Talk To Yourself

The next few blog posts for us will feature short video clips from Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11).

Click here to view the first video clip.

Questions to consider:
1.  Do you talk to yourself?  What types of things do you say?
2.  Are you really talking to yourself or listening to yourself?
3.  Can knowing the difference between talking or listening to yourself be helpful to you?
4.  What words are you feeding yourself?

Know Your Why

The next few blog posts for us will feature short video clips from Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11).

Click here to view the first video clip.

Questions to consider:
1.  How can we/students incorporate the idea that "I am not just a janitor?"
2.  What is your bigger purpose?
3.   How do you bring your mission to the work you do each day?

 Here is a short bio about Jon Gordon.

Jon Gordon's best-selling books and talks have inspired readers and audiences around the world. His principles have been put to the test by numerous NFL, NBA, MLB coaches and teams, Fortune 500 companies, school districts, hospitals and non-profits. He is the author of numerous books including The Wall Street Journal bestseller The Energy Bus, Soup,The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, and The Carpenter. Jon and his tips have been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Fox and Friends and in numerous magazines and newspapers. His clients include The Atlanta Falcons, LA Clippers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Campbell Soup, Wells Fargo, Northwestern Mutual, Publix, Southwest Airlines, Bayer, West Point Academy and more.

Jon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a Masters in Teaching from Emory University. He and his training/consulting company are passionate about developing positive leaders, organizations and teams.

via:  http://www.jongordon.com/about.html

Affective Teaching 7

For the next four or five blog posts I will focus on an article I read in Educational Leadership, a magazine published by ASCD (American Society of Curriculum Developers) about Highly Affective Teachers.  The Highly Affective Practices are designed to help teachers examine their individual emotional states and how that interacts with students.  Emotional states or wellness of students is a variable in our setting that often doesn't get discussed much.  As teachers/support staff we must be able to not only be content experts but experts in helping students deal with multiple life situations.  Here is the link to the whole article; http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct15/vol73/num02/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Affective-Teachers.aspx.

Click here to read about Affective Habit 7.

Here are a few questions to think about.
1.  Have you ever thought about having a colleague burst in to "share" needed information?  How do you think your students would react to that?
2.  How hard is it to have as much enthusiasm in the afternoon as you did in the morning?  How can you keep that moving forward?
3.  What do you think your students would create if you asked them to write a conversation between to punctuation marks?

Affective Teaching 5/6

For the next four or five blog posts I will focus on an article I read in Educational Leadership, a magazine published by ASCD (American Society of Curriculum Developers) about Highly Affective Teachers.  The Highly Affective Practices are designed to help teachers examine their individual emotional states and how that interacts with students.  Emotional states or wellness of students is a variable in our setting that often doesn't get discussed much.  As teachers/support staff we must be able to not only be content experts but experts in helping students deal with multiple life situations.  Here is the link to the whole article; http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct15/vol73/num02/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Affective-Teachers.aspx.

Click here to read about Affective Strategies 5/6.

Here are some questions to consider:
1.  Have you ever dismissed feedback from a colleague because you didn't feel it was constructive feedback?
2.  What do you pursue that is meaningful outside of the school day/house?
3.  Of those items listed as ways to stimulate you intellectually, how you ever done any of them?

Affective Teaching 3,4

For the next four or five blog posts I will focus on an article I read in Educational Leadership, a magazine published by ASCD (American Society of Curriculum Developers) about Highly Affective Teachers.  The Highly Affective Practices are designed to help teachers examine their individual emotional states and how that interacts with students.  Emotional states or wellness of students is a variable in our setting that often doesn't get discussed much.  As teachers/support staff we must be able to not only be content experts but experts in helping students deal with multiple life situations.  Here is the link to the whole article; http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct15/vol73/num02/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Affective-Teachers.aspx.

The linked document here is for habits 3 and 4.  I would recommend just looking at these two.  We will examine all of them over the next few posts. 

Questions to consider:
1.  What ways to do you get to know students so they aren't just another student in your room?
2.  How can you more effectively plan for individual students when you really get to know them?
3.  How do colleagues view you in relation to talking to you about your teaching techniques?
4.  What do you think of the idea of giving a separate grade from the "project grade" for parts of it like meeting deadlines and following directions?

Affective Habits 1/2

For the next four or five blog posts I will focus on an article I read in Educational Leadership, a magazine published by ASCD (American Society of Curriculum Developers) about Highly Affective Teachers.  The Highly Affective Practices are designed to help teachers examine their individual emotional states and how that interacts with students.  Emotional states or wellness of students is a variable in our setting that often doesn't get discussed much.  As teachers/support staff we must be able to not only be content experts but experts in helping students deal with multiple life situations.  Here is the link to the whole article; http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct15/vol73/num02/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Affective-Teachers.aspx.

The linked document here is only the first two habits.  I would recommend just looking at the first two habits.  We will examine all of them over the next few posts.


Here are some questions to consider:
1.  The article questions an educators response to when a parent complains about a homework assignment.  What did you think of those response?  Is that how you respond?
2.  Can you find joy in your students' successes?  Have you ever done this before?
3.  In the article, it calls perspective hope when there isn't hope.  What do you think that means?  Have you ever experienced that in your classroom or maybe missed that opportunity in your classroom?

Motivating Students

For all educators motivating students has been an ongoing battle.  We know that the students that are motivated from within often times are more successful in and out of the classroom.  Those students that are not intrinsically motivated can be motivated extrinsically but it takes a lot of effort on the educator/coach part.  Over time I am sure that many educators have developed their own form of motivation for students that they most likely adjust a bit each year.

Click here to read a short article about motivation.

Here are some questions to consider:
1.  One of the suggestions is to "keep your eyes on the educational prize."  Can you think of a time that you kept your eyes on the prize to help motivate a student?
2.  Researchers had learners write a paragraph about new learning and "how it would it would be useful in their lives."  Think about your content area...have you or can you connect your content to real life?  How did students react to it?
3.  Can you remember a student that increased their intrinsic motivation over time?  Why do you think this happened?  Can you repeat that in other students?

What Length?

Teachers/Educators go to long lengths for their students.  The list is endless and unrelenting in regards to what we do that is "above and beyond" so that our students can get everything possible out of the day or class period.  The below article talks about some of those things that we do as educators and the lengths we go to.  Thanks for going to those lengths, it is appreciated.

Click here to read the article.

Questions to consider:
1.  Do you keep a balance between the "lengths" you go and your time "away" from work?
2.  What do you do to get your break from school?

Raving Fans

This past summer I read the book Raving Fans written by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.  This book was recommended by a staff member.  The book is all about customer service in different industries.  I think in education we do work in the customer service industry on more than one front.  Thinking of a person from the community coming into our building and being greeted to viewing our students as customers in some cases.  Really customer service is how a person treats another person.  In the linked article by Mark Sanborn he discusses ways to "not get fired by your customer."  Take a look at the article and think about ways it can translate to your classroom.

Click here for the article.

Questions to consider:

1. Are customers happier when they do business with you? If not, what will you do differently?
2. Are customers unhappier after they do business with you? If so, what will you do to change?
3. What are you doing to teach you team how to create positive emotions and experiences and prevent firings?

Homework (Again...)

To follow up the post from last week, I wanted to share an article with you that I found while doing some personal PD recently.  The article discusses some wide bearing studies about homework, not only in the US, but in countries around the world.  I think that some of the information presented will surprise.  I believe that some of the information presented will only re-affirm what you already know about homework.

Click here to read the article.

Questions to Consider:
1.  How much homework is too much:  Do you know how much an average length of time a student in your class works on homework in a week?  Challenge yourself to think of a number and then ask some students to see how close you are.
2.  The article talks about repeating instruction.  What do you think of repeating instruction or reteaching?  When do you do it, how do you know when to do it?
3.  Does homework you gave in class reinforce learning, extend learning or help you gauge learning?

Meaningful Homework

Homework has been around since the beginning of school.  Discussions about homework have been around since the beginning of school also.

What constitutes meaningful homework in your room?  How often do you give homework?  What is the purpose of the homework that you give?

The above questions are for you to consider.  Below is a link to a short video that can be found on the teaching channel website.  Take a look at it and see how this teacher views homework.


View the video here.

Questions To Consider:
1.  Is it useful for students to talk about homework in a group setting and then share out about it?
2.  Can you be comfortable with assigning homework and not "taking a grade" on it?
3.  Should homework be an extension of the classroom or a way to show mastery of content?

Wait Time

We are in the business of asking questions.  We ask questions to our students, to our leaders and to the parents/guardians of our students.  Asking questions helps to gather feedback and information.  Previously this Blog has been written about feedback and its importance.  But we often ask questions that we are more than willing to answer ourselves and do so quickly.  Sometimes it is important to remember we are asking the question for a reason.  To find out what someone else knows.  In most cases, we know the answer and we want to know if others do.  Wait time is a struggle for educators.  It is good to be reminded of the importance of wait time.

Here is an article from Mary Laverty Bigelow .  The article is about wait time.


Here are some questions to consider:

1.  Do you have a method of ensuring you are waiting a sufficient time for answers?
2.  Do students recognize your wait time and help to clarify/rephrase questions in your room?
3.  How can "wait time" become a "game changer" in your classroom as the article mentioned?

Building Relationships

Building Relationships with students is the most important "to do" for educators as a year starts.  In saying that, building relationships is maybe the most important part of the whole school year.  Students have reported in many surveys and research studies that they value having direct contact with the adults that work with them at their schools.

Here is an article from @pernilleripp  Nicholas Provenzano.

Here are some questions to consider after reading the article.

1.  What do you think of the three methods listed in the article to build relationships?
2.  What other methods do you use to build relationships with students?
3.  Think about past built relationships with students and how it helped the student succeed.

Feedback- Necessary To Go Forward

As the year starts, it is very important to look back.  Last year is now a distant memory.  But I am guessing a few topics, discussion or even lessons still stick with you from the previous year.  I know that I can still recall some of those great lessons from my teaching years but it seems I can recall more of those lessons that "didn't go as planned."  It is important, as educators and professionally growing adults, that we reflect on our past practices.  For educators that can be done many ways but one is through feedback.  I spoke about my "super focus" goals at the beginning of this year and you saw that I listed feedback as one of my main goals.  That feedback that I want to focus on is for and from parents, students and employees.

In this article from Vick Davis (@coolcatteacher) she outlines 3 ways that teachers can reflect and grow from those reflections.

Click here to read the article.

Questions to consider:
1.  What ways do you give feedback to students?  Is it immediate/timely?
2.  Did you take in feedback from students after last year? After last unit?  After the last lecture?
3.  How would student feedback help you plan?

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