PROMOTE PERSONAL RELEVANCE

Personal relevance engages students’ desire to initiate and sustain effort. Here are three tips to help students relate to their learning.

1. Provide learner clarity. Explain how students will be using facts or procedures as tools for participating in appealing activities during the learning process. Promote pre-unit discussion of how the topic could relate to students’ interests, family life, community, high-interest current events, or history. As part of a reading assignment, you can ask students to give x number of examples of which specific information could be useful to their understanding.

2. Sustain motivation. As a unit progresses, have students write assignments about the usefulness of the material to their lives, their future careers, or the careers of professionals they admire. They can keep an ongoing list and share their thoughts in small groups or with the whole class. 

3. Give prompts for personal relevance. Encourage student-generated personal relevance with prompts such as “This relates to my life because,” “I want to know more about it,” “This reminds me of,” “This is how I’d sketch the information,” etc. 

FACILITATE GOAL-PROGRESS AWARENESS

Goal-progress awareness requires frequent feedback and sustains student effort. Their brains will invest more effort into the task, and as a result, students are more responsive to feedback. This progress awareness builds their ability to recognize that their effort is correlated to their progress and boosts their perseverance.

1. Consult with students. How will they include their personal goals for a unit or assignment, and how they will achieve them? Guide students to evaluate whether these goals are reasonable and manageable. You can also provide rubrics that allow them to assess their progress and check off what they’ve completed.

2. Remind students how to get help when blocked. When they become discouraged or have setbacks, prompt them to start with their list of tasks (prioritizing point values or percentages of graded components, determining how to manage their time) as well as other helpful resources (peer editing, suggested websites) in order to get back on track.

3. Have students create progress journals. Students can make predictions about things they expect to notice as they strive toward their goals. It’s important to do this throughout the project so that students can see evidence of their goal progress. For example, have them write subgoals that they’ll need to achieve on the way, periodically assess, and use to modify their plans and actions accordingly. 

4. Check in intentionally. Hold conferences with students, and write notes in their progress journals to reinforce their efforts. Remind students that being aware of progress helps sustain effort despite setbacks or mistakes.

5. Provide preview rubrics of what will be evaluated in the project/unit test. Knowing what they’ll be evaluated on can promote confidence. To help students avoid feeling overwhelmed by what might seem outside of their skill levels, invite them to focus on one or two rubric areas at time, and offer guidance to boost those skills.

6. Complete effort-to-progress graphs. A variety of effort-to-progress graphsare available online. When students fill these in as they record evidence of their incremental goal progress, they can see the impact of their effort on their progress.

7. Give self-corrected practice tests. Use these tests as opportunities for students to evaluate their level of accurate understanding and either revise or reinforce relevant knowledge. Students can see their status and evaluate changes (what to focus on, strategies such as rewriting notes, taking multiple self-corrected practice tests) that impacted their success.

SUPPORT STUDENTS’ METACOGNITION

Metacognition helps secondary students develop an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Essentially, thinking about how they think allows them to recognize evidence of their own progress and boosts their awareness of the actions that brought them success. This promotes efficiency and empowers students to be their own tutors and guides in school and life.

1. Guide students in self-evaluation. Have them examine their successful and unsuccessful learning experiences. Ask students, “When you got stuck on homework or a text, what did you do to get unstuck? Write it down.” A student might comment, “When I took better notes in class, I found that I understood the homework better and got more of it right.” After assessments, students can consider what worked well and what they would try again.

Invite them to consider the following questions as they reflect:

• How well did I plan and organize my time?
• What improvement did I first notice?
• What did I try that I’d do again?
• What would I do differently next time?
• What will I look for in future projects as things that seem to be potential goal blockers? What can I do when I get stuck?

2. Encourage students to change plans when necessary. During a project or long-term assignment, give students class time to make observations and consider how to revise their strategies and planning, throughout the assignment. Before starting the assignment unit, have students record in their progress journal what they hope to achieve and compare that with their metacognition of the goals they achieve.

EXPLAIN NEUROPLASTICITY FOR STUDENT EMPOWERMENT

Students are empowered when they understand how they can change their brainsand achieve goals, by activating the related neural circuits that promote memory and self-management. This knowledge makes them more motivated to sustain effort.

Enhancing students’ interest, curiosity, positive expectations, and awareness of goal-achieving strategies will make a difference in sustaining their motivated effort during the school years and for ongoing opportunities awaiting them in the future.

Reference:https://www.edutopia.org/article/guiding-students-sustain-effort-school?fbclid=IwAR1cG45OzGn_D6z0IDFZ3cUcawBSPEOzNIv2buokXHWK0HIVIKO8dElpP5s

Teachers can create emotionally safe spaces in their classrooms while also recognizing when students need mental health help from outside sources.

4 WAYS TO PROMOTE A SENSE OF BELONGING IN THE CLASSROOM

1. Promote a sense of empowerment to develop social and emotional literacy.  Providing structure, consistency, predictability, and choices is crucial for promoting students’ sense of empowerment and control. Such practices could include creating visual schedules, engaging in greeting and goodbye rituals, creating repetitive mantras for overcoming challenges, using collaborative problem-solving methods, and focusing on process over product.

During the school day, teachers can help students build social and emotional literacy through books, visuals, and SEL activities. We recommend books like The Feelings Book for younger children, How Are You Peeling? and Visiting Feelings for elementary-age children, and Big Life Journal for older children. Feelings charts from Conscious Discipline are helpful for younger children; more complex feelings charts help older students identify their feelings.

2. Encourage expression. Expressive tools help students process their experiences through the emotional centers of the brain, which are often less “defended” than the logic and reasoning centers. Doing so also offers children the opportunity to communicate in ways that are more natural for them and don’t depend only on verbal explanations. Providing enjoyable expressive tools will not only motivate children to engage in expressing their inner world and feelings but also promote the release of dopamine, allowing them to explore and communicate their authentic experiences and perceptions. This is the key to paving the way toward self-acceptance, which is a prerequisite to acceptance of others.

Teachers can offer a range of expressive tools. Some students prefer open-ended drawing or drawing from prompts such as those in the Anti-Coloring Book. These virtual tools are also ways to explore student expression:

• A comic creator like Pixton allows students to create a customized avatar (students can choose from different cultural and ethnic representations, gender nonbinary options, and different mobility assistive and assistive technology devices). Pixton provides templates for SEL lesson ideas, such as “Coping with Anxiety” and “Asking for Help,” where students can role-play with their avatars.
• A collage creator like Shape Collage allows students not only to upload their own pictures to share a story but also to design the collage in any shape of their interest. Teachers can give prompts like “create a collage of your strengths,” “sources of support in your life,” or “what are your hopes in friendships.”
• A puzzle maker like I’m a Puzzle or a matching game creator like Match the Memory allows students students to present different parts of their identity, their life, or their experiences by creating simple, fun games.

Playful mindfulness and meditation, music, movement, and yoga are other effective methods of furthering students’ connection to their own body and feelings to help them develop deeper insight into themselves and others.

3. Reframing behaviors. Disruptive behaviors such as calling out, not completing work, teasing peers, and acts of defiance and aggression are often misinterpreted as intentionally attention seeking or “making bad choices.” As Mona Delahooke explains, when adults fail to recognize that many behaviors represent the nervous system’s response to stress, we expend effort on techniques designed to correct the behaviors, such as compliance-based systems and reward-and-consequence systems.

However, as Ross Greene says, “Kids do well if they can.” Teachers can reframe disruptive behaviors: Instead of viewing problematic behaviors as a conscious, intentional choice, teachers can understand them as a student’s communication of needs. Teachers might find that a child has developmental, physical, medical, sensory, learning, or mental health needs; has a stressful home environment; is struggling with peer relationships; or has difficulty building a trusting relationship with the teacher and school environment. In order to gain insight into what needs might be at the root of the behavior, provide students with a variety of expressive tools to explore and communicate their internal and external experiences. Doing so can help you gain a stronger sense of understanding and connection with students without committing extensive time or taking on the role of a mental health provider.

While using such an approach might not be effective in a moment of high emotional escalation, it is a highly effective, proactive approach that will often decrease the need for reactive responses.

4. Recognize warning signs of mental health needs. Teachers should, of course, also have tools that can be effectively utilized during an escalated behavior and prioritize safety above all. MentalHealth.gov, a service from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education, provides resources for educators coping with mental health challenges in their classrooms. They identify warning signs that may indicate that a student needs support, including the following:

• Acting sad or withdrawn for more than two weeks
• Sudden overwhelming fear for no reason, sometimes with a racing heart or fast breathing
• Extreme difficulty concentrating or staying still that puts the student in physical danger or causes problems in the classroom
• Severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships.

If you notice one or more signs on this list, seek the guidance of a school counselor or refer the student to a mental health professional.

The role of teacher has greatly expanded over the last few decades, and certainly within the last few years. To be able to identify and support students’ mental health needs, you need resources, tools, and professional training in SEL and best practices for classroom implementation. Using more proactive approaches, gaining a better understanding of each student’s needs, could possibly prevent some escalations from occurring in the first place. Above all, teachers deserve acknowledgment of this critical role that they are playing.

Reference: https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-ways-teachers-can-support-students-emotional-well-being?fbclid=IwAR3wZqvPb5p5GLaSF1_U3tnG4_yCCP_g7NVkZ7YmKftrTzovdPdpmOjP4c8

Do you get used to reading to your child/children? Let’s see some benefits of it.

For many families, it’s the same daily, after-dinner routine: play and relax, then bath, books, and bedtime. This is the norm for many families of young children, which is a wonderful way of introducing books and literacy to young ones. 

Reading with children is important, even as they enter those exciting elementary-school years. Here are three reasons to read with your elementary schooler every night:

1. Time together. The number one reason for reading each night is quality time together. Life can become hectic when kids go to elementary school. Between homework, lessons, classes, and meetings, things can get overwhelming. But carving out that small amount of time — even if it’s 10-15 minutes, which is just enough time to read one chapter of a book — is worth scheduling into your day.  

2. Listening to fluent reading. If you choose to do the reading, this time together allows your child to listen to what fluent reading should sound like. You don’t need to overdo voices and sounds — just read naturally and normally.  The more your younger readers hear you read, the better!  

3. Talking about texts. It doesn’t need to be an in-depth discussion about characters, plotline, or style, but you may be surprised at how your conversations evolve after you read together for some time. You can begin by just “thinking aloud” — every few pages, share your thoughts about the text out loud, kind of like a built-in commentary. Your child will hear how you think about and process text as you read, and soon it will become habitual for them to do the same. Over time, incorporate questions or thought-provoking statements and involve your child.

Reference: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/3-reasons-to-read-your-elementary-schooler-every-night.html?fbclid=IwAR3jCjVJ3qlNInIE0LplDyo42uE2TN0I2JsyXIzZzLzkuS-xSk-dcPQXC0Y

The fun little characters can add visual cues to student assignments and help you manage classroom routines.

Do your students love using emojis? While they might seem silly on the surface, emojis can definitely pack a punch. Why not incorporate them into your teaching?

Here are some ideas that go beyond the popular or common ways we use emojis (in text messages, comments, and social media posts) and connect to projects and routines you might already be using in your classroom.

USING EMOJIS IN THE CLASSROOM

Bullets on anchor charts: If you’re making anchor charts in your class, use emojis instead of a traditional bulleted list. For example, as a classroom teacher I used to put lots of reference materials on chart paper for students, including resources to support student writers. Print out emojis (making them larger) or draw emojis on your chart paper.

Sharing feelings: Another way to use emojis is to have students choose an emoji that illustrates their feelings. For example, give students a selection of emojis to choose from each day, and give them an opportunity to record or write about their feelings. Or you can use a tool like Emoji Finder that lets students type in keywords and see different emojis that connect to their feelings.

Rating experiences: Just as we might give a five-star rating to an online shopping experience or a ride service, students can rate experiences using emojis. Whether it’s a star emoji, the fire flame emoji, or another favorite, they can rate how much they enjoyed a class read-aloud, the outcome of a science experiment, a field trip, or any other experience.

Peer feedback: Encourage students to add emojis, just one or two, to any comments or feedback they give to their classmates. They can use an emoji keyboard on their device or an online tool, such as the one above, for finding the perfect emoji to add to their comment before posting their thoughts.

Labeling folders: Emojis can work for you, as well. Add emojis to your folders in Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, or anyplace you’re adding a new title to a folder or file. Emojis can help you find what you’re looking for faster.

Organizing information: Students can organize their work using emojis, too. For example, they can include emojis as part of the headers for different categories of information as they conduct research, or they can use emojis alongside their comments in the margins of the text they read, for quick access.

Retelling a story: Students can retell stories or short excerpts of text using emojis as part of their retelling. Ask them to choose one emoji that goes with each sequence of a story, “first, next, then, and last.” If they’re creating a retelling with emojis that connect to their own stories, this might even be an opportunity for students to play a guessing game with their classmates.

Giving directions: In the same way that we recognize a logo of a company before we read their corresponding social media post, emojis are visual cues for students. If you’re posting directions for a task like a do-now or exit slip on an interactive board in your classroom or as a post in a learning management system, adding emojis can help break up information and provide a visual cue for directions.

Add to infographics: Have students use emojis as the icons that go along with the information they share on an infographic. This is a great way to connect visuals to any research they do themselves or data they want to represent in an infographic. In my book, EdTech Essentials: The Top 10 Technology Strategies for All Learning Environments, I discuss infographics and other favorite student project ideas.

Indicate patterns: Emojis are a great option for having students represent patterns. This could be part of a coding course or an opportunity for students to annotate the patterns in poetry. For example, if you explore ABABAB patterns, ask students to use emojis to represent the patterns.

Annotating a passage: Your students might be familiar with using color coding to annotate a passage, whether they use physical highlighters or have access to a few colorful digital tools. Introduce the idea of annotating a passage by adding emojis next to the text. You can give students a lot of flexibility for annotating with emojis or model for them how to use just a selection of emojis as part of a regular annotation routine.

There are many creative ways to use emojis—I share a few more on this episode of the Easy EdTech Podcast—and I hope the above list will help you get started.

Reference: https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-use-emojis-teaching?fbclid=IwAR0cJQq3WhaJoyE5BEpZBqfVgTIF-HmX1bzq7KNu1qwG9gEnVffcs1oxUg4

As the year ends, high school teachers and administrators can assess their schools’ traditions, celebrations, and student leadership practices.

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF CELEBRATION

This has been quite a year. Many students have struggled with anxiety and challenges with learning, family, and friends. The successes we have had, large or small, should be recognized and embraced. In the book Professional Learning Communities at Work, former superintendent Rick DuFour shares, “One of the most important and effective strategies for shaping the culture of any organization is celebration.”

For example, before the pandemic we had recognition in a large formal gathering where names were read quickly and impersonally and students received certificates of achievement. Now we have shifted to genuine celebration in small, intimate venues with only the club members present. In our student council, for instance, this meant we were able to exchange small gifts and recognize the efforts of our students in a far more personalized way. We also had the tradition of impersonally rattling off names for our senior awards.

This year, instead of handing out dozens of awards like “Outstanding Chemistry Student” and “Social Studies Scholars,” we all met in the lobby of our auditorium, where students could go to the department chairs and have a conversation with their nominator. Moving away from a large awards assembly has led to a far more meaningful exchange between students and their mentors.

2. DEVELOP GOOD HABITS INSTEAD OF TRADITIONS

Some of our traditions were no longer meeting the needs of the students. Still, we were clinging to them because we have always done things that way. After not being a part of the students’ lives for nearly two years, many of these traditions were only traditions for the faculty and not the students. Viewing our activities as habits allowed us to determine if they were good habits we wanted to further develop or bad habits that no longer reflected who we were. As an example, viewing the tradition of our senior awards (mentioned above) as a bad habit, we were willing to experiment with change in order to improve the experience. We needed to not take for granted what students wanted and to remain fluid in our approach to adjusting the school culture.

This year, I felt my science students had an experience in my class that no other class before them had. My students struggled with transitioning from the expectations associated with remote learning to in-person learning. Many struggled with receiving feedback and taking action to address deficiencies in their learning. By the end of the year, students were hitting their stride again, but I could tell that students had regrets over how they addressed learning. As a result, we ended the year by writing letters to the next year’s students. We created an advice time capsule that next year’s students will open to find advice for success from this year’s students.

My students asked why they didn’t get a card at the beginning of the year, and I told them it was because no one had to work through a pandemic for in-school learning as they had. These students were in a unique position to share an experience with future students. If this activity were a tradition, and every year we completed it as a class, it would lose the authenticity of sharing their genuine experience and improving the lives of their peers. End-of-the-year reflection was a good habit to begin forming, and these letters to next year’s students were the manifestation of that habit.

3. FOSTER INCLUSIVE STUDENT LEADERSHIP

This year we had to ask if our actions led to the change we wanted to see in our school culture. Half of our students hadn’t set foot in our building prior to the beginning of this year, since most of our sophomores attended remote school their freshmen year. Because of this, little institutional memory was built between upper-class and lower-class students. Our current juniors and seniors hadn’t learned from older students how to behave or what to expect from typical high school life, and yet suddenly they were the older students.

We took this situation as an opportunity to align our organizational actions with the mission and vision of our school. For example, our student government structure was very linear, and the only way to express an active student voice was to be a part of our student government since freshman year. Unfortunately, this led to only a small segment of our student population advocating for all of our students, which was not aligned with our school’s vision with respect to equity and inclusivity.

As a result, we changed how a student could be a part of the student government by opening the application to any student in the school. We are starting to build a more diverse set of voices that truly reflect our student population and their interests. We recognized the alignment between our school’s commitment to creating a more inclusive culture and the need to change how our school operated.

I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years, and by far, this year has been my most challenging. I believe that change is difficult, and this year has required us to change more than any other year in teaching. No matter how difficult it is for us to change, we need to do it. The process of recognizing the needs of our students and adjusting to those needs is how we fully serve our kids.

The end of the school year and early summer is a fantastic time to reflect and recognize what you want to keep and what you want to change from the past year. This upcoming year, I plan on regularly celebrating throughout the year instead of jamming it all into the end. I imagine this will offer some time to build relationships, and it will be an investment that will pay dividends in student learning, collaboration, and belonging.

I will also look at what I do in the classroom as a teacher and out of the classroom as a school leader and not be afraid to challenge tradition as long as the change is intentional, aligning with our mission and vision for our school, and it leads to the development of good educational habits.

Reference: https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-key-areas-reflect-summer?fbclid=IwAR2XEm14scosauEpenr3KtkyFDWyV6G11xO3WF7I79Z5TVxWpCPMNLZbX6U