doing in the moment:

• I noticed you picked up those pens that fell out of Aidan’s bag.
• I see that you have checked your work for capital letters and periods.
• Did you notice how everyone in the room was so focused during writing class today?
• You made sure everyone was included in the math game today.

Here are more examples. This takes more effort than just stating “Good job!” but it’s more helpful to students when you specifically state what they’re doing well. What we notice and name is what students will pay attention to, also. If I slip up and say a generic comment or I’m starting to just say something like, “Nice work!” I will just tag on an “I notice” statement afterwards. Again, these are sometimes patterns that are quite ingrained, so it takes time to develop new patterns of behavior in ourselves. I will force myself to just start with “I notice…” when I come up to a student and look for something nice to say.

#5 Wow! You did that so fast! You’re so smart! 

Replacement: That seemed to be easy for you since you did it quickly. What can we do to challenge you a little more? Was there a part that was more challenging for you so we can work on that? Wow! You worked hard on that. I see your brain growing while you’re working on this. That mistake is helping you learn. 

The initial comments of “You’re so smart!” and “Good job!” might feel like positive praise that a student needs to hear. Again, when we are thinking about reinforcing language, we do not want it to sound empty and vague. We want to be specific and praise students for sticking with a problem. Since learning and reading about growth mindset, I have strongly steered away from praising speed. I explain to students that fast reading does not necessarily mean it was good reading, and I discuss the different paces of reading. I talk with my slowest readers about how sometimes they are the deepest thinkers (which is true; students with dyslexia tend to make deeper connections and are more global thinkers even though their fluency is slow). I talk with students about how being able to come up with multiple strategies in math and being able to think flexibly is more important than getting the right answer quickly.

Now, my reinforcing language is often about recognizing when students are sticking with the same math worksheet and focused instead of getting frustrated about why they haven’t moved on. Or I’m glad they’re reaching for a difficult text and working through the words instead of giving up. Believing that students can achieve difficult things, trying to find appropriate challenges for them, and encouraging challenge is all part of having a growth mindset focus in your classroom. I have found this to be particularly important in math class where students, parents, and teachers all have held onto the belief that some people are capable of doing math or have a “math brain” and others don’t.

Here are some resources specifically around growth mindset in math from the fantastic website youcubed started by Jo Boaler. One resource that I have personally used in my classroom is her Week of Inspirational Math. You can select videos and resources to share with students that set up your classroom at the start of the year (or restart your math classroom midyear) with challenges. The lessons include such mindset shifts as “Brains Grow and Change,” “The Importance of Struggle,” and “Speed is not important.”

I have also worked to not get too excited when a student makes zero mistakes. I might instead point out to a student that they are ready for a more challenging page in their packet. When I select worksheets for students, I put together a variety of pages that have varying levels of difficulty. I can then direct students towards different pages and allow students to self-select their differentiation. If a student is choosing the easiest pages to complete and then is bored, I can have a conversation with them about their focus in class and how they should be persisting through a more difficult page instead of completing whatever they can the fastest. This also helps my conversations with parents because I can refer to their work in a way that shows if their child is on grade level and achieving or reaching for challenges or needing remediation.

Similarly, if a student is reading 3 books in their 15-minute independent reading station, I can have a conversation with them about “just right” books. It’s okay to read easy books, sometimes; we all enjoy a treat every once in a while, but it’s not helping you grow. I can point out to students that it seemed too easy for them because it was so fast, so they should try to slow down and read a more challenging book.

#6 You must write before you draw. 

Replacement: Do you need to draw before you write to get into a flow? Use a sentence frame to get started. Could you draw out the word problem first?

I don’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but I think even when I was supporting in classrooms doing pre-service hours I noticed that there was a push towards focusing on the finished product. I’ve become more open to the idea of a thinking classroom where I want students to explore ideas and use thinking routines. I am less focused on the “correct” answer or final product when we are learning a new concept or in the beginning or middle of a unit of study. I realized that student writing tended to be better after they took time to think and draw. I also realized that student work in math tended to be deeper when students took time to draw or use manipulatives first. The way I feel I was trained to think was that drawing was something you did afterwards to explain what you wrote, add on if you had time, and make your work “prettier.”

I have almost gone the opposite way and tell students they should typically draw to get going and thinking or they should use manipulatives first. I noticed that most students benefit from the freeform thinking first; however, I think it should still be the student’s choice. We can present both starting with writing in sentences or in math, starting with numbers, or starting with pictures or manipulatives as valid options. Our brains work in different ways and the more we can share with students how to work WITH their own strengths, the better off they are. I have loved hearing students over time, share with confidence how they approached a problem. I also loved hearing how students might change their strategy day to day. “Today I felt like writing first because I had a great idea…” or “I wasn’t sure what to do first so I started with counters.” I love that the different approaches help students feel more confident in their own learning choices. It is empowering.

#7 We don’t need to talk about that at school.

Replacement: What makes you say that?

When a kid says “That’s gay” or brings up a high-tension subject or mentions someone’s race, I think many educators worry about saying the wrong thing or getting in trouble with a parent or an administrator. While not everyone has the privilege that I do as a white woman in society, since so many teachers are white women, I think it’s important for teachers in particular to take on the challenge of addressing these topics in the classroom. If a student says something that might feel uncomfortable for you to address, instead of shutting it down with “We don’t talk about that at school” or “Talk about that at home, please”, maybe try asking, “What makes you say that?” Your genuine curiosity might help a student reflect on their own word choice. What did they mean when they made that comment?

Help them reflect on whether it was truly kind or whether it comes from a place of knowledge or ignorance. In certain cases, it may help to define a word for a child, The word, ______ means _____. Is that what you mean right now? Can you see how using ____ word does not match what is going on here? If a child is pointing out a race, you can address an assumption head-on on such as, “What makes you say they come from Mexico?” or “What makes you think they are poor?” I can explain to students where someone was born and offer another perspective they might not have considered.

Almost every year I’ve taught I’ve had a student come in as an English learner with little to no English. These students have often gone to school in a home country where it was a very different experience of schooling for them there as it is here. My 2nd graders are particularly excited for new students and love the prospect of teaching someone English, but the lack of English often means in their mind that someone is uneducated.

They will tell me something like, “Wow! ____ did the math game with us and he understood how to add the numbers together!” They were genuinely happy, so maybe my first instinct would not be to chastise them saying, “That’s not nice” which it could be if they were saying he couldn’t play the game at all. I can still approach this interaction with curiosity, though. “Why might he still be able to play the game?” If they can’t answer me, I can explain, “He went to school before and he understands math. Do you think you can help him make more connections to math even without fully understanding English?” This type of dialogue can help students see their classmates as fully human with rich, complex lives they might not always see or understand. These types of conversations also remind me as the teacher of the language I’m using and how I want to talk about students and our classroom community.

#8 Always do your best

Replacement: What is your best today? Is this the best you could do with the time you had? How much time did you work on this? How focused were you during that time? Is this meeting expectations? Let’s look at the rubric/checklist together.

I brought this idea of avoiding the phrase “always do your best” up in a podcast interview I did with Angela a couple of years ago, and she ended up doing a full podcast episode around this idea. As a child, I was extremely perfectionistic. I loved pleasing teachers and doing the right thing. I enjoyed doing work well (and I still do!). I truly appreciate something done to a high standard; however, this can also get me into trouble.

In middle school, I was shifted from all general education classes to “extended” classes (aka advanced/gifted classes). I was quite stressed out by the changes in courses I had; the whole environment of 6th grade was a lot for me as an introverted, fairly shy student. I got an ulcer that year from the anxiety and stress of my school day and had to take medicine for it for a while. In fact, even when I felt better, I remember being anxious about going off of the medication. I would not have let this show to my teachers. I kept it all inside, and there was no way they would have known because my grades were exceptional, and it appeared as if I did all of my work without issues.

Also, I liked challenges so there were times when I was bored of the work I was doing and it would not have looked like I was stressed out over it. The messages I received from teachers were to do my best no matter what, to always raise my standards, to do more than was expected. Considering I naturally have this tendency, I could kick it into hyperdrive if a teacher focused on “doing your best” which to me translated as “do it perfectly and be THE best.” Since I became a teacher, I knew I didn’t want students to have this mindset reinforced by me. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Instead of asking students for a generic “best,” have them compare their work with the standard. The standard might be a rubric or checklist you have provided. One thing I like to do in class is have students assess mentor papers or projects. They can use the rubric to grade a piece of work I’ve saved from previous years or one I’ve created. Often, students are quite critical of this work so it can help to clarify for them how I graded it. Their views and my views need to be in alignment in order for those evaluative grades to make sense. I would have appreciated this as a student instead of just imagining what I thought the teacher might want.

Some teachers worry this will stifle creativity, but I have not found that to be true. It helps students know where they should focus their effort and energy. Similarly, if I was stuck on something and would not stop my work, I can’t tell you the relief I would have had if someone had talked to me and said, “This is great work for 30 minutes. If you have more time, maybe you could have done more, but I only gave you 30 minutes.” As a student, I was expecting my absolute best at every moment. I panicked over timed writing assessments and timed work in general. If we can remind students that time affects our quality, I think that would be helpful in training students to focus on what matters most in each assignment. This is not just helpful for the classroom but helpful for life. We need to know as adults where to put our time and energy, what to prioritize, and how much time we have to spend on something.

#9 Okay? Right?

Replacement: Make your directions into statements and drop the questions.

One thing I’ve heard teachers say is adding “okay” or “right” onto the end of their directions. For instance, they might say, “It’s time to get out your notebooks, okay?” “You’re going to put that aside, right?” “We need to be nice, okay?” “First, you’ll open up a new Google doc, okay?” I think there are a few reasons why this might be a tendency. Foremost, it might be because teachers are actually looking for affirmation that students are paying attention and following along. I think it projects to students, however, a level of insecurity. It sounds like teachers are always asking for permission. If you’re asking students questions, they actually can say no to you.

When you add okay or right to a command, you’ll lift your voice up in tone and pitch because natural English speakers know this is how you ask questions and show you’re interested in an answer. The problem is when you’re giving a direction, you are not actually that interested in hearing a response. Even if you’re seeking confirmation that students are listening, no is not an answer you want. If you’re not genuinely asking a question, make it a direction and drop your pitch. When giving directions, we want to use a falling intonation where our tone of voice descends towards the end. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, here’s an article with examples of falling intonation.

#10 Silence

Replacement: What makes you say that? Does anyone else see it differently? What else could I say about that? What else might be true? Do you think that’s what _____ thought about it? (Introduce a hidden perspective)

It happens to me fairly frequently that I will hear a student say something or notice a student doing something that truly surprises me or makes me take a second glance or wonder if I actually heard them correctly. It might be easier to just brush these weird instances aside or tell other students, “Don’t worry about it” or just ignore it with silence, but there might be some great moments for conversation in these statements. For example, I was sharing some images with my class this year of American Indian artifacts. One of the images was of a doll. A student called out in the moment, “That’s creepy!” I could have handled this in a variety of ways.

First, I could have reminded the student to not call out and to raise their hand. I could have nodded or made some complicit gesture that showed I understood what they meant. I could have stated, “That is not nice” or “That is a rude comment” which likely would have shut down the comment and conversation altogether. To be honest, with many of these types of comments, I want to jump in and say, “That is not kind.”

A very common solution, though, is to just be silent. If I don’t know what to say, I might just dismiss it. I was extremely tempted to do this, but I asked instead, “What makes you say that?” and then “Does anyone else see it differently?” In fact, several students DID see it differently. They shared connections that it reminded them of other dolls they’d seen, they shared how they made connections between this doll and their doll at home, they explained how it was more difficult to find materials to make those dolls so they thought it was really creative how the American Indians used natural materials to make toys. I didn’t have to have the solution. I didn’t have to defend the ideas I wanted to present; I could let my students speak and allow that discourse to happen. Was this a bit of a divergent topic from my original lesson? Yes. Was it meaningful? Absolutely! It was even something I came back to when we worked on creating our own dioramas of American Indian homes.

“What makes you say that?” has become one of my all-time favorite phrases. I first learned about it through Project Zero as a thinking routine. I use it all day long for responses to correct answers, incorrect answers, puzzling comments, and unkind phrases. I love that it gets students to pause and think. It’s not a command to explain their thinking or justify an answer; it comes from genuine curiosity. It helps me stay focused on the student and where their thinking is because that helps me be a better teacher.

I hope that this article has given you some food for thought and reflection in your teaching practice. I believe this type of reflection on our words is ongoing, and I hope that this is something I continue to practice in my own growth as an educator.

The post 10 things I no longer say to my students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Those first days feel so important! First impressions matter! Being overwhelmed and trying to do all the things in those first few days is definitely not on brand for Truth for Teachers. Check out this guide to curate a focused and enjoyable back-to-school plan.

Grab your notebook and pen (or however you like to plan), and let’s get started.

1. Identify what you want students to know, understand, and do

Know, Understand, and Do (or KUDs) are part of the Understanding by Design framework coined by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. This is a method of backwards planning used for academic units that can be applied in miniature form to the first days of school. Instead of planning backwards from a unit’s final assessment, you’re planning backwards from what you want the class to look and feel like for the year.

In the “know” area, write any absolute information students need to know early. This is about making the “hidden curriculum” clear for all students. This could be:

• Key language you use to cue routines and procedures
• Policies and rules
• Locations of different items

In the “understand” area, write the “universal truths” that will guide how the classroom operates. This is about establishing school and classroom culture intentionally. These could be:

• Identity statements that your whole school uses (e.g. “I am responsible.”).
• Value statements that drive your class (e.g. “We co-create this class everyday.”).

In the “do” area, write things you want students to do in the very first days. This is about establishing the early habits that will become the bedrock of the class. These could be:

• Routines and procedures
• Classroom community builders (like classroom meetings)
• “Light” academic habits (e.g. reading, asking questions, persisting in the face of a challenge, etc.)

Caption: This is the first draft of my list. I added quite a bit to it later on, but I wanted you to have a visual for the process.

2, Identify what you want to know, understand, and do

Once you’ve envisioned what you want students to know, understand, and do, you need to create a similar list for yourself. We don’t plan enough for making sure our needs are met early and often in the classroom so that we can do our best work.

In the “know” category, you may list certain student information, for example:

• Name pronunciation
• Interests
• Ideal conditions for learning
• Motivational style

In the “understand” category, you may list the beliefs you need to hold to have a great start of the year, for example

• I create what I expect.
• There is plenty of time.
• We are here to learn.

In the “do” category, you may list the actions you want to take in those first days. For example:

• Talking with each student
• Observations you want to make
• Choosing carefully how you speak to individual students and the class
• When and how you offer help
• When and how you offer praise
• Self-care activities (this and other activities could be during or around the school day, but they are still important to schedule for yourself).

3. Brainstorm and envision

This part is pure idea generation. List as many different ways as you can think of to accomplish your KUDs for students and for yourself. You can organize this by going line-by-line or just brain-dumping in a long list. There won’t necessarily be one activity for each item on your list. You will start to see ways in which several items cluster together. The important thing is to not stop at one idea. Generate lots of ideas.

This is a place where some teachers may turn to the internet for ideas. I like Tim Ferriss’ encouragement of an information diet–being selective about how much information you take in. I try to stick with what I come up with, just because it’s overwhelming to add ideas from all over the internet too. Sometimes I will search a specific favorite teacher website, which gives me a few high-quality ideas without sending me down the rabbit hole. The point is to have some options, not go on the hunt for the very perfect back-to-school sequence. School is imperfect. Best to accept it from day one.

4. Curate

From this giant list, it’s time to curate. Not everything from the giant list can or should be included. There are several questions I consider in the curation process.

• Will it cultivate understanding? The knowing and the doing are pretty easy to get in a variety of ways, but featuring an understanding is deep, intentional work that is easily lost in service of knowing and doing. Build around the understanding first.
• Is it enduring? I want students creating enduring products or prior knowledge experiences that we can return to throughout the year. I want mileage out of those first few days, and bonus points if I can pull the activities/products into a welcome packet for late-joiners to the class or into a back-to-school presentation for families.
• Is it simple but high-yield? Gone are my days of elaborate pre-cutting and crafting to prepare a one-day activity before students arrive. Gone are my days of complicated directions (their brains–and mine–are still in summer mode). I am here for simple, non-threatening human connection from day one. I am here for finding out so much more by watching and listening. (For more ideas, check out the Ultimate Guide for Authentically Creating a Secondary Classroom Where Students Feel Safe, Connected, and Whole)

5. Schedule

Decide how many days you want to devote to “back-to-school” before starting your academic curriculum. This may depend on your calendar, the age of your students, and/or the activities you want to do. We start with a three-day week, and I teach high school, so I will start with those three days. We will revisit and add throughout the school year, so I am not trying to jam in every single thing those first three days. Most routines I teach naturally the first time the need arises. For more information on this, I recommend the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek, which was my best teacher for scheduling all the routines I need to teach.

How do you want back-to-school to feel?

The choice really is yours. As I said earlier, trust your instincts about the activities you include, but if you are looking for some inspiration, you can read what came from my planning process at Get Back to School with 8 Easy and Fun Activities for High School.

The post How to select the BEST back-to-school ideas for you and your students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Middle schoolers could keep track of assignments, due dates, and the length of time it would take to complete their assignments. They also were traveling to and from school on their own. Some of them were responsible for younger siblings as well.

In high school, the level of responsibility for students increases even more. Some students are juggling school and work. Some are caretakers for family members and may even have children of their own. High schoolers are also thinking about their next step — whether it’s to enter the workforce full-time, attend an institution of higher education, or a combination of the two.

As both a classroom teacher and an instructional coach, I’ve developed tips for supporting students in cultivating and developing their time management skills.

Learn your students’ why and invest them in committing to it

Part of adolescence is figuring out who you are and what is important to you. Here are some prompts to encourage students to reflect on why managing time is important to them:

• What will change when your time is effectively managed?
• What changes will others observe in you when your time is effectively managed?

Ask students to reflect on a time when they effectively managed their time.

• How did you do it?
• Describe the process.
• What was the result?
• How did you feel before, during, and after the process?
• What, if anything, is transferable from that experience?
• What did you learn about time management and about yourself throughout that process?

Also, consider brainstorming scenarios and examples with students so that the students who aren’t able to recall or articulate moments of well-managed time can begin to develop insight and experience.

Provide time to use a planner in class

Break work into manageable chunks when you can. Show students how to break their work into manageable chunks on their own. This is a great use of the gradual release method!

When I was a middle school homeroom teacher, I fashioned a section of the whiteboard to look like a page in my students’ planner. It was divided into their core subjects and also had an “other” section. We had 30 minutes of homeroom in the morning and thirty at the end of the day. 10 minutes during the morning homeroom was dedicated to students familiarizing themselves with what they had planned for the day; 10 minutes of the afternoon homeroom was dedicated to students updating their planners.

Additionally, I displayed a large calendar in the classroom with important dates such as assignment deadlines; midterm and finals weeks; showcases; science fairs; conferences; and assemblies.

Your goal as a teacher is to model and aid habit-building both visually and verbally with students. Prioritize practicing on a predictable, low-lift basis.

Engage the research about proven strategies

Encourage students to learn more about how others around them manage their time. This is a culturally responsive approach to time management since no one size fits all when it comes to students finding a method that works for them.

Also, introduce frameworks such as the Pomodoro technique, to engage in focused work. You can also gamify the Pomodoro technique. Here is a link to ideas on how to do so: FTW: 4 apps that make a game out of getting things done | PCWorld

You can also share the neuroscience of procrastination and deep work.

• Here is a great book to help teachers help their students: GTD for Teens – Getting Things Done®
• Here is a great resource for students from the National Honor Society:  Time Management | NHS

Partner with parents/guardians and colleagues

Along the lines of conducting research as aforementioned, consider how can parents and guardians can be partners in this effort to help students cultivate and improve their time management skills. They know their children best. Invite them to weigh in via survey or through a session. When possible, they can support the process of creating and holding students accountable to individualized plans.

Furthermore, partner with your colleagues. For example, perhaps your colleagues can offer a study hall period with a menu of options for students to not only study but to organize, reflect, make decisions, and plan ahead. Another idea is to norm as a grade team or content team on which methods you will incorporate into your classes to support students in building their time management skills.

Student-created accountability plans

Teach students how to create accountability systems–one of them being selecting an “accountabilibuddy.” This person should be someone of the student’s choosing since accountabilibuddies need to share a positive rapport. Here is an inspirational Twitter post to inspire you! Miss Ervey Class- Accountabilibuddies

Normalize asking for help

Unexpected things happen! De-emphasize perfectionism and feelings of shame when students mismanage their time. Instead, have students create backup plans. It can sound like “If ____, I will_____.” This allows students to lean into a growth mindset and stay on track after a setback. Empower students to ask one another for support, to ask a trusted adult, and to do their own research (there are plenty of books and websites with effective strategies and tools!).

After all, the word “management” is derived from the Latin word “manus”, which means “hand.” In this sense, managing something — in this case: time — means it’s in one’s hand to control. Empower students to believe that the way they handle their time is within their locus of control! The big picture is that developing and fine-tuning time management skills is a timeless endeavor and lifelong skill!

The post Culturally responsive time management strategies to empower middle/high school students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

On the one hand, regular practice outside of the classroom can help students retain information and reinforce learning. On the other, it’s also difficult to motivate students to do the work without coercion or consequences.

While the debate over the efficacy of homework continues to rage on, one thing remains clear: there will always be students who seemingly refuse to submit their homework. So how in the WORLD do we get these kids to just DO IT?

If you’re struggling to get students to submit work on a regular basis, there may be a problem in your systems that, once fixed, can increase not only the likelihood of your students submitting but also increase their academic success. Here are four common mistakes that teachers make about submitting homework, and what you can do instead.

Mistake #1: Not understanding the real reason why students don’t submit homework

Before we delve into tactics, it’s important to understand WHY students won’t submit their work. We often chalk it up to laziness, forgetfulness, not paying attention in class or just poor time management. While these can definitely contribute to the problem, the issue often lies much deeper than that.

First, fear of failure or overall confusion plagues many of our students. They don’t understand the assignment or concept and lack the motivation or resources to get help. A lot of times, they don’t speak up in class and ask questions for these same reasons, so they’re less likely to practice something that they’re confused about.

Also, many of our students are perfectionists and won’t submit work if it’s “not right.” As illogical as it sounds, if they didn’t have time to complete the assignment, they’d rather take the zero and not submit rather than give you incomplete work. Or if it’s not up to their unreasonably high standards, they won’t turn it in.

Additionally, general overwhelm and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression definitely play a role for many of our students. Not all parents have been able to address these concerns in their children, and some may be inadvertently exacerbating the symptoms with their own high expectations. If a student simply can’t handle even looking let alone starting your assignment, you definitely won’t get any work from them.

Finally, students may just not want to do your assignment because they don’t see the point. As harsh as it sounds, students know when they’re given “busy work.” To them, meaningless packets with 100 of the same problem are not only demoralizing but also a waste of time. So some students may just choose to not do it at all or they may start and eventually give up.

Mistake #2: Not setting and maintaining expectations

At the beginning of the school year, we’re VERY good about training our students on what our work submission processes are. You may even have a syllabus with these expectations spelled out, assuming that our students and their parents read it.

Most of us have a routine set, which works for the majority of the kids. But there are always a few that seem to slip through the cracks due to reasons in the first mistake. Maybe they have an IEP and need more intentional organization. Maybe they fell asleep in class and didn’t hear you give the deadline. Or perhaps they were in the bathroom when you announced it. Either way, we can preach responsibility  and accountability all we want, but if they’re just incapable of doing it on their own, we can decide to help them or let them fall and “learn their lesson.”

If we’re unwilling to consistently help these students that struggle with deadlines, then honestly, we have to share the blame. They’re still developing good habits, and what we try to reinforce only goes so far if it’s not reinforced at home. While it’s not our job to parent our students, we can still help with teaching and modeling what the expectations are and give grace when students stumble.

Basically, if it’s that important to you that they submit an assignment on time, then don’t assume that all of the students know what to do or how to meet those deadlines.

Mistake #3: Utilizing a one-size-fits-all approach to submission

As mentioned in the previous two mistakes, there are a lot of reasons why students aren’t submitting their homework. In terms of solving that problem in your class, you have two options: 1) Being frustrated but still letting them suffer the consequences, or 2) working with the students that struggle the most.

It may seem unfair to make special accommodations or arrangements for certain students, but that’s like saying it’s unfair that, at 5’1”, I need a stool to reach the top shelf while you may be able to easily stick your hand up there.

Does it REALLY matter if we both get what we need from that shelf?

Some students may need extra time or personal invitations to submit something. You might even have to modify the assignment for them just so that you have some form of work from which to assess. This can be annoying and time-consuming since you have so many other students to worry about.

But if it really bothers you that Jason doesn’t ever turn in his work, and asking or reminding him each time actually results in him turning in something, then ask yourself if it’s worth it.

If eight students regularly fail to turn in their homework, investigate what’s holding them up and what you can do to encourage them. Maybe they need an accountability partner. Perhaps you could show and remind them how to set a notification on their phone or device. You could encourage them to use a paper planner to stay more organized.

These definitely take more effort, and sometimes the lack of rewards makes it unsatisfying. But often, a student just doesn’t know how to advocate for themselves, and you being persistent can lay the foundation for them to be successful in other classes and in the future.

Mistake #4: Not involving parents and other adults

Along with the previous mistake, sometimes we forget that we can also deploy the troops, i.e., our students’ parents/guardians. While at times we feel at odds with some parents since they have such a negative perception of teachers and the education system in general, many are willing to do their part if we are explicit about how they can help.

It can be scary to send out notices to parents because they sometimes reply with an angry response or something completely unrelated. There have definitely been times when I wished that I hadn’t sent an email at all because I was inundated with responses.

But in the case of having students turn in their assignments on time, it just might be worth it. Students don’t necessarily talk to their parents about their work, and if they are experiencing one of the aforementioned reasons why they won’t do work, they’re certainly not going to divulge. So just a simple email with a calendar of deadlines or just a reminder of an upcoming due date would greatly increase the rate of homework submission.

For larger assignments, I’ve also explained what is due to parents so that they can help their student double-check that they completed everything. You’d be surprised how many parents want to sit down and help their student, but they don’t understand what’s expected. It does take a bit of time to do this, but with new tools like ChatGPT, you can craft these messages in a matter of seconds.

If you’re using an online grading system, they often have the capability for parents to see your grade book and online calendar. If you have this, then taking the time to train parents with a screencast video that you send out will also help them stay on top of their student’s progress.

What this means for your policies

It might be a bit of a philosophical shift to avoid these mistakes. After all, real change doesn’t happen instantly, especially if you want it to stick. During a time when we’re all trying to master work-life balance, it can seem preposterous to take on what seems like more work.

But what’s the cost – both to yourself and your students — if you DON’T do something different?

Left to their own devices, students will try to stay under your radar so that they don’t have to do any work, but we both know what the long-term consequences of that are. If they don’t turn in their homework or assignments in general, you can’t assess them, which means they can’t get feedback, which in turn means you have to hope that they’re gleaning SOMETHING from your lectures and class discussions. How will you know if they’re improving in your class if they won’t submit their work?

And you’ll continue to be frustrated about your low homework submission rate (if you weren’t frustrated, you wouldn’t have made it this far). Over time, that can leave a bad taste in your mouth and overall disdain for students that seem “lazy and useless.” Morphing into that kind of cynical teacher is not something anyone wants, so ask yourself — is it worth putting in the effort?

The post Students not turning in homework? 4 common mistakes to avoid (and what to do instead) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Social loafing is reduced individual effort on a group task. Classic studies of social loafing find that people pull less on a rope and clap more slowly and quietly when they are led to believe there are other people pulling or clapping, than when they believe they are alone in the task.

We’ve all been part of a group project where someone didn’t do their fair share of the work, whether we were the social loafer or the people who had to pick up the slack. And as classroom teachers, we have the opportunity to observe social loafing in group work on a daily basis.

I teach my psychology students about social loafing in a unit on social psychology, the theme of which is “the power of the situation.” With concepts like social loafing, conformity, and obedience, social psychology teaches us that the immediate social situation affects our behavior a lot more than we’d like to believe, especially in our individualistic culture.

After teaching about research in which people give an answer they know is wrong to conform to a group, or administer (secretly fake) electrical shocks to someone in obedience to an authority figure, I ask students to generate ways to resist conformity, obedience, and other forms of social influence.

The initial answers are always the same individualistic fantasies: “Just stick to my own beliefs,” or “Do what I know is right.”

No.

The lesson of social psychology is that social loafing, conformity, and obedience aren’t individual moral failings, but natural responses to specific situations. Changing the behavior isn’t a matter of just deciding to do our own thing — instead, to change the behavior, we have to actually change the situation.

The underlying cause of social loafing is the diffusion of responsibility — the sense that responsibility for the task is spread out among everyone involved. So a necessary condition for social loafing is a task that is judged as a group, with no individual accountability.

To change the behavior of social loafing, we have to increase individual accountability.

I’m going to share four interactive, high-interest activities that do exactly that, and get every single student engaged. Each of these activities reduces social loafing by creating individual roles or tasks, changing the composition of groups, limiting group size, or limiting the time each group stays together.

These activities can be used with different grade levels and content areas, and I’ll share some tips for adapting each activity to your needs. Each activity is designed to be intrinsically fun AND reduce social loafing.

Relay Review

I call this activity Relay Review because I usually use it as a review before a test, but it can be used in other ways, especially as any kind of practice. I have to give a shout-out to my high school Spanish teacher Señora Knott because I stole this activity from her when I first started teaching. My classmates and I got obsessed with this game in Sra. Knott’s class. The basic activity is to have 8-12 tasks for students to do in small groups, and turn it into a race with the other groups.

Preparation

1. Create a set of 8-12 tasks. For content review in my social studies classes, I write fairly straightforward factual questions, though the questions can be open-ended as well (see this example). One of the reasons I love this activity is that compared to other games (like Jeopardy or Kahoot), I don’t have to come up with as many questions, they don’t have to fit a specific format like multiple choice or have only one correct answer, and they can be more in-depth.

a. In Sra. Knott’s Spanish class, the tasks were scrambled Spanish words. We had to first unscramble the word, and then identify the meaning. Another option for a language class is to give scrambled sentences and ask students to arrange the words in the grammatically correct order. Or give them scrambled questions, which they have to arrange correctly AND answer.

b. In math, chemistry, or physics, the tasks could be different problems to solve. In English, the tasks could be examples in which to identify the type of figurative language or logical fallacy being used.

c. Depending on how involved each task is, I find 8-12 about the right number to complete the game in a 50-minute class period.

2. Make a copy (one-sided) of the tasks for each group you’ll have. I prefer the groups to be 2-3 students because with fewer students, social loafing is less likely. Once you get past 3 in a group, the odds of social loafing go way up. Be sure to run the copies off one-sided because they need to be cut apart. It’s best to color code each set in some way — either by copying each on a different color paper, or simply drawing a vertical line down each set in a different color.

3. Cut the tasks apart, so you can make a separate pile of the complete set of tasks for each group, and they can grab one task at a time. This is the step that does take some prep time but it’s mindless work, and it’s something I can have my student aide do if I’ve got the copies ready ahead of time.

In Class

1. You’ll want to be sitting in the front or center of the classroom, at a table or desk large enough to hold all the sets for your groups.

2. Each group should sit separately from the others, so they can confer without being overheard. Each group needs a paper and writing utensil to write their answers.

a. I have students write answers on a separate piece of paper, NOT the slips with the questions, so I can reuse the same sets of questions all day, and year to year.

3. Groups should designate someone as the writer (who writes the answers) and someone as the runner (who comes to you to get the questions — NOT actually at a run). Designating roles is another way to reduce social loafing. Other possible roles include question reader, and if you’re allowing notes or resources, note checker.

4. The runner for each group comes to your table, and you identify for them which pile of questions is theirs — i.e., Sally takes the red pile, Manuel takes the blue pile. The runner takes ONE QUESTION AT A TIME. For the first question, I make them all wait until I say go.

The Relay Review set-up at the beginning of the game — each group has question 1 on top.

And my table mid-game — different groups are on different questions, and I collect the questions they’re done within a parallel pile so they’re ready for the next class. The yellow group hasn’t finished question 1 yet.

5. The runner takes the question back to their group, and they have to answer on their separate sheet of paper. When they think they’ve got it, the runner brings BOTH their answer sheet and the question back to you at the front. I emphasize when giving directions that they must form a single file line in front of my table when coming up with answers, so there’s no debate about who got there first.

6. I check the answer. If it’s right, the runner leaves that question slip and takes the next one. If it’s wrong, they have to go back to their group and try again, until they get it right. Since the runner has to tell their group what I told them about what’s missing from their answer, even that role has to engage with the content.

a. This is the element that obsessed me and my classmates in high school and continues to engage students. It’s not just that it’s a competition, but that groups can get stuck on a difficult question, get way behind, but then catch up. In Sra. Knott’s version, she shuffled the order of the scrambled words for each group — so my group might get stuck on a difficult word on our 3rd one, while other groups surge ahead — until they hit that difficult word on their 7th one.

b. I give the questions to my groups in the same order because I like to call out the play-by-play — two groups are on number 3! Now another group has reached 3! Five groups are stuck on number 7, no one has gotten it right yet!

c. There are lots of options for how to handle it when a group gets truly stuck. You can decide whether groups can use class notes or assignments throughout the game, or only if they get behind by a certain number of questions, or are stuck on a question for a certain number of minutes. You can give a hint if a group has tried the question 3 or 4 times. You can give each group one chance to phone a friend and get help from another group during the game.

7. I usually count the first 3 groups to finish as having won (so that everyone doesn’t quit once one group finishes), and continue the activity until all groups finish (sometimes with help from the finished groups, if necessary). Sometimes the winning groups get a sticker or a treat, but usually, they just get bragging rights. When using this for review, I always post a copy of the questions to my LMS along with a key, for students who want to use it to study on their own.

8. Another good follow-up to the game is to go over the questions that most groups struggled with as a class.

Practice by Numbers

This is a stations activity I got from my wonderful colleague, English teacher Jenny Hussa. It can again be used for either review or practice.

This approach to stations reduces social loafing by changing the composition of the groups at every station and keeping the groups together for a short time, so students don’t have a chance to settle into patterns of loafing or taking over. A student might be able to social loaf at one station while other students take the lead, but at their next station with a different combination of students, they’re the one who has to step up.

Preparation

1. Create your stations. This activity works well with 5-8 stations. With 3 or 4 stations, it works well with a small class (20 or fewer students); otherwise the groups will be quite large and the codes will be repeated (increasing social loafing).

a. I find 5 stations work well in a 50-minute class period, with a few minutes for directions at the beginning of class and going over items at the end.

b. The tasks at these stations can be quite similar to the tasks used in the Relay Review. You want something a small group of students can complete in a few minutes. Here are some examples from my psychology class: Learning and Personality.

c. Print your stations so they can be cut apart and distributed around the room (spaced out and one sided). You only need 1 set of stations.

2. Prepare the student codes. Each student gets one code, which tells them the order in which they go to the stations. The codes are designed so that every student goes to the stations in a different order, meaning every group at every station is different.

a. It’s easy to create codes for any number of stations, but I’ve included the codes for 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 stations in this spreadsheet (up to at least 30 students, except 4 stations which only goes up to 20 students).

b. Use the codes in order, starting with the top left code and going down each column, then starting at the top of the next column. So if you have 27 students and 30 codes, you won’t use codes 28, 29, and 30. This guarantees that the station groups are as different as possible (minimizing the times students are in the same group twice).

c. The top of each column of codes is the station numbers in a different order (ie: 12345, 54321, 13524, 53142). For each row in the column, the first number is moved to the end of the code (ie: 12345, 23451, 34512, 45123, 51234).

d. You can distribute codes to students a couple different ways. My colleague Jenny, who invented this system, will print out the codes and cut them apart, so each student gets a tiny slip of paper with their code on it. I got sick of that, so I used large notecards to write out each code individually, and added tiny numbers in the corner to keep track of the order. I’ve reused these sets for many years.

The first few of my notecards with codes for 5 stations and 4 stations.

3. If you want, you can also create an answer sheet for students, with space designated for each station. I usually just have students carry a notebook or piece of paper with them. I prefer to keep this activity totally on paper, rather than digital, to encourage actual interaction at the stations.

In Class

1. When I first use this activity with a class, I give the directions before passing out the codes. After that, I can pass out the codes as students walk into class because they know how it works.

2. I ask students to get out paper and pencil/pen that they can carry around with them, and otherwise clear their desks. I place the stations around the room, announcing where each one is (I have my desks arranged into numbered groups, so it’s easy to put Station 1 at group 1, etc.).

3. Next I explain the codes: “When you get your code, write it at the top of your paper. When you move, you will leave your card behind on your desk. DO NOT write on, bend, step on, crumple, or chew on your code.” Including “chew on” makes students pay attention and remember not to mark the notecards at all — in the 15 years I’ve used these notecards, I’ve only ever had to replace one.

a. I have students copy their code onto their paper and leave the notecard at their desks when they move so that as soon as they go to their first station, I can walk around and collect the codes in order, ready for the next class. This also prevents the cards from being lost or damaged.

4. I give specific directions for what to do at each station: “First, one person needs to read the directions and the questions aloud for the whole group to hear. Discuss each question together — don’t work ahead on your own. Put a star next to any items your group isn’t sure of, and we’ll go over those together at the end of class.”

5. Then students go to their first station. You can set a timer, but I usually just watch to see when each group is finished, and announce, “Go to your next station.” As groups finish the last station, I ask students to bring the paper to the front, and then return to their seats.

6. As a follow-up, I go over the items students have starred on their papers. Depending on the time, I might go over all the answers. I also post a digital copy of the stations with a key to my LMS.

Sort

A sort is a pretty common activity, but over the years I’ve developed and borrowed from other teachers some strategies to ensure complete participation. The shoutout for this activity goes to Catherine Holden, the instructor at an AP Summer Institute I attended years ago, who shared many of these strategies.

The basic activity is to engage the class in a discussion or debate about the best order of a number of items. In my history classes, we are usually sorting from most significant to least significant — such as the most to least significant causes of European exploration, the most to least significant causes for the fall of the Soviet Union, or the most to least significant economic changes of the 18th century. The strategies I’m sharing here reduce social loafing by giving each student an individual role in the class discussion.

Preparation

1. I always give an assignment before a sort, so students have interacted with the content and the arguments before the class activity. This might involve reading about the content and ranking the items individually, or categorizing them by theme.

2. Create your set of items to be sorted, with one item per page in a document, and print it one-sided. I also include pages that say “Most significant” and “Least significant” (or whatever the two ends of the sort will be). Here are some examples: Economic changes and Fall of the Soviet Union.

a. In an English or language class, you could sort characters in a novel or short story on a spectrum from good to evil, most to least effective, or most to least relatable.

b. In biology, you could sort cell organelles or body systems from most to least significant in supporting life.

c. In a health class, you could sort behaviors from most to least healthy.

In Class

1. I post the most and least significant signs at each end of the board, and pass the other pages out to students, one to each student. There are fewer pages than students in the class, which is fine. The students who don’t get a page, I give a marker (or any other object to track their participation — thanks to Catherine for this idea!).

2. Each student with a page will bring it to the board and place it on the spectrum from most to least significant wherever they want. They need to give the class an explanation for why they placed it there. I usually start by having 3-4 students place pages on the board in a row.

3. Each student with a marker has to participate in the discussion by either proposing a change to the rankings or arguing for or against a change that another student proposes. I ask for proposed changes after every 3-5 papers added to the board.

4. Once a student proposes a change, they need to explain why. I then ask for any other arguments for or against the proposed change. I take the marker from any student who speaks to keep track of participation. Students without markers are also welcome to argue for or against a change, but I’ll call on anyone with a marker first.

Once arguments are exhausted, or we’ve just spent enough time on one change, I ask for a vote — either we change it or we don’t. Sometimes students try to slip another change into the proposed one – as in, instead of moving that item to the top, it should be second from the top — but I don’t allow that because it gets too complicated to vote. We vote on one change at a time.

a. In my experience, students can get super into these debates and oddly invested in their positions. I’ve had the debate about how significant technology was in European exploration erupt into a shouting match, and students come back a year later to reminisce about that debate with me. And even the students who don’t get super motivated by the debate still engage and participate verbally, because there’s the physical sign of whether they have or not, with the paper or the marker.

The end of a hotly debated sort on the causes of European exploration (though I set this up to show my own opinions — many of my students would argue for technology to be higher!).

5. We continue this process until all pages have been posted, all students with markers have spoken, and all proposed changes have been voted on (or we run out of time). I usually plan one 50-minute class period for this activity, though it could easily be adjusted to take less time by including fewer items to sort, or more time by allowing for more discussion, or adding more formal requirements to the arguments students make (as in, they are required to back up their argument with a specific fact or primary source).

6. Sometimes I give a writing prompt as a follow-up to the activity, in which students have to make a final argument about the most significant item and support it with specific evidence.

Psych to Psych (or The Examples Game)

I call this activity Psych to Psych because 1) I created it to practice concepts in my social psychology unit and 2) it’s loosely inspired by the game Apples to Apples. When I use it in history classes, I just call it the examples game.

It can be used to review or practice anything where students need to remember or create examples of concepts, themes, or categories. Students can play it as a competitive game, or use it as a cooperative activity; I usually leave that choice up to each group of students. This game eliminates social loafing because every student in the group takes a turn.

Preparation

1. Create two lists: one is a list of terms or concepts students need to know, and the other is a list of contexts to which those terms or concepts can be applied. Application is the main cognitive skill needed in psychology, as students need to not only understand definitions but actually be able to use the concepts to give real-world examples or predict behavior. That is the type of practice I designed this game for.

a. In my original Psych to Psych game, one list is all the vocabulary from the social psychology unit, and the other list is various situations, such as school, work, a dance, a birthday party, a sporting event, etc. (I would have attached the document here, but I cannot find it anywhere. It’s a complete mystery.)

b. In history classes, the vocabulary list can be concepts or categories like capitalism, socialism, communism, or scientists, philosophers, artists. The context list can be different centuries, historical periods (World War I, the Cold War, the age of globalization), or themes (political, economic, social, cultural).

c. In English or language classes, the vocabulary list could be applied to contexts like the ones I use in psychology, or different texts that the class has read.

2. Make a set of terms for each group, with each term on a small slip of paper. Group size is less important in this activity because every student takes a turn no matter what, but groups of 3-5 students work best. I copy the vocabulary list on one color and the context lists on a different color, so they’re easy to sort out and store each in different envelopes.

Context cards in green, vocabulary cards in purple.

In class

1. Each group needs a set of the vocabulary and the contexts.
2. On a turn, a student draws one card from each pile or envelope. They have to give an example of the vocabulary word that fits the context.

a. In psychology, they have to give an example of social loafing in the context of a sporting event.

b. In history, they have to give an example of mercantilism from the 17th century, or an example of a philosopher related to the political theme.

3. If students are playing as a competitive game, the rest of the group gets to approve or disapprove the accuracy of the example given. If they approve, the student keeps the vocabulary card as a point they’ve won (this is the part I got from Apples to Apples), but puts the context card back in the pile so it can be used again. If the example they gave is inaccurate or too vague, they put the vocabulary card aside so it’s not used again, but don’t get to keep it.

4. Most of the time, my students choose to simply use this as a cooperative review activity. They take turns giving examples, and help each other out if someone doesn’t know the term or struggles to give an example.

5. I instruct the groups to set aside any vocabulary terms they don’t know, and go over those at the end of class.

6. A great aspect of this activity is that once the cards are made, it’s easy to do with any amount of time that I have. I can pull the terms out with just 10 minutes left in class, or I can set aside 30 minutes or more for a substantial review.

As I wrote this article, I decided to include photos of the materials for each activity, to make the preparation and set-up more obvious. Taking and inserting these photos just now made me realize these activities have a 3rd feature in common — they all involve physical manipulatives. I didn’t do that on purpose, but it isn’t a coincidence.

My favorite interactive activities all use physical manipulatives and NOT digital materials (though students can reference those during the activity) because looking at physical papers or cards together facilitates interaction, and so often, looking at individual screens hinders it. This is yet another example of the lesson of social psychology — the situation shapes behavior.

When students are less engaged in class activities or more distracted by technology than we would like, those behaviors are not always about poor student choices or individual weaknesses — they are responses to the situations we’ve created in our classrooms. It’s always worth asking if we can change the situation to change the behavior.

The post 4 ways to structure group work so EVERY student pulls their weight appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

One of my proudest teaching moments happened the day I helped three students simultaneously write their own short stories. They’d been referred to me for academic support. The rest of their class was done writing, but these three still had blank pages.

This is a common issue, but it is not one I saw much of when I taught general education — I was really good at stacking layers of swiss cheese, as Angela says.

If you’ve had it with late papers, I hope you can walk away from this post with some simple practices that will bring more ease to you and your students.

1. Build background knowledge

The old adage is “write what you know,” but so often, we expect students to write without the background knowledge to succeed. They might be asked to write about something they read and feel insecure that they are enough of an expert to do so successfully. I think this is why students so often shy away from analysis in favor of saying, “It was a really good book.”

Ensuring that they students had tons of time to talk with peers and even plan essays together can help with this. While they might write the final essay independently, good writers incubate their ideas with others. This process builds background knowledge around an unfamiliar topic.

Sometimes students are asked to write about self-selected topics and stories, and they still struggle. This comes from a different type of background knowledge gap. It could be missing the academic language to write about any topic. For example, teaching the words people use when writing with analysis, research, or argument.

In other cases, when you want students to write how they would speak to a friend or family member, they may need explicit acknowledgment that their language is supposed to take center stage. Without this, they may get confused, thinking they have to write about something they love but in a “teacher’s way.”

It could also be a gap in structural background knowledge. I often hear students say they don’t know where to start, and that’s because they can’t envision how the piece could unfold. Providing some simple options for approaches can help, as the next practice suggests.

2. Make sure everyone has a roadmap

For the runners in the classroom, they can relate to the idea of visualizing a course before you run it. A roadmap in writing is the same thing. This metaphor applies across a variety of contexts for different students since humans are wired to think about something and how it might go before it happens.

To this end, we make roadmaps. They are very simple, not at all like elaborate graphic organizers which can become another hurdle for some students. In the case of my three students who needed to write three different short stories, I asked them the following questions.

1. Who is your story about? What does that person want? What’s going to get in the way of that in the story? These questions established the general overview of the story.
2. What’s the character doing? A lot of times people like to give details about the setting at the beginning, so where is it? What time of day is it?
3. What could happen next to move the character closer to the problem?
4. How does the problem happen?
5. How does the character solve the problem?
6. What does the character realize at the end?

For each question, the students jotted down notes on a blank Google doc. It didn’t have to be in complete sentences, just whatever they thought of for the answers. Since I was helping the three of them simultaneously, I would ask a question and then circulate to see their answers before asking the next one.

In a whole-class environment, asking a set of guided questions is a little trickier. Instead, I have students make a little drawing of their papers, so they can see the sections along with the topics.

This was an example I did for a piece on where to eat in New York City. After this process, students who are still stuck can get pulled together for direct questions.

For an argument piece, I could ask:

• What is your topic? What do you want people to know, do, think, or believe?
• Why do you think or believe that? Each reason they give could become its own paragraph.
• Why do you think it is so important for people to know, do, think, or believe that? This provides for a strong conclusion.

3. Train students with writing sprints

This roadmap process is what I used to write every paper in college and graduate school. Once I have my little list of topics, it’s time to write my way through them one by one.

A constant practice in my classroom is writing sprints. Some people call them quick writes. Basically, the idea is that you write without editing yourself or stopping. We practice this almost daily with smaller topics, like speed training for a runner, so when it comes time to write something longer, the students rely on their training.

Often, writing days in the classroom become a winnowing between the students who can keep themselves on task and those who cannot. This is a missed opportunity. Instead, I tell students that we are going to use a writing sprint to write the next thing on their topic list. I give them a word count goal and a time limit they are used to.

The students are consistently stunned by how many words they can write in a certain amount of time. They often think that writing the paper will take forever, which is similar to how I feel about cleaning the house. I used to put it off, saying I didn’t have enough time to finish, but when I actually timed myself and saw how long it took, I realized that it really didn’t take that long. This use of a timer and a word count goal will pay dividends for students who will need to learn to manage their own progress in writing (or a variety of project-based tasks) in their lives.

One issue that could come up in writing sprints for a major paper is research. Nothing has stopped my writing faster than convincing myself that I need to stop writing to find the perfect fact, quote, image, or hyperlink.

When I use this process and I know students need to have research, we write after we have gathered some research and taken some notes. Students can review the notes before the writing sprint, but once it starts, they are not allowed to use their notes. Instead, we follow the “medical medical” protocol.

I read somewhere once that when people write medical dramas like Gray’s Anatomy, the scriptwriters write the script like this: “Quick! We need to MEDICAL MEDICAL before she MEDICAL MEDICAL.” Later on, the doctors on staff fill in the script with accurate terms and information.

In class, this looks like students writing, “According to ****, ******.” They go back to their notes after the sprint is over to plug in the information. Not only does this process keep their momentum up, it helps them write with research rather than over-relying on research.

4. Keep the cursor moving

While students are completing their writing sprints, I am constantly walking around. This is not the time for me to catch up on grading or planning. This is the time for me to prevent anyone from ending up in a late work situation. My entire focus is to keep their cursors moving, to eliminate the blank page so they can see that they have so much to say.

I only talk to students whose cursors aren’t moving. I say, “You stopped. What are you thinking about?” This question helps me solve the present dilemma to get the student feeling momentum again. I only get a couple of answers to this question.

One is that they don’t know how to spell a word or want a piece of information. I tell them to spell it the best they can or put in asterisks for the research and come back to it later.

The other is that they don’t know what to write about. I ask them what the next thing is on their roadmap. They tell me, and I tell them to write about that. Yes, I know how ridiculously simple that sounds, but often the student is starting to think about the writing as a whole. When someone asked Stephen King how he writes so much, he famously said, “One word at a time.” My job is to just help them find the next word.

5. Make it social

One of the strange things about an extended writing project is that it becomes a time of silence and individualism in the classroom. Group work, discussion, games, and chatter are shut down so everyone can “focus.” This sudden change does not benefit all (most?) kids.

After a writing sprint ends, I make time for students to talk. Maybe we do a word count contest and celebrate the top three word counts. Maybe students turn and talk about what went well and what didn’t. No matter the prompt, I want to remind students that while they may be doing parts of this alone, we are actually alone together. This alone togetherness normalizes the struggle everyone is experiencing as writers. We celebrate how much fun it is to do hard things together.

6. Accept “unfinished” work

Most of this list is aimed at getting a first draft from everyone. Ideally, after each writing sprint, students would have time to “reread it and make it better” through revision. Eventually, they could share with classmates and me to keep revising. Yes, I want as much of that to happen as possible. However, when it’s the due date, time is up.

I have students write on Google Docs that I own, so I am always able to access their work. I grade it on the due date, no matter if it isn’t done. No writing is ever really done; it’s just due. From here, I allow students to revise and resubmit for a higher grade (again, on my deadline). Some students need this grade feedback before they’ll take revisions seriously. That pragmatism is okay with me.

If I’ve employed all the other practices successfully, the only students who won’t have anything at all to turn in are the students who have been absent for the life of the project. I have those students too — several of them. I am done being surprised that this is a thing, so for every unit, I have a backup plan.

I know it doesn’t seem fair for a student to skip out on steps (and they are definitely not learning as much), but a chronically absent student often has a mental dilemma going on. Their work has to be perfect before it can be done but they don’t have the time to get to perfect.

I love teaching students how to accept reality and commit to the idea that done is better than perfect (see Angela’s post What Could Be Possible If You Aimed For B+ Work?). For a chronically absent student, my goal at the high school level is to be a reason that student believes they can come back to school, not another reason they feel they don’t belong at school.

Here are some ways I have students make up writing in a hurry:

• Give them research notes to write from. I am always modeling with my own example, so I just give them my notes. They don’t get full credit for doing the research, but at least they can write something.
• Give them a topic they can complete in one writing sprint. If I don’t know when a student will be in school again, I capture what I can on the day they are present. This could be the story of a moment as opposed to an extended story or an argument paragraph rather than an entire essay.

Of course, how this is graded is up to you. My guiding light has been this interview with Cornelius Minor (“Antiracist” Grading Starts With You). My approach feels very in line with 5 Grading Practices Teachers Can Use To Promote Equity Now. For another approach, check out Ending the Late Work Debate: Try Issuing Students a “Credit Score.”

Staying in the Present

Dragging ourselves and our students back through late work keeps us all stuck in the past. It can become a cycle of guilt for our struggling students, and a never-ending slog of paper-chasing for us. We are only ever truly alive in the present. Let’s stay there with our students as much as possible. These practices will help you and your students enjoy the present and accomplish more at the same time.

For more ideas on how I help students write on a deadline, check out Spend More Time on These Three Techniques of Teaching Writing. These underutilized practices also support my students in completing their writing on time.

The post 6 practices that ended late work in my ELA classroom and finally got students writing appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

But then it gets a little louder, and then a little louder, and before you know it, things feel out of control.

The only thing you can do is raise your voice to settle down the room–something you didn’t want to do.

You think to yourself, There must be a better way. These kids are out of control.  What can I do to calm them down?

The hard part is there usually is not one magic answer that works every time in every situation.  But there are strategies you can use to prevent disruptive behaviors before they begin.

In the book Running The Room: The Teacher’s Guide To Behavior (click for a free summary), the author, Tom Bennet, describes two ways of addressing student misbehavior.  One way is the Fire Brigade Model, where you are constantly running around putting out fires as bad behavior comes up with little time or energy left to focus on teaching.

Another method is the Fire Prevention Model, where you get ahead of those bad behaviors and focus on shaping your classroom environment and routines to avoid as many fires as possible.  This method saves you time and stress, so you can focus on what you love most- teaching.

The way I look at it, classroom management is broken down into four key areas, and all of them are important.  Designing SPACE, creating ROUTINES, building RELATIONSHIPS, and having firm EXPECTATIONS.  They all can be used to settle down a room or, even better yet- keep it calm before the tipping point arrives and things start to feel out of control.

Consideration #1: Space

Have you ever walked into a room that suddenly made you feel welcome and at ease?  Certain spaces have a way of doing that.  There are many ways you can arrange your classroom to create an inviting space for children.

Designing an environment that is organized, free from clutter, and has well-defined places for students to work and play all contribute to a room design that sets your classroom up for success.  Consider these strategies when designing your room:

• Flexible seating is an attractive option for children and allows them to choose a workplace that is most comfortable for them.
• Organized materials help children grow in their independence and confidence in the room by quickly being able to find what they need. It promotes a sense of comfort and engagement by having work materials easily accessible to them.
• Cozy reading corners with a clearly labeled library give children a designated space to read, relax, and take a quiet break when needed.
• Decorating with warm, neutral colors, soft, dimmable LED lights, and decorative plants can create a calming environment.
• Using area rugs and furniture can create a variety of clearly defined workspaces that provide opportunities for small group and partner work to happen.

Student-centered environments make children feel welcomed and valued, knowing they matter and belong in this space. These strategies contribute to a well-designed space that sets the tone for a calm, centered workday where children can succeed.

Consideration #2: Routines

Establishing routines that work for you will be the cornerstone of your classroom management.

How do you want your students to behave in the classroom? What happens when they do not comply?  What learning protocols do you value and want to use regularly with your students?  How do you want to design your daily schedule?  How will you guide students through transitions?

Teachers must make these important decisions ahead of time, teach these routines through explicit modeling, and practice each one repeatedly.

Some people think you need to put as much time into teaching routines as you do teaching your content because, with well-run classroom routines, it is easier for focused instruction to happen.  Think about these critical parts of the day and what you and your students will do when:

• Entering or exiting the classroom
• Transitioning between activities
• Taking bathroom breaks
• Collecting and distributing materials
• Asking for help
• Signaling for quiet
• Finishing work early

You can download a free script for teaching, modeling, and reinforcing procedures here.

Once routines are established, be consistent and maintain them daily, reteaching them to students throughout the year or tweaking them when they no longer seem to be working.  The structure of daily routines provides a sense of order and predictability to the day.  Routines are calming for children who feel anxious when they do not know what is happening next and help create a safe learning environment.

There are many different kinds of routines to incorporate into your day.  Some can be used to build classroom community, such as starting with a Morning Meeting every day.   Others can guide student learning through protocols like think-pair-share during classroom discussions.  Routines can also bring calm to a room when the energy is rising. For example, meditations, breathing exercises, or even going outdoors for activities in nature are all routines you can introduce into your day that can bring new energy, reset student behavior, and help children focus more.

Investing time in establishing and maintaining the routines you value most in your classroom will allow you and your students to enjoy a classroom that runs smoothly and calmly most of the time.

7 beliefs about teaching routines that will cause you to lose your mind

Consideration #3: Relationships

A strong classroom community is built on genuine relationships with students that allow them to feel a sense of belonging. When students know they are seen, valued, and heard by their teacher and peers, it helps them know that even if they make a mistake, there are people who still want them to succeed and do well. Forming relationships with students is one way to show them you genuinely care about them.

When students face social-emotional challenges that impact their behavior, they respond to teachers who have earned their trust and respect.  In this article, Dave Stuart Jr. talks about forming Moments of Genuine Connection with students, so students feel valued, known, and respected.

You can do this by checking in with each student individually as often as you can.  It could be as simple as greeting every child by name at the classroom door before class begins.  Or creating a checklist where you make sure to have a private, brief conversation with several students every day, making sure to get to everyone within the week. (You can download a free checklist here.)

When getting to know your students, ask yourself, “What is the emotional tone of my classroom?  How do my students feel in this space?  Have I greeted all my students by name today?  Have I had at least one positive interaction with each student today? Is there a student who needs extra support or attention today?” Try to create a welcoming space that allows you to connect with each student as an individual and take a genuine interest in their lives.

In knowing your students well, you will be able to notice signs of distress if a problem develops in the class with one student or a group of students.  Then you can intervene early- ask questions, listen, and try to find out where the root of the problem started.

One way to address the issue is by determining the need behind the student’s behavior.  This can go a long way in preventing behavior problems from escalating.

Beneath every behavior, there is a feeling. And beneath each feeling is a need. And when we meet the need rather than focus on behavior, we begin to deal with the cause, not the symptom.”

-Ashleigh Warner 

Despite everyone’s best efforts, problems in the classroom do happen, resulting in disruptive behaviors and hurt feelings.  Bringing your class together after disruptions occur to model genuine empathy and respectful language for those involved can be a way to acknowledge and process those difficult feelings.

Ask your students questions like, “How are you feeling?  What is something you can do to calm your emotions? How can we show empathy to those who are struggling?”  These are ways to validate and process the challenging moments that arise in the classroom.

Hopefully, nurturing relationships and a sense of belonging will encourage students to reset during challenging moments so they can move calmly through the rest of the day.

Classroom meetings: Your most powerful tool for creating a respectful, inclusive class culture

Consideration #4: Expectations

Having clear expectations for students means setting clear rules, teaching what they will look like, and establishing logical consequences. Classroom rules and expectations are essential in creating a calm learning environment.

Once you have established rules together, use direct, concise, and simple language to remind students of them throughout the day. What we say and how we say it can tremendously impact the classroom. Our teacher language can model respectful, fair, and caring interactions for students.  Using effective language encourages children to respect and follow the rules.

Even simple, direct two-word phrases can be enough when given in a strong voice to recenter a classroom and remind students of your expectations.  “Calm bodies.”   “Kind words.”  “Eyes here.”  “Voices off.”

Be ready to respond, reiterate rules, and teach consequences when children do not follow classroom expectations.  Responsive Classroom teaches the use of these specific strategies to use when developing logical consequences in the classroom-

• “You break it, you fix it” can be used to mend emotional and physical messes. For example, a child can rebuild a block tower after accidentally knocking it over. Likewise, a child can repair hurt feelings with an “apology of action” by doing something to soothe the injury, such as drawing a picture or playing a game.

• Temporary loss of privilege is a simple way to help a child remember to responsibly use that privilege (art materials, group time). For example, losing a privilege for a class period or a day can help a child pause to remember or relearn a rule.

• “Time-out” or “Take a Break” is a strategy to help children learn self-control. A child who is disrupting the work of the group is asked to leave for a few minutes. This gives the child a chance to regain composure and rejoin the group when ready.

Creating quiet spaces such as a Calming Corner in the classroom for students to take a break can create a place for students to leave the group when they are disregulated to reset while other kids continue learning.  By having separate spaces in the room, students having a challenging time meeting expectations have a place to reset themselves.

Have a sensory toolkit available to help regulate students who need to be away from the business and noise of the classroom, and hang a poster in that space to remind students of other strategies to use:

• counting backward
• deep breathing
• getting water
• journaling or drawing

Another strategy is to give students who need to take a break a special job, like running an errand or being a helper to the teacher by organizing or passing out materials.  Redirecting off-task behavior by providing reasonable choices and options for alternative activities at that moment is a positive way to help kids to reset.  Sometimes, these strategies can be enough of a distraction to refocus students’ attention and better prepare them to meet expectations for learning.

Children can rise to high expectations, but they need to be clear on what those expectations are and know that limits and logical consequences will be consistently followed to create a successful and safe school day for all.

10 ways to calm a class after lunch or recess

What happens when these strategies aren’t enough?

Despite all your best efforts to keep a calm environment for your students, moments will arise when things are different from what you anticipated.  There may even be many moments when it’s a struggle to think of a logical consequence or to find the right teacher language or the calm voice you want to use.  Sometimes things escalate more quickly than expected, and we do not always use the best response.  In those moments, give yourself grace, knowing you are doing the best you can and tomorrow will be another day to try again.

If someone in the classroom is having a bad day or the daily schedule has to be changed to accommodate a special event, these things can contribute to the whole day feeling off.  Students will react to these changes differently, and not all of it is under your control.  Sometimes you need to be flexible and do the best you can in a given moment.

In those challenging moments, sometimes even the teacher needs to “take a break.” That might mean pausing to take a few deep breaths before responding to a situation or calling a colleague for help.  Talking with another teacher about the ups and downs of the day might help you find humor in the situation or process the problematic parts when humor cannot be found.  Either way, it can help you get ideas for how to address similar problems in the future.

If these strategies are not working, it may be time to seek the support of other professionals who can look at the situation differently and be better equipped to meet the mental health needs of specific students.

But most of the time, looking at your classroom space, routines, relationships, and expectations is an excellent way to start creating positive experiences in the classroom for you and your students. It will help you bring more calm moments into the room so you can focus on what you love most- teaching!

15 creative & respectful ways to quiet a class

The post When students are too loud, noisy, or energetic, here’s how to infuse calm in the classroom. appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

The following three scenarios are the most common based on my observations as a teacher coach and literacy specialist:

Scenario One: Students are sleeping, moody, or completely disengaged in class.

Scenario Two: Students have a hard time staying in class. They are always in the bathroom, hallway, locker, or constantly asking for breaks during instruction (even right after a “break”).

Scenario Three: Students struggle to control emotional outbursts, resulting in verbal and physical altercations with adults and other students.

If any of these three scenarios are happening in your classroom, I’m going to dig deep into each one and discuss the context for each type of behavior, along with some tried and true strategies to re-engage students and keep them engaged in their education for the rest of the school year.

All the strategies I will be sharing are rooted in SEL (Social Emotional Learning), Restorative Practices, and Equity best practices for K-12 educational settings. If you’d like to learn more about these three frameworks, links are at the bottom of this article.

But first, two reminders:

Reminder #1: Stay student-centered

Before we start, you’ll probably notice my student-centered language in each scenario. This is part of the process of re-engaging students. Checking in on our own mindset toward students is a critical step that a lot of educators tend to skip because they honestly don’t think they need to do it.

However, think about how you describe students who fall asleep in class to another colleague, for example. Which of these descriptions sounds like you?

Teacher A: “Jonathan is ALWAYS sleeping in class. He never does any work and he’s going to fail my class! Sleepers never prosper. If he’s going to sleep in class every day, I’m just going to let him. His parents must not make him go to bed on time.”

Teacher B: “Jonathan has really been struggling to stay awake in my class lately. I’m concerned that he is falling behind with his assignments and grades. I’m going to have to figure out something I can do to support him and get him back on the right track.”

You may think to yourself that you’ve been both Teacher A and Teacher B at different points this year, or in your career. You may think there’s no harm in venting about Jonathan the way that Teacher A did, if we come back around to addressing the issue like Teacher B.

The issue with the words used by Teacher A is that by the end of that statement, the teacher has already made a handful of assumptions about Jonathan and his family. They have also already decided that Jonathan’s situation can’t be changed for the better and they will not be going out of their way to try.

Teacher B, on the other hand, admittedly does NOT have the answer to the problem in this conversation. Supporting students who are struggling is a year-long process that will require the teacher to be proactive, communicative, and supportive to both the student and their family at various points in the year. Teacher B understands this and yet understands that there are some things they can try to help Jonathan get re-engaged with his education.

I should also note here that in some cases, students will need more support than you provide just within your classroom. Lean on your school social workers, psychologists, and special educators to give you suggestions and referrals when needed for students who have needs beyond what you can provide.

Reminder #2: Don’t take it personally

For all the students described below, it’s almost NEVER personal towards the teacher. More likely than not, you are NOT boring your students to sleep or chasing them out of your classroom!

Teachers who come to me with questions about students who sleep or refuse to do work often have already tried a plethora of things to get students motivated. They’ve usually already implemented class-wide systems to positively reinforce student behavior with team points of some sort, and there’s one or two students who are still not responding the way the teacher hoped.

If you already have a supportive classroom culture in place but you still have students disengaging from the learning, the first step is to look for patterns in the behavior:

• Are they going to sleep as soon as they come in in the morning, or are they waiting until it’s time to complete an undesirable task in class?
• Do they leave class at the same times every day, or does it depend?
• Do they put their head down ALL day, or are they up and participating during activities like Physical Education or recess?

These types of questions will help you narrow down when and how often you need to step in with your additional support.

Now, let’s look in-depth at how to address each of the scenarios I identified at the beginning of the article.

How to motivate and engage reluctant learners

What to do when: Students are sleeping, moody, or completely disengaged in class

There will certainly be cases where a student sleeping is due to something serious going on in the home, and if you suspect this is the case you should reach out to your administration for the appropriate next steps before you do anything else. Student safety and care comes first. However, I caution teachers often on assuming students who sleep are doing so because they aren’t getting enough sleep at home.

Most of the time, disengaged students are often simply craving connection.

They may not feel like they are truly part of your classroom community for one reason or another. They may be experiencing bullying. They could be struggling with their own mental health and are unsure how to ask for help. They may be struggling academically and are embarrassed to be “found out.” Once you know what is hindering your student from feeling like part of your classroom community, you can make your plan for support accordingly.

Disengaged students need the adults in their life to not only create safe spaces for them, but also to encourage and invite them into those spaces daily.

They need to be reminded every single day that they are an important part of your classroom community, that you care about them and their ideas, and that you will be there to support them if they start to struggle throughout the day.

You can do this easily during morning meetings when students are typically still awake and alert. Build in a daily affirmation routine that all students will benefit from, but particularly the students you are focused on supporting. A quick online search for “daily affirmations for students” will get you started with videos and activities that you can choose based on the age of your students, but the idea is simple! Spending just 2-3 minutes each day engaging with affirmations will help students understand and see their own value within the classroom.

Beyond your morning meeting routine, your students will need proactive, planned check-ins with you or another trusted adult. They may be motivated to try to stay engaged, but become quickly frustrated and shut down before you get the chance to offer them redirection or encouragement. Their learned habit of shutting down has protected them from feeling frustrated, but that means they don’t have much in the way of coping skills to work through challenging tasks.

Conference with these students individually about growth mindset to help them understand that they may not be able to complete the task independently YET, but if they keep working at it, they will be able to soon!

Share with them things that you do when you get frustrated by something, such as take a few deep breaths, take a short break, or ask for help from someone else (identify peers or adults who can help).

You may feel like everything you are doing stops working when your student comes in and goes right to sleep one day after a few weeks of working hard. Don’t be discouraged!

This doesn’t mean your student has given up all over again, but it does mean they need more check-ins and possibly additional coping strategies. This type of student support is a “roll with the flow” kind of support that will change and evolve throughout the year in response to what your students need.

What to do when: Students have a hard time coming to class or staying in class.

Students may seem to always be in the bathroom, hallway, or locker, or constantly ask for breaks during instruction. With older students, they may even cut/skip classes altogether.

Many of the strategies described above for students who sleep or refuse to work in class will apply to students who leave class as well. Students who have built a habit of wandering the school building when they are frustrated or faced with an undesirable task can be challenging to re-engage, but with the right level of pro-active planning, you can help your students see the importance of staying in class and engaging in the learning with the rest of their peers.

For students struggling to stay in class, a little bit of positive attention goes a LONG way. Students will often leave class to seek out something that they would rather do instead. They want to feel successful, challenged, or validated more so than the rest of their classmates.

I find that having a direct, respectful, open conversation with students (yes, even in elementary school!) about their actions is the best first step. In the conversation, you will want to ask at least these three questions, and pay careful attention to their answers:

1.  “I’ve noticed you ask to go to the bathroom every day when it is time for word work. How do you feel when it’s time for us to do our ____ lessons?” Make sure you name the behavior that you’ve noticed, without judgment. This lets students know that you are aware that their actions are intentional, and it allows you to have an honest, non-defensive conversation.)
2.  “When it’s time for us to do our ___lessons, is there a place in the room that you would like to sit?” This won’t work for every student, but often a preferential seating change for the part of the lesson or subject that students struggle with the most can offer a quick fix.
3. “I want to help you stay in class so that you can learn the same ___ as your classmates. What do you think we should do to help you stay in class during this time? “This lets students know that you are still holding them to the same expectations as their peers, but that you are willing to take extra steps to make sure they feel supported. Most likely they won’t know exactly what they need you to do (they will probably shrug or tell you they don’t know), but the point of this question is to let them know that you have some ideas to share, and they are part of the process of deciding which strategies to try. I let students know that whatever strategy we agree on together will be used for at least two weeks, and then we will check in again to see if it’s working for them or not.

What to do when: Students struggle to control emotional outbursts, resulting in verbal and physical altercations with adults and other students

First things first: If students are a danger to themselves or to others, you will need to go through your administration team to follow the appropriate protocol for keeping yourself and your students safe. Once any immediate safety concerns have been addressed with the support of your administration, then your work on supporting students experiencing emotional dysregulation can begin.

It’s unclear yet whether we are seeing an increase in emotional or physical outbursts from students, or if we are just hearing more about it from our collective media and social circles. Regardless, many of the strategies described from the first two scenarios can be used as first steps for students struggling emotionally as well!

If you have worked through those strategies and still find students struggling to regulate their own emotions appropriately, you may need some slightly more sophisticated systems in place.

I like to think of support for emotional regulation in four stages:

Stage 1: Name it

In this stage, students need language to describe the emotions they are feeling. This stage needs to be proactively planned out, ideally WITH the student, like the conference in Scenario Two. Together, decide on the emotions that most OFTEN lead to an outburst (usually anger, frustration, or even sadness). They need a sentence to say out loud to you or another trusted adult to let you know what they are experiencing. “I” statements are a great tool we can teach children here.

“I feel _____ when _____ happens in class.”

“When we ______, I feel ______.”

“When you or a classmate _____, I feel ______.”

This helps students start to identify their own triggers and be more aware of them as they continue to develop emotionally. Don’t assume that because a student is in High School that they already know how to do this! Teach them anyway. Even if they do “know,” just like adults sometimes, they may benefit from a reminder to embrace a healthier habit.

Stage 2: Express it

Imagine getting a distressing phone call in the middle of your workday (I’m sure many of us have experienced this). Now imagine that your principal or administrator knows what happened, but still expects you to pick up your next class on time from the cafeteria in five minutes. For students who struggle with emotional regulation, their emotions can feel as intense as that phone call. Expecting students to take a five-minute break and go on like nothing happened is unreasonable and can be more harmful for students who have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences.

Instead, students need a safe place and manner to express the emotion they are feeling.

Students may need to leave your classroom to meet with a social worker or psychologist when they are experiencing an emotional outburst, but there may be times when service providers are unavailable to them. My “cool down corner” is usually a relaxing space with cushions, a comfy chair, or even a couch where students can go when they need more than a minute or two to get themselves together.

Once you have the space designated, you’ll want to have a bin or a folder of age-appropriate activities or fidgets that students can use while they are in the corner. It will be important to norm the use of this space and those materials with your entire class (everyone has a bad day sometimes!) and make sure students don’t take advantage of the system.

While we want to give students the flexibility to determine when they will be “ready” to rejoin the class, there needs to be structure and parameters for the system to work long-term. Decide with specific students (ahead of time) whether they will need 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or 15 minutes to rejoin class if they need an emotional break.

Explain that if they feel they will need more than 15 minutes to decompress, they will need to check in with you to see if another trusted adult is available (they would ideally meet with their social worker or psychologist if this is the case, but a “buddy teacher” could be just as effective if they have a good relationship with another teacher in the building).

Stage 3: Let it go

The goal of emotional regulation is of course to be able to rejoin class, feel calm, and ready to learn. Teach your class ways to welcome students back from an outburst with kindness and understanding. Teach them not to pepper the student with questions the moment they come back, but rather to give space when it’s needed. Explain to students that when their classmates come back to the group, they may need some support and that it’s okay to ask their friends what they need. Even with younger elementary students, I watch them support and uplift one another after the most disruptive moments – let them surprise you with their empathy.

Your students will most likely be ready to rejoin class in an unceremonious way. If their outburst did no harm (no one was hurt or verbally assaulted), I will allow them to rejoin class and move on. However, if harm was done, my students know that before they can rejoin class (or before the end of the day depending on the situation/student), they need to right their wrongs.

Stage 4: Make it right

If a teacher (yourself included) or a student was harmed physically or mentally during your student’s outburst, it is important for your entire classroom community that the harm is repaired in some way. If only one or two people were affected, a private restorative conversation is needed. If most or all of the class was affected, a restorative circle with the group is needed. During these conversations, you have three goals:

1.       Establish the harm done
2.       Decide how to make it right
3.       Make it right

The student who caused the harm needs to be completely de-escalated before this conversation. Keep your discussion centered on the three goals above. If an apology is all that is needed (as determined by the person affected negatively), the apology can happen and the class can move on. If something was torn or broken and needs to be repaired, come up with a plan to fix it with the student. This is teaching students accountability for their actions in a way that doesn’t humiliate or shame them.

I always end conversations with students the same way. I remind them that they are a part of our classroom community and that they matter to me. I let them know that it is okay to feel the way that they feel, there is nothing wrong with having emotions. I also let them know that in school we must respect one another’s boundaries and it’s not okay to take out how you feel on another person.

Final thoughts

It’s my hope that at least one of these strategies helps you reach your students in new meaningful, supportive ways.

While the strategies above are meant to give you a place to start, you may need to come back to this list throughout the year for new things to try over time.

Remember that our students are not static characters in a television show.

They are complex humans with emotions, stress, and triggers just like adults. Most of all, they are children who need the adults in their lives to model appropriate responses to stress for them as much as possible.

Instead of looking at students in terms of their “problems,” we must look at students in terms of their needs whether they are academic, social, emotional, or physical. If we can embrace the idea of authentically supporting the “whole-child” sitting in our classrooms, many of the disengaged behaviors we are seeing will lessen or even disappear over time.

References

Fundamentals of SEL

Restorative Practices in Schools

9 Ways to Promote Equity in Our Schools

Are the kids alright? A deep dive into the pandemic’s toll on students

The post A fresh approach to supporting students who are disengaged and task-avoidant appeared first on Truth For Teachers.