Fast Llama's,
I am living the key of Balance and taking today off from writing, choosing to eat Mother's Day Brunch and enjoying the day!
Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms, your own Moms, all the Auntie's and Mom's Best Friend (your own personal B.F.P.) who love you and your kids so much!
See you next week.
Fast Llamas,
Last week we started talking about SEL and Academic Rigor. We will continue our discussion with that in mind today. Remember, when students build their social-emotional competencies, they are better able to participate in learning experiences, they are more motivated to learn, more committed to school and less likely to act out in negative ways. So it makes sense that when students feel competent in how to interact with others in the classroom, they are more likely to be highly engaged. Which then increases their capacity to learn and retain information.
So, when you want to try out a learning strategy, be purposeful about the planning. We want to set students up for success and save them from themselves. They are teenagers and they are very good at it. In the absence of expectations, students will create their own and not always the best ones.
Ask yourself:
1. What are the rules/boundaries? - set aside time to explain the strategy to the students, practice
2. What will it look like, sound like, feel like? - will students move? and if so, how? how will students get my attention, how will I get theirs?
3. What are my expectations for the students? be clear
4. What are the expectations of me for my students?
5. What roles can I give to students? time keeper, materials manager, table leader?
In the planning, set up the strategy and work your way through it. This is called Micro-teaching and it is well worth the time.
Let's look at cooperative learning. This strategy has been around for as long as I have been in teaching. But, it took me years before I realized my supervising teacher was right, for anything students do in the classroom, they have to know the "rules of the game". So, you can use cooperative learning successfully when you instill:
1. positive interdependence - build trust with students that you expect them to complete the work
2. individual accountability - include both group accountability and individual contributions
3. promoting other's success - we celebrate the learning, teach kids how to celebrate their peers
4. applying interpersonal and social skills
5. group goals - allow for students to have time to think about the work they did and monitor their progress to reach the goal individually and as a group
Take time to teach the process before you begin, setting students up for success! This "Competence Building" is modeled and coached by you for students. Competence building occurs when teachers help develop "social and emotional competencies systematically through the instructional cycle". Each part of the lesson cycle gives opportunity for reinforcement of social skills.
1. goals of the lesson
2. mini-lesson
3. independent/group practice
4. conclusion and reflection of learning
The teacher models and coaches positive relationship and social skills throughout the lesson, encourages prosocial skills, and provides feedback to on how they are interacting with one another as well as the content. Teachers do this with content naturally, adding the prosocial feedback integrated within the lesson is the added bonus. Adding this feedback gets you to where you want to be with your classroom. Where students have social and self-awareness of their behaviors, demonstrate responsible decision making and self management and develop relationship skills.
Stay tuned for more next week!
Resources:
Yoder, N. (2014). Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies. Center on Great Teachers & Leaders Report partially funded by the United States Department of Education.
Fast Llamas,
Hey all, what great weather we have had this weekend! I am sitting outside this morning, enjoying a good cup of coffee and listening all the sounds! My house sits under Continental Airport flight path... I am starting to hear more and more airplanes fly over... this is good I think.
We had started "What Makes Schools Great" with Doug Curry, and we will get back to that soon... but, since I attended training, I wanted to share this information with you. The following information addresses Doug's core ideas about what makes a school great and aligns perfectly:
1. Belief
2. Relationships
3. Clear Expectations
4. Systems in that allow students to learn self-regulation and autonomy
Practices that make school great is the vehicle to help students develop socially and emotionally and achievement will come along for the ride.
This past week I attended the Learning Leader Institute. The institute was hosted by RTI and focused on Social and Emotional Learning. My day was focused on SEL and academic rigor. The learning for the day was grounded in CASEL'S SEL Framework. (they have a great Twitter feed if you are interested in more from them @caselorg).
You can also find more info on their website. www.casel.org
What's interesting is a lot of schools focus on SEL during advisory time or create lessons for students to focus on different aspects to help their social and emotional growth. At Labay, we use the 8 Keys of Excellence and Living Above the Line to align with CASEL's Competencies as ways to help students learn skills to/be:
1. more self aware - do they know the impact of their own behavior?
2. develop self-management - can they choose how to respond in ways that makes situations better?
3. develop social awareness - can they interact with others positively?
4. develop social skills - resolve and communicate in positive ways
5. responsible decision making - learning to make wise choices
Fast llama's know their impact on student growth is beyond our content. We are helping to educate and thus raise generations of students. This is an opportunity, not an obligation to show students the ways of success. To model how successful people live their lives. We do a lot of different activities using the 8 Keys, but, we can always do more and be more effective in our practices.
That's when I got hit with a thought. While it is a good idea to focus on lessons on how to develop CASEL's Competencies in our students, we are most powerful when it is integrated into the daily instructional practices happening bell to bell in our classrooms. Most, if not all of the practices I will be sharing, are ALREADY being done in the classroom, let's add the "why" and put a label on them to help level up your current teaching methodology and pedagogy. We can always do better. Like I told a newbie teacher just the other day, "my personal growth goal ALWAYS focused on classroom management. Every year, I worked on building better relationships, getting faster at systems and building student autonomy, because a new group of students arrived every August and I had to adapt my practices to meet them where they were." I could also get better as I attended training and adopted new ideas, sometimes replacing my old ways with new innovation.
Let's dive deeper over the next couple of weeks into Instructional and Social Teaching Practices that impact students. You will find, many of the practices, you have already been using on the daily. Some you may reflect on how well you are attending to and some you can put into practice. Remember, adopt what you need, adapt to make it yours and replace what is not working with what can make improvements.
Teacher Language and Warmth and Support:
We were just talking about this a couple of blogs (How to be a Slow Llama part 1 and 2) ago. Fast llama teachers understand the power of Teacher Language (both in what we say, how we say it and how it looks (body language)). How we talk to students becomes part of a students internal monologue. Teachers should encourage effort, focusing on the things students did to do well on an activity. Teachers can encourage student reflection on monitoring and regulating their own behavior. Classroom Agreements go a long with with this idea, where we share and agree upon how we behave in the classroom. Warmth and Support are demonstrated with students when we have Home Court Advantage, (HCA) where our classrooms are places of safety, support and belonging. Build rapport with students by asking about their lives, being attentive to their needs, providing anecdotes from their own lives that show times when they were struggling themselves and came through. Allow student input to systems and procedures and share students academic work. Work hard at showing students your appreciation for their efforts and celebrate their successes.
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| Home Court Advantage |
Procedures for supporting the educational risk students encounter will go a long way in getting students to feel safe in your class include:
1. collaboration: allowing students time to answer a question, then discuss with a partner to clear up any misconceptions before they volunteer answers, using this technique also builds peer to peer rapport
2. develop systems for when a student is speaking, other students turn to face them and listen
3. be attentive to your question and answer procedures with students, using eliciting techniques to allow students to stretch responses "how so, tell me more, give me another example", especially if they are not on the right track
4. wait time - allow students time to think
5. avoid rounding up - don't finish students answers for them, allow them time to talk
6. celebrate with classroom whooshes and other novel responses that involve the whole class
7. develop responses for yourself to use when students are incorrect and systems in place to get other students to help out
Utilizing teaching practices that incorporate SEL with purpose allows students to make better and successful choices. This is life-long learning stuff here!
See you next week!
Fast Llama's,
Are you finding yourself looking at the calendar and counting? Yes, there are two weeks left in April and then...
Hello Llama's!
Today is one of those days when I have so much to share that I am having a hard time choosing what to write. So, I am going to share this link, right now! It is a link to an article written in Doug Curry's "Free Resources", website. It's long, and I intend at some point to break it down into sections as I have in the past... but, gosh, what if you wanted to read it right now? True to Doug's writing style, 14 pages goes by in a flash (there's lots of pictures and he uses big font!) since he writes as if he is talking to you in the room...
Here is the conclusion to the article:
Do you want to know what the good ones look like? [he is talking about a good middle school]
• Passing periods are loud. Kids are happy. All teachers are at their doors. All administrators are visible. It’s boisterous, but it seems happy and under control. There are not large mobs of kids. Teachers are right in the middle of any situation. There are lots of positive interactions occurring. You feel safe walking along. Kids are quick to greet you and ask if you need help.
• When classes start, the hallways are clear. If a student appears in the hallway, you can see that the student has a clearly marked pass of some kind. If the student does not have the pass, an adult is quick to ask the student for one.
• Adults appear energetic. You can sense their feeling of efficacy. We are not powerless. We know that our school will be what we want it to be.
• Meaningful and engaging learning is going on in every classroom from bell to bell.
The world’s a little more crazy every day. However, these kids did not choose this world. They deserve the same chance that you and I had in order to live successful lives, and a loving, safe, and engaging school is a right.
Doug Curry gave me the strength to stop "putting my head in the sand" in terms of addressing misbehavior because he empowered me with strategies, skills and confidence. He gave me strength to be myself...
Before I moved away from Cy-Fair back in 2013, my classroom was entrenched with Quantum Learning strategies. But, when I moved to Amarillo, my teaching techniques came under the scrutiny of my colleagues. I kept hearing excuses, "oh, we tried that and it doesn't work, the students won't like that, the students won't respond, that will could never be me..." etc, etc, etc. Teachers would stop by my door and question me all the time... I felt intimidated and finally shamed for doing the things I that were really a part of who I was as a teacher.
QL teachers are different. We approach the Foundation, Atmosphere, Environment and the Design and Delivery of our classroom as a whole system of interchanging parts. We know the impact we have on student learning, both emotionally and cognitively.
I hear that sometimes now, after a presentation, that I will be told, "I could never dance around, stand on a chair or chant, like Tracy. It's just not me", or "I thought QL was all about laughing and dancing, but now I know it impacts relationships, teaches character and builds students capacity to learn and retain information." But, Quantum Learning is a deeper understanding of the brain and how it learns, content AND social skills, it's much much more that dancing, plants and lights. I am a shy extrovert. It takes a lot of courage for me to do the things I do, but, I do those things for the kids I teach.
Here's an example of a shaming moment I experienced:
Background: When I taught Moon Phases, on the very first day I would wear a baseball jersey, baseball pants and ball cap. I would carry a bat and have a baseball on hand. I stood in my threshold greeting kids with this outfit on while John Fogerty's Centerfield was playing. There were pennants decorating the room. For the lesson, students would place the changing phases on a baseball diamond field.
Home Plate is the New Moon
First Base is the First Quarter
Second Base is the Full Moon
Third Base is the Last Quarter
When you are on first base, you are on the right side of the diamond, first quarter moon - light is on the right. You get the gist...
Okay, so this day arrives to teach Moon Phases at my new school and I set up my room as always. Except, this day is also a faculty meeting, the first faculty meeting since I have arrived. (I started my new role in January)
True to form, I do not remember that there is a faculty meeting until late in the day... But, in my mind, it's just a meeting after school. I did not know I would be introduced to the faculty as the new hire, replacing the 8th grade science teacher who had left in December.
Do you know what is coming?
I get introduced in a baseball uniform (worst is I am in Ranger country, and yep, I am wearing an Astro's jersey). I'll stop there and let you visualize the stares and weird looks I got.
In that moment, I stopped... QL teaching stopped in my classroom for months. I stayed low, I stayed below the radar. I quit being "weird". I got tired of teachers poking their heads in my rooms and questioning me, I kept having to explain why I did the things I did. There was a lot of eye rolling and retorts - "good luck with that".
I ended the school year miserable. Lost
In AISD, if you fail your core subjects (or STAAR), you had to attend summer school. But, your school hosted your own students. STAAR students retook the test for the third time, I think at the end of June. It was really good pay and was only a half day so I signed up. I taught Science and Social Studies to a handful of students. Two other teachers taught math and reading. It was an easy gig. (my last year to be at this school, I ended up being the 'Principal' for summer school) Great experience in the end.
It was during this time that I attended Doug's "How to Train an Llama" session. (I needed the PD hours) The next day, I came back to my classroom, sat at my desk and just reflected. It was summer and the students hadn't arrived, the school was silent. I remember, looking to the right, looking to the left of my classroom. You know that time, when your classroom is empty and you can feel the potential energy in the room. With astonishment I said out loud, "my classroom will be whatever I want it to be".
And it was...
Your classroom can be whatever you want it to be as well. So, can your school as a whole. It takes effort and confidence. But, you are in control. Never feel ashamed for standing on the side of hope, for never quitting on kids, to keep trying new things, to keep showing up and being yourself. Check out the link above for some ideas of what taking control of your school looks like.
If someone asks why you do what you do? TELL them... you are helping them get faster! The best PD is often the teacher down the hall. Share your knowledge and never be ashamed.
I am a Fast Llama and Quantum Learning Teacher...
Fast Llamas!
We are back! Part 4 in our series using Doug Curry's free resources... "Making School Fun".
Here's the link to access all of the great things, Doug Curry offers. Today we will talk about individual awards. Here's Doug...
Individual Rewards
There are a number of ways to reward students individually.
1. Coupons Create your own type of coupon:
Coupons such as these may be given out for practically anything: good behavior, good choices, a nice paper, a kind act, etc.
Set a target number. For example, once students get a total of 50 Curry Coupons, they may trade them in for a prize or activity.
2. Classroom Management System Rewards
If you use some type of classroom management system, for example a clip chart, or a card system, or even class Dojo, it is very easy to set a standard in which students are rewarded for good behavior. Be careful to make this age appropriate.
Let’s say it’s a 7th grade class. Every day that a student ended the day with no discipline issue (no yellow card), the student could earn a point for that day. This could simply be kept on a spreadsheet of some kind. Once the student reached a total of 20-25 days, the student would qualify for your reward. Again, this should be age appropriate as to the number of days.
So………What Kinds of Rewards?
To start with, here is a school-wide reward system that could be easily modified for the classroom. I don’t take credit for this one. I learned about it years ago, and it is a great reward due to the layers of complexity and randomness built into it.
Thus it becomes a great reward for middle school and high school kids.
Welcome to the Principal’s 200 Club, which could easily be renamed and used in your classroom.
Principal’s 200 Club
The Principal’s 200 Club is a system for recognizing great student behavior.
1.You need a bulletin board or display with 200 spaces in the form of a rectangle. Each space should be numbered (1, 2, 3,…)
2. Create your own master for a special certificate. Include a place for student’s name, teacher’s name, date, and brief description for why the student is receiving the award.
3. Decide how you “stick” the student names on the bulletin board. As in the above picture, student names can simply be written on a white board, but these would be easily erased.
4. Get 200 wooden discs (the kind you can purchase at as hobby store). Number each disc from 1-200. Have a special sack (with a drawstring) in which to keep the discs.
5. Decide on what prizes you will use for each student who receives a certificate. These are not your grand prize, but need to be something that students will like.
Procedure
1.Train all of your adults regarding how you plan to use the Principal’s 200 Club.
2. Each day put 2 blank certificates in the boxes of 4 adults. Keep a record of which adults have received a certificate. This will mean that 8 students per day will receive this award.
3. Each adult will decide which students to award the certificates.
It can be for anything you like: great consistent behavior, a change for good in behavior, etc. This is a great time to target some of those students who don’t always receive public recognition.
4. As each student receives a certificate, have the student come to the office with the certificate. Train all of the front office staff to make a big deal of this!
5. The student gets a prize. The student also reaches into the bag and pulls out a number. The student’s name is placed on the bulletin board on the corresponding number.
6. Have the principal or assistant principal to call the parents of the student to deliver the good news. Be sure that this call is made before the day is over!
7. The next morning, be sure and announce the names of the 8 students who were chosen.
8. Keep an eye on the big board. You are looking for a pattern of at least 10 names in a perfect row-either up and down, horizontal, or diagonally. Once this happens, the 10 students who are in that row win the Big Prize.
9. Once the Big Prize is obtained, take down all of the names and start again. Again, this can be easily modified to be a classroom reward. Kids love this one!
Here's more ideas:
Drawing from the Box (or Sack)
Do you want to bring the thrill of the casino into your classroom without getting arrested? Then this idea is for you! This is a fairly easy way to give out prizes. It will absolutely mesmerize students. The best way to describe this is to torture you into watching the following video clip of me actually explaining this when we used this with an entire school. You will see that half the battle is in how you market this!
Rewards of Chance Come up with something that takes a certain amount of skill. Kids love to perform in front of their peers to see if they can master a challenge of some sort.
Shooting at the Trash
Can All you need is a ball and a trash can. Mark off a distance that accurately provides a degree of difficulty along with a fair chance, and you have yourself a great challenge!
Wheel of Fortune Puzzle
Just replicate the final round of Wheel of Fortune.
Putting
This was a big one in my classroom! I built a putting cup. Nowadays you can purchase a practice putting green that will do the job.
Just put up a little basketball goal and backboard in your room.
Jazzing Up Class Dojo
If you use Class Dojo (https://www.classdojo.com), here are some ways to make it more interesting:
• Have teams of students. Have a team captain. This way the teams can work together to earn team points on things such as problem solving, having the neatest area, best behaved, etc.
• The teams can work together on special challengers: things such as riddles, puzzles, and other difficult problems.
Star Row
Do you want to have a better dismissal at the end of the day? The row or table that is the very best at the end of the day (quietest, neatest, straightest, etc.) gets a small trophy placed on it when the bell rings. This row or table is known as Star Row. Tomorrow morning when the students enter the room and begin to work, this row gets to do something fun or special for a few minutes.
Star of the Day
Every day at the end of the day, name one student as the Star of the Day. Display the student’s name in a prominent place in the room. Give the student a certificate and a small gum or candy.
Mr. Curry Bingo (Insert your own name)
Every Friday (or every other Friday, or however you see fit), we play Bingo for 20 minutes using our Math facts, vocabulary words, or any thing we are learning. Who plays Bingo? Only the students who met your standard for the week, whatever that is. There are plenty of great sites that allow you to make instant Bingo sheets.
What makes this Bingo so special? Students are on teams. If a student gets a Bingo, write that student’s name down. That student gets 2 pieces of gum/candy, but everyone else on the student’s team gets a piece just because they are on that student’s team. Play for 20 minutes. Who got the most Bingos? Have a playoff if you need to do so. The winner gets the grand prize. What do you do with the kids who don’t get to play? They sit and watch. Make better choices next time.
Prizes that Don’t Cost
There are a bunch of prizes that don’t cost a thing. Think of no homework passes, eat with the teacher, etc.
The Fun Guy
A fellow teacher once asked some of my kids what it was like to be in my room. They responded by saying, “Everything’s fun. Everything’s a game.” I found that to be very interesting because I was actually a fairly strict taskmaster. I just don’t like to be bored. There is truly a way to make everything interesting. Thank you for providing students with a fun educational experience!
Thank you Doug for all of these ideas... as we head toward summer... these are more important than ever! Finish Strong my fellow fast llamas!
Llama's!
We are back for Doug Curry's Part 3 of making class fun! Today, we talk about whole class rewards. Here's Doug from his free resources website...
Whole Class Rewards
Rewarding your whole class can be effective if done properly. However, here are some guidelines:
• While it is effective to reward the whole class, do not make the mistake of punishing the whole class due to the actions of a few.
• Carefully plan ahead as to what rewards you will use. A common method that teachers use to keep track of the whole classroom’s behavior is the old marble jar. Every time the class as a whole does something great, such as coming to attention, mastering a skill, etc., then you drop a marble in the jar. When the jar is full, it’s time for the class reward!
A simpler way is to give marks on a white board. Set a target ahead of time such as 50. Give marks for whole class successes.
Watch a very fast llama using this type of class reward: Watch
What do you do when they reach the goal? This is where you need to be sure that you have planned well ahead of time. Call this something special.
Here are some ideas:
• Class Special Activity Time
• Class Reward
• Fun Time What do you do during this time? Well, that is up to you. Let the class vote on what they wish to do. However, have them choose from a list that you have prepared. This does not need to be just a free time. It is more effective and more likely to be successful if you are in control of the options and if it is a planned activity. Therefore, have a few items ready from which the class as a whole can choose.
Examples:
• Mr. Curry Bingo (I’ll explain)
Mr. Curry Bingo (Insert your own name)
Every Friday (or every other Friday, or however you see fit), we play Bingo for 20 minutes using our Math facts, vocabulary words, or any thing we are learning.
Who plays Bingo? Only the students who met your standard for the week, whatever that is.
There are plenty of great sites that allow you to make instant Bingo sheets. Bingo Sheets
What makes this Bingo so special? Students are on teams. If a student gets a Bingo, write that student’s name down. That student gets 2 pieces of gum/candy, but everyone else on the student’s team gets a piece just because they are on that student’s team. Play for 20 minutes. Who got the most Bingos? Have a playoff if you need to do so. The winner gets the grand prize. What do you do with the kids who don’t get to play? They sit and watch. Make better choices next time.
• Game Time-Have a tournament involving playing a special game on their phones.
• Take a walk outside.
Use your imagination to come up ahead of time with ideas.
Ask for their input as well. The point is to limit their choices so that this is still under control. Also, just because the students reached the goal does not mean that you have to give the reward right then. Pick a time that is convenient for you and schedule it.
What's cool about this idea of whole class rewards, is everyone is working toward a goal. Remember, NEVER take away a reward for just one kid ruining it for everyone. I was never a fan play date Mom's who would take a toy away if there was fighting over it, saying, "if you can't share, no one gets it". Ugh! Always make sure kids can earn rewards back!
Here's to thinking about making class a little more fun and energetic!
