Creating a Learner-Friendly Culture the Llama Way

Hey Fast Llama's

While I was preparing for my Principal's certification exam, Courtney Farris shared with me a collection of strategies from Jim Knight that were so good, I knew immediately that they would be great additions to the work we do here.  And that I wanted to include them in my blog.

Today we are going to focus on creating or maintaining a "learner-friendly culture". I say "maintain" as well, because this year, because of the fluidity that is our norm, culture building needs to be a focus as new students arrive daily.  We CANNOT assume that these new students to our classrooms will inherit our existing culture by simply living in it.  In the absence of clear, overt teacher led expectations, kids will bring in/create their own.  We must be purposeful in what we want our classroom culture to be and apply the effort it takes to keep it in place.  What are out desired outcomes? And more importantly, do students know them?

By definition, culture the the thing that shapes behavior in our classroom.  We have a prime directive to do everything in our power to create a culture that has a beneficial effect on student learning.  We want to equate positive learning experiences with our content.  That when students think about our class, they think of it in positive ways,

Let's remind ourselves of John Hattie, his work on the effect size of the strategies we use in class really gives us the research driven evidence that the things we do matter.  Classroom management, teacher-student relationships and classroom behaviors all have effect sizes greater than .49.  That means they have an effect greater than one year growth for one years input.

Things you can do that promote productivity, engagement, supportive environment, and respect -

1. promote hard work and celebrate effort

2. promote openness and respect

3. promote kindness - remember, Doug Curry says "kindness changes lives", you show kindness by having neat, non-chaotic environments, with clear routines, procedures, systems and traditions.  

What can you do to promote a learner - friendly culture?

1.  co-create classroom agreements

2. reinforce and celebrate when agreements are being lived

3.  smile and "make their day" often

4.  walk the talk

5. include students in the culture - allow and display their work, pictures and toys they connect with.  Students love novelty!  

6.  frequently and clarify their learning

7. let them talk often about their learning

8. Create Learning Maps - a graphic organizer of the essential knowledge, skills, and big ideas students are to learn.  More on this next week!  Stay tuned!

9. Self-Reflection - take the personal inventory below:

Remember, when students come from chaotic homes, with food insecurity, job insecurity and homes where they don't have consistent resources, like pencils, scissors or markers, they thrive in environments where they know where they stand both emotionally and physically.  So, I am a big fan of consistency and pattern.  Create tradition out of your procedures and systems, and create a "this is how we do it" attitude for your classroom.  Teach, practice and preach these traditions and never assume students (especially) new students will just get them.  They are not amoebas, they can't soak it in through osmosis.  

Let's Talk

 Fast Llama's,

This zombie image made me laugh, because I connect with it, here I am a zombie still wishing everyone a "great day!".  I think everyone shares this emotion, I don't know, I was always tired during the work week, but, it has leveled up significantly lately.  Everyone is feeling it at school... 

But, this meme I found is a good reminder of the hard work and effort we do everyday!

So, when the year began, I questioned myself about incorporating some of the Labay traditions like the "Fast Llama of the Month, formerly known as FLEA", Key of the Month or Teacher Spotlight.  With so much on our plates, it seemed unnecessary to add more.  BUT, then I thought about our why.

-Why nominate and recognize a FLOTM?  Well, it causes reflection on the GOOD things happening at Labay and celebrates our successes.  This was a no brainer (get it? zombies!), we still need to celebrate our wins!  

-Why focus on a Key of Excellence each month?  Character impacts learning and achievement.  We can still teach character to kids, even during this time of dual teaching.  It is as important as ever.  

-Finally, "Teacher Spotlight".  This challenged me most.  Why should we continue to share this tradition with one another?  

Well, it does let us get to know one another a little better. But, importantly it allows us to stop and reflect on things other than school.  This "time-out" gives us some time to reflect on ourselves and what we love and appreciate.  There's lots of research out there about the importance of gratefulness and optimism.  The questions on the Teacher Spotlight questionnaire are designed to give you space to think about things that make you happy, people in your life who are special to you, and the simple joys in life you may be pushing to the side during this time when we are so laser focused on our jobs.  It's the small things in our lives that continue to make us happy.  Though, your answers don't necessarily have to be humorous, when you write things that make people laugh, it is always a good thing.  Laughter is an important part of our lives, group laughter (sharing a laugh) is even better.  I am hoping that this Teacher Spotlight project gives you an opportunity to do just that, time to stop and think about your life and the things that bring you joy and fun!

And speaking of caring for ourselves, I stumbled across the graphic from the "WishingUWell" instagram page I follow.  We talk a lot about students' brains, well, we need to take care of ours too.

Final thoughts? I hope when you receive your Teacher Spotlight questionnaire, you take some "Me" time and fill it out.  It's good for you to stop, think, laugh, reflect, and think about gratitude and optimism.  Looking forward to seeing yours today.

The Testing Effect

 Hey Fast Llamas!

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it is we are doing with distance learning, face-to-face learning and everything in-between.  What is our main objective?  Well, it's learning, whether if is virtually or traditional. More specifically, encoding learning into long term memory.  

We are really good at getting the information into our students heads, and students are very good at "cramming".  Students are super great at short-term learning, but information is easily forgotten and replaced with new information within a short period of time.  What ends up happening is lots and lots of our curriculum is forgotten. What I think is really worth focusing on is the retention of meaningful learning during this time of out of the ordinary learning,  I do believe we can still hold high expectations for student learning by using a simple strategy called "Retrieval Practice".  Student engagement is pretty low right now, so we need to capture students attention quickly and get them to recall information in the time we have with them.  

What I am asking for you to do is change your thinking about thinking.  When we easily recall something to mind right after we have learned it, we think we know it.  However, proof of real learning occurs when the thinking is challenging, hard to do and requires effort.  When our students have to think and think and think, they sometimes feel like they don't know it.  But, when we bring information to mind through EFFORT, guess what, we remember it for longer periods of time.  It's the act of difficulty that actually strengthens the neural pathway.  The more times we get students to practice this, the stronger the connection.  This is real meaningful learning.  

This recalling information to mind takes practice.  Students may feel overwhelmed in the beginning, so chunk the strategy at first, gradually releasing the amount of effort students are required to do.  Then, celebrate the effort!  Also, a good tease of showing the kids "the deep dark secret of learning".  This is always a fun way to introduce a strategy (especially when you tell the class they are your "favorites and only are sharing the secret with "them".) Tell students that the struggle to recall information is good for them, the more and harder the think, the better and stronger the connections.  It is not the speed of recall, but the quantity and quality of the recall.  This is not a "mad-minute" exercise.  The more effortful and challenging the recall the better.  

Here's a quick strategy that gradually releases the risk involved: 1.  have students recall information independently 2.  have students share their recall with a partner 3. share your exemplar

Here are some retrieval practice ideas:

1.  Brain Dumps

2. Short Quizzes

3. Frayer Model and other thinking models

4.  Flash Cards

5. Mind Maps

6. Critical Writes

Here's a great placemat from Kate Jones at www.lovetoteach87.com

Neuroscientists call this strategy, the "testing effect". With the idea that the more we test, the more students recall information.  This builds strong learning memories for our students.  This strategy can increase learning and give you real information about your student learning gaps.

Teaching Character

 Hey Fast Llamas,

This blog is dedicated my former principal (well in a week, I suppose) who is moving up to the high school level.  It is a dream and a goal of hers to lead a high school, and as much as I am going to miss her, you always show up in life as your best self when you root for others success.  But, this week's blog is dedicated to her not because she is leaving, but her legacy that is staying behind.  You see, my principal told me "yes" to the ideas I had about school culture and student learning.  Imagine walking into your principal's office and asking to "train llamas" and hearing "yes"?  She believed in me and that made all of the difference. 

This week at school, we are teaching all of the grade levels the 8 Keys of Excellence and the power of Living Above the Line.  Teaching students how to be good humans is a core value of mine.  We teachers teach more than our content and as Doug Curry (training llama guru) would say, "you GET to teach kids the ways of success".  This is an opportunity to shine a light in a kids life and show them the path to success. Character impacts achievement, so we do well when we teach it and affirm our relationships with students that we are "rooting for their success" in our classes and in life.  This helps build and strengthen feelings of connectedness to school.  This is deep and heavy stuff.  So, you can see why I appreciated my principal giving me the okay to do it.  Tomorrow starts this years journey to excellence and I am so excited.

Hattie talks about Effect Size, the skills that translate to the highest effects are relational... Building positive relationships with students has a direct link to improving good character and preventing bad behavior.  And when students feel safe, supported and have feelings of belonging, their learning increases.  This is a win for character and a win for student learning.  Modeling these principles and exhibiting them on the daily, not only builds relationships but changes lives too.  How many of you can say you had or have someone in your life who believed in you, trusted you, or motivated you? Game changers, my friends.  

Remember an effect size of .4 will give you one years growth for one years imput... which is great, but, what could you do to add some steam to to your classrooms, with the relationships and attitudes of and with your students?  Here are some great examples...

1. Belief 1.62 (in each other and our students)

2. Trust .9 (trust in doing the right thing and bringing your best)

3. Clarity .75 (clear is kind)

4. Motivation .69 (increasing that engagement)

5. Creativity .62 (increasing that engagement)

6. Not labeling .61 (ahh, the power of intention, I see you as a 10!)

7. Setting Goals .59 (intention again)

8. Practice .57 (setting students up for success, through practice)

9. Innovation .55 (increasing engagement)

10. Perception .52 (intention again)

11. Intentionality .50 (being intentional in how we see and perceive each other and our students and being purposely in all we do)

12. Expectations .49 (you know students are capable and it shows)

So, for the next 8 months, following this weeks initial training, we will focus on one Key of Excellence, working into  our lessons and conversations with students.  What a gift this is for students and ultimately ourselves.  

Here's our Schedule:

October - Integrity

November - Failure Leads to Success

December - Speak with Good Purpose

January - This is It

February - Commitment

March - Ownership

April - Flexibility

May - Balance

I am super excited and ready to begin this journey of the "Excellence Effect"!  Seriously, I am giddy! 

For free resources go to 8keys.org

For help on campus, find Tracy Orsak or Percy "Coach Simon" Gilliam

Building Reflective Practices

 Hey Fast Llamas!

Today we are going to talk about building reflective practices in our students.  Teaching students how to learn (metacognitive practices) is a super powerful tool in your students growth as learners.  And, it can be done virtually too.  

As we are getting better more at ease with loading content onto the Schoology platform, we can now move toward those practices that we were using in the classroom that we know helped students become more autonomous learners.

Here are some tips in developing reflective and metacognitive skills:

1.  Learning Maps - This is a great tool to use with students, so that they can see what big ideas they will be learning for the upcoming unit.  A Learning Map is a graphic organizer showing students where they are headed for the next couple of days of learning.  What's great about Learning Maps is their ability for students to make connections to previously learned knowledge.  

• a quality learning map is created with students, is referred to often and finds its way onto the review, and are handwritten on sheet of paper... keep it simple
• learning maps help with recapping information each day because it reviews content studied the previous day
• learning maps help with the closing of the lesson and again a final review of the day's lesson

Here's a Quick Video:

2.  Reflective Practices - We can build this into the lessons with discussion posts, creating activities that allow students to set goals and using reflective worksheets.  

Here is an example of a reflective worksheet  I found online:

3.  Purpose:  This ideas is aligned with learning maps.  We want to show students the "why" of what they are learning.  We want to make sure that we are being purposeful and repetitive in our statements of objective and learning goals.  This can get lost in the virtual world, so we need to be purposeful about it.

Again, as we are getting ahead of the work of putting content onto the Schoology platform, I believe we can start adding in these sorts of activities for students.  Teaching students to set goals, allowing them to see the "Big Picture" of the unit lessons and teaching students reflective practices will improve the level of engagement for students and will increase "Buy-In".  A Win-Win for all involved.

Resource:

http://thecreativeclassroom2013.blogspot.com/2016/12/12daysofchristmasbloghop.html

Jim Knight PlayBook:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tQRHUTcEZyt7FjLasSLLGOQP08mVi4DF/view?ts=5f63d7b5

Count Me In

 Hey Fast Llama's!

When we are in our regular classroom world, developing, practicing and consistently adhering to systems, routines and procedures is the most important thing you can do for your students and for yourself.  Using and being consistent with these practices builds rapport with your students, because it lets students know where they stand and it sets them up for success.  (we think about ways to save them from their middle school selves).  The brain loves pattern (craves it actually) and when our classroom experience for students is reliable, it calms their amygdala's and that's a big win for long term memory.  Lastly, when students know how the classroom works, they become more autonomous (that's less work for you down the road).

I once heard a teacher say they didn't have time to teach these practices, because they needed to get to the content... but, not taking time now, will cost you time later (and sanity).  Wouldn't it make sense to have an efficiently running classroom would mean MORE time for content later?  It does to me...

So, let's talk about systems, procedures and routines in the virtual world.  Virtual teaching and Face to Face teaching have more in common than you might think.  It's all about OCC (being Overt, Clear and Consistent).  

Here are some ideas:

1. Label your course clearly, so that students know exactly where to go for each class period.  And, remember, all those labels, AO, ICS, K, or H mean little to a middle schooler.  I also learned this week that 6th graders may not necessarily know that Phys Ed, or even Physical Education is in fact their P.E. class.  So think about their middle school brains, and how it looks to them.  

2. Use folders - Use one folder for each day of the week, then subfolders for each step in the teaching cycle.  (Thank you for Megan Horner and Kat Lapid in science for sharing the idea of labeling the folders Step 1, Step 2, etc. ).  Trying to limit the steps to 6 or 7.   

3.  Create a folder template in your Resources or Master Course, this helps eliminate all this folder creation every day.

4.  Encourage other grade level teachers to use the same system school wide.  

5. Narrate your videos or live teaching with procedural setups.  Like, this... "you have 30 seconds to get a pencil and your notebook," or "you will need map pencils or markers, I will wait 30 seconds, while you get them together".  You could also say reminders, like, "I will see you each morning at 9:05 am sharp!" This narration and pause benefits the Face to Face kids too.  

6.  Have a clean beginning and clean close.  Create a tradition at the beginning of class, students can say good morning in chat or wave... have an official sign off that you say each day!  Even Carol Baskin started off each video with a specific catch phrase, and guess what? it became popular.  Hearing this at each beginning of class is like a hug to their brains... it's good stuff.

7. Keep it positive. If you want students to log in on time, make it worth it to do so and reward and celebrate their effort in doing so.  Challenge students to wear a certain color to class and have it match the Face to Face kids, or have a show and tell object to share.  Have snack time Fridays, if they have earned it... Keep it positive that you want to see the virtual students each day and let them see their in school classmates.  There is hard work in school, but also joy and connections.  

All the while you are talking to your virtual students, the face to face students sitting in class are also following along.  They benefit from the narration and traditions too.  

Have a great week and I am rooting for your success!

Don't Stop Until You are Proud

 Fast Llama's,

I have started this blog about 37 times with phrases like, "I can't believe..." and "here we go..." but that all seems so cliche.  We know where we have been (spring distance learning) and we kind of know where we are going... the second part of that sentence is what we need to focus on.  How can we move forward and continue to do as Brene Brown says do "work that makes us proud". 

If you remember from last year, I love Doug Lemov and his "Teach Like a Champion" book and website.  Lemov focuses a lot on student "agency".  And, it is fantastic.  Agency, is when you give students control over their own learning.   Agency, has a big effect size and it creates environments where the students do the cognitive heavy lifting.  So, I don't know a teacher who doesn't want their students to work harder with bigger gains... So, last night, when I stumbled upon a blog describing developing agency in a virtual world, I was intrigued.  I don't know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that it was 1:43 am when I sent myself the email with the blog link, but, I do feel it is a game changer in terms of how we can use "Everything is on Purpose" deliberately.

There has been a lot of talk about the hybrid model we have adopted, but, when you step back and think about it, it is the best of both worlds.  We can make connections with kids, understanding their needs AND we have the ability to continue instruction, even when technology fails.  OR, (and this will happen) students are completing lessons later in the day... Here are three video examples of the mini lesson, notice the narrations and directives to stop and pause, go back and listen again.  This develops agency.  When, our synchronous virtual kids leave the lesson to work on their own, they will need to GO BACK, and watch the video again... they won't have what F2F kids have... YOU!  You can purposely use language that builds confidence and agency.

Video Links... (right click and copy, paste into the browser)

https://vimeo.com/451219934

https://vimeo.com/451214650

https://vimeo.com/451215485

I love how the teacher is changing mindsets, students have control and ownership of their learning, and they can go back and rewatch the mini-lesson videos as needed, when they are apart from class.  They can, "watch it in a way that supports their learning". (Lemov)

I always want to see the good that comes out of education and the work we do with kids, I do believe, that we can make the best out of this situation and build autonomous learners.  

Resource:

Agency Over Video: The Key to Asynchronous Instruction. (2020, August 24). Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/agency-over-video-the-key-to-asynchronous-instruction/