High Expectations in Teaching

High expectations are a proven way to help students believe in themselves and perform better. Here is a Flipsnack book that I made about some techniques for communicating high expectations to your students:
High Expectations Handbook

Roller Coaster Physics Lesson

After having watched this video on the roller coaster physics lesson, I was very impressed with the teacher, Donna Migdol (Teaching Channel). Her method of teaching physics, math, engineering, and economics all at once. The kids got hands on experience building roller coasters for marbles that cemented in their minds what kinetic and potential energy were, as well as concepts like momentum and friction. The built a roller coaster in a group after each person designed their own idea for the project. This obviously promotes creativity, problem solving, team-work and some negotiation. On top of that, she had the kids pay for the parts for their roller coasters with money from their class allowances, which also taught them budgeting and economic concepts. I really feel like the whole class was a home run. It was so impressive to watch the fifth graders discussing the project with such maturity, so obviously their teacher has been cultivating a positive, can-do attitude from the beginning of the year.

The teacher in this class has high expectations for her students and its clear that the students have similar expectations for themselves. The classroom procedures and orderly and promoting positive student characteristics, like the "chime" technique where students report back on last weeks efforts, or the dividing of teams into different roles and cooperation. The procedures seem natural and automatic, but this just means that the teacher has putin the work at the beginning of the school year to make sure that students got into the habits of doing these procedures.

Even when the students make mistakes, there is no judgment or feeling that they have failed, so it appears that Ms. Migdol has also taught them about learning from mistakes and why it's important to make some mistakes sometimes

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REFERENCES:

 "Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action." Teaching Channel. Accessed: Apr. 22, 2018. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies

Managing Classroom Transitions (video annotation)

This annotation is based on the video "Ms. Noonan: Managing Transitions," which can be found here: Managing Transitions (Teaching Channel).

"Super scholar style": this is a way for her to make sure that students are paying attention and using good posture. This is effective, because it helps everyone to be on the same page, it helps the students develop good study habits, while at the same time the teacher is being inspiring instead of annoying. Also the students now feel good about themselves.

"Word of the day": a student will choose a word of the day. This is such a good idea. First, the student feels good because he did something significant for the class. Second, she has the word of the day which is a great tool for her. Finally, students will hear the word over and over which means that they will be more likely to remember it for a long time.

Using the word of the day: Every time the teacher wants the students to transition to the next place or activity, she uses the word of the day. This makes transitions more fun for the students. It also makes it very clear when they need to move or start the next activity. It also tunes their ears to hear this word, which they will definitely notice the net time someone uses it around them.

"Grab bag quiz": the teacher comes up with questions based on material that they've been studying that day or recently. Then the kids will slowly transition to the next place as students answer the questions. This is brilliant, because allows the teacher to review whatever she wants in a fun way while helping the transition be smooth and not a stampede. Also it motivates the kids to pay attention throughout the day.

"How do you feel about that?" After a student answers one of her questions, the teacher will say, "How do you feel about that?" This is great because it gets everyone involved even when only one person answers a question.

I'm so impressed with this teacher. She really nailed her transitions and the students were hanging on her every word.

As a high school teacher, I can't really use the same techniques, because the students would think I'm treating them like little kids, but I can adapt the principles. I like the word of the day concept. I might adapt it to my own classes by putting a short question on the whiteboard. Then as I ask students to bring their attention back to me, they can look at the question (which might be about a word or idea) and think about it as we get ready for the next activity.

Establishing a positive classroom climate

One of the most important facilitators of learning for any class is the classroom climate. This includes student attitudes (and teacher attitude), relationships between students and other students and between students and the teacher, acceptance and appreciation, respect for the rules, respect for other people, a sense of optimism, and a collective willingness work hard.

To have all of these things at once could be a challenge, so it is a culture that needs to be built piece by piece. The foundation of a positive culture is the relationships between the students and the teachers. In order to foster strong relationships, you need mutual respect, trust, and interest. Hopefully you also have mutual appreciation. It's important to start on a positive note for all of these area. People are not always 100% trustworthy, but it's better to start from a place of trust. Later, that may need to be modified, but it's always important to give as much trust as possible. For example, if someone cheats on my test, I will punish them on that grade, but I will also tell them that I believe in them and I still think they are a good student. As a teacher, we sometimes forget the pressure that some students have from the parents or other sources, so we may forget to be empathetic even for students that do something wrong.

The respect component is also extremely important. I'm not always the best at this, especially if I feel that a student has a bad attitude about learning or being in my class. Nevertheless, I'm trying to improve my consistency in respecting all students. The basic premise is that every student is a person and should not be treated as a product or a vessel for filling with knowledge. I show my respect by listening to my students feedback about my class, by sometimes allowing them to sit where they want even if they don't want to, and by always trying to speak respectfully to everyone. One time my students told me that I was giving them too much homework. I listened to them and I realized that they had a good point, considering how many classes they had and how much homework they could reasonably be expected to do in one day. So I told them I would modify my homework policy to make sure they didn't get too much in one day from me.

Mutual interest is also important and it's another area where I have to say that I haven't always been that great. In the book The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano, he suggests that you try to take a few minutes to talk with at least one student every day (p. 155-156). I don't necessarily agree with his method of randomly trying to run into different students, because it seems unreliable, but I like the idea of taking some time to talk to one student every day. Perhaps I will try to schedule time where I can talk to students and then have different students come to talk to me during that time. It's something to experiment with. I find that students are naturally interested in me, so I want to reciprocate by also being interested in them.

When it comes to relationships between students, in general the students in one class will like each other, but they will often dislike students in other classes. This is my observation at least. I believe this comes from the tendency to develop affinity for whatever group you are in and a dislike for other groups. Teachers can encourage students liking other students in their class by giving students opportunities to collaborate productively and by not pitting students against each other (for grades, for example). Teachers will have a harder time encouraging respect for other groups, but I believe it starts with modeling respect for all people. Schools in general can also foster a school spirit by having group activities or having projects that are done by mixed groups of students.

Unfortunately, even within classes, sometimes there will still be outcasts. This could take the form of bullying, shunning, ignoring, or some combination of the three. This can be very hard to combat. Bullying an evolutionary adaptive behavior practiced by many species. Most of the time bullies actually benefit from bullying (Volk et al, abstract), so tackling it is an uphill battle. Nevertheless, it can be productively addressed. Teachers can contribute to this effect by modeling empathy and respect. It will be more effective, however, if the issue is addressed in a school-wide effort.

One of the most effective ways to address bullying is to teach victims and potential victims (or everyone) how to be resilient (Kalman, 2014). The victims have control over their responses, especially if the bullying is subtle. This can also help them develop skills that will be useful for their whole life.

If the class if diverse, with students of different races, backgrounds, disabilities, or sexualities present, there is more of a potential for conflict or bullying. Teachers can proactively try to head this off by honoring people of diverse backgrounds, including historical figures, cultural figures, and people in the class or school. Teachers should also initiate a culture of shared inquiry, which can show that everyone in the class is valued (Teaching Tolerance, p. 10). Taking active steps to build a community of respect can also prevent many problems. Teachers can work with students to develop class rules, which students will then be more motivated to follow, because they feel invested in them. Incorporating material about respect, tolerance, inclusion, and diversity into the curriculum will also help students to develop a mind-set of respect for all (Teaching Tolerance, p. 11).

In general, a positive classroom climate begins with respect and trust. When that foundation is laid, the teacher can use that trust and respect to continue to improve the classroom climate. As long as it lasts, continuous improvement is possible.

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References:

Marzano, R. J. (2010). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Volk, A. A., Dane, A. V., Marini, Z. A., & Vaillancourt, T. (2015). Adolescent Bullying, Dating, and Mating. Evolutionary Psychology, 13(4), 147470491561390. doi:10.1177/1474704915613909

Kalman, I. (2014, May 30). Why Telling on Bullies Backfires. Retrieved April 08, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/resilience-bullying/201405/why-telling-bullies-backfires 

Teaching Tolerance (2016). Critical Practices for4 Anti-bias Education. tolerance.org