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I realized a lot while I have been watching my students. They are not ready for individual or group projects yet. I realized I forgot how much development takes place in the beginning of the school year and I really need to let them explore and find their ways through play for now. I’ve pushed back my timeline I had in my head and will continue to take time to just watch them in free play and then later start to set up some group projects. We will get there, it will just take some more time. —Stacey

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This year I am focusing on building rapport with each of my students.  As a first-year teacher, it can be challenging to get to know each of my students; however, building these relationships will help me to connect with my students and better manage my classroom community.
-Jackie Oberholtzer
LES

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This year I am #ditchingtheclips. I started this at the end of the 2017-18 school year when I had the opportunity to observe Patty Murphy's self contained class. She uses checks and pluses and I started this the first day of school. I introduced this system and it has been really successful. My students are motivated to earn pluses and so far no one has had any time off their free time. I have been focusing a lot on building relationships and the addition of the calm corner has been helpful. This is also something I added towards the end of the year (a calm space with a foam floor mat), but I added more (a bean bag chair, bulletin board dedicated to calming strategies, and pillows). During writing, one of my students was upset about something that happened before school and couldn't come up with 2 characteristics about himself for his I Am poem. After suggesting ideas for his writing, I could see he really needed space and we talked in the calm corner. I set a timer for 5 minutes to give him additional space, and he was able to come right back and work. I hope to continue using these strategies throughout the year.
Ashley Smith

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I am shifting my perspective: focusing more on the positive (e.g., what's working and using strategies that are working) as opposed to thinking about how to "fix" things that aren't working.

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I am shifting my perspective: focusing more on the positive (e.g., what's working and using strategies that are working) as opposed to thinking about how to "fix" things that aren't working.

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This year I am going to focus more on acknowledging positive student behavior and using positive behavior support strategies with my students. This should go hand in hand with our school emphasis on responsive classroom.

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This year I am going to focus more on acknowledging positive student behavior and using positive behavior support strategies with my students. This should go hand in hand with our school emphasis on responsive classroom.

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-Beth Strauss
LES

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I want to shift my relationships with my students.  I want to make our rapport the priority rather than their DRA level or hitting the ground running as soon as they get into my room.
-Jenn Chiaramida

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I have always prided myself on maintaining excellent communications with parents/guardians whenever there were concerns regarding students' academic or behavioral performances in the classroom. I also made it a point to send positive e-mails to parents on those occasions when students had gone "above and beyond," and I wanted to share the good news with their families. However, the positive communications were sporadic; I did not start out any school year with the intention of sending positive messages to parents on a regular basis. This year, I'm going to shift into more intentional positive communications with parents, and I'm hoping this will build bridges between home and school, thus ultimately benefiting my students. Kari Fitzgerald

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I would like to utilize our LES garden/outdoor classroom not only during our scheduled times, but I hope to take my K students there to participate in mindfulness activities throughout the year.  I came across a quote about not all classrooms having 4 walls, and my long term goal is utilizing this outdoor area more as a space where we can further meet our social/emotional as well as educational needs. -Lea Ryan; K teacher

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This year I want my students to set SMART goals. They will plan and identify strategies that help them obtain their goals. They will take ownership of their learning and their accomplishments.

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This year I want my students to set SMART goals. They will plan and identify strategies that help them obtain their goals. They will take ownership of their learning and their accomplishments.

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This year I plan to take the time to practice mindfulness myself. While I know the benefits and want students and teachers to utilize these practices, I don't take the time to take part in them myself. I hope the impact means that I am a more mindful, calm and supportive principal. -Melissa Lockett

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I started the year with a new co-teacher. Jamie Manning and I decided to shift the way we utilize behavior management in our classroom together. We are not using any type of behavior chart or incentive program with our students. Instead, we are incorporating Responsive Classroom strategies and taking note of the way our student culture and classroom environment responds to this shift.

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This year, my plan is to shift my classroom to make it more student-led. I'm starting by giving students more responsibility with our class jobs. The more students feel like they are contributing to our classroom. The better our class "family" can be together!

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This year, my plan is to shift my classroom to make it more student-led. I'm starting by giving students more responsibility with our class jobs. The more students feel like they are contributing to our classroom. The better our class "family" can be together!

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This year I plan to shift towards more student led discovery. Many times I feel I fall back on my need to control every little thing that I may be holding students back from achieving all that they are capable of.

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I plan to shift away from past practices by utilizing my support network.  My job can be very stressful and isolating.  By spending time with my network of positive colleagues, I am hopeful that I can be more effective in my job.  

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I plan to shift away from past practices by utilizing my support network.  My job can be very stressful and isolating.  By spending time with my network of positive colleagues, I am hopeful that I can be more effective in my job.  

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This year I want my students to be involved in setting specific, attainable goals to help them grow as readers.  They will identify what strategies they can use and evaluate their progress.  I want them to take responsibility and ownership of their goals to increase their motivation and engagement.

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This year I want my students to be involved in setting specific, attainable goals to help them grow as readers.  They will identify what strategies they can use and evaluate their progress.  I want them to take responsibility and ownership of their goals to increase their motivation and engagement.

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This year I am coming from classroom teacher to Academic support. I am already learning from my colleagues and the word PURPOSEFUL came up. I would like to shift my thinking and question myself before and after each lesson, was this activity Purposeful to help each individual student reach their full potential. 

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This year I am coming from classroom teacher to Academic support. I am already learning from my colleagues and the word PURPOSEFUL came up. I would like to shift my thinking and question myself before and after each lesson, was this activity Purposeful to help each individual student reach their full potential. 

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This year I want to shift the ways I involve my students in setting, achieving, and understanding their goals. I want them to "own" their progress and evaluate pathways to achieve their own personal success.

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This year I want to shift the ways I involve my students in setting, achieving, and understanding their goals. I want them to "own" their progress and evaluate pathways to achieve their own personal success.

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My goal is to be more focused on setting specific goals with my students. I want my students to be involved with setting their own goals, be responsible for using strategies to reach their goals, and reflecting on reaching their goals.

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My goal is to be more focused on setting specific goals with my students. I want my students to be involved with setting their own goals, be responsible for using strategies to reach their goals, and reflecting on reaching their goals.

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I've been working on providing feedback for my students in a more holistic manner. This year, I want to really focus on and shift both my mindset and manner of providing feedback to students. I would like to provide more qualitative information for my students to use to guide their learning, reflections, and goal-setting, rather than simply providing quantitative information. I feel like I do this somewhat already in language arts, but I'd like to expand this practice into the other content areas. I'd also like to provide students with active feedback on their self-selected goals.

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I want to make sure I keep my go-with-the-flow attitude every day to show students we can stay calm in situations that might be hectic by remaining positive and goal-oriented.

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I plan to support more teachers with data analysis using the student growth profile report in NWEA.

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I've got to plan more opportunities for students to lead classroom activities.

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This year I want to do more authentic teaching which would be a shift towards #3 Student Directed Learning. I will choose lessons and write lessons plans focused on where my students are in their  learning, not where they should be. If they need more time or a different way of teaching the skills/concept then that is what they will get. Too much emphasis is on completing units, chapters, and levels without whether the student has digested the information and can transfer the knowledge. I will slow down and go at their pace and be more patient and positive doing so:)

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This year I want to do more authentic teaching which would be a shift towards #3 Student Directed Learning. I will choose lessons and write lessons plans focused on where my students are in their  learning, not where they should be. If they need more time or a different way of teaching the skills/concept then that is what they will get. Too much emphasis is on completing units, chapters, and levels without whether the student has digested the information and can transfer the knowledge. I will slow down and go at their pace and be more patient and positive doing so:)

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I want to shift my attitude about teaching and forget about the negative things and focus more on the positive. I want my students to focus on being positive so positive things happen to them. I want them to amp up their attitudes about growth mindset!!!

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I want to shift my attitude about teaching and forget about the negative things and focus more on the positive. I want my students to focus on being positive so positive things happen to them. I want them to amp up their attitudes about growth mindset!!!

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I am going to use more hands-on activities, like stations, to improve student learning and exploration.

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I am going to use more hands-on activities, like stations, to improve student learning and exploration.

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Haven't started reading yet but I'm always ready to try something new. Read all of the posts and I'm encouraged by everyone's enthusiasm!

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Haven't started reading yet but I'm always ready to try something new. Read all of the posts and I'm encouraged by everyone's enthusiasm!

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Although I haven’t read Shift This YET, I want my students to have more responsibility in the day to day activities...logging in their lunch choices, helping in tweeting about all the fun we will have, attendance taking, choices in what read aloud we will read first and discuss...baby steps...

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I want my kids to be doing more of the work and to follow their own interests. I am going to try to adapt a genius hour to work for kindergartners.  I am excited to try this and see what my students do!  Stacey Van Metre

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I am trying a new behavior system out. I am stepping away from the clip chart and trying to promote the hashtag #KindnessMatters.  Students will write notes to one another about what kind things they saw their friends do.  Students will also assess their own behavior at the end of the day by using an emoji smiley face.  

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I am trying a new behavior system out. I am stepping away from the clip chart and trying to promote the hashtag #KindnessMatters.  Students will write notes to one another about what kind things they saw their friends do.  Students will also assess their own behavior at the end of the day by using an emoji smiley face.  

# data[].attributes.headline
I am trying a new behavior system out. I am stepping away from the clip chart and trying to promote the hashtag #KindnessMatters. 

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I am trying a new behavior system out. I am stepping away from the clip chart and trying to promote the hashtag #KindnessMatters. 

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I'm Joy Kirr - thanks for letting me get in on this discussion about shifting! I'm going to focus on SEL more this year than in years prior. I've got Marc Brackett's RULER approach grid up in the front of the room, and students will be writing their names on (cheap) round magnets and then moving them starting this week. They'll rate how they feel regarding "pleasantness" (x axis) and then "energy" (y axis) based on a -5 to +5 grid. Those in the left side will get extra attention from me. If I notice an entire class is hyped up, we'll learn some calming exercises. If I notice they're down and out, we'll do some energy-boosting exercises. I'm fortunate to co-teach my first class with someone who LOVES SEL ideas, so it should be easier! ;D

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I am shifting to students as decision makers.  Using Jan Burkins & Kim Yaris’ Who’s Doing the Work? and Jeff Anderson’s Patterns of Power as mentor texts, my intention is to ensure that my scaffolding does not eliminate decision making by the student.  I will be more aware of what I should do less of and what my students should do more of, so they are using strategies independently and are more engaged and empowered as readers and writers.

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I am trying to make a shift this year in creating more fun engaging lessons with the LIS string players. I have a lot of things that I do with the LMS string players that I can do because of how often I see them.  Trying to give them more experiences to keep them excited with playing through the years. I have a new lesson book which I hope will help. Also, I have a great grant idea that I will be collaborating with Bess on for the chamber string players. 

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I am trying to make a shift this year in creating more fun engaging lessons with the LIS string players. I have a lot of things that I do with the LMS string players that I can do because of how often I see them.  Trying to give them more experiences to keep them excited with playing through the years. I have a new lesson book which I hope will help. Also, I have a great grant idea that I will be collaborating with Bess on for the chamber string players. 

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I am shifting my lens from "what is wrong with this student?" to "what happened to this student?"  I will look at behavior as a form of communication and ask, "what is this student trying to tell me?"

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I am shifting my lens from "what is wrong with this student?" to "what happened to this student?"  I will look at behavior as a form of communication and ask, "what is this student trying to tell me?"

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I am shifting the way I follow through on our school goals and vision.  For students, I want to connect all aspects of the school experience to make it relevant for them.  I aspire to have students find the purpose in everything they learn for greater impact.  For teachers, I am shifting the checkins I have with them to reflect on their goals, their observation feedback and how they will move their practice forward through intentional actions.

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I am shifting the way I follow through on our school goals and vision.  For students, I want to connect all aspects of the school experience to make it relevant for them.  I aspire to have students find the purpose in everything they learn for greater impact.  For teachers, I am shifting the checkins I have with them to reflect on their goals, their observation feedback and how they will move their practice forward through intentional actions.

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I am shifting the way I manage conflict in my class toward restorative justice practices.  Students will be more in control of monitoring behavior outcomes and consequences with the focus on striving for an atmosphere of mutual respect.  I will be implementing restorative circles, weather reports, and peace treaties to shift behavior management from punitive to restorative.

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I am shifting the way I manage conflict in my class toward restorative justice practices.  Students will be more in control of monitoring behavior outcomes and consequences with the focus on striving for an atmosphere of mutual respect.  I will be implementing restorative circles, weather reports, and peace treaties to shift behavior management from punitive to restorative.

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I am shifting the way I give feedback to staff to make it more "feed forward". I am looking for feedback to be more intentional and guiding, allowing staff to grow as a result. Through this modeling, I would like teachers to become more intentional about giving feedforward to students, moving beyond "good job". 

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I am shifting the way I give feedback to staff to make it more "feed forward". I am looking for feedback to be more intentional and guiding, allowing staff to grow as a result. Through this modeling, I would like teachers to become more intentional about giving feedforward to students, moving beyond "good job". 

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Listen to my interview with Joe Hirsch (transcript):
Sponsored by Kiddom and Pear Deck

As teachers, we pretty much give feedback all day long. We tell students how they can improve on assignments, we praise them for things they're doing well, we correct their incorrect responses, and we redirect them when they behave in ways that aren't helpful to learning.

And that's just the students. We also give feedback to our colleagues, although in most cases, these exchanges don't happen as often or as freely as they probably should. We receive plenty of feedback as well, from our students, their parents, our administrators, and our peers. And we encourage our students to give feedback to each other, albeit with pretty uneven results. Really, the experience of school could be described as one long feedback session, where every day, people show up with the goal of improving, while other people tell them how to do it.

And it doesn't always go well. As we give and receive feedback, people get defensive. Feelings get hurt. Too often, the improvements we're going for don't happen, because the feedback isn't given in a way that the receiver can embrace.

It turns out there's a different way to give feedback that works a lot better, a way of flipping its focus from the past to the future. It's a concept called "feedforward," which was originally developed by a management expert named Marshall Goldsmith. As far as I can tell, not a lot of educators are familiar with the practice of feedforward, and I really think if we learned how to do it and started using it more consistently, it could make a huge difference in how our students grow and how we grow as professionals.

In this week's podcast, I interview Joe Hirsch, author of The Feedback Fix: Dump the Past, Embrace the Future, and Lead the Way to Change. ( Bookshop.org | Amazon). In the book, Joe digs deep into the practice of feedforward and shows us how and why it works. You can listen to our full conversation in the player above, read the full transcript, or stay right here-I'll give you a quick overview.

What's Wrong with the Way We Give Feedback?

When we give feedback to our students, or when our co-workers or administrators give feedback to us, the focus is on the past. "People can't control what they can't change, and we can't change the past," says Hirsch. "And that happens to be the focus of most of the feedback that we give or receive."

More specifically, backward-looking feedback doesn't often get good results for three reasons:

It shuts down our mental dashboards. "When we get negative feedback about something that we can't change or control," Hirsch says, "our brains flood with stress-inducing hormones, cortisol, that trigger our threat awareness and put us on the defensive. The parts that are responsible for executive function, for creativity, the parts that allow us to sort of set our agendas and make rational decisions, essentially we are in a state of mental paralysis."

It focuses primarily on ratings, not on development. Most of feedback's time and energy is spent on looking back and rating (or grading) performance that's already over, rather than focusing on what can be done from now on. "When feedback consists of an impersonal set of performance standards, we're overlooking the essential goal of feedback, and that's to create positive and lasting improvement."

It reinforces negative behaviors. "When we hear about flaws that we can't fix anymore-because they're in a past that we can't change-it creates a feeling of learned helplessness, the feeling that we are unable to do anything about our future. Instead of committing ourselves to improvement, which is what we would hope would happen, we hold onto this debilitating view of who we are instead of focusing on who we are becoming."

What is Feedforward?

When we give feedforward, instead of rating and judging a person's performance in the past, we focus on their development in the future.

Suppose my student is writing an essay. Instead of waiting until she is finished, then marking up all the errors and giving it a grade, I would read parts of the essay while she is writing it, point out things I'm noticing, and ask her questions to get her thinking about how she might improve it.

In his book, Hirsch takes this broad concept of feedforward and defines six components of it, six specific characteristics of feedforward that make it so effective. He refers to these by the acronym REPAIR (regenerates, expands, particular, authentic, impact, refines).

So let's take a look at each of these. If you want to implement feedforward well, it should have these attributes:

It REGENERATES talent.

The most effective kind of feedforward helps people see opportunities for growth-ways they could take on new opportunities and roles. "At the simplest level," Hirsch writes in his book, "it leads to the unmistakable feeling that we're moving forward in our professional and personal lives. Getting positive feedback about our performance may feel good, but it doesn't break new ground. It merely confirms what we already know about ourselves and our talents, essentially holding our growth in check. But when feedback gets us thinking about how to spread that talent to others, it has a multiplying effect."

So when we notice that a student is developing a strength or an interest in an area, instead of just pointing that out, we might give the student an opportunity to enter their work in some kind of competition, publish it in some way, or share it with others in a presentation, rather than simply keeping it to themselves. This helps students see themselves in a new light and gets them thinking about ways they could grow.

It EXPANDS possibilities.

Effective feedback starts with what is and helps add to it, expanding what's possible, rather than simply pointing out problems. In his book, Hirsch describes a concept used by Pixar studios called "plussing." When Pixar's creators get together to review a day's work, they are expected to give each other feedback to improve the work. What makes these sessions so effective is one important rule: Participants can't point out a problem without proposing an alternative, saying "What if?" to a problem.

This concept of "plussing" could work wonders in staff or committee meetings: When we are discussing possible solutions to an issue, rather than shooting down ideas that might not work, we could add to them by making small tweaks. "That's an interesting idea. What if we made this small change and tried that?" This technique would also work beautifully with project-based learning tasks, when students may need to come up with several ideas for solving a problem before arriving at the best solution.

It is PARTICULAR.

Far too often, feedback is given in an "information dump," with lots of criteria being measured and reported on at the same time. This can be a pretty ineffective way to help people grow. "There's a limit to how much we can absorb and operationalize in any given time," Hirsch says. "Feedforward is really about picking your battlegrounds strategically and selectively." He advises us to make feedback an ongoing process that is embedded in the day-to-day work, and to only focus on a few things at a time.

So rather than wait until an assignment is done to point out all the ways a student can improve, find ways to give them specific pointers while they work, and only one thing at a time, so students can process and act on it right away.

It is AUTHENTIC.

No one particularly likes giving criticism. "We see problems, we see pitfalls in other people, and we know it's a problem," Hirsch says, "but we don't want to be mean, right? We don't want to crush them. So the tendency is to either avoid giving feedback altogether or to disguise it as a praise sandwich, where we basically slip one piece of criticism in between two very, very surface level gauzy praises."

The problem with that approach, Hirsch explains, is what's called the recency effect: People remember most the thing they heard last. So when you tack on some praise after delivering constructive feedback, the person doesn't really absorb the critical part as well as they would if you'd just given it to them more directly.

Hirsch recommends a more direct approach: Describe what's happening, explain why it's a problem, then prompt the person for a solution. "When delivered this way," Hirsch explains, "it puts people at ease, it takes them off the defensive. It is clear, it is concise, it's locating the problem, it's looking for solutions together. People don't want a praise sandwich. People want the truth."

This approach could work with academic situations or classroom management problems: If you're dealing with a student who is disrupting class, describe the behavior you're seeing, explain why it's a problem, then ask the student for ideas on how to solve it. It sounds really simple, but if what you're doing right now isn't giving you the results you want, it's worth a try.

It has IMPACT.

One of the reasons people don't make progress after receiving feedback is that they don't necessarily know what to do with it. "If you want feedback to make an impact," Hirsch notes, "you have to put it in terms that people can operationalize." In his book, he cites studies showing that regular feedback doesn't typically result in a transfer of new skills or habits, but when that feedback is combined with coaching, the transfer skyrockets to 95 percent.

So if a student regularly forgets to bring materials to class, rather than simply telling him to change, help him make a specific plan for improvement. Ideally, that plan should have lots of small steps to make it achievable, and the student should take the lead in developing that plan.

It REFINES group dynamics.

"Feedback is a team sport," Hirsch says. "It is not just something that happens one to one. It happens in groups and across and within organizations. And when we dump that command and control nature of traditional feedback, we make room for something much more collaborative and shared."

So rather than give feedback in a top-down, hierarchical model, open up more pathways for people to get feedback from their peers, even those whose jobs might on the surface have little in common with our own. In his book, Hirsch borrows a term from management circles known as "creative abrasion," which is what happens when people with opposing views work on the same task together. Although it can result in more conflict, the contributions from different points of view usually produce a higher-quality product in the end.

This idea can play out in a lot of educational settings: Instead of just having our department head observe our teaching, why not get feedback from someone who teaches a completely different subject? When students go to the same peers for feedback on their work, have them seek out the opinion of someone new, or consider getting the input of a group of students from a different class or grade level entirely.

There's nothing simple or straightforward about telling people how to improve. So it's no surprise that we're still figuring it out and finding new ways to refine it. If the feedback you're giving to your students, your coworkers, and even the people at home isn't having quite the effect you intend, try shifting to a feedforward approach. Doing so can help us, as Hirsch says, stop seeing ourselves just as who we are, but who we are becoming. ♦

Learn more about Joe Hirsch on his website or visit his LinkedIn page. Teachers who read The Feedback Fix should also grab this free Discussion Guide for Teachers to help apply the book's principles to your own work.

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Instead of rating and judging a person's performance in the past, feedforward focuses on their development in the future.