A Good Pun is its Own Reward

1. Energizer Bunny arrested - charged with battery.
2. Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
3. I used to work in a blanket factory, but it folded.
4. A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.
5. A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.
6. When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.

Teaching Routines Versus Announcing Rules

Research has repeatedly shown that highly effective teachers spend most of the first two weeks of a semester teaching classroom routines. And yet, the older the students are, the less investment we make in teaching routines. Typically, by high school, teaching routines has become rather perfunctory -- often consisting of just a few announcements on the first day of school.

Teachers who do not make the investment in teaching their procedures and rules on the first day of school and over the first two weeks -- will spend a huge amount of time and energy bringing order out of chaos day after day for the rest of the school year.

Source: Education World

Creating a Climate for Learning

Howard Miller, Associate Professor of Education at Lincoln University (Jefferson City, Missouri) suggests 12 steps teachers can take at the beginning of the year to promote effective classroom management.

1. Develop a set of written expectations you can live with and enforce.


2. Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent.


3. Be patient with yourself and with your students.


4. Make parents your allies. Call early and often. Use the word "concerned." When communicating a concern, be specific and descriptive.


5. Don't talk too much. Use the first 15 minutes of class for lectures or presentations, and then get the kids working.


6. Break the class period into two or three different activities. Be sure each activity segues smoothly into the next.


7. Begin at the very beginning of each class period and end at the very end.


8. Don't roll call. Take the roll with your seating chart while students are working.


9. Keep all students actively involved. For example, while a student does a presentation, involve the other students in evaluating it.


10. Discipline individual students quietly and privately. Never engage in a disciplinary conversation across the room.


11. Keep your sense of perspective and your sense of humor.Know when to ask for help.

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Techniques that Backfire

Teacher behaviors that backfire include:

• Raising my voice
• Yelling
• Saying “I’m the boss here”
• Insisting on having the last word
• Using tense body language, such as rigid posture or clenched hands
• Using degrading, insulting, humiliating, or embarrassing put-downs
• Using sarcasm
• Attacking the student’s character
• Acting superior
• Using physical force
• Drawing unrelated persons into the conflict
• Having a double standard — making students do what I say, not what I do
• Insisting that I am right
• Preaching
• Making assumptions
• Backing the student into a corner
• Pleading or bribing
• Bringing up unrelated events
• Generalizing about students by making remarks such as “All you kids are the same”
• Making unsubstantiated accusations
• Holding a grudge
• Nagging
• Throwing a temper tantrum
• Mimicking the student
• Making comparisons with siblings or other students
• Commanding, demanding, dominating
  

Source: Randall Deich

Start Right

One question all coaches ask is “Where do I begin?” Our profession maintains an impossible expectation that new teachers are as effective as a veteran teacher after four days of pre-planning. Everyone knows this is not true but we still maintain systems that are contrary to what we know.

Broward County Public School has done more to address this problem than any other school district in the country. We have NTA, NTO, and many schools now have their own site-based pre-preplanning orientation programs. However, these events alone do not meet the needs of the New Educator. That brings us back to, “Where does a coach begin?”

In 1994, Educational Leadership published an article called “What helps students learn?” The article listed 28 indicators that affect student learning. It would be impossible for a coach to address all 28 indicators in the research. However, the top four should be addressed during a New Educator’s first year:

1. Classroom Management: In the first few weeks of school, the new teacher should focus on developing procedures that create a safe and orderly environment for students. (Safe and orderly environment is one of the Correlates of Effective Schools.)
2. Learning Processes: The New Educators should not just focus on content but should help the students develop learning skills they can use beyond the classroom. (Marzano’s “Nine High Yield Strategies” is recommended as source of high impact instructional strategies.)
3. Parents as Allies: Encourage New Educators to contact students’ parents early to share something positive about their child and to explain course content and expectations in the classroom. This will make it easier if later a student has difficulty behaviorally or academically. (Home and School is another Correlate of Effective Schools.)
4. High Expectations: The research strongly suggests that a teacher’s expectations have a significant impact on student performance. The attitude of a teacher should be that all the students in his/her class can and will achieve the State Standards. (Climate of High Expectations is a Correlate of Effective Schools.)
   

The next question is, “Which of the four should I do first?” After analyzing the data you collected during your observations to determine your New Educator’s “Current Reality", you should have no difficulty answering this question.

Source: Dr. Doug Miller

NESS Support Groups

Effective Liaisons recognize the importance of using activities that are energizing and create intense discussion. Here is a suggestion for your next Support Group meeting.

1. The whole group brainstorms and charts student behaviors that tend to disrupt the academic flow of a classroom. (The following are some ideas to get the group started. Students: chewing gum, tardy, out of seats, turning in sloppy work, and threatening each other with physical harm.)
2. Then divide the group into teams the New Educators vs. the Instructional Coaches. (If you have large groups make multiple groups of New Educators and Instructional Coaches.)
3. The teams will then discuss what they would do if the student exhibited each behavior on the brainstorm list. (You may want to time this section.)
4. Finally, let the New Educators share first and then the Instructional Coaches share their responses.
5. Debrief: How were the responses of the New Educators and the Instructional Coaches alike? How were they different? How do these types of discussions help New Educators? How do these discussions help Instructional Coaches?

Warning: On rare occasions ICs get carried away trying to impress the NEs with how tough they are, so prior to the meeting encourage ICs to recommend consequences they really use.

Source: Doug Miller

The Leadership Imperative - Coaching

NESS School Liaisons are coach of coaches. How does a Liaison transfer this statement to action?

• Ask questions and don’t give the answers.
• Focus on what great performance is, what it looks like and feels like.
• Focus on what great performance is from the Instructional Coach’s point of view.
• Raise expectations and look to where they can be.
• Clarify the linkage between the current assignment and personal long-term goals.
• Focus on self-determination of how performance will be measured.
• Identify the skills that need to be learned or strengthened.
• Identify the work and learning experiences that need to occur to achieve the goals.
• Focus on developing the person, not the scoreboard.
• Get good coaching yourself so you know what it feels like.

The Effective Coaching Context
Your role as coach of coaches is to create a structure within which the Instructional Coach can focus his or her energy. The experience is person-centered and appropriate to the person being 'coached.' The guidance and ‘interventions’ of the Liaison respond to the developmental level of the Instructional Coach. Focus on what great performance would look and feel like, including your coaching.

Consider:
Liaisons may wish to consider using the Continuous Improvement Plan for increasing the effectiveness of their Instructional Coaches. The Continuous Improvement Cycle includes:

1. Identifying the desired state, what great performance looks and feels like.
2. Selecting appropriate assessment tools
3. Ascertaining the ICs current reality
4. Setting a goal
5. Selecting an intervention
6. Measuring the impact of the intervention
7. Deciding on next steps.

Source: Rick Sidorowicz

Classroom Management: Principals Help Teachers Develop Essential Skills

Almost everybody agrees that strong classroom management skills are essential for successful teaching, but many teacher education programs don't provide courses to help future teachers develop those skills. So what is a principal to do with a new teacher who has great potential but needs help with classroom management?

Reflection is key. “Teachers need to be more introspective about their teaching style -- what works, what doesn't, and what needs to be tweaked,” said Laurence Anderson. Principal Mary L. Russo agreed. Teachers need to hold a mirror up to their practice in three areas -- classroom organization, lesson preparation, and classroom routines. Russo offered the following questions a principal might ask after a tour of a teacher’s classroom:

Classroom organization. Is the setup of the room easy to manage? Are materials easily accessible? Are desk arrangements and seating plan conducive to strong classroom management? Are areas set aside for group and individual work creating problems?

Lesson preparation. Are all materials required for the lesson ready for use? Do the students understand the learning objectives? Does the lesson include a plan for students who finish the assigned work early? Has the teacher thought about how she/he will transition students from one activity to the next?

Classroom routines. Are there clear expectations for student behavior posted and visible to all students? Has the teacher explicitly taught students routines, such as how to sit on the rug, when to transition to a center, how to ask questions?

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