Make a Connection First and Everything Else Will Follow

Welcome back to ThreeFiftyMainStreet! Like last year I will post at least once a month and the posts will be short professional development sessions for you to read and think about. You will earn 1 hour of PD credit if you read the post and leave a response. This month’s post has to do with “Making Relationships with Kids” I spoke briefly about this during our first faculty meeting. So let’s get the conversation going with this first post. 

PURPOSE

We are a week or so into the new school year. How many kids have you “connected with?” How many kids have you started a random conversation with to set the groundwork for some type of relationship as the year progresses? Every moment spent with someone either strengthens or diminishes relationships.  We all deal with a lot of different kids with a lot of different backgrounds and they all have different motivations for doing what they do. One size does not fit all when dealing with children and we know this to be true when talking about instruction but it just as true when talking about fostering relationships. In fact, I would say that it is even truer given the age of our students and the fact that they are skeptical of adults by default. 

What we tend to forget is that the work on the front end makes our jobs easier. The efficiency with which you can deliver instruction and deal with the crisis in the classroom is directly related to the type of relationships you foster with your students. There are not many “returns on your investment” that are better than that in education. In fact, taking the time to establish a connection with a student will pay you dividends long after that student is out of your class and whether or not that students forget about your subject matter and never thinks about the content of your class again, he or she will absolutely remember you as someone who took the time to make a connection. 

INSERVICE

Full credit goes to Chase Mielke, author of "What Students Really Need to Hear,” but here are four tips for building relationships with your students. 

1. Make first impressions count.

For students who don’t like school, our first impression is already fighting a negativity bias. Our opening moments with students, therefore, matter a great deal. I’ve learned the following first-impression trifecta for connecting with new students:

• Shake hands with everyone. Even though students give odd looks, making the effort to shake hands with each person shows a willingness to connect on a personal level. It also gives me an initial read on their receptiveness and personality.
• Give respect. Showing students—explicitly and implicitly—that we respect them is key. Many students today don’t give respect without getting it first. (We can complain all we want about that shift in culture, but that won’t get us anywhere). It is my job to be the bigger adult and model giving respect.
• Lead with positive emotion. As a speaker, I know that the first few minutes of any talk should be building rapport, using humor, and learning about the listeners. I also know that my resume means nothing to kids—they care more about my authenticity than my accolades. My goal as a speaker is to get as many smiles as I can in the first 30 seconds.

Bringing it into the classroom:

Every day, every lesson, begin by building connections before getting into content. For example:

• Provide sincere gratitude that they made the choice to show up to class today.
• Do something playful, like asking for random facts or corny jokes.
• Do a quick round of “speed dating” in which they talk to a peer about a random question you pose.

2. Know who’s a “cat” and who’s a “dog.”

 Using “cats and dogs” as an analogy to consider interactions with different personalities. It is not meant to stereotype students; it is simply a starting point for being more intentional with our efforts

• Traits of “Dog” personalities: Forgiving of errors, value attention, responsive to praise, social, playful, expressive facial expressions
• Traits of “Cat” personalities: Skeptical, observant, warm up to others on own terms, loyal when trust is established, neutral facial expressions when around groups, not as responsive to praise or overt positivity

Bringing it into the classroom:

Take a moment to consider whether a certain student seems more like a cat or a dog. Then, experiment with these approaches:

Strategies for Dog Personalities

• Provide opportunities for dogs to model, demonstrate, or share whole-group whenever possible.
• Think quality of positive interactions over quantity, such as a longer, positive conversation one-on-one.
• Ask them questions to give them a chance to share about their world, their interests, their expertise.
• If behavior needs to be managed, opt for one-on-one pre-briefing or after class conversations.

Strategies for Cat Personalities

• Give quick, low-key compliments but don’t linger for a response.
• Ask him/her for thoughts in one-on-one situations.
• Use written or after-class praise instead of public praise.
• Think quantity of positive interactions over quality, but space out interactions over time.
•  Be particularly attentive and curious when a cat does approach you or open up.

3. Making time for non-academic conversations

Every moment either strengthens relationships or diminishes relationships. As a speaker, if I only have 8 hours at a school, I need to utilize every second, no matter how much I want to check-out during my downtime. I eat lunch with students. Between sessions, I ask them about their school, community, and hobbies. I ask them to teach me things, like how to do a trending dance or about the video games they play. Every interaction I have is through the lens of, “How am I strengthening a relationship?”

Bringing it into the classroom:

As we teach the whole period, it can be challenging to find time for non-academic discourse. However, even a 30-second interaction can build relationships. Give yourself a simple goal: Learn one new thing about a student each day. Start be being more intentional with your questions. Rather than “How is your day?” or “How’s it going?” ask:

• What is something I don’t know about you?
• What’s been the highlight of your week?
• I noticed you ________, tell me more about that.

4. Assume nothing, learn everything.

Just as students are sizing me up as a speaker, I am sizing them up as people. I use basic categories, like “cat or dog personality” as a starting point for interaction; however, I’ve learned to never make sweeping assumptions about students. And I’ve seen interesting things in my travels, such as students spitting on floors, a kid asking me to fight, and major meltdowns just to name a few. As much as I want to assume certain things about these kids I know one thing: Every reaction is a symptom, not a cause.

Doctors know to investigate symptoms to understand causes. Teachers must do the same. No matter how many versions of a “type” of student I’ve seen, each life is different. Out of all the rapport-building strategies I’ve learned, one encompasses them all: Curiosity.

Bringing it into the classroom:

Try what I call “obser-questions.” The obser-question involves describing an observation but following up with a question to learn more. They work best in one-on-one conversations. And, remember that vocal tone can make or break the interaction: Make sure your vocals display true curiosity rather than judgment or condemnation. Examples:

• I noticed you slam your books on the desk when you walked in. What was on your mind?
• You seem to pay attention really well, but when I ask you to work independently, you talk more than work. Help me understand why that is.
• I’m noticing you’ve written words all over your arm, including the F-word, big and bold. Talk to me about that a little bit.

IMPLEMENTATION 

This part is easy. Use the strategies above or use anything else you are comfortable with and make some connections with kids. Post about your experience below to receive an hour of PD to record in your summative paperwork. 

As always, thanks for reading!

DON'T PUSH MY BUTTONS

Professional Development:  Session 4

PURPOSE

The biggest mistake teachers make, consistently, is that they let students know they have gotten to them emotionally by losing their cool and that they have pushed their buttons. We’ve all done it and we’ve all seen what it looks like: 

Raising your voice in anger, speaking through clenched teeth, saying things like “I’ve had enough,” or “go to the office, I can’t deal with you anymore” are examples of things we might say or do in the classroom that shows the kids we have lost our cool. Students are aggravating at times, and we are all human, but there is a difference between being disappointed in someone’s behavior and being personally affected by that behavior. 

INSERVICE

Consider the following questions:

• Have you ever felt aggravated by a student?
• Have you ever been guilty of “taking the bait” with a student
• Have you ever let your students know that they have upset you on a personal level?
• What happens when a student knows he or she has succeeded in pushing your buttons? 

The biggest mistake we make consistently is that we let students know they have gotten to us. We show our frustration and the students know that they won. They are now controlling our emotions. It is okay to let a student know you are disappointed by their actions, but there is a big difference between being disappointed and being emotionally affected. 

Remember that it is always okay to hold students accountable for their actions. They key is to hold them accountable in a professional, not emotional, manner. 

This obviously is not always easy and sometimes it’s next to impossible, but just like we should do our best to never raise our voice in the classroom, we should make it a point to stay emotionally detached. Raising your voice in the classroom is a major indicator that whatever has happened has affected you personally and emotionally and when that happens, the student knows he or she can control the situation and control how you respond. They will then continue to do so in the future. 

Consider the following examples and how you might respond:

• A student is repeatedly making noises. You have asked him to stop but the behavior has continued. 
• Your students are working on an independent assignment at their seats. One student is not doing any work. 
• A student is visibly upset about something that happened outside the classroom. The situation begins to escalate and you see that is could get volatile. 
• A student is upset with you and she lashes out, saying hurtful things to you. Your feelings are hurt and you are embarrassed by the situation. 

IMPLEMENTATION

Arnold Schwarzenegger lost his cool in Kindergarten Cop, but it’s not quite as amusing when we do it. So it’s important to remember to have a plan to win the moment and be the professional in the room. There is no magic recipe or strategy but it is a good idea to have an internal mechanism of “self-checking” that helps give you the wherewithal to realize when you might be losing your cool and then helps you to regain your composure and control before you give that control over to the student. 

So in the comments below you can either discuss one of your own methods and whether or not it is effective, or you can reflect on a situation in which your emotions were affected in the classroom. Take some time over the course of the rest of the year to pay attention to how you react to certain things that happen in the classroom and think about the outcomes. A comment below is worth an hour of professional development, but this something that we all need to get better at from time to time. 

As always thanks for reading! 

Practice Makes Perfect

Professional Development: Session 3

PURPOSE

When a student does something inappropriate in class, he or she is usually expecting the teacher to react in a certain way. He knows he has an audience and is often putting on a performance for that audience. Many of us, from time to time, make the mistake of dealing with the behavior in front of the audience, and this rarely works out in our favor. 

In the last session, we spoke about the difference between rules and procedures and you were asked to evaluate and assess what you already had in place. In a perfect world, all of our students will do what we need them to do every single day without reminding and without incident. Obviously, this is not a perfect world so we need to have a plan for when students are not the angels we know they can be. 

Today we will look at a very effective way to deal with inappropriate behavior in the classroom and, more importantly, stop the behavior from happening in the future. 

IN-SERVICE

In previous sessions, we have spoken about ways to get your students’ attention and how to establish clear rules and procedures. It probably goes without saying that every single strategy you have used in the classroom thus far has worked beautifully every single time and you have had no issues whatsoever. Or, if you are like most of us, you find that some students are a bit more challenging the others and it takes a little bit more creativity on your part to manage them. 

Today I will be sharing one method you can use to get those students back on track, without engaging in a battle of wits and will during your teaching time. This, like all of the other tactics we have and will discuss, is just one of the many ways to steer students in the right direction. You should do whatever you feel comfortable with and whatever you have the most success with, as long as you have a plan going in and stick to it. 

This particular tactic is called “The Private Practice Session.” This can be used for a student who repeatedly ignores the classroom procedures. The example I am using is for a student who talks too much and calls out in class, but it can be used for most anything. 

Here is the script: 

Meet with the students privately and say, in a tone of concern, not frustration, “I’ve noticed that you’re having trouble remembering our procedure for raising your hand before speaking. Don’t be too hard on yourself for forgetting. I’m an adult and I sometimes forget things, but I know how embarrassing it can be to keep forgetting in front of your friends. So here is what I’m willing to do for you. I will give up my lunch today and practice with you so that you will become really good at following that procedure and be less likely to forget. I’d be happy to do that for you, I’ll see you at lunch.  Obviously, you are pretending that you think the student is just forgetting to raise his hand, surely he would not purposely ignore the procedure! The key is that you are not sarcastic and that you tell the student that you are willing to give of your own time to help him. It’s subtle but do you see the difference? Instead of taking the student’s lunch away from him, you gave him yours. So the student comes in at lunch and you say “Thanks for coming in. Okay now pretend that we are in class and you have something you want to say. Show me what you’ll do. “The student slowly raises his hand and you say, “Great! I can give you 15 more minutes of practice. Do you think you need more practice or do you feel you have it now?” The student always will say, “I have it” then you say “Great. See you tomorrow. Oh and if you forget again tomorrow, that’s my fault. That simply means I didn’t give you enough practice. I’ll even stay after school if you need, just let me know.” 

Please note that this technique takes less than a minute, and helps to achieve the goal which is to change the behavior. 

The goal here is to change the behavior and to deal with the student away from his or her audience. It is also to inadvertently get the student to reflect about the behavior, something that "lunch detentions" do not really accomplish. 

IMPLEMENTATION

As Bob Ross said in the beginning of this post, “There are no bad kids, just happy little classroom challenges.” Some students need a more creative approach to change the behavior to what we would like to see in the classroom. I’m sure you will have many opportunities to try this method out or at least some variation of it, but the assignment for this session is to try it out once. The idea is not to be punitive but to be “willing to help” until the student is able to follow the procedures in the classroom. Maybe some of you have tried this before or have tried a different variation? Post about your experiences or share your thoughts. Your comment is worth one professional development hour but your dialogue is invaluable. 

Thanks for reading- 

                         Whitaker & Breaux (2013). The Ten-Minute Inservice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Is it a Rule or is it a Procedure? You make the call!

Professional Development: Session Two

PURPOSE

The best teachers have the fewest discipline problems, right? It’s probably because the guy that does the scheduling has given them the best students in the building. Those teachers are also the happiest and have the most positive attitudes. Why wouldn’t they have the best demeanors when they have the best and most well-behaved kids in the building? These teachers also usually have the fewest rules of anyone in the school and usually have kids who are well behaved in their classes, while those same kids are nothing but trouble in other classes. Why is that? What are the secrets?

The secret is that there is no secret. The main problem in a lot of classrooms is that there is no clear distinction between rules and procedures. Understanding the difference is the first secret to success in classroom management. If we truly differentiate between rules and procedures, there will be very few rules in the classroom but there will be many procedures.

IN-SERVICE

Last month’s “EASY PD” focused on figuring out your “one thing” to get your students’ attention and being consistent with it the classroom. I hope you were able to reflect on what you do on a daily basis. Please comment below if you came up with a new procedure or tweaked and existing one. 

Having a way to secure your students' attention and implementing that procedure consistently will allow you to get to the next step of classroom management. This month’s session will share some of the very “secret" secrets of effective classroom managers. We’ve all heard the myth…that there are teachers out there who have no discipline problems. There are teachers out there who have classrooms that run themselves with little or no effort from the person in charge. No way, you say? Impossible, you say? Obviously “no discipline problems" is a bit of an exaggeration, but these classrooms do exist…I have seen them with my own eyes. These classrooms exist and they all have a few things in common, one of those things being clearly established rules and procedures. SO if clearly established rules and procedures is the key to an effective classroom then a lack of understanding of the difference between the two can lead to…you guessed it, many discipline problems. 

Here is an example:

Some teachers have a rule about talking, yet talking is not a serious offense. It is an aggravating offense and it is an annoying offense, but it is not a serious offense. Rules should regulate only serious offenses so talking should fall under the category of “procedures as opposed to “rules.”

Rules and Procedures

• A rule regulates a serious offense
• A procedure is simply a way that you want something done in your classroom - the same way every time 
• When a student breaks a rule, a consequence follows 
• When a student does not follow a procedure, you remind him or her of the procedure and practice it with him if necessary
• You should never have more than five rules 
• An example of a rule might be: No physical contact/fighting
• An example of a procedure might be: How to get in and out of groups for group activities or how to prepare for the lesson when you walk into the classroom 

All effective classroom managers have a lot of procedures, however, they are not all implemented at the same time. They implement the most important ones first and then continue to add a few at a time. Students are never confused about what is expected of them because procedures are discussed, modeled and practiced. When a student forgets, he or she is reminded and the procedure is modeled, however, if a rule is broken, there are no discussions, rather there is a consequence. Students are made aware of this and there is no element of surprise.

It is important to note here that chronic misbehavior can lead to consequences as well. If a student consistently fails to follow procedure after practice and reminders then that student should receive a consequence. This should only happen if the behavior is chronic and deliberate and not just because the behavior is aggravating. 

When students are clear on exactly what they can and cannot do in the classroom and that the teacher is consistent in enforcing the rules and following the procedures, they are much more likely to actually follow the rules and procedures. 

IMPLEMENTATION

Just like we mentioned last month, this should not be new information for most teachers, and it can almost be chalked up to common sense. Having the information, however, is only the beginning; you have to be willing and able to implement it in your classroom. So this month’s activity is to make a list of your own rules and procedures and see what falls where. Do you have rules that could be procedures or procedures that should be rules? Take a few minutes to think about what you do in your classroom and share a little about your process. Did your lists prove to be accurate or were there things you needed to tweak? If your lists were completely on point then please share how you went about determining your rules and procedures. If there was something that you thought needed to be changed, share that process as well. 

As alway, write a sentence, write a paragraph or fill up the entire page with your musings. Let’s keep the conversation going by responding to each other as well. Your response is worth an hour of professional development credit but your ongoing commitment to being a reflective practitioner is worth way more than that.

Thank you for reading and participating.

Brad

Whitaker & Breaux (2013). The Ten-Minute Inservice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Securing Your Students' Attention- 'Your One Thing'

Professional Development- Session One 

Welcome to the first Professional Development session on ThreeFiftyMainStreet. These professional
development opportunities will be short and designed to promote discussion and reflection. The edification and the advancement as a teacher and as a person are the reasons we engage in PD but, If you participate in the discussion in any or all of the ways listed at the end of this post you will receive...wait for it... 

ONE hour of professional development credit. 

PURPOSE

Consider the following: 

1. All effective teachers are effective classroom managers 
2. Even the most effective teachers work to continually improve classroom management skills 
3. Not all teachers are effective classroom managers 
4. Without effective management skills, learning cannot occur 
5. All teachers possess the ability to become more effective, yet many fail to do so because they lack management skills 

Which leads us back to number 1:

   ALL EFFECTIVE TEACHERS ARE EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGERS

You cannot teach any content effectively until you can manage the students.

IN-SERVICE

So we start with the question- What is the most important procedure that any teacher must have?

The single most important procedure that any teacher must have is a way of getting the students attention. 

What is your procedure for getting the students attention? What is the one thing that you do consistently, every time you need the attention of your students?

Some teachers merely ask for attention by saying “I need your attention.” If saying it doesn’t work the first time then they will repeat it- often three or four times and then try variations “excuse me” or I’m waiting” or “please stop the talking” or even the infamous “I can wait!”  In most cases, the teacher looks unhappy while they are trying to get the students’ attention. 

Here is a simple method that you can try:

Tell the students that there will be some times that you are going to need their attention. Say, "When I need your attention I will do two things; here is what I will do. "At this point smile and raise your hand. Ask the students what they notice you doing. Most often the students will notice you smiling first. Once they have given you their answers tell them, "when you see me doing these things, I need for you to stop talking and raise your hand. This will be your signal to me that you understand and you are ready for whatever comes next." Now say, "let's practice this a few times." Tell the students that when you say go you will allow the room to get noisy. Wait a few seconds and smile and raise your hand. It will take a few seconds for the students to quiet down, but do not begin until you have their attention. When you have their attention, thank them for following the procedure and tell them this is the way you will get their attention from now on. Continue to implement the procedure consistently but remember the smile as it is the most important part. The moment you appear upset, they win, you lose and no procedure will work.  

The key to this, and to most things procedural in the classroom, is consistency. You need to have a way, one way, of reliably getting their attention and you need to use that way consistently and with a pleasant demeanor. A pleasant demeanor takes away the allure of a power struggle.

IMPLEMENTATION

This procedure may seem elementary in nature and, for some classes and/or teachers, it might not be the right fit. Most veteran teachers already have a set procedure for getting their students' attention and that’s fine. The key is that you have something, one thing, that you do consistently and pleasantly each and every time you need the students' attention. 

So the activity for this session is to think about your “one thing” and reflect on it. Do the students respond to you in the way you want and in the timeframe you need? Are you pleasant? When you appear annoyed or aren’t consistent, do the student respond differently? 

In the comments, you can do the following to receive the hour PD credit:

• comment on something in the post to start a dialogue
• share your “one thing” if it has worked for you
• be brave and share something that hasn’t worked 
• any or all of the above  

Whitaker & Breaux (2013). The Ten-Minute Inservice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Professional Development instead of Facebook

With Winter break in sight, I wanted to make my December post whimsical but useful. 

Here is the whimsical portion...

With that out of the way here is the useful portion...wait for it... 

     Have you ever found yourself saying...

"Gee, I wish there was professional development that was both meaningful and convenient for my busy schedule!" 

     or maybe you have caught yourself saying...

 "I really wish I could put more professional development hours on my yearly summary and really rock Domain 4!!!!"

Well now you can! 

I am going to be doing a series of blog posts right here on ThreeFiftyMainStreet that will touch on a variety of topics. Each post will have a very short activity that can be completed in the comments section at your leisure. My hope is that the activity will inspire collegial conversation and inspire some innovative thinking in the classroom as well as provide you with some tangible methods you can try out immediately.  For each post you participate in you can record one hour of  Professional Development time for yourself. Participating in a post can be as simple as completing the activity and leaving a comment or as involved as having a professional conversation in the comments section and even coming back to comment after you have tried something in your classroom. 

Here are some of the topics you will see over the next few months:

Classroom Management

Teaching Practices

Improving School Climate

Learning from Others

What Makes a Great Teacher

So instead of scrolling through Facebook before you go to sleep at night, log on to ThreeFiftyMainStreet and see what exciting Professional Development opportunities are waiting for you!

Three Chrome Extensions I Use Every Day

I've been through many browsers in my life. I used to use Firefox extensively, but then it became slow and out of date. I briefly tried Safari and still use it from time to time, but just on my mobile device or when I am in the Apple Store. For my daily tasks, I use Chrome pretty exclusively and find it to be the most intuitive and efficient web browser that I've ever used mostly because it is Google based and it integrates beautifully and makes getting into the different Google applications easy. The main reason I use Chrome, however, is the many extensions you can use in Chrome and the ease with which they are added and removed.  No matter what your browser preference, however, the extensions that the browser offers can make your online experience much more efficient and enjoyable. 

Here are three Chrome Extensions that I use every day that you might find helpful. 

1. 

LastPass is a free password manager that lets you choose obscure passwords that will really protect you online. If you are like me, you use the same one or two passwords for everything so that you don't have to remember a different password for each thing you do online. This is great for convenience but is not the most secure way to manage your online presence. LastPass has you choose one "master password" and then remembers all your other passwords and auto-populates the fields whenever you get to the log in screen so that the passwords you choose can be more secure. There are a bunch of these apps out there but this extension loads right into Chrome and is super easy to use.

2. 

The "Grammarly" name should be familiar to everyone. It's been around since 2009 and it is great grammar and spelling check software that it lets you upload documents to be proofread and checked for plagiarism. 

The Grammarly extension for Chrome, when installed, instantly checks the spelling and the grammar of everything you type online. It monitors all of your text fields and offers corrections to spelling and grammar. It works in most applications, including Facebook. 

3. 

"Black Menu" is something that I have just started using but has already made the top three. It is a Chrome extension that puts all of your Google "stuff" in one customizable menu. The thing that I find most useful about "Black Menu" is that when you open it, it opens in a little window in the corner of your screen but from that window, you can search the web, answer email, and watch YouTube videos without having to open up another window unless you choose to. 

I hope you have a chance to try some or all of these extensions. They really do make your online experience more efficient and more enjoyable. 

If you have any extensions you use on a regular basis, respond here in the comments and let us know what you use.