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.  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. Do not 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. Do not call roll. 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.
    
12. Know when to ask for help.
    

Source: http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr155.shtml

Techniques that Backfire

Communication behaviors that backfire include:

1. Raising my voice
   
2. Yelling
   
3. Saying “I’m the boss here”
   
4. Insisting on having the last word
   
5. Using tense body language, such as rigid posture or clenched hands
   
6. Using degrading, insulting, humiliating, or embarrassing put-downs
   
7. Using sarcasm
   
8. Attacking the student’s character
   
9. Acting superior
   
10. Using physical force
    
11. Drawing unrelated persons into the conflict
    
12. Having a double standard — making students do what I say, not what I do
    
13. Insisting that I am right
    
14. Preaching
    
15. Making assumptions
    
16. Backing the student into a corner
    
17. Pleading or bribing
    
18. Bringing up unrelated events
    
19. Generalizing about students by making remarks such as “All you kids are the same”
    
20. Making unsubstantiated accusations
    
21. Holding a grudge
    
22. Nagging
    
23. Throwing a temper tantrum
    
24. Mimicking the student
    
25. Making comparisons with siblings or other students
    
26. Commanding, demanding, dominating
    

Source: Randall Deich

"Where does a coach begin?"

One question all coaches ask is “Where do I begin?”  Our profession maintains an impossible expectation that new teachers after five days of preplanning are as effective as veteran teachers. Everyone knows this is not true but we still maintain systems that are contrary to what we know.  Broward County Public School has developed important systems to support new teachers.  We have New Teacher Academy, New Teacher Orientation, and many schools now have their own site-based pre-preplanning orientation programs.  However, these events alone do not meet all the needs of the New Educators.  That brings us back to the importance of Instructional Coaches and their dilemma as coaches “Where do we 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, effective coaches know the importance of focusing on the top four because these categories of teacher behaviors have a major impact on student learning.

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 conversations and observations to determine your New Educator’s “Current Reality’, you should have no difficulty answering this question.  If you would like more information please contact your NESS Program Facilitator through your NESS Liaison.

Source: Dr. Doug Miller

The Role of Coaching

Increased student achievement can only be achieved by improving school effectiveness and teacher skills. In the classroom student success is driven by the teacher’s skills.  A football team, for example, does not win a game simply by telling the quarterback that he must complete 25 passes, and that the wide receiver must catch 8 passes, and the halfbacks must run 110 yards.  A team wins because its players are more proficient in executing the skills required to defeat the competition.  Our New Educators, as wonderful as they are, do not have the skills only experience can provide.  Fortunately, an effective coach can greatly accelerate and enhance the New Educator's acquisition of effective skills.  Coaching is not about teaching the caterpillar how to fly; it’s about creating an opening for it to see the possibilities.
Source: Paul Lefebvre

Consequences Protocol

Effective Liaisons recognize the importance of using activities that are energizing and create intense discussion. Here is a suggestion for your next Support Group/Learning Community 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, etc.)
   
2. Then divide the group into teams the New Educators vs. the Instructional Coaches. (If you have a large group 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: Dr. Doug Miller

The Leadership Imperative - Coaching

The major role of the NESS Liaison’s is coach of coaches. Your major role as coach of coaches is to create a environment within which the Instructional Coach can focus his or her energy in supporting the New Educator. The support you provide is specific and based on the needs of each Instructional Coach. The guidance and interventions you provide should be appropriate to the developmental level of the Instructional Coach. Always bear in mind that the Liaison needs to focus on what great coaching looks like and feels like. 

Consider the following, using the Continuous Improvement Plan can increase your success supporting your Instructional Coaches and provides a way to document the effectiveness of your interventions. 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 intervention(s)
   
6. Measuring the impact of the intervention
   
7. Deciding on next steps.
   

For more information about using the Continuous Improvement Plan, contact your HRD Program Facilitator.

Source: Dr. Doug Miller 

What teachers hate about the first day of school

1. When the rich kid’s lawyer tried to negotiate a “No Fault” deal for homework.
   
2. When you forgot your “Excedrin.”
   
3. The lottery ticket you bought just before returning to school had only one matching number.
   
4. When a third grader gets your computer, you couldn’t start all summer, up and running in five minutes.
5. When the paper reduction memo came in triplicate.
6. Pushy dad and hovering mom and their your own parents.
   

First Steps for Coaches

Mentoring new teachers is very demanding especially at the beginning of the year, the main reason is that from the beginning New Educators are expected to carry out all the duties that a veteran teacher routinely performs. The following are some possible talking points for those first meetings with the New Educator during preplanning:

1. Build personal connections with your New Educator by asking questions like “Where did you attend college?”, “Where are you from?”, and “What’s your sign?” just kidding but you get the idea. You are the New Educator’s big brother or big sister.
   
2. Explain your role as an Instructional Coach – friend, observer, provider of feedback, information resource, advocate, and most importantly that you are there to help the New Educator be successful.
   
3. Discuss the characteristics of an ideal teacher and write them down. (This will reduce possible conflict later, if you both share the same vision of effective teaching).
   
4. Help the New Educator prepare his/her classroom or if she/he is roving prepare their cart.
   
5. Encourage the New Educator to put classroom procedures in writing.
6. Develop classroom rules
   
7. Encourage the New Educator to have at least two weeks of lesson plans based on your school’s instructional focus calendar.
   

Warning: Encourage New Educators to focus on classroom procedures, during the first week of school.  Many new teachers feel they are falling behind with academics but effective teachers know if you don’t develop effective procedures in the beginning, you will lose a considerable amount of academic time later.

Source: Dr. Doug Miller

NESS Fast Starts

Welcome back, NESS School Liaisons, I hope everyone had a wonderful summer. As the new school year begins, the following are seven suggestions from Veteran NESS School Liaisons for supporting New Educators and Instructional Coaches at your site.

1. Initiate your NESS Learning Community for inservice Points before you start meeting. You can no longer post date events/courses.  For more information contact your HRD Program Facilitator.
2. Ask your Instructional Coaches for suggestions on how they can follow-up on your site-based orientation for new educators.
3. Designate part of your Instructional Coach Study Group to the coaches who attended this summer’s Coach Professional Development (CPD) training or the Clinical Educator Training and invite them to facilitate some of the activities from that training.
4. Brainstorm the qualities of a highly effective teacher in your first learning community and use this list to focus the New Educator’s Professional Growth.
5. Invite your HRD Program Facilitators to help plan Instructional Coach and NESS Learning Communities or any other induction process.
6. Record and organize your site-based NESS actions and protocols for future use and for preparing your replacement.
7. If you need additional information or assistance contact your HRD Program Facilitator.

Source: NESS Liaisons

Turn Word Problems into Pictures

Instruction Problem:

Students are having difficulty solving word problems.

One possible instructional strategy -
Group Work – Divide the students into groups of three. Give each group a word problem. Instruct the students to brainstorm ways to act out the problem. Then give the group a sheet of paper to write the word problem at the top of the page and then draw a storyboard of the action in the word problem. (Note: The teacher needs to model each step of the instructional process before asking the students to perform the task.)

Individual Accountability –
1. All participate in brainstorming.
2. All participate in the presentation.
3. One member reads the word problem to the group and class.
4. One member takes notes during brainstorming session.
5. One member draws the storyboard based on ideas provided by the group.

Presenting the work - Each group reads their word problem, posts their storyboard on the wall, and then acts out the word problem. The groups presentation is not about getting the right answer, the focus is on the processes for solving the word problem. Following the presentation, students may solve the problem independently using the storyboard posted on the wall as a resource.

Assessing student work - Evaluate each student and group on their ability to describe the process for solving the problem and the clarity of the presentation and storyboard.

Note: Using a rubric is an effective way to measure student work. Student should receive a copy of the rubric at the beginning of the activity (students can be involved in creating the rubric). There are many resources available online which can be adapted based on your learning objectives and students abilities/needs. The following are two website that may help you in planning a lesson.

http://www.exemplars.com/resources/rubrics/nctm.html
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/elemath/probsol.html

This strategy includes all three learning modalities – visual (reading and creating storyboard), auditory (group conversation and narrative), and kinesthetic (presentation). Groups can be organized in a variety of ways to meet the unique needs of your students. Groups needing to be challenged could be given higher level problems or problems involving multiple steps. Also groups that finishes early can be encouraged to find more than one way to solve their word problem or demonstrate ways to check their answer for accuracy.

Final thoughts: When faced with instructional challenges the best source for information is your colleagues. It is rewarding for you and your colleague. You gain new information and your colleague has a opportunity to reflect on their practice. Ask your colleagues questions like: How do you help your students – “solve word problems?”, “identify main idea?”, or "apply the scientific method?”. Important follow-up questions may include: "What does rigorous student work look like?" "What is the most effective way to group students?" "What student procedures do I need to maintain instructional momentum?"

Source: Dr. Doug Miller, HRD Program Facilitator