Help Your Students Learn to Work Well Together

It is necessary for teachers to make it possible for students to work well together—an undertaking requiring diplomacy as well as consistent effort on your part. Social inclusion is such a vital aspect of any student’s life that the effort can often result in beneficial dividends for everyone in the classroom.

One of the most important ways to make sure all students feel that they are valued members of a class is to work to remove the barriers to social acceptance that may exist among them. For example, students could feel excluded because they do not know their classmates. It is a mistake to assume that students know each other well. Even students who have attended school together for several years may not know much about their classmates.

Another barrier may occur because students may live in different neighborhoods. If you teach in a school where students may live at a distance or come from very diverse neighborhoods, it is likely that they have not had many opportunities to interact with each other outside of school.

In addition, students who have not been taught how to behave courteously or who have not learned socially acceptable ways to resolve conflict often struggle to form appropriate relationships with their peers. Helping everyone learn how to interact in an acceptable, courteous manner will take time and consistent effort on your part.

Perhaps the greatest barrier that you will have to help your students overcome is the perception that they may not have much in common with a classmate whom they do not know well. With effort and persistence, you can assist students in learning to recognize their commonalities so that they can learn to accept and support each other. Use the tips in the list that follows to guide you as you work to help students remove the barriers to peer acceptance.

·       Make sure that each student’s strengths are well known to the rest of the class.

·       If a student has an unpleasant history of failure or misbehavior, make it clear that it is time for a fresh start and that you are providing that opportunity.

·       Show your students the correct ways to interact with each other. Teach courtesy. It will not take long before students become aware of the expectations that you have for acceptable behavior. They need plenty of models and monitoring until they have learned to cooperate productively.

·       Let each student shine. Every student should believe that he or she is really your favorite.

·       Be sensitive to the differences that divide your students and to the potential for conflict that those differences can cause. It may take a while until you get to know your students well enough to be aware of the social differences that exist among them, but vigilance on your part will make it easier to help students learn to work together well.

·       Make it a point to recognize students who work well with others. Whenever possible, praise the entire class for its cooperative attitude.

·       Provide opportunities for students to get to know each other. These do not have to take up a great deal of time, but can be done in brief activities scattered throughout the year.

·       Plan enough work for your students to do so that they are focused on instruction and don’t have time to discover their classmates’ negative character traits.

·       Promote tolerance and acceptance with a display of posters, bulletin board displays, and encouraging mottoes.

·       Encourage students to share experiences and personal information about their family, culture, and goals while working with each other.

·       Make it very easy for students to understand class routines and procedures and to follow directions well. Students who know what to do are less likely to make embarrassing mistakes for which they can be teased or excluded later.

·       Be careful that you model appropriate behavior frequently, thereby encouraging your students to do the same.

·       Don’t give in to the temptation of rolling your eyes or losing your patience when a student blunders in front of classmates. Your actions could set that student up for social exclusion later.

When Frustration Leads to Defiance

No one wants to deal with defiant students no matter how young or old they are or the form that the defiance takes. Whenever I conduct workshops to help teachers cope with and support challenging students, the most common concern that I hear is always about students who are defiant and disrespectful. It is a serious discipline concern that we all share.

The toll that student defiance takes on teachers can be harsh. After all, few teachers go home at the end of a successful and productive school day worried about what will happen next class. Even the most stalwart of us find it hard to leave the emotional problems caused by defiant students at school. These tend to be the problems that cause us to sleep poorly and to contemplate changing careers.

One of the most productive ways to stop defiant students from acting out in your classroom is to first determine the cause of the misbehavior instead of blindly reacting just to the incident and its negative effects on the general atmosphere in the classroom itself. When you take the time to do this, several good things happen at once.

You treat the defiant student with respect despite the bad behavior

You send a message to the other students that you will not lose your cool

You preserve the dignity of the misbehaving student

You will be far closer to resolving the situation than if you just reacted to it

The cause of defiance is usually something that the student has been seething about for a while. Given the nature of the modern classroom, there are plenty of opportunities for students to have wounded feelings or a sense of frustration. And it is often  this frustration that causes students to react impulsively and to lash out.

To find the cause, first talk gently to the student who has been defiant. This is best done in private. If you both need a few moments to cool down, then be sure to allow that time. No one can hear even a reasonable explanation when they are stressed and upset.

As you talk, don't be accusatory. Keep your language as factual and dry as possible. Describe what you saw and heard. Then, tell the student that you want to listen carefully to what he or she has to say.

Listen carefully. Ask a tactful question or two. Figure out what caused the incident.

Try not to be preachy. Do not induce guilt. Your relationship with the student has no place in this discussion. Stick to the facts at hand. Determine the cause and act accordingly.

Once you have had this conversation with the student, then you can make the decision about how to proceed. Not every defiant act deserves a harsh consequence. Your innate teacher's judgement will allow you to make the best decision that you can make now that you are informed about the cause.

How to Be Everyone's Favorite Teacher

It’s not hard to be everyone’s favorite teacher. Really, it isn’t. If you think about your favorite teachers, there are some common denominators that they shared.

• You felt important.

• You felt as if your opinions mattered.

• You looked forward to class because while there was lots that was predictable, there was also lots that was interesting. Time flew by most days.

• You knew that you could ask for help without embarrassment.

• They made you feel intelligent and worthwhile.

 

So, whether school is out for you now or still in session, it is not too late to be everyone’s favorite teacher. Here are some easy tips that will make your students glad to be in your class.

 

• Don’t forget that the class is about your students and not about you. Be careful not to overpower your students with your knowledge or authority. Instead, be gentle and inclusive in your approach.

• Smile. Be super polite. Overwhelm your students with niceness.  

• Tell your students what you like about them. Make it a point to compliment them whenever you can. Compliment individuals, small groups, teams, pairs…the entire class.

• Be prepared for class. When you are prepared, you will not have to worry about what you do or don’t know. Instead, you can just focus on your students.

• Show that you have a sense of humor. Share a laugh with your students whenever you can. Playing together and laughing together will make school fun for everyone.

• When you speak with students, lean towards them slightly. Let your body language indicate that you are interested and accessible.

• Greet your students courteously as they come into the classroom. At the end of class, stand at the door and speak to them as they leave.

• Take the time to reveal a little bit about yourself. For example, a brief story about a silly mistake you made or how you learned a lesson the hard way will make you much more accessible and appealing to your students than if you are always right.

• Ask questions and wait expectantly for answers. Let your body language signal that you are interested in the responses that you may receive.

• Move around the classroom. Every part of the room should be part of your circuit.

• Use inclusive pronouns such as we, our, or us instead of ones that exclude students from ownership in their class.

• Get your students up and moving. Sitting in a desk day after day will not just bore them, but it will also make the distance between teacher and students greater.

• Find out your students' goals and dreams and help them work toward achieve them.

• Provide opportunities for students to share their opinions and beliefs with you and with each other in a non-threatening way.

• Be empathetic and sympathetic. Acknowledge it when a student is having a bad day.

• Take advantage of as many opportunities as you can to interact with your students on a one-to-one or personal level. Ask about their hobbies, problems, families…whatever it takes to connect.

• Be fair. Few things destroy a relationship between teacher and student faster than a student’s suspicion that he or she is being treated unfairly.

• Be tactfully honest. Students know when they are being lied to and those lies will destroy the relationship you may want to build.

• Show respect for all of your students as well as for their families, neighborhoods, and cultures.

• Use your students’ names frequently and with a gentle tone of voice.

HOW TO DEAL WITH A REALLY DIFFICULT CLASS

There are difficult classes and then there are really difficult classes. A difficult class is one where things don't always go as planned. Students may get a little loud. They don't do their homework consistently. Sometimes they are distracted and bored or off task. A difficult class won't cause you to toss and turn all night long. There is usually a reasonable fix--a tweak here or there solution

 

 

On the other hand, the really difficult class is exhausting, time-consuming, and stressful. It's the class where you are so busy trying to contain the chaos that you have difficulty just checking attendance. It's the one that makes you want to explore other careers. It's the one that you mentally replay over and over on the way home from school.  If you have one of these really difficult classes this year, you are not alone.

 

 You are also not without resources. You can deal successfully with this type of class. I should know. I have had enough really difficult classes in the course of my long career to develop some expertise in dealing with them. Here's what works for me:

 

 

• Own the problem. If you accept responsibility for what happens in your class, then you can start making efforts to improve the situation. Blaming students or anyone else only wastes time that could be spent creating productive solutions. Thinking of this as a solvable set of problems can move you forward.

 

• Identify the trouble-causing issues in the class. Is the noise level too loud? Is there a problem with students being off task? Is the start of class the problem? Transitions? The end of class? Not enough materials? No social skills? There is rarely just one reason for a class to be really difficult.

 

• Make it easy for students to behave well. Look hard at the procedures, policies, rules, and expectations that you have for this class. Do your students know exactly what is expected of them? When you are trying to manage a really difficult class, you must explicitly spell out the information that they need to know.

 

• Be ruthlessly consistent. If you say it, enforce it. Think through what you expect from your students, tell them what you want, and then mean what you say.

 

• Be patient. If you work steadily at chipping away at rude or unproductive behaviors, sooner or later things will change. Dealing with a really difficult class will take time.

 

• Attack the problem from as many sides as you can. Involve parents and administrators, reward good behavior, have negative consequences for bad behavior, allow for short attention spans...there is no one single approach that will solve the problems in a really difficult class.

 

• Work on the relationship you have with your students. Smile at your class. If you were videotaped while teaching, would your body language reveal positive or negative feelings about your students?

 

• Keep the expectations for your class high. Students live up to the expectations of the adults in their lives, so let them know that you expect a lot from them.

 

• From the first class meeting onward, establish that you control the class. Demonstrate that you will oversee the behavior in your classroom for the good of all students.

 

• Work on the noise level every day until your students learn to govern themselves. Teach students which volumes are acceptable and which are not. Establish signals to help students learn to control the noise.

• Stay on your feet and monitor. Students who know that you are watching over them will hesitate before misbehaving.

• It seems simplistic, but tell your students that you expect them to do their work well and that you will help them learn to do it. Be clear that you are on their side.

• Offer incentives other than grades. Students who have never received a good grade may not be motivated by grades. Offer small, frequent, rewards instead, such as stickers, computer time, or bookmarks.

• Praise good behavior as often as you can. Difficult students do not always know when they are behaving well. When you praise your class for good behavior, you are encouraging all of your students to repeat the behavior.

• Don’t allow students to argue with you. Be polite, but clear that you are the person responsible for the well-being of all students in the class.

 

• Acknowledge the rights of individuals in your class. Showing students that you are fair will ease many sensitive situations.

• Students who do not believe they can succeed have no reason to try. Teachers who achieve success with difficult classes turn the negative energy in a class into a positive force by persistently communicating their faith in their students’ ability to achieve.

What works for you?

Building Trust: The Importance of a Reputation for Integrity

At the start of a new school year, it's time to think about the importance of creating the right reputation for yourself. Being known as a teacher with integrity is one of the keys to a successful career.

 

Although there not much (if any) time in teacher preparation courses devoted to the idea, teaching is a profession where being trustworthy is a crucial part of what is expected of us. Parents and guardians trust us to take care of their children and keep them safe and our students trust us to treat them with fairness and respect. The expectations that others have of us are very high. As a teacher, you are expected to uphold the values of your community—to live up to the high standards that your students, colleagues, and community have for its professional educators.

One of the most important facets of your professional reputation—one that you should establish as quickly as possible—is your reputation for integrity. One of the distinguishing hallmarks of our profession is that no matter where we are, we are still teachers.

The rewards of this reputation are significant. Teachers with a spotless reputation are the ones on whom other staff members can rely for help with both big and small tasks. Collaboration with your colleagues as well as with the parents and guardians of your students will be much easier. You will find yourself working in a supportive environment with others who value your contributions and who trust you to do the right thing. Here are some of the large and small ways that you can begin to establish your professional reputation:

•        Keep your promises. Because this is so important, be very careful not to make promises you cannot keep. It is very easy to become caught up in the enthusiasm of a moment and agree to something you may regret later. Take your time, and ease into your new responsibilities.

•        Do not purchase alcohol, tobacco products, or other very personal items in a place where you could run into your students, their family members, or unsympathetic colleagues.

•        Avoid sharing too much information about your personal life at work. Before you reveal anything about your personal life, ask yourself, “Would I be comfortable revealing this if a school board member were in the room?”

•        Do not make personal phone calls or send personal e-mail messages while you are at school. The phone calls may be overheard, and school e-mail is not private.

•        If you decide to date a staff member, keep your relationship as private as possible. Your students should have absolutely no idea that you are involved with a fellow staff member.

•        Do not talk about students when you are not at school. When you do this, you violate their privacy and your professional ethics.

•        Refuse to talk about other staff members in an unpleasant way. In a social setting, it is not acceptable for you to discuss the failings of other staff members. People who do not work at your school should not be privy to the disagreeable quirks of your coworkers.

•        Be especially careful to model honest behavior in regard to copyright laws and in giving credit to sources that you use for your work. Your students learn more from your example than you can ever realize.

•        Don’t rehash a disagreeable incident. When something unpleasant happens at school, it is tempting to discuss it. Discussing your school’s problems around people who are not involved is not acceptable. You will only spread ill will about your school if you do so.

Twenty Helpful Attitudes for the Start of School

The start of school is more than just moving desks and trying to figure out how to cover the curriculum. Because we teachers create the climate in our classrooms, it is up to us to make sure that we adopt constructive attitudes to make the first few weeks of school run more smoothly for everyone. Here are twenty of the easiest and most productive positive attitudes than can help your school year get off to a great start.

1. Plan as much of your day as you can. Taking control of how you spend your time at school will ease your stress levels.
2. You do not have to be the world’s best teacher all the time. You just have to be a very good one. 
3. Spend your energy on large problems first and allot less of your energy for the small ones. Choose to deal with the problems that will give you the greatest benefit right away. 
4. You don’t have to know all the answers. 
5. Problems can move you forward when you choose to work to solve them. Don’t just react to problems; use them to your advantage.
6. Make room for more emotional energy. Ask for help when you have a problem. 
7. Believe in yourself. You know what you’re doing. When you have doubts, follow the advice in the previous bullet.
8. It’s not a problem, it’s a challenge. Sometimes it can be a very big challenge, though.
9. Don’t underestimate your students. They are capable of much more than you think they are.
10. Avoid negative people. Better yet, try not to be one of those negative people you are supposed to avoid.
11. Small strategic steps will often succeed where misguided leaps fail. Slow and steady...
12. Never forget why you became a teacher. Write it down and put it where you can see it every day.
13. It’s your classroom. Own it. What happens there is up to you.
14.  Being optimistic doesn’t mean that you don’t have problems. A positive attitude means that you are working on a solution.
15. Make sure you have something fun to look forward to. Better yet, make sure your students have something fun to look forward to.
16. You don’t teach a class. You teach complex, living, breathing people.
17. Cherish your students. Even the worst-behaved ones have redeeming qualities. 
18. Carpe Diem! When a teachable moment comes along, TEACH!
19. Small attitude changes often create bigger patterns of success. 
20. Be deliberate in your actions. Think before you speak. Think before you act. You will save yourself a great deal of trouble.

50 ACTIONS THAT WILL GRAB YOUR STUDENTS’ ATTENTION

From Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary Teacher...

 

There are countless ways to wake up and shake up your students. Prepared teachers take the time in advance of the lesson to prevent their students from being bored in class. They combine various techniques and try all sorts of bold new approaches to get their students engaged in a lesson. Don’t be afraid to try as many as it takes to get your students in the fast lane to success when their attention begins to lag.

Although there are dozens of approaches to take, the following list includes some that are designed to meet the needs of just about every teacher. Mix and match and use these to experiment with the best ways to keep your students on task.

1.Put a humorous drawing on the board or on the overhead or give your students chalk and have them draw a sketch on the board of some of the facts of the lesson. You could also ask the right-handers to use their left hands and vice versa. Asking blindfolded students to draw some of the facts from the lesson also helps focus their attention.

2.  Stage a confrontation. Have another adult come in and fake a high-stress situation that relates to the material the class is preparing to study.

3.Use Christmas tree lights or other colored bulbs to spotlight a part of the lesson.

4. Hold up a box and ask students to guess what’s in it. Items can relate to the unit being studied.

5. Do you speak French? Pig Latin? Try speaking in another language for a sentence or two.

6.  Write on the board three quotations that don’t seem to be related to one another and ask not just how they are related to each other, but to the day’s lesson as well.

7.  Use music. Play raucous music or ask your students to identify sounds from a tape. Play bits and pieces of songs for students to put together to make sense of the lesson for the day. You can even sing to your students or have them sing to you.

8. Show a film montage.

9. Move the desks around or ask students to trade places with each other.

10. Hand out blindfolds and have your students put them on. Give them objects from the lesson for them to identify without peeking.

11. Hold a visualization session where your students imagine themselves as successful people, or on a deserted island.

12. Wear a costume to class or have your students wear costumes. Even simple accessories such as ties or hats can spice up a lesson.

13. Hand pupils a notice as they come in that says, “Today will be a silent communication day. No pupil is allowed to speak. All communication must be done through writing.”

14. Create a giant puzzle from poster board and magazine pictures you’ve collected and glued to the board. Assign each student a piece of the puzzle and then have them work together as a group to solve it.

15.Whisper or pantomime the directions you want your students to follow.

16. Pretend to be a talk-show host. Have props and procedures as close to the real thing as you can.

17. Ask students to identify the pieces of a word or sentence relevant to the lesson. Write the letters or words on construction paper. Then hand out these so that students can unscramble them to recreate the relevant word or sentence.

18. Promise a treat when the day’s work is done correctly.

19. Time as many activities as you can. Students work efficiently when they work to the clock. You can also put a student in charge of timing an activity or ring a bell or buzzer when the activity is over. Another way to keep students focused through timing is to announce that a change of pace is about to happen and then begin a countdown. Timing pupils almost always causes them to focus on the activity at hand and mentally prepare for the upcoming change.

20. Videotape your students in action. Even a mundane activity is more interesting when your students are given the opportunity to “mug” for the camera.

21.Give pupils a checklist of the high points of the material they will be studying and ask them to tick off the points that are covered in your presentation.

22. When you ask students to take notes on the day’s lesson, focus their attention with a list of the key words and phrases you want them to learn.

23. Announce that you intend to make deliberate errors on the board, on a handout, or in your speech and ask your students to catch you if they can.

24. Offer extra points for the first person to answer a question or for the person who can give the best answer.

25. Play a tape recording of yourself giving information or, even better, of your students giving information.

26. Show a videotape of other pupils modeling the same work you expect yours to do.

27. Get out the colors! Even older students enjoy using paints, crayons, and colored chalk to brighten a lesson.

28. Give your students soft play clay or other gooey stuff with a specific task to accomplish with it. It’s hard to be bored and to play with something gooey at the same time.

29. Plan an imaginary field trip to the place under discussion. Your students can brainstorm all sorts of information with this activity.

30. Hand out lengths of ribbon or string and have your pupils tie them together, make shapes with the various pieces, or invent other activities that apply to the lesson.

31. Make name tags for your students. There are many different ways you can use this strategy in your classroom. Your students could role-play the names they have been given. You could place the tags on your students’ backs so that they would have to work with other students to try to figure out the roles they have been given. You can also use name tags in group activities to assign various tasks.

32. Hand out pictures of people and have your students make guesses about the people in the photographs, match them up, notice specific details, or use them in other activities.

33. Revive that old game of telephone to get your students paying attention to the facts and figures in a lesson.

34. Have your students vote to respond to questions by signals, standing, holding up signs, or other ways that appeal to their sense of fun.

35. Counting down from 10 to 1 will alert even the most mature students that they need to focus on you, and not on their classmates or daydreams.

36. Ask someone to stand to answer a question. Be sensitive when doing this, however. Ask several students to stand—not just one child you want to single out.

37. Count off your students into teams.

38. Ask everyone to stand and do a series of silly movements such as touching their left elbows with their right hands or putting both hands on their heads. This will generally shake out the cobwebs.

39. Hand your students a newspaper or magazine with words missing and ask them to supply the missing information.

40. Show a cartoon that pertains to the lesson and ask students to create a caption for it.

41. Present a slide show. Even better, ask your students to prepare a slide show about a school event, a lesson in class, their interests, etc.

42. Present prizes for the best presentation, performance, answers, etc.

43. Hold a drawing for prizes.

44. Have your students make up signs or posters about the lesson.

45. Turn the lights low to signal a change of pace.

46. Ask riddles to stimulate interest.

47. Use computers in your classroom. Even the most routine tasks are more fun and are easier when students get to use computers to do them.

48. Give your students food to sample.

49. Put a list of words on the board and ask your students to determine what they have in common. Use this to change the pace of a lesson. Adding unlikely names or words to the list will force your students to stretch their minds.

50. Take photographs of your students in action during a lesson.

Are You Using Best Practices to Inform Instruction?

“Best practices” is a term that seems to be kicked around lots in discussions among educators. Although we all may have a general idea of what the term means (the actions that teachers can take to insure that their instruction is effective, appropriate, and productive), and that we should be using these practices to help our students learn, you may not be sure that an instructional method that you are using is really a best practice or not.

               With this in mind, take this little assessment. Below you will find a list of just some of the more common strategies that are considered to be best practices. If you are already using one of these practices in your classroom, place a checkmark in the blank before it. If you intend to use one of these in the future, place a + in the blank. If you would like to research to learn more about one of these best practices to make sure that it would be appropriate for your students, place a ? in the blank.

1. _____Portfolio assessments
2. _____Alternative assessments
3. _____Formative assessments
4. _____Personalized instruction
5. _____Service learning
6. _____Rubrics
7. _____Response to intervention
8. _____Cooperative learning
9. _____Tiered instruction
10. _____Scaffolding instruction
11. _____Literacy instruction
12. _____Anchoring activities
13. _____Graphic organizers
14. _____Essential questions
15. _____Project based learning
16. _____Student-directed learning
17. _____Workshop approaches to reading and writing
18. _____Interdisciplinary instruction
19. _____Inquiry based instruction
20. _____Authentic experiences
21. _____Data-driven instruction
22. _____Integrated technology
23. _____Standards-based curriculums
24. _____Benchmark testing
25. _____Capitalizing on background knowledge
26. _____Differentiated instruction
27. _____Learning styles
28. _____Multiple intelligences
29. _____The teacher as coach and facilitator
30. _____Student research

 

Thirteen Resolutions

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
~Abraham Lincoln

It’s a natural combination at this time of year—New Year’s resolutions and a reflective teaching practice. While Winter Break gives us a few days away from school, we have an opportunity to gain perspective. No matter how busy our holidays are, most of us can’t resist the impulse to think about school and our students and the work that we need to do as soon as our break ends.

            Now is a good time to use that impulse to create resolutions that can bring your dreams for a well-run classroom filled with successful, high-achieving students closer to reality. In honor of 2013, here are thirteen productive resolutions that you may want to consider adopting as part of your own teaching practice in the year ahead. Pick and choose what will work for you. If you would like to share your own resolutions, feel free to make comments. Learning from our colleagues is a great way to begin a new year.

Resolution 1: Respect your students. I know this seems simple, but too often we overlook what our students are capable of achieving because we are focused on what they don’t know or can’t do. Instead of seeing them as competent learners, we see them in terms of what they lack instead of what they are.

Resolution 2: Manage your stress. The last day of school is a long way away. Start employing as many simple strategies as you can to keep your work life and your personal life in balance. Using brief, purposeful actions to ward off the ill effects of chronic stress every day will make a huge difference in your fatigue levels.

Resolution 3: Plan as far ahead as you possibly can. For example, if you know that you are going to be giving a test in two weeks, you have time to create and photocopy it well in advance of the long line of frustrated teachers waiting their time at the copier on the day you want to give it. Knowing what your students are going to be doing for the rest of the year is a positive step that will make it easier for you to use class time wisely.

Resolution 4: Shake it up. No one says that lessons have to be dull to be effective. Use as many different strategies as you can to reach your students. Let them be creative and messy and loud if they are still learning at the same time. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 5: Explore different ways to increase your own productivity. If, for example, you have a tall stack of papers to grade, instead of plowing through it with a red pen, investigate other ways to use those papers to help your students learn. Ask your colleagues. Use your imagination. Again, don’t be afraid to experiment.

Resolution 6: Use the resources available to you. Create a PLN, open a Twitter account, explore Tumblr, check out the images on Pinterest, invite community members to speak to your students…the list is endless.

Resolution 7: See your students as partners in learning, not little vessels waiting to be filled with your expert knowledge. Involve them in planning, listen to their ideas, and ask important questions. Encourage your students to assume more responsibility for their own learning and then watch the positive results that can happen.

Resolution 8: Make every minute count. Use those tiny blocks of time that can go to waste in any classroom to keep students engaged and learning. Think door to door when it comes to instruction.

Resolution 9: Make a deliberate effort to try a new strategy or technique each week. Some will be fantastic, some will be okay, and some will stink, but you will expand your repertoire of teaching skills and that’s always a good thing.

Resolution 10: Use your students’ strengths. When you expand on what your students already do well, you will find it easier to remediate their weaknesses. Don’t just focus on the strengths of individual students; capitalize on the strengths of the entire class, too.

Resolution 11: Keep moving forward. At this time of year, it’s easy to get mired in the muck of undone tasks and a seemingly endless curriculum. Take a deep breath. Plan ahead. Look ahead. Bit by bit you can build your students’ skills and knowledge.

Resolution 12: Solve problems. If you wanted to, you could spend your entire planning period complaining about your students and trying to fix blame for what goes wrong in your class. Instead of wasting that time, look at the setbacks in your school day as problems that you need to solve. With this attitude, you can move forward.

Resolution 13: Be the role model your students want you to be. For some of your students, you are the only one who will take the time to show them how to be successful, how to read, how to write, how to speak well, how to behave. Whether you want to be or not, you are a role model and far, far more important than you can imagine. Rise to that challenge.

           

 

Stay Out of Trouble: The Do's and Don't's of Your School Computer

One of the most exciting moments of any new teacher orientation program is the issuance of  school computers. No matter what type of computer you are issued, it is exciting to be connected with all of the other employees in your district and to have access to the same resources that are available to them. Being issued a school computer also means that new teachers have to adopt a professional approach to the way that they use this ubiquitous tool. After years of working on personally owned computers, many new teachers are not always sure of the behaviors that

are acceptable and which ones are not even though they may have signed a document outlining their district’s acceptable computer use policies. To make sure that your use of your school computer is as professional as possible, be guided by these do’s and don’ts.
School Computer Do’s

• Do remain aware that the computer is the property of your school district.
• Do be cautious, conservative, and professional when using your school computer
• Do transport your computer in the case or bag that was issued with it if you have a mobile devices
• Do periodically go through your files to keep them organized and up to date.
• Do back up your work to an external drive on a regular basis.
• Do follow your school’s protocols for saving to a school network.
• Do use bookmarks to keep your topics easy to find in a hurry.
• Do use your computer only for school business.
• Do create passwords for your various school accounts that are logical, easy to recall, and can be updated periodically.
• Do respect the intellectual property rights of others.
• Do make sure to lock portable computers in a secure place  if you don’t take them home each day.
• Do keep your virus protection updated.
• Do report problems with your computer as quickly as you can.
• Do remember to take your computer to school each day.

School Computer Don’ts

• Don’t download any software program without permission—preferably in writing.
• Don’t have food or drink near your computer. Spills can be costly.
• Don’t forget that your email account may be monitored by district personnel.
• Don’t leave your computer unattended if you have to leave your classroom.
• Don’t allow students to use your computer.
• Don’t use other teachers’ accounts without their permission.
• Don’t visit sites that could indicate that you are not a good school employee such as pornography or extreme political views.
• Don’t decorate your computer’s case with stickers, images, or anything that has not been approved.
• Don’t open suspicious attachments that could infect your computer.
• Don’t share your passwords with others.
• Don’t conduct personal business on your school computer.

 

I Am the Best Teacher in the World...in the Summer

The school year has just ended for me. I always, always spend this time looking back over what I could have done better during the last year. Although I do spend time each school day reflecting about my teaching practices, I find myself better able to judge the way I designed and delivered lessons earlier in the term because some time has elapsed. That distance always allows me to see more clearly what I did, I should have done, and what I could do in the future to help my students succeed.

 After I have spent time looking back (and trying not to cringe at my mistakes), inevitably my thoughts turn to the new school year that will be here all too soon. I imagine the great lessons I will teach. My students will hang on my every word. They will all be so intrigued by the material that they will beg for enrichment work.

In my mind, I am the best teacher in the world when I can look ahead and see what’s possible. I will have learned from my mistakes and moved on to do a much better job—next year.

As my rich fantasy life as the best teacher in the world would indicate, I do believe that making a serious effort to maintain a reflective teaching practice is one of the best ways that teachers can improve their teaching skills.

Currently I am also working on the third edition of The First-Year Teachers' Survival Guide. In the opening section I have a piece about having a reflective practice that should help new teachers be successful. Here is a sneak preview…

Developing a Reflective Practice

“Highly effective teachers soon realize that no one is a natural teacher. Teaching is a deliberate act. No educator can just rush through the hurly burly of a school day with just cursory attention to what we are expected to accomplish and then expect to be successful at reaching our students.

            The deep thought required of educators is far more important than many teachers realize. Reflecting on our teaching should be part of every aspect of our professional lives. Such reflection needs to systematic, methodical, and purposeful.

            Veteran teachers have found many different ways to reflect on their practice. We can gather information about our performance from a variety of sources such as asking colleagues to observe us, surveying our students, joining staff discussion groups, or even videotaping ourselves. Examining the information that you gather in these ways will allow you to assess your strengths as well as your weaknesses. You will be able to discern trends and patterns in your teaching as you seek to improve your skills.

            One very common and useful method of maintaining a reflective teaching practice can also involve recording ideas and observations in a journal on a regular basis. Whether you choose to maintain a journal online, in a computer desktop folder, on paper, or even in an audio version, it is important to be diligent about recording regularly. The questions below can help you use the time that you want to reflect on your teaching practice as efficiently as possible.

1. Were my goals for this lesson reasonable and appropriate?
2. Were my students challenged to do their best?
3. Did students learn what they were supposed to master? How can I ensure that they always do this?
4. How would I change this lesson before teaching it again?
5. How engaged were my students in the lesson? How can I increase the level of engagement?
6. At what points in the lesson did I have to change strategies or activities? Why? How productive was this flexibility on my part?
7. How should I have changed the lesson?
8. How can I offer remediation or enrichment activities to the students who need them?
9. What data do I need to collect before teaching this lesson again ? How can I gather this information?
10. What data do I need to collect before moving on to the next unit of study? How can I gather this information?
11. What can I do to improve my skills at collaborating with colleagues?
12. What worked in today’s lesson? What did not work?
13. How do I want my students to interact with each other as a whole group?
14. What can I do to help my students collaborate with each other in small groups?
15. What is the most efficient way to ___?
16. How can I improve the way that I give directions?
17. How can I integrate technology into my lessons?
18. What problems did I have to manage today? How well did I manage those problems?
19. Where can I learn more about how to ___?
20. How can I improve the way to deliver instruction?
21. How well do I listen to my students? What can I do to make sure that I model good listening skills?
22. Which students were off task? What caused them to be off task?
23. When were my students on task? What can I do to guarantee that continues?
24. How did I show that I was enthusiastic about the subject matter?
25.  How effective were the motivation techniques that I used? How can I modify them for future lessons?
26. How can I foster an atmosphere of mutual respect and courtesy among my students?
27. How well do I manage my classroom? What can I improve?
28. What should I do to help my students learn to be self-disciplined learners?
29. How much progress am I making in improving my teaching knowledge or skills? What can I do to improve?
30. How can I use my strengths as a teacher to full advantage in my classroom?”