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Four Ways to Create Authentic Student Learning Experiences

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Four Ways to Create Authentic Student Learning Experiences

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1. Is this a real problem that real people care about?
2. Do students' roles, processes, and products mirror those of the real world?
3. Who is the audience and what is the impact?
4. How can students make personal connections to the work?

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Standing back and seeing your students take the lead can feel like a magical moment for any teacher. But what makes these moments possible? Is it truly magic, or intentional design?

For the past several years, we've been exploring this and related questions through research on project-based learning at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. A central concept that continues to surface is the idea of authenticity. When students take charge of their learning, teachers often describe it as being connected to an authentic experience. But what does that mean exactly?

Our research has identified four questions that teachers and school leaders can ask themselves when trying to design authentic school projects and experiences.

No one really cares if Car A or Car B will get to Phoenix first in the word problem on the math worksheet. Authentic problems are those that ask students to explore problems faced by members of real communities. For example, students might be asked to explore the connections between their city's housing policies, race, and who lives in food deserts, or uncover whether recent extreme local weather is likely to be random or part of a larger, predictable trend. Support students to explore problems with real significance for a community beyond the school walls.

Support your students to take on professional and field-specific roles that really exist in communities working on the same problem. Beyond the team-management roles such as "time-keeper" and "note-taker," have students serve in professional and field-specific roles as well. For example, a student may take on the role of a lobbyist when they engage in policy research or a statistician when they try to make an argument about cause and effect. Similarly, make sure the processes are authentic-instead of asking students to write a position essay, ask them to write a policy proposal. Finally, ensure the products they produce are also authentic-instead of a final test, support students to design and implement a scientific investigation to explore water quality before and after large storms and produce a formal scientific report that outlines their findings. In each case, these roles, processes, and products mirror or approximate those of communities working on similar problems outside of a school.

Establishing a real audience for students' work can quickly transform a simulated or hypothetical experience into a real one. To illustrate, imagine two classrooms, each working on a project on how local city resources are deployed and which members of the community benefit the most. One teacher has students present to the class and herself, while another brings her students to a city council meeting to present their findings. Students will more likely feel the urgency of the question, be more engaged in the process, and appreciate the significance of their work if they can discuss and present it to an audience on whom it might make an impact.

When students can see how their work is connected to their own interests, families, or communities, they experience increased motivation and a deeper understanding of their own connection to their community and world. Whenever possible, teachers should help students make those connections by drawing on students' experiences, interests, perspectives, and ideas, and supporting them to constantly revisit and develop them throughout the project.

Creating an authentic learning experience can feel magical-but it's not about finding the perfect spell. Rather, it requires attention and care to the specific components of the experience and how they come together. Then, you can see the power of authenticity.

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Four Ways to Create Authentic Student Learning Experiences

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Standing back and seeing your students take the lead can feel like a magical moment for any teacher. But what makes these moments possible? Is it truly magic, or intentional design? For the past several years, we've been exploring this and related questions through research on project-based learning at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

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Teaching Students About Keyboard Shortcuts

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Teaching Students About Keyboard Shortcuts

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Teachers can let students in on shortcuts in Zoom, Seesaw, Canva, and more so they can be efficient and feel confident when using apps.

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Teachers can let students in on shortcuts in Zoom, Seesaw, Canva, and more so they can be efficient and feel confident when using apps.

Fly View Productions/iStock

Sometimes we do it without thinking. A quick Ctrl + Z if we want to undo a word we typed. But where did we learn this? When did we start using shortcuts? A shortcut is a way to save time and work smarter. This can include a keyboard shortcut where a combination of keystrokes helps us avoid clicking through a drop-down menu to follow multiple steps to accomplish a task.

You might remember a moment when a colleague, friend, or family member accomplished something pretty quickly on a device. Perhaps you asked them how they did that, or you saw the shortcut they used, and thought, "I have to try this." Or maybe there's a tool you use all the time, and one day you thought, "There has to be a better way," and you started to search for keyboard shortcuts for a favorite tool, like Microsoft Word or Canva.

Here are strategies you can use to introduce shortcuts to your students to ensure that they have the skills they need to navigate digital spaces efficiently.

Take stock of your favorites

Using a keyboard shortcut is something many of us do without thinking. Before introducing this concept to students, try to stay mindful for a day or two of the shortcuts that you frequently employ.

You might make a mental note or jot down some of the shortcuts you notice yourself using. This could include a quick Ctrl + C to copy a website link to save for later. Or it might be something very specific to your workflow, like using the "Sort Range" option to alphabetize a selection of cells in Google Sheets.

A lifelong tech skill

Introducing shortcuts to students is a great way to give them a quick win. In my book, EdTech Essentials, I write about the power of transferable skills:

"When you help students develop a transferable skill set, you prepare them to tackle situations they have not yet encountered. Students who are independent and adaptable, who understand when and how to troubleshoot, and who can identify the logic and patterns in digital spaces will have a skill set they can apply in many different situations. The goal of developing transferable skills is to prepare students to interact in both current and future online spaces, even if we do not yet know what those spaces may be."

Learning shortcuts can help students boost their confidence and efficiency navigating online spaces, as well as help them build transferable skills they can apply to different digital environments.

Popular shortcuts

A quick online search for "shortcuts for [add your favorite tool here]" can totally transform your workflow. When I did this a few months ago for Google Calendar, a tool I use all the time, I couldn't believe just how many shortcuts came up. If there's a tool that you or your students use frequently, a quick search is a great place to start.

Here are a few more shortcuts for popular tools:

Zoom -Hot keys and keyboard shortcuts

Canva -Shortcuts infographic

Boost efficiency

Noticing how frequently you use shortcuts and which ones are in your workflow can help you see the impact on your workflow. Shortcuts save time on the clock as well as the energy that goes along with clicking a lot of extra buttons or needing extra keystrokes to complete a task.

In a recent episode of my Easy EdTech Podcast, I chatted with Cassidy Puckett, the author of Redefining Geek: Bias and the Five Hidden Habits of Tech-Savvy Teens. In our conversation, she highlighted helping students become more tech-savvy and efficient, which she describes as "finding faster ways of using technology." Some of her ideas include choosing a habit to explore more deeply, such as efficiencies, and considering ways to model skills for students explicitly.

Strategies for modeling

To put these ideas into action in your classroom, the best place to start is modeling in context. Of course, you can share a link to one on a website like those listed above, but it's important for students to see how these shortcuts work within their everyday interactions. You might say, "I'm going to select all of the text on this page by using Ctrl + A" instead of just doing it without any explanation.

You can also ask students, "Is there a quicker way to do this?" and take suggestions of shortcuts from them. Alternatively, you might let students watch as you apply shortcuts using the strategy above or refer to a list of shortcuts as you build these into your own habits.

To help students strengthen their navigational skills and build skills they can transfer into many different digital spaces, introduce shortcuts to boost their efficiency and confidence using technology.

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Teaching Students About Keyboard Shortcuts

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Teachers can let students in on shortcuts in Zoom, Seesaw, Canva, and more so they can be efficient and feel confident when using apps. Fly View Productions/iStock Sometimes we do it without thinking. A quick Ctrl + Z if we want to undo a word we typed. But where did we learn this?

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Planning for a New Semester in the Secondary Classroom

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Planning for a New Semester in the Secondary Classroom

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Consider implementing new routines or policies as part of the new trimester. Routines are key!

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Starting off the new year with a new semester is a great opportunity to reset your classroom expectations and get started on creating the classroom climate you want for you and your students. Planning for the new semester is key to achieving this great dream! And guess what? The planning doesn't need to be extensive, time consuming, or stressful!

Academic scholars have told us for generations that routine is best for student retention and overall success. Use that knowledge as your guide in planning for the new semester for your classes. Develop a routine that will work for your students, and plan based on that design.

Planning a Routine for the New Semester

Start with a bellringer that draws student interest. This can be something from current events, a connection to students lives or experiences, or a review of prior knowledge (this is my least favorite option, but can be valuable).

Transition from the bellringer into the lesson introduction. This is your objective statement! You are setting the standard that you wish to achieve in the lesson with this transition and need to make clear your expectations for the lesson.

Begin a student-centered activity that introduces the content or practices skills. Depending on your class period length, this may be 2-3 different activities that teach and reinforce content and skills for your lesson topic.

Transition from lessons to wrap-up or lesson assessment. Take a moment to go over what you expected students to learn from the activities. Review the key content, help students make corrections, make connections to the bellringer or to current events, and let your students discuss the topic and the topic or lesson significance.

Assess student learning and processing skills. I did this with a simple wrap up prompt or exercise in an interactive notebook format. As students completed the tasks, I circulated to address inaccuracies or issues with student completion. Check for understanding and correct, while using the simple assessment as a check-out for the day. Once it is completed and checked by you, students are finished for the day! Timing of this is vital, though! Match it up to the bell and you are a master!

Plan a New Semester with a Routine that Works for You!

Now set up your routine into your curriculum map or Scope and Sequence as you plan for the new semester. Each day will be the same, with new content and activities inserted as you go. Students know what will need to be completed each day, and your expectations will be clear for daily lessons and even unit completion.

Oh, but don't go yet! Follow these simple tips to make your planning for the new semester even easier and more complete!

1. If you don't already have a Scope and Sequence, grab a free one that will offer mapping suggestions as well as websites to utilize for research and novels for extension learning. I have these ready to go for U.S. History, World History or Civilizations, and Geography. Grab them here!

2. Start with a curriculum map template that will guide you in planning for the new semester and in setting routine. You can find a free and editable template through this link.

3. Find resources that will allow your students to collect content and practice skills at the same time. Use engaging strategies with your resources to place the responsibility of learning on your students. Students will benefit from the lesson on learning as much as they will from learning the content!

Planning with Purpose

Planning for the new semester using these suggestions will not only save you time and stress once the semester gets started, but it will also help you create a classroom where your students are more engaged and, in turn, learn more! It will be a classroom where your preparation shows your commitment to excellence and your expectations for learning are clear!

And, as always, if you ever need any help, reach out to me! I not only create resources and write these posts to help teachers in planning our awesome courses, I also work with teachers to help guide them through this ever-changing and ever-challenging academic world. I'd love to work with you!

Happy Teaching,

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Planning for the New Semester in the Secondary Classroom - A Lesson Plan for Teachers

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Starting off the new year with a new semester is a great opportunity to reset your classroom expectations and get started on creating the classroom climate you want for you and your students. Planning for the new semester is key to achieving this great dream! And guess what?

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A visible thinking routine to help move from your unit’s context to a service-learning project or activity

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For more information go visit the Project Zero toolbox.

© 2019 President and Fellows of Harvard College and Project Zero. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). This license allows users to share this work with others, but it cannot be used commercially

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For more information go visit the Project Zero toolbox. © 2019 President and Fellows of Harvard College and Project Zero. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). This license allows users to share this work with others, but it cannot be used commercially

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This is a library of interactive non-fiction e-books that we have a 1 year free trial subscription for (Tisha shared it out a week or two ago). It has a ton of really cool books with videos, worksheets, and quizzes embedded that all teachers should look at if you haven’t already.

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6 Simple, Low-Cost Ways to Promote Student Self-Care

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6 Simple, Low-Cost Ways to Promote Student Self-Care

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From communal coloring to collaborative puzzles, these accessible activities offer moments in the school day for kids to pause and focus on their own well-being

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As students reach the middle and high school years, managing increasing academic and personal responsibilities alongside rapid developmental changes can be challenging-and sometimes overwhelming.

For many tweens and teens, prioritizing mental health and wellness is often the last thing on their minds.

"Adolescents face social, emotional, and hormonal changes, often with little or no guidance," writes high school math teacher Ty'ara Jones. As they begin to transition into adulthood, they're often "unsure of what they're experiencing both mentally and physically. Sometimes they're afraid and confused. Some don't know how to 'properly' express themselves, so they bottle their emotions, only to become overwhelmed."

Schools can help support students by providing spaces for them to decompress and release stress throughout the day, even if it's just for a few minutes between classes, says high school counselor Lisa Carr.

"It's challenging for kids to fit in self-care," Carr says. "I ask my students, 'when are you doing things that make you happy and bring you joy?' That can be something they struggle with-they've got to study, they have an internship, they have to stay after school for practice. So even 10 minutes to work on a puzzle with a friend or do some coloring, that's a break from the stress of their day, and that can have an impact."

These sorts of initiatives increase feelings of school connectedness and help foster a nurturing and supportive school environment. Students who felt connected to adults and peers at school, according to a recent report from the CDC, reported feeling sad or hopeless less frequently and were less likely to consider suicide than their peers who felt isolated or alone.

"School connectedness is a key to addressing youth adversities at all times-especially during times of severe disruptions," says Kathleen A. Ethier, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health. "Students need our support now more than ever, whether by making sure that their schools are inclusive and safe or by providing opportunities to engage in their communities and be mentored by supportive adults."

Here are six inexpensive, low-lift initiatives designed to offer students opportunities to connect with adults and peers in ways that prioritize self-care and wellness:

Communal Coloring: Hanging large sheets of paper for coloring murals allows students to work together and connect through art-and because it's on paper, they can start fresh throughout the year.

After seeing the effectiveness of this stress-relieving strategy with students at a local college, and with permission from her principal, Carr placed a coloring mural in the hallway near the cafeteria in her school building.

"I remembered a mural hanging up in a residence hall," she recalls. "It was really popular. When students got out of classes, they would go and color. It was a great community builder-you'd have students who were standing there coloring alone and they'd start talking to other people."

The mural had a similar effect at Carr's high school. A few envelopes taped to the wall hold markers and colored pencils that students can use to contribute between classes, or even between songs at the homecoming dance. Educators can join in the fun, chatting with students about their additions and color selections or by coloring in a panel or two themselves.

Kindness Rocks!: A few basic materials can turn simple rocks into encouraging and supportive messages and reminders for students to find around campus.

High school counselor Ryan St. John organized a 'Rock On, Keep On' event, inviting students to congregate in an open area-the school foyer, for example-during lunch or other free periods to paint motivational messages on landscaping rocks.

The activity, hosted during Suicide Prevention Month, provided an opportunity for students to mingle and enjoy themselves, while encouraging them to practice empathy and support mental health and well-being. "There are startling and sobering statistics showing 19 percent of high school students in the U.S. have seriously considered suicide," St. John says in Spotlight News. "That is one in five students walking the halls of our high school. It is a statistic that deserves more of our collective attention."

Students produced over 200 painted rocks during the event, with messages ranging from "Never give up" to "You are not alone in your struggles. It may seem dark right now, but that is temporary. Someone loves you. You are strong. There is hope."

Motivational Messages: Handwritten notes from teachers can have a powerful impact on students, helping them feel seen and valued. Similarly, small notes of encouragement that students can take for themselves or deliver to a friend help foster a sense of caring and community.

The biggest lift is at the start: You'll need to spend a bit of time jotting positive affirmations on Post-It notes. Educator Olivia Gordon, for example, writes encouraging messages like, "Have an awesome day," "Wherever life plants, you bloom," "Be brave," and "Live the life you love." Stick them on a bulletin board or poster board in a high-traffic area inside the school building, and consider providing additional Post-Its and markers along with a sign-"Take What You Need, Leave What You Can"-so passersby can contribute additional inspirational phrases.

Puzzle Party: Placing puzzles in communal spaces where students gather offers a low-stakes opportunity for kids to decompress for a few minutes during the school day.

In the reception area of the counseling center at Bethlehem Central High School-where students check in for counselor appointments-several puzzles are set up at a large table for kids to work on while they wait. Once they leave, other students can jump in to add a few pieces to the puzzle. The initiative, which began with a few puzzles purchased from The Dollar Store, became so popular that students started bringing in their own puzzles from home, Carr says.
Courtesy of Lisa Carr
Working on a puzzle has similar benefits as meditation, says licensed clinical psychologist Michelle McCoy Barrett in Popsugar. Solving puzzles can help relax the mind and body, she says, "decreasing stress, and even slowing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure."

Balance Through Bubbles: Though deep breathing and mindfulness exercises using bubbles are typically targeted toward earlier grades, older kids aren't immune to the calming effect of gentle bubble blowing-especially at stressful times, like right before midterms or finals.

Instruct students to inhale while imagining they are a bubble, writes elementary school counselor Keri Powers. "Focus on your body being filled with air. As you blow out, feel your body relax, letting your thoughts about the past and future float away, just like a bubble floats. Focus simply on your present feelings and thoughts about the current moment."

Since bubbles can get sticky or spill, setting up a station staffed with an adult outdoors or on a tarp can help minimize the cleanup and ensure things don't get too messy.

Collective Graffiti Wall: Hang several poster-board size sheets of paper in the school hallway and invite students to use them as a graffiti canvas. They'll quickly transform it into a vibrant art display using nothing more than colored markers, an interesting prompt, and their imagination.

Graffiti walls are sometimes used in classrooms as an alternative to reading logs -a space for students to jot down quotes that resonate with them-but when placed in school hallways or other communal spaces, they can become a space for students to express themselves, ponder engaging questions, and interact with peers.
Courtesy of Lisa Carr
Try a low-stakes prompt like "What TV or movie characters do you wish were real? Why?" or a seasonal question like "What's something that you're thankful for?"

To protect the graffiti wall from being vandalized, consider storing the markers in the front office or a nearby classroom where students will have to come in and request one to add an answer, Carr suggests. And keep a bottle of white-out handy to cover up unwanted additions.

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6 Simple, Low-Cost Ways to Promote Student Self-Care

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As students reach the middle and high school years, managing increasing academic and personal responsibilities alongside rapid developmental changes can be challenging-and sometimes overwhelming. For many tweens and teens, prioritizing mental health and wellness is often the last thing on their minds.

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Teaching Students to Manage Their Digital Assignments

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Teaching Students to Manage Their Digital Assignments

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Predictable routines can teach students how to use organizational tools and help them develop their executive function skills.

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Executive Functioning Skills

Predictable routines can teach students how to use organizational tools and help them develop their executive function skills.

Drazen Zigic / Shutterstock

You just wrapped up an invigorating conversation with your 10th-grade students. They contributed brilliant ideas, and you're looking forward to reading the written reflections you assigned for homework. But when you log into Google Classroom the next day to grade their work, you find that nearly half of your students didn't submit the assignment. Only two-thirds of them even opened the document.

So many students who are engaged in real-world learning activities struggle to complete assignments in the digital world. Digital work is often out of sight and out of mind the moment they leave our classrooms. It can cause teachers and parents to wonder if being organized is even possible in our tech-focused society.

1-to-1 Devices are Permanent Fixtures in Today's Classroom

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic pushed most schools into a virtual teaching model, students spent much of their instructional time on a device. A 2019 study out of Arlington Public Schools found that middle school students spent 47 percent of their time and high school students spent 68 percent of their time on a device. Findings from the study suggest that devices are frequently used for "reference and research, presentations and projects, and feedback and assessment."

By the return to in-person learning, 90 percent of students had access to a one-to-one device for school, and it's evident that technology in the classroom (and workplace) is here to stay.

Teaching Digital Organization Skills is Key

Although they have access to a myriad of digital organization tools ( myHomework, Evernote, Google Keep, and Coggle, to name a few), students may still struggle to organize their assignments and complete them from start to submission. We often assume that students can transfer organizational skills from the real world to the digital world, and we often ask them to quickly and seamlessly transition from hard-copy work (reading a chapter in a novel, completing a science experiment) to digital work, such as writing a reflection in Google Docs and submitting it to a learning management system (LMS).

Digital files are perceivable to the human brain, but they aren't tangible in the same way that binders, notebooks, and folders are. And while an LMS may aid students' access to information, it doesn't do the heavy lifting of organizing information and prioritizing tasks. These actions are highly demanding cognitive skills that students can be taught and practice in the digital world-even if students have already perfected them in the analog world.

Teachers can prioritize strategic, direct instruction of organizational and other executive functioning skills for a tech-focused world.

Streamline Your Classroom Resources

The first step in helping students organize digital work is to organize your classroom resources on the back end. In coordination with your department, grade level, or district, choose one LMS and three to four instructional resources, and stick with them for the entire year. For example, you could select Google Classroom as your LMS and use PearDeck, Google Calendar, and EdPuzzle as instructional resources.

Though it's tempting to adopt new and exciting technology as it evolves, a revolving door of programs is difficult for students to juggle and can lead to app fatigue.

Teachers can further streamline their classroom resources by color-coding folders and files in their chosen LMS, posting log-in directions in easily accessible locations, and offering a landing page in their LMS that holds all of the links to digital resources.

Create Predictable Routines Around Digital Work

Next, it's important for teachers to create clear and predictable routines around organizing digital assignments.

One routine that I've developed in my classroom is a living table of contents document. I create and print out a blank table of contents for each unit, and students house them in their binders. I then project the table of contents at the start of each class with the day's newest assignments, and students fill in these new items on their hard copies when they settle in. Each assignment is numbered, and assignments located online that won't appear in their binders are labeled with an "S" (for us, that stands for Schoology) to note that the assignment is in our LMS.

Another predictable routine is entering homework assignments into Google Calendar or agenda books together at the end of every class. Prompting students to write down their homework may seem elementary, but even older students appreciate the predictability and consistency of this routine because it reduces anxiety (rushing to write it down before the teacher moves on) and frees up brain space for critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.

If you're not sure that your current routine is clear and predictable, consider whether or not students could replicate your system in your absence. If students can't get through the routine on their own, your routine may need to be articulated more clearly (such as being posted somewhere in the classroom), or it may need to be implemented more consistently.

Model a Variety of Organizational Strategies

Similar to the process of how academic skills are acquired, teachers can model organizational skills for students. Consider creating opportunities to demonstrate strategies such as how and where to save documents, how to sync information across devices, how to share calendar events with peers and parents, and how to plan for long-term projects.

You can also help students get more comfortable with organizational strategies by sharing "think-alouds" for task initiation, task prioritization, and time management. Consider using common language for reminding and prompting. For example, at the start of every new assignment, you could say something like, "Now that I'm ready to start, I'm going to open up Schoology, Google, and a Word document and close out of other tabs."

Because executive functioning skills are not innate, providing language for them allows students to identify them, replicate them, and use tools to do them more quickly. Prioritizing these skills can improve student outcomes and prepare students for an increasingly tech-focused world.

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Teaching Students to Manage Their Digital Assignments

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Predictable routines can teach students how to use organizational tools and help them develop their executive function skills.

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5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback 

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5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback 

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1. Be as specific as possible

2. The sooner the better

3. Address the learner’s advancement toward a goal

4. Present feedback carefully

5. Involve learners in the process

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Are your students asking “What do I need to do again?” right after you finished giving instructions? Here are some concrete strategies to try in your classroom to help teach active listening skills.

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5 Strategies to Improve Students’ Listening Skills

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Middle and high school students not listening is a common complaint, but listening is a skill like any other—it can be improved with practice.

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A variety of activities to break up your class period when students need a break

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I don't know about you, but when I sit through a faculty meeting or professional development session of any sort, I start getting antsy by the 30-minute mark. If you can relate, just imagine how your students must feel when they've been sitting for too long. Educational brain breaks are the perfect way to help your students redirect their energy and focus when they start to fade.

I find it super-beneficial to incorporate quick mindful, physical, and mental check-ins with my students as a regular part of my classroom routine. These breaks include all types of movement, yoga and breathing exercises, as well as jokes, quick videos, and more. The activities I use have helped me throughout my lifetime, so I love sharing them with my students. Here are my favorite educational brain breaks that are sure to increase productivity and give your kids a much-needed way to unwind before the next lesson.

Mindful Educational Brain Breaks

1. Use transition times for mental check-ins

Transitions are a big part of the elementary school day. When I first started teaching 19 years ago, I was surprised by just how much time it takes to get ready for specials or to bring students back from centers. It's hard not to feel like that's lost time. That's why using transition time for mental health check-ins is such a game changer. Mental health check-ins can help students get in touch with their emotions, refresh and recharge, acknowledge and cope with negative thoughts and overwhelming feelings, and be more focused throughout the day.

2. Pretend to breathe like an animal

Source: Stephanie Sanders

This video shows students how to pretend to breath like some of their favorite animals. The snake breath involves hissing while slithering from side to side, while the whale breath has students pretend to breathe out through a blowhole! Tap into creativity by picking other interesting animals and acting them out through breath.

3. Do a 10-minute guided meditation

These guided meditations are educational and are perfect to use as brain breaks whenever you and your students just need to breathe. Catch your breath with any of these 20 guided video meditations.

4. Practice "focus ball" breathing

Walk your kids through the following exercise: Stand or sit with legs and feet together. Bring your palms together in front of your chest. Keep your fingertips touching as you pull your palms apart, forming a ball with your fingers. Press your fingertips together until you feel the muscles in your hands and arms activating. See if you feel your core tighten too. Now close your eyes and as you breathe in, inflate your ball, and as you breathe out, flatten the ball by pushing your palms together. (Repeat these instructions for 60 seconds).

Learn more: Mindful.org

5. Try the old ear-nose switcheroo

This is a quick and easy challenge to reset the brain. Instruct kids to touch their left ear with their right hand and at the same time touch their nose with their left hand. Then have them switch their hands and touch their right ear with their left hand and their nose with their right hand. Switch back and forth a few times. Then have them close their eyes, take a deep breath, and blow it all out.

Learn more: YouTube: Ear-Nose Switch

6. Take a yoga break

Source: The Pyjama Foundation

Inspire kids to move, stretch, and practice mindfulness with yoga. These printable yoga cards make it easy to incorporate yoga into your educational brain breaks. Each page includes a picture and description of the pose, and each page includes poses of increasing difficulty from level 1 to level 5. And don't worry, it's not a huge time commitment. The sequence on each card is designed to take only a few minutes.

7. Stretch it out

It's never a good idea to spend too much time sitting in one position. Allow kids to take a break and bring some flexibility back into their spines. Have them stand with their feet shoulder-distance apart. Put their left hand on their hip and raise their right hand overhead. Lean to the left and stretch their arm as far as they can to the left. Repeat on the right side. Then stand tall and slowly roll down one vertebra at a time until their hands reach the floor (or at least their shins). Have them take a deep breath then slowly roll back up. Repeat as necessary.

Learn more: Mom Junction

8. Focus on sound

Have kids sit quietly with their eyes closed. Ring a chime or gong. Have them listen carefully to the chime, feeling the vibration in their body as the sound reverberates and then slowly fades. Tell them to breathe slowly and deeply as they focus on the sound.

9. Do a quick mindfulness activity

Mindfulness activity cards provide great educational brain breaks. Stash a pack in your desk and pull them out whenever you need them. Each card will give a prompt for kids to try that will let them refocus and recharge. Perfect for moments when you need to bring down the energy in the room.

Buy it: Mindfulness Cards for Kids at Amazon

10. Chill out with this cross-body exercise

Have kids stand tall and cross one leg in front of the other while pressing the outsides of their feet together. Now have them cross their arms over each other at the wrists. Clasp their hands and curl their arms into their chest. Take a few breaths, and uncross and cross the opposite way for a few more breaths.

11. Float with jellyfish

When you really need to take the energy in your room down a notch, turn off the lights, set a timer, and put on a calming video. For example, Cat Trumpet put together a jellyfish aquarium video where kids will find themselves under the brilliant blue sea in the middle of a swarm of jellyfish. They'll be mesmerized by the slow, fluid motions and lulled into calmness by the soothing music.

12. Break out the hot hands

This is a good break when you sense a weariness in the air. Have kids rub their hands together vigorously until they warm up. Tell them to close their eyes and place their hands over their eyes. Instruct them to breathe deeply as they clear their minds and refocus.

13. Try cat and cow poses

Source: Flow and Grow Kids Yoga

Have kids start on all fours and then give them the following instructions to complete the cat and cow yoga poses: Place your shoulders over your wrists and hips over your knees. Arch your back to the sky and tuck in the tailbone (cat pose). Let your head fall between your arms. From there, sink the belly towards the ground, and lift the chest and chin (cow pose). Gently alternate between the two poses while breathing deeply.

14. Do nothing for two minutes

Never underestimate the power of stillness. When the energy gets a little ramped up, and it's time for the entire class to take a pause, have them drop everything and glue their eyes to the screen as you show this countdown. The gentle lulling of the waves and the sight of the sun sparkling off the water will reset their nervous system in a jiffy.

Learn More: Calm

15. Spread your wings (in slow motion)

Walk your kids through this winged movement: Sit cross-legged on the floor. Stretch your arms down by your sides with your palms facing inward toward your body. Slowly raise both arms while rotating hands forward. When your arms reach shoulder level, your hands should be facing forward. Continue raising arms, slowly rotating palms so that by the time hands are overhead, palms are facing each other. Slowly lower arms, repeating the rotation (palms facing each other, palms facing forward, palms facing sides) until they are once again resting at your sides. As you raise and lower your arms, stretch them as long as you can, as if you are scraping the sides of the room and the ceiling. Repeat slowly three times, breathing deeply.

Physical Education Brain Breaks

16. Play Silent Ball when you have downtime

You can play a quick game of Silent Ball anytime, anywhere. Play a quick three-minute game right before dismissal or before transitioning to a new activity. All you need is a small squishy ball. The rules are simple: 1) stay quiet and 2) don't drop the ball when passing it around. This activity is one of those educational brain breaks that builds a positive classroom community, fosters friendly competition, and boosts nonverbal communication. Enjoy the silence.

17. Line up in unique ways

Kids are very social and curious beings. Most of them love to chat with one another at any chance they can get. Lining up to leave the room for anything is the perfect chance for them to mix and mingle. Make a more productive use of this time by having students line up in special ways. Some fun ideas include lining up in alphabetical order by name, by birth date, or by height order.

18. Just jump!

Sometimes kids just need to bounce their energy out. Have them pretend they are bouncing on a mini-trampoline (this will keep their movement on a vertical plane instead of all over the room), and give them a couple of minutes to let loose!

19. Take a cue from the stadium

Here's one for a group of kids-start the wave! Beginning at one end of the room, kids stand up and throw their arms overhead, bringing them back down as they return to their seats. Each row follows until you reach the other end of the room. Amp it up by encouraging your kids to tap their feet or tap their hands on their legs so that they are in constant motion. This activity works great on Zoom too!

20. Stir the pot

Have kids visualize they are standing in front of an enormous cauldron. Inside the cauldron is an ooey-gooey pot of caramel. Take hold of a large stirrer and plunge it to the bottom of the pot. Slowly begin to stir in a clockwise direction. Have them use their whole body to help get a full range of motion in their wrists and shoulders. Instruct them to throw their hips into the action. After a minute or two, reverse the direction.

21. Make it rain

Conjure up a rainstorm! Sitting or standing at a desk or table, have kids tap one finger on the desk, then two, then three, then four, then their whole hand until you all feel like you're in the middle of a deluge. Work your way backward from five down to one as the storm ebbs away.

22. Energize with these

First, instruct kids to touch their left elbow to their right knee, then touch their right elbow to their left knee. Switch back and forth, going slowly at first, building speed until they are going at a vigorous pace. Next, do some windmills by standing tall with their feet shoulder-width apart and their arms stretched out. Bend at the waist and touch their right hand to their left toes, then their left hand to their right toes. Switch back and forth.

23. Make X's and O's

Walk kids through the following exercise: Sitting in a chair with your feet on the ground and legs together, curl your body into your lap, folding yourself into a tiny O shape. Next, open your arms and legs wide, forming an X shape with your body. Pull back into an O shape, then back out to an X shape. Repeat three times.

24. Energize in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Get hearts pumping with a quick sequence of exercises. Call out five actions for your students to do as quickly as they can. For instance, five jumping jacks, four push-ups, three sit-ups, two squat jumps, and one tree pose.

25. Take a cruise on an imaginary skateboard

Have your kids line up next to a wall and place one hand on the wall. Tell them to plant the foot closest to the wall and swing the other leg, as if pushing off the ground on a skateboard. Start slowly, with tiny swings, moving up to power pushes. Repeat on the other side.

26. Take a break to groove

Music is a great way to reset the mood in a room and raise the energy level. Put on a fun song and have a 30-second freestyle dance party. Here's a big list of school-appropriate songs for kids.

27. Or take it to the next level

Teach your kids the steps to popular dances such as the Cha-Cha Slide, the Macarena, or the Kidz Bop Shuffle.

28. Ramp up with a round of cherry pickers

This easy activity will get your students' hearts pumping and give their brains a boost. Have them jump up off the ground, then down to the floor into a push-up position. From there, instruct them to hop their feet up into a frog position, then pop up to a standing position.

29. Clap on, clap off

When you say "clap on," kids clap their hands vigorously together. When you say "clap off," they stop as quickly as they can and freeze. Or follow along with this a fun video.

30. Skip it out

When the energy is fading and kids need to get their blood flowing, put on a peppy song and pull out the imaginary jump ropes. Have kids skip or jump rope in place until the song ends.

31. Make like a blender

Tell kids it's time to make fruit smoothies. Ask them to pretend they are in a blender and they are strawberries (or blueberries or bananas, etc.). Dramatically pour orange juice or yogurt into the air in front of you. Tell kids when you flip the switch that they need to wiggle and jiggle (separately, not together) until they are each individually blended up. Start with a slow speed, moving up to medium speed, fast speed, and finally turbo speed. And then reverse it! Start at turbo speed and go back to slow speed.

32. Celebrate with a silent cheer

This activity is perfect for the end of an activity or a sustained amount of work time-especially for kids who are learning remotely. Let kids stand up and silently cheer and gesture in celebration. How animated can they get?!

33. Do a full-body workout

This kid-friendly exercise video is great for your body and brain! Kids can follow along through a set of workout moves that will get their blood pumping.

34. Play popcorn

Students will all be sitting in their chairs, and at any time, a student can jump up and say, "Pop!" Once they do, that student remains standing. If two students pop up at the same time, everyone takes their seats, and the game starts over. How quickly can the entire class pop without having to start over?

35. Hit the wall

Pushing against a solid object is a good way to displace extra energy from your body. Have kids stand facing a wall with their arms stretched out in front of them, palms on the surface of the wall. Push the wall away with all their strength for a count of ten. Relax for five seconds, then push again. Other activities they can do at the wall include calf stretches and wall push-ups.

36. 3, 2, 1 blastoff!

Instruct kids to stand and then squat down with their hands on the ground in front of them. All together, count down 3, 2, 1. When you get to zero, they should push up like a rocket, jumping as high as they can-letting all of their energy burst from their center.

37. Quick as a snap, wink

This is a quick and easy refocusing activity. Tell kids to snap their left fingers while they wink their right eye. Switch to snapping their right fingers while winking their left eye. This activity is particularly effective for younger learners who may find both activities challenging.

38. Balance break

A great way to get kids out of their chairs is to practice balance. Have them hop on one foot. Then up the ante by having them stand on one foot and bend their other knee out in front of them.

39. Tabletop push-ups

Kids can use their desk, a chair, the side of their couch-anything really. Have them place their hands on the table and focus their eyes in the center, moving down slowly and pushing back up.

40. Try some facial gymnastics

Have kids get their silly on for 30 seconds. Tell them to wiggle their eyebrows up and down as fast as they can. Then try to raise one eyebrow at a time.

Mental Brain Breaks That Are Educational

41. Take a comedy break

Comedy is a great release when the atmosphere is feeling a little intense. Show a funny video clip or have kids volunteer to tell a joke or pose a few silly riddles. We have compiled a number of jokes by theme on WeAreTeachers for kids of all ages for guaranteed laughs. For example, your students will love one of our most recent additions, 34 Cat Jokes for Kids. From there, you can find dog jokes, seasonal jokes, food jokes, and much more.

42. Share fun facts

In addition to joke compilations, we have plenty of fun fact lists on our site with themes that will thrill your students. Plus they're an educational way to teach your students new information during brain breaks. Get started with these fun feline facts to accompany the jokes above. Meow!

43. Practice another language

Source: startasl.com

Teach your kids the alphabet in sign language. Use brain breaks to practice by singing the ABCs while signing the letters. Then practice vocabulary words by spelling them out loud while signing the letters.

44. Find out how it's made

Remember that classic Sesame Street video about how crayons are made? We watched in awe as crayons rolled off the assembly line, wrapped in paper, and then slipped into those familiar cardboard boxes. Kids today are just as fascinated by how things are made! Here are our favorite videos about how things are made-from fireworks to LEGO.

45. Take a doodle break

According to researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, downtime is essential for brain health. Kids need time for their growing brains to integrate and process the vast amount of information they receive each day. In other words, it is actually beneficial to give our kids time to allow their minds to wander. Try this: Set a timer for three to five minutes and let kids silently doodle with pencil and paper or a dry-erase board and marker while soft, calming music plays in the background.

Learn more: Sage Journals

46. Try a directed-drawing activity

Directed drawing activities walk your students through the process step-by-step so anyone can create their very own masterpiece. Teachers can lead the session by drawing on the whiteboard or chart paper while students follow along. Even better, there are plenty of videos on YouTube that lead the lesson, giving you a little break too. We have done the work and gathered some our favorite free directed-drawing activities for kids. Grab your favorite art supplies and get creative!

47. Gather your favorite GIFs

Make a slideshow of your favorite GIFs and have your kids act them out. Funny animals are a good place to start!

48. Find the object

Kids don't even have to get out of their seats for this one, but they can! Have one student start by finding an object and saying, "I see something beginning with the letter [fill in the blank]." The first person to guess the item correctly gets to choose the next object. This can be a fun one to play on Zoom too! You can have kids add in additional clues to help.

49. Clap for a little call-and-response

Pep things up with a little call-and-response clapping. It's simple to do and is often used in the classroom to get students' attention. Simply clap out a pattern that your kids will repeat back to you. Switch out the pattern a few times until everyone is focused and engaged. Alternatively, try a vocal call-and-response. Sing out a few riffs and have kids echo the tune back to you.

50. Color yourself mellow

Even grown-ups have picked up on the coloring craze as an excellent way to calm down and zone out. Put on some nice mellow background music, set a timer, and pass out some of these free mandala coloring pages.

51. Try a brain-break spinner

One way to make sure educational brain breaks are effective is to change up activities. Check out these online movement spinners for Wheel of Fortune-type games that help you add variety to brain breaks!

53. Would You Rather?

Students of all ages love participating in Would You Rather? videos, which can be found all over YouTube these days. Each video is approximately 8 minutes long, and students are given two scenarios where they choose which one they would rather participate in. Topics range from food items to activity choices to places to visit and more. As students choose the scenario, they move to either the right or left side of the room. Students then perform 30-second rounds of a specified exercise before repeating the process with another choice. Some of our favorite Would You Rather? channels include PE with Mr. G, Phonics Man, and Fix and Play. Students love when their teacher participates with them in the fun!

Learn more: PE With Mr. G

52. Write it out

Don't underestimate the power of journaling or creative writing. Give your kids a 5- or 10-minute break to open up a page of their notebook and write about anything they'd like. They don't have to share it with the class or do anything else with it; just use the quiet time to focus on something they love and want to write about.

Educational Video Brain Breaks by Grade Level

54. Brain-break compilations by grade level

If you are looking for a sample of brain breaks suitable for your students by grade level, look no further. We have created separate links of 25 videos each for individual grades at the elementary level. Go down the list and find your favorite!
Kindergarten Brain Breaks First Grade Brain Breaks Second Grade Brain Breaks Third Grade Brain Breaks Fourth Grade Brain Breaks Fifth Grade Brain Breaks
What educational brain breaks do you love? Share them in the comments!

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Quick, easy educational brain breaks that will help students re-energize, refocus, and give their brains a much-needed boost.

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This is a tool for creating custom rubrics. It is an optional tool that you can play around with.

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Welcome to Quick Rubric – Free, Fast, and Easy to Use! :)

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Quick Rubric – FREE, fast and simple rubric creator

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This article includes a good explanation of what Service Learning is and has several useful examples to help spark ideas.

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Here’s a simple definition for service learning with details and resources for planning a unit.

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“I’m a Poet”: Motivating Students the Write Way

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“I’m a Poet”: Motivating Students the Write Way

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This one is a bit longer, but not just for English teachers! Great insights on motivating students in the first couple of paragraphs. Especially good for MS.

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When I first began teaching 48 years ago, I believed that the right type of motivation could encourage middle level learners to respond to any reasonable task. I didn't wish to be insincere because students in middle school do not respect a teacher who uses the bad-tasting prescription medicine approach to addressing curriculum: "It's really not that bad." "You'll get used to it after a while." "Someday you'll actually thank me for this experience."

I have avoided using these phrases because they never worked for me when I was a middle school student. Instead, as an educator, I decided that I would try to find a way to motivate my students so they would be less anxious about and more receptive to these parts of the curriculum that may have traditionally been thought of as less inviting. I base this reasoning on my own reluctance to delve into the field of science. Areas such as biology and chemistry can be a bit daunting for me. However, a great motivator and teacher such as Bill Nye, the Science Guy can make even the most complex formulae seem manageable and interesting. My Bill Nye was my high school biology teacher, Mr. Guthrie. He brought energy and excitement to every lesson as he took the complex and made it simpler so that we all looked forward to our science lessons, regardless of interest or ability level. My fellow students and I felt respected and thereby motivated because Mr. Guthrie demystified biology class for us.
Setting the Stage for Motivation
The proper motivation delivered enthusiastically can gain both the interest and the favor of even the most reluctant learners, whether the task involves learning about chromosomes in science, playing volleyball in gym, taking photos in yearbook club, or even writing poetry in English.

Fortunately, I realized early in my career that prioritizing creating an inviting and engaging classroom climate pays big dividends. When I lead with positive feedback and follow with constructive criticism, my students typically have been willing to take reasonable risks with their writing and accept well-intentioned, positive feedback. My students find that their mistakes can be managed and actually converted into learning opportunities that build grit and resilience. These risks do not end in disasters if the risks are supported by encouragement. As is stated in The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, it is an "engaging" curriculum that fosters "a learning atmosphere that is relevant, participatory, and motivating for all learners." Furthermore, we "Educators must respect and value young adolescents" as we "provide a "Curriculum (that) is challenging, exploratory, integrative, and diverse."
Easing into Poetry
My students begin the year writing poetry. We study the traditional minimalist poets as well as modern poets whose works take a more minimalistic form so that students are not being intimidated by some of the more daunting and cryptic classic poets. This approach of easing into poetry through welcoming voices takes the stigma off poetry since the works we study are easy to decipher and fun to read. This is not to say that classic poets don't have a place in my classroom. Rather, they will be introduced once a general appreciation of poetry has been cultivated in an inviting and dynamic manner.

We study poetry for the impact of that which Laurence Perrine (1977) identifies as "sound and sense" of language. When this splendid transformation occurs, my students readily use their poetic tools to create not only poetry but also prose that is infused with the sounds of poetry. Thus, my students and I are inspired by poetry as we write to enhance the description of those items and ideas that are being featured in our compositions. Along with our study of literary devices including metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and so many more, we read and write both prose and poetry that incorporates these devices.

We enhance vocabulary using a daily "Word of the Day" activity. Students write sentences containing ten or more words, and I encourage them to begin to incorporate one or more of the poetic devices that we are studying. A reasonable amount of silliness is evident and often encouraged since as they become more relaxed their creativity flows more readily. From the suggested length of ten words or more, we graduate to fifteen and then twenty or more words. Recently, I challenged the students to expand even more into the thirty or more word range. This process is gradual since all learners feel more comfortable and are more apt to take risks when they feel that those risks will be rewarded and at times refocused rather than squashed for the inappropriateness of fun during a lesson. We understand that the fun must be supported by, but never separated from the fundamentals.

As one example, with the Word of the Day bolded below, student Paulina P began the year writing fundamental sentences such as:
"The federal government initiated litigation "As I slowly glued the vase piece by piece back together I realized that the vase would never look the same, just like our friendship would never be the same again. When we broke that vase we broke our friendship as well. We could always try to conceal the damage to the vase, but the truth is that the vase will always be askew When Poetry Defines their Prose . In similarity as we conceal our friendship, it may look the same to outsiders, but we will always know that between us there will always be something in our friendship out of line. Our friendship may never be the same, but I'll always know that Marissa Smith was my first best friend." against the major corporation for polluting the local streams." Hear Me I hear you, understand you, and accept you. You don't hear me, You don't understand me, You don't accept me. I can speak, I can hear, I can teach. So let me speak. Let me hear. Let me teach you something. Give me something more valuable than what I have now. Give me my own identity. Give me my own voice. Give me my own strengths. Let me be Me.
With encouragement and a sense of playfulness and comfort, she wrote later in the year the following piece that's filled with description and a strong voice. Paulina observed:
Keep Your Voice they take your voice control your thoughts take over your movements you've lost yourself struggling to pull back the little bit you remember what's my personality? what's my culture? what do I like? perfection is key they say but who are they to say what perfection truly is they teach you the language the actions the thoughts and words they speak to you tell you to act this way say things that way but you can't speak no no no foolish of you to think you're allowed to have a voice their controls are strong stronger than you ever wish to imagine and they may try and try to take what makes you away but let yourself keep your voice and tell them who you are not them or anyone else you and when you do that oh how you flourish oh how you Flourish.
Notice the expertise being shown through a strong personal voice, a definite point of view, and the metaphor of the broken vase connecting to the change in the substance of a friendship.

The result of this approach is that the poetry my students produce is sublime. Their use of poetic devices isn't lost throughout the year since their poetry defines their prose while their prose does the same for their poetry.
They say it doesn't matter About What I think But they've never met Me They've seen Stereotypes They've seen Others But they've never met Me If only for my looks You're blonde, you're stupid. I know I'm blonde Who cares? You play basketball, that's cliche. Who cares? You play soccer, you're a wimp. Who cares? Ballerina, hah, what a girly girl. Who cares? You look like a ghost. Who cares? I try to ignore I try to face the pain But all I do is Drop Down To a lower level And beat myself up With those words Clear skies and sun For today And wind and storms The next day And nothing can take Your words Out of my head I'm like a crumpled piece of paper It can never be a new sheet again Because of your words I reach For confidence I reach For the truth But I don't know what the truth is Maybe I am dumb Maybe I am a wimp Maybe I am just a girly girl I don't know You beat me up with only A sentence And it hurts More Than getting punched In the stomach Maybe I'll be okay I Say Maybe But You'll Never know Because all you Think about Is my looks And My first impressions
Notice how student Victoria B in "Hear Me" addresses personal identity. The use of repetition for effect and magic 3s is uncanny. Notice the use of this technique from the opening verse ("I hear you, / understand you, and accept you.") until the next to the last verse ("Give me my own identity. / Give me my own voice. / Give me my own strengths."):

Similar to Victoria B, Mia T artfully uses the magic 3s to create a haunting rhythm in her piece. Mia feels empowered as she seeks equity by engaging in reflection on a theme common to most middle level learners. In 18 lines, she delivers a message filled with questions that every middle level learner has pondered:

There is power in these words that are designed to deliver a message with a definite rhythmic pattern often found in rap music. In fact, this similarity is common to the rhythms found in Amanda Gorman's works. Feel the rhythm in Gorman's "New Day's Lyric" (2021) when she states: This hope is our door, our portal. / Even if we never get back to normal, / Someday we can venture beyond it, / To leave the known and take the first steps. / So let us not return to what was normal, / But reach toward what is next. " Notice how Mia incorporates a similar comfort when developing rhythmic patterns and both intentional and internal rhymes in these words: " no no no / foolish of you to think / you're allowed to have a voice / their controls are strong / stronger than you ever wish to imagine / and they may try and try / to take what makes you / away / but let yourself keep your voice / and tell them / who you are"
References
Next, consider the impact of the statement being made by Margot H in this poem.

Margot adds a haunting repetition to this poem that deals with adolescent angst. This is evident in the first verse of the poem: I know I'm blonde / Who cares? / You play basketball, / that's cliche. / Who cares? / You play soccer, you're a wimp. / Who cares? Ballerina, hah, what a girly girl. / Who cares? / You look like a ghost. / Who cares? Mix in a simile (I'm like a crumpled piece of paper / It can never be a new sheet again / Because of your words) and the power of this poem is electrified as a result of the synergy resulting from the poet's wordsmithing.

It is easy to see that poetry for my students is not simply a study of rhyme schemes and a couple of literary devices. Rather, it is a bridge that is constructed cooperatively to foster reflection and the development of a strong personal voice filled with passionate observation. Inner voices are given a platform in my classroom as we seek to practice AMLE's "essential attributes" of responsiveness, challenge, empowerment, equity, and engagement. By doing so, my students are developing a strong, personal voice that reflects their individual and collective personalities as they continue to use language to discover themselves and the world around them. As the National Council of Teachers of English so eloquently states in their position statement Understanding and Teaching Writing: Guiding Principles (2018), " Everyone has the capacity to write. Writers are not static. They develop skills and enhance their writing skills throughout their writing lives; thus, writers grow continually. Becoming a better writer requires practice. The more writers write, the more familiar it becomes. As writers, sometimes they feel confident; at other times, they may feel afraid and insecure. Therefore, students learn to write by writing."

My students and I follow this guideline daily. Won't you join us?

Albrecht, J. R., & Karabenick, S. A. (2017). Relevance for learning and motivation in education . The Journal of Experimental Education , , 8. Academic Search Premier.

Bishop, P. A., & Harrison, L. M. (2021). The successful middle school: This we believe , 8-9. Association for Middle Level Education.

Gorman, A. (2021). New day's lyric. Retrieved 4 5 2022, from https://abc7.com/poem-amanda-gorman-poetry-new-days-lyric-2022/11407593/

NCTE. (2018, November 14). Understanding and teaching writing: Guiding principles [NCTE Position Statement]. NCTE. Retrieved 3 23, 2022, from https://ncte.org/statement/teachingcomposition

Perrine, L. (1977). Sound and sense: An introduction to poetry (L. Perrine, Ed.; 5th ed.), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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"I'm a Poet": Motivating Students the Write Way - AMLE

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When I first began teaching 48 years ago, I believed that the right type of motivation could encourage middle level learners to respond to any reasonable task. I didn't wish to be insincere because students in middle school do not respect a teacher who uses the bad-tasting prescription medicine approach to addressing curriculum: "It's reallyRead More...

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Tips for Finishing the Year Strong: Advice and Lessons Learned from AMLE’s Leadership Institute Faculty

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Tips for Finishing the Year Strong: Advice and Lessons Learned from AMLE’s Leadership Institute Faculty

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Great tips for teachers when addressing misbehavior towards the end of the year.

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We're in the home stretch - the end of the school year is in sight. There's no sugar coating it, this has been another challenging year. While we hope that next year brings more of the calm and routine that our young adolescents crave, in the meantime how we can use the remaining days of this year to finish strong and set ourselves up for success in the year to come? We sat down with five of AMLE's Leadership Institute faculty for their advice and lessons learned.
Supporting Student Wellbeing
"It's no secret that kids are having more trouble self-regulating," says Phyllis Fagell, author and school counselor, adding that there are some easy-to-implement tactics we can use to support them. When students make mistakes, for example, "give them a plausible reason for making that mistake before offering them constructive criticism or imposing a consequence. You might say, 'I'm guessing you did that because you thought it was funny, and I can understand that...' They'll be more open to behavioral correction if you start from a place of understanding."

Similarly, students - and even your colleagues - may need a little encouragement asking for help when they need it. Phyllis recommends giving kids face-saving, dignified ways to ask for help. "Maybe they place a specific, pre-designated object on their desk when they want their teacher to know that they need a break or help understanding an assignment," she recommends. She also recalls a piece of advice she received this year from Jae Lee, a principal at a neighboring school, when she recently interviewed him for an episode of the Middle School Walk & Talk podcast. "He grew up in South Korea, where kids turned down help unless an adult offered it three times. If a teacher offered to help you three times, THEN you knew it was okay to accept their assistance. That's consistent with what students have told me about the difficulty they have asking for (and receiving) help. Along those lines, offer help three times, whether you're extending support to a student or a member of your staff."

Veteran teacher Cheryl Mizerney added that incorporating movement into class is essential as the year winds down: "Go outside whenever possible and bring on the fun!"
Tips for Administrators
Our administrator faculty's advice aligned along a common theme: celebrating the positives from this past year and the resilience of your staff and students. "This year has been one challenge after another, one fire after another," acknowledges Cedrick Gray, Director of Education for Shelby County Government, "But, for those who have paid attention, it's also been one miracle after another, one moment of grace after another. This summer, after the last bus rolls off the lot, take time to reflect on those positive moments. Once you have made a list of them, create a way to celebrate them and share with staff and students when they return in the fall. This way of coming back to school sets a tone of resilience and perseverance. It will have a remarkable effect on your school community."

Ann McCarty-Perez, author and former principal, echoes that putting your people first can help you recenter as the school year winds down. She counsels, "Don't let the administravia take away from precious moments with teachers and students. The end of the year is so busy with paperwork that it can keep us from enjoying the best resources in our schools: the people. Put off what you can in order to enjoy those last few weeks." Phyllis adds that a simple way to make your staff and students feel seen and valued is to pass along any-and-all compliments, "whether they're from a peer, a colleague, a parent or someone in central office. Be as specific as possible. Everyone feels vulnerable these days, even the most competent student or teacher, and everyone does better when they feel seen and valued."

Adding to the importance of people, principal and author Dru Tomlin reminds us not to forget your team when putting this year in review: "Your people are essential when reflecting on this past year." He recommends taking time to "genuinely assess what to stop, start and strengthen for next year-and invite multiple voices into that conversation." At the same time, don't forget to remember your "why" as you plan for next year. While you absolutely need to plan out time for self-care and rest, "always be thinking about how something creates a great middle school experience for students, staff and families."

Finally, Katie Powell, AMLE Director for Middle Level Programs and Chair of the Institute, had gratitude to share for educators after working with schools from around the world throughout this past year. "I've had the pleasure of meeting with principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, counselors, teacher leaders, and district administrators from across the country and beyond," she said, "The vast majority of these meetings have been interrupted by students stealing urinal cakes (thanks, Devious Licks Challenge), teachers-in tears-needing a moment of the principal's time, community protests against masks (or for them), contact tracing notifications, and student behaviors ranging from the absurd to the alarming. Each principal or leader I've met with has apologized for these interruptions, but I tell them there's no need-this is all part of the job. To each leader, I simply say, 'Thank you.' This has not been an easy year to carry. Thank you for all you do for your colleagues, your students, and your communities.
AMLE assembles a world-class faculty of diverse expert practitioners for its Institute for Middle Level Leadership. in tackling the challenges of middle school leadership this summer in San Diego or Orlando.

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Tips for Finishing the Year Strong: Advice and Lessons Learned from AMLE's Leadership Institute Faculty - AMLE

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We're in the home stretch - the end of the school year is in sight. There's no sugar coating it, this has been another challenging year. While we hope that next year brings more of the calm and routine that our young adolescents crave, in the meantime how we can use the remaining days of this year to finish strong and set ourselves up for success in the year to come?

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5 Review Activities That Kids Actually Like

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5 Review Activities That Kids Actually Like

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Content review doesn’t need to be boring—here’s how to liven it up and make the information stick. (The first one is my favorite! - RM)

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Content review doesn't need to be boring-here's how to liven it up and make the information stick.

In classrooms, pre-test review isn't an especially popular activity. "Do you ever dread when it's time to review for an assessment? More importantly, do your students?" asks an article published by AMLE, the Association for Middle Level Education.

Dread or not, it needs to be done: To make learning stick, students require repeated opportunities to engage with content. Meaningful review activities start with a solid understanding of "where students are weak and where there is already good understanding," says eighth-grade math teacher Tara Maynard, who culls this important information from a Desmos or Socrative activity, or a formative assessment. "I would estimate that 75 percent of the review is on what they're not grasping well and the rest is continued practice on what we're already understanding," Maynard tells AMLE.

To make reviews more engaging, or even fun, you need to find the right balance between effectiveness and motivation, mixing evidence-backed tactics that improve retention with gamification, group work, or movement. A great review activity is self-checking-students don't need teacher input to assess the accuracy of their answers-allows for some student choice, and builds in partner work, says Maynard, who has taught middle grade math for 24 years. This approach allows kids to cover more ground at their own pace as they review material, and frees Maynard up to work with individual students or small groups when needed.

Maynard also recommends building in movement-designing a review activity that requires kids to visit different stations in the classroom, for example-to keep kids energized and focused. Finally, she likes to use review time to reinforce her students' metacognitive skills: "Usually on that review day, I make them stop and think about what's going to be on the test so they can consider their approach," says Maynard. "I often tell them: 'Don't practice the things you already know how to do, practice where you're unsure so I or your partner can help.'"

Here are five super-engaging review strategies that kids like, selected from Maynard, and from our Edutopia archives:

Molly Mistakes (Correct the Teacher): Create a review assignment, or a set of problems, and then solve them yourself-but incorrectly ("you can do all of them wrong, or just some," Maynard suggests). Working in pairs, have students work through the problems, correct your mistakes, and provide feedback. Students love correcting teachers...

Jeopardy!: Borrowing from the popular game show, this game doesn't require specialized software-you can use PowerPoint or Google Slides to create the game grid, or the templates at JeopardyLabs-and it's adaptable across content areas. For a more lo-fi approach, create the grid on poster board using Post-it notes. To promote deeper thinking, consider having students help write the questions or problems in advance. In Maynard's math classroom, a game grid might include the column heads: multi-step equations with mostly addition, multi-step equations using subtraction, distribution multi-step equations, and word problems.

Around the Room: Prepare a problem set or other review activity, and using a Word or Google doc, type the 1st problem or question at the bottom of page 1. Type the answer to the 1st problem on the top of page 2. Next, type the 2nd problem at the bottom of page 2, and the 2nd answer on the top of page 3. Continue until the last answer is typed on the top of page 1. Print out the pages and hang them around your classroom, says Maynard, but not in order. "Students can start anywhere and solve the problem on the bottom half, then find the answer on another sheet of paper," she says. Students should end up "back where they started."

Rapid Review: For a quick review activity, high school history teacher Henry Seton opens class with a rapid review that focuses on recently learned content. He starts by asking a question: "What are Locke's views on private property in government?," for example.

Students turn and talk to a neighbor for 90 seconds, then raise their hands to answer the question. If a student gets stuck, Seton calls out "Rescue!" and another student whose hand is raised gives it a try. "Rapid review starts class with energy and excitement. Students feel like the content is sticking," says Seton. "They're getting a lot of cold-call questions, but it's in a safe, supportive atmosphere and helps students feel confident with the material."

Partner Compares: Create two columns of problems. While each row should feature different problems, let students know that each row will have the same answer or solution. Have partners cut the paper in half so each student has a column of problems to work on individually.

They can cross-check answers as they go and work together to spot mistakes if their answers don't match. The activity provides a "combination of independent and partner work," says Maynard. "Students are encouraged to solve the problems independently, and can't just copy an answer, but still have the support of a partner when needed."

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5 Review Activities That Kids Actually Like

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Content review doesn't need to be boring-here's how to liven it up and make the information stick. In classrooms, pre-test review isn't an especially popular activity. "Do you ever dread when it's time to review for an assessment? More importantly, do your students?" asks an article published by AMLE, the Association for Middle Level Education.

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3 Tips for Partnering With Parents for Student Success

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3 Tips for Partnering With Parents for Student Success

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Positive, asset-based communication with families can transform the relationships between teachers, parents, and students.

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Positive, asset-based communication with families can transform the relationships between teachers, parents, and students.

monkeybusinessimages / iStock

For many teachers, having parent contact is like visiting the dentist. We understand the need to maintain communication with parents and guardians. However, these interactions can be uncomfortable for some and entirely unpleasant for others.

When we realize the benefits of building and maintaining relationships with the parents and guardians of our students, we can begin to develop another worthwhile skill set to add to a diverse array of tools. The work begins by embracing a model of partnering with parents in order to strengthen the classroom.

I have found that when students know their parent or guardian and I are on the same page, when we speak the same language, when we support one another, it becomes easier for me to be a warm demander with high expectations of my students. Invoking the name of a parent becomes less of a threat and more of a reminder of our partnership and a shared culture of learning.

Here are three ways to establish and maintain partnerships with parents and guardians:

Determine the Best Method of Contact

Every parent is different. The parents and guardians of our students are small business owners, nine-to-fivers, gig workers who manage multiple jobs, and stay-at-home caregivers. Establishing strong partnerships with parents through effective communication involves a willingness to be flexible with our mode of messaging. For those of us who are introverts, this does mean that we will have to pick up the phone sometimes.

I have found that most parents are just as busy as we are and often prefer emails and text messages. Still, the tone and content of text messages and emails can be misinterpreted. Sometimes, going the extra mile to make a phone call can be the difference between a successful collaboration that mitigates student challenges and a stressful exchange that produces little support on the home front.

Normalize Positive, but Realistic, Communication

Most commonly, we contact families to notify them about student misbehavior and academic failure. However, when a parent or guardian receives positive communication from teachers, they are more likely to be responsive and supportive partners. For our part, as we work closely with our students week after week, we learn to identify the wins at every level. These are the moments that become the building blocks of normalizing positive contact with our parent partners.

We can do so by making a habit of sending a quick message to parents on the heels of acknowledging the student. As a teacher, I would send positive text messages about student effort, improved behavior, and class participation during class. I would even send an occasional picture of an engaged student. When I did so, I noticed an increase in the student's confidence and an improved attitude (even if only for the day).

Spotlighting positive moments in this way, particularly for students with behavioral issues, became a part of the relationship-building process. One of the first times I messaged a parent about their child being engaged with writing during class, the student did not believe me, going so far as requesting to see the text. She told me that her teachers only called home about behavioral issues. That first positive contact alone did not manage all of our issues, but it was a sizable step toward strengthening the relationship between the student, her parent, and me.

However, positive communication should not be disingenuous. Many teachers use the "compliment sandwich" when communicating with parents, saying something nice about a student in order to slip in the real issue, followed by more praise. While this is well-intentioned, parents do not take it as positive communication. What really matters to parents and guardians is whether or not we can express that we see and understand their children.

Reflect on Mindset: Are You Engaging in Deficit Thinking or Taking an Asset-Based Approach?

Understanding our mindset-the way we frame our understandings of students-requires consistent reflection. As we reflect, sometimes we may find ourselves engaged in thinking about goals and challenges from a deficit mindset, fixed on problems rather than finding solutions. In my experience, deficit thinking is prevalent where diversity is not understood and therefore not valued.

Thinking about the families of our students through a deficit lens means focusing on our perceptions of what parents and guardians do not have, what they do not have access to, and/or what they are not capable of. Deficit thinking reveals itself when we engage in conversations about "saving" our students or providing them with food or supplies they cannot get at home. (Having a well-stocked classroom to meet the needs of students is never a bad thing. However, we provide pencils for students because they need pencils, not because there are no pencils at home.)

The concept of partnering with parents, in and of itself, is an asset-based approach to communicating with families about student progress. Communicating with parents through an asset-based approach means asking the question, "How can we work together to address the needs and challenges of your student in order to ensure their success?"

Adopting an asset-based approach to parent communication allows us to see parents and guardians as partners who are invested in their children's success. If we begin our interactions with an asset-based assumption that families care about their children's education, we are less defensive when parents have questions about our classrooms, our instruction, and our roles as teachers. We are able to concentrate our efforts on how we can effectively work together to ensure the success of our students. After all, through an asset-based lens we see clearly that as teachers and parents, we share a common goal.

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3 Tips for Partnering With Parents for Student Success

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Positive, asset-based communication with families can transform the relationships between teachers, parents, and students.

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Using Weekly Goals to Help Students Finish the School Year Strong

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Using Weekly Goals to Help Students Finish the School Year Strong

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As summer approaches, students’ motivation can wane, but goal setting can help them stay on track.

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As we make our way toward the home stretch, keeping students engaged becomes increasingly challenging. The rise in temperatures is accompanied by a rise in distractions and daydreams. On top of that, end-of-year performances, Advanced Placement exams, final summatives, and graduation all contribute to increased stress levels for our students. Especially in a self-paced class like mine, with no uniform due dates, it’s easy for students to lose motivation.

I put a tremendous amount of trust in my students to know themselves and to be responsible. If they tell me that they’re having a bad day, are overwhelmed with work, or didn’t sleep the night before, I give them the opportunity to do work for another class or put their head down for a few minutes. Such instances become more frequent this time of year.

My students themselves recognize when they have begun taking advantage of this trust. I recently polled the class, and they actually requested more structure. I asked, “How can we hold each other accountable for learning without my needing to implement firm deadlines or sacrifice my faith in your decision-making?”

Together we devised a game-changing solution: working with students to set weekly goals for themselves. Students hold themselves accountable and learn important executive functioning skills, like preemptively planning for a day when they might need to catch up in another class.

The strategies below are applicable in self-paced classes like mine and in traditional classes that already have firmer deadlines. In the latter case, use goal setting to help students catch up on late or missing work, devise study plans for finals, or create checkpoints for themselves on final projects.

Facilitating Goal Setting

1. Schedule students for two-to-five-minute meetings. Have a few at the beginning of each class period or right after your opening activity. Keep the schedule of meetings visible so that students know which day they will meet with you.

2. Before the meeting, ask students to prepare. They should be ready to answer these questions:

Where are you? What did you just finish, and what do you need to do next?

Did you meet your goals last week? How might you adjust the volume each day moving forward?

What obstacles do you see coming up this week that might get in the way of having an effective workday? Do you need to plan in a day to work for another class? Are you traveling for a game? How’s your mental health?

3. During the meeting, print out a schedule for the week or month ahead. Ask the students to talk about their answers to the questions above and begin setting goals for the upcoming week. Remind them of anything they may have missed, and help them reflect on the previous week. Students can either set daily goals or set a larger goal that will be due by the next meeting.

4. After the meeting, encourage students to check off their progress on their goal calendars each day. They should also make notes about how things might need to shift the following week.

What It Looks Like

For the last month, I have been using this procedure effectively in two very different classes: my self-paced calculus class and my project-based statistics class.

Calculus students typically set daily goals like “Watch the video on concavity, take notes, and start the practice problems.” They look at the length of each assignment to predict whether they’ll be able to finish it in one class period or two.

The first week, one student set a single goal: “I want to finish all of module 12 by next week.” Each day, he procrastinated. I observed, gently reminding him how many class periods remained before he needed to achieve his goal. During our next meeting, he reflected that he probably needed to set daily goals for himself instead. The next week was far more productive.

Another student who had struggled with motivation all year chose to take work with him outside of class so that he wouldn’t fall behind on his goals. I never require students to take work with them, and this was the first time that he did so.

In statistics, the students typically set larger goals that serve as project benchmarks. Their goals are often things like “Have a clear and workable data set” or “Produce five linear regressions from my data.” These short goal-setting meetings have helped me keep track of their progress on the project and redirect them if they are headed down an unproductive rabbit hole.

The Benefits

My students have learned self-monitoring strategies such as tracking their progress, understanding their own capabilities and limitations, and anticipating their emotional needs. They’ve also learned valuable executive functioning skills like budgeting time and looking ahead to plan for schedule blips. Through this process, they have held themselves accountable for their learning, despite all of the distractions that come with springtime.

All the while, I’ve been able to continue trusting my students to know what’s best for themselves. This process also frees my time to support them in ways that go beyond striving for uniform compliance. Together, this goal-setting structure will get my students and me past the finish line.

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Using Weekly Goals to Help Students Finish the School Year Strong

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As summer approaches, students’ motivation can wane, but goal setting can help them stay on track.

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To help students be more creative and become innovators, teachers must first nurture their own creativity.

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Document Examples of Creative Content

Documenting innovative ideas and resources is a great way to initiate the creative process. Some Twitter accounts that I enjoy following to spark my curiosity are Vala Afshar, who shares content related to innovation and global trends, and lizandmollie, who create awareness about processing emotions in a simple and fun way. A single post from these accounts can potentially help develop an idea for a whole project for the class.

You can find inspiration in social media channels, newsletters, and even general information sites that can lead you to think deeper and question concepts or ideas. I recommend developing your own reservoir of creative content that inspires you. Create a folder on your phone or other device to store these materials. A Pinterest board or screenshots of creative content you come across on social media or elsewhere online can be very useful.

When planning new lessons or projects, revisit these materials to find ideas, concepts, and information you can repurpose for your students. I always refer back to this repertoire of resources before diving into a new project or idea.

For example, in 2018, I documented images related to sailing and exploration as part of my Pinterest inspiration board. Later that year, the images I had collected inspired me to design The Me Project Expo for Hispanic students to explore STEM careers. I created an expo instead of a conference or workshop, where attendees usually remain stationary, so that teens would have a variety of hands-on activities to explore. This is an example of how tracking creative work can spark creativity for your next class project or event.

You can also access the open-source platform Pactful, an award-winning app, curriculum, and series of events that build an innovator's mindset by supporting teen and teacher access to social innovation. Pactful was created by the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego, where I currently serve as the Education Program specialist and help manage this open-source platform as well as the implementation of the annual Jacobs Teen Innovation Challenge.

Integrate Tools That Invoke Curiosity and Imagination

Have physical items-seashells, creative cards, rocks, fidgets, or liquid motion bubblers-on your desk or elsewhere in the classroom to spark creativity and let students connect with their five senses, which can invoke ideas and thoughts, and allow their minds to wander to a creative space.

Let students hold these items before asking them to begin a creative piece or project. The goal is to allow students to feel they can let their minds wander freely when they come in contact with these objects.

A resource you can create as a class is a "creative deck of cards" with open-ended questions that invite students to think creatively. The questions must not have a yes or no answer but should invite students to mentally wander. The following are some ideas for questions to include:

What makes people happy?

What are the most valuable items in this world?

Do rabbits love eating grass?

Students can also design and color the creative card deck digitally, using Canva, or they can create physical cards by printing the ones they designed digitally. Using these creative card decks before brainstorming project ideas can benefit students who need help getting the creative process going. The goal of the card decks is not to provide a solution to any challenges that the students are facing in the classroom, such as struggling to find a topic for their project or creating an outline for their essay, but to allow their minds to meander. Often, the most interesting and creative ideas come to us when we aren't concentrating or overthinking.

Don't forget that although there are many resources available, in the classroom space, creativity begins with you, the instructor-you are the source of inspiration and creativity. You are the creator who invites students to imagine ideas that may seem impossible, and you can empower them to believe that there can be a better way to create good things in this world. You can help them become aware that regardless of their background or a lack of resources, they can achieve whatever they can imagine.

Finally, as an individual, you must also put time and dedication into replenishing your creative juices. You can achieve this by doing activities that inspire you, such as biking, artistic endeavors, music, or whatever puts your mind in a creative space.

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Documenting innovative ideas and resources is a great way to initiate the creative process. Some Twitter accounts that I enjoy following to spark my curiosity are Vala Afshar, who shares content related to innovation and global trends, and lizandmollie, who create awareness about processing emotions in a simple and fun way.

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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This teacher-created scaffolding tool can elevate classroom dialogue, empowering students to express themselves while learning from the ideas of others.

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This teacher-created scaffolding tool can elevate classroom dialogue, empowering students to express themselves while learning from the ideas of others.

Ever been in the midst of a classroom discussion where students are bubbling over with ideas, eager to share? It can look and sound like lots of voices calling out and talking over each other while quieter students try to find a place to enter the fray. You don't want to squash anyone's enthusiasm, but how do you ensure that every student has the opportunity to truly express themselves and hear the ideas of their classmates?

Students' ability to clearly communicate with others in conversation is a critical literacy skill. While goals for speaking are a part of elementary school standards, beginning in kindergarten, teaching talk can feel tricky; it's often hard for students to know where to begin or the next best place to go when responding to someone. A "Progression of Talk" chart can be very helpful in this work-defining starting and ending points for students, as well as all the points in between, when engaging in conversation.

The "Progression of Talk," by Cynthia Satterlee, begins with a student saying anything at all and grows to a student saying something relevant, adding on to what was previously said or disagreeing, clarifying, improving, revising their thinking, provoking more thought, or extending and elaborating-all necessary skills for any form of discourse.

When Cynthia shared this progression during a workshop, I nodded and thought, "Yes, just what I've been looking for!" She helped me see how talk could grow across a range of grade levels and subject areas. As I studied the progression, I thought it could become an even more powerful tool for students and teachers by adding a series of sample talk prompts at each level.
Gwen Blumberg
Observation

The first step of teaching kids how to lift the level of their talk begins with observation: simply paying attention to what students are saying to each other. Is it connected to the original speaker's sentiments or wildly off-topic? Are they putting thoughts into words and able to keep a conversation going or inadvertently shutting it down? Match your observations to steps on the progression and then lean into instruction.

What this looks like inside the classroom:

Providing students with talking prompts like "I agree..." or "I feel differently..." can help them make a connection between what the speaker is saying and what they are adding to grow the conversation.

Similarly, empowering kids to use the phrase "I'd like to add..." helps build a bridge from someone else's idea to their own.

Many elementary-aged children love to share their opinions when they disagree with others. I have heard children do this with short phrases-"That's not right!"-or by sharing how they see things differently without acknowledging the original speaker's ideas.

Introducing Talk Prompts

Displaying talk prompts once you have introduced them to your class can be a powerful scaffold. It's best to write them with students while explicitly explaining the thought process behind the prompts:

"One way we are adding on to what other kids in class have to share is to start by saying, 'Something you just said...' Let's write that on a big sticky note and place it here on the board where we can all see it. We can work on growing our talk by using this language whenever we want to share something connected to the conversation."

This note can then be referred to prior to conversations, with a reminder: "Remember, we are trying to grow our talking skills by saying something that connects to what the person before you said."

Next, point to and provide the talk prompts to help scaffold this work. Slowly building a progression tool with students is much more powerful than displaying it in its entirety at the onset of digging into these skills.

The Evolution of Talk

This process takes time. Support conversations with the talk prompts until students make them their own. If a child begins speaking without them, you can gently say the prompt and encourage them to try again, scooping up this language as their running start. When I am doing this, it reminds me of helping someone learn how to float. At first, my hands are firmly under the person, but soon my words become gentle fingertips just beneath the surface-providing reassurance, stability, and support.

I take my figurative hands completely away when I hear kids incorporating the language of this progression in natural back-and-forths. This might sound like a child adding on to something they've said to clarify a point-"Let me try to say that in a clearer way" or "I'd like to add on to what I said before." And another child sharing how their thinking has changed as a result of considering the thoughts and perspectives of others-"I used to think... but now I think..."

Not only does this exchange sound good, but it honors the thoughts of all speakers and helps kids see how their words are interconnected.

It's important to remember that this progression chart isn't a set of discrete steps or tied to particular grade levels; it can be more fluid depending on what students are saying, how they are interacting, or the focus of your curriculum. For example, with fifth graders in a debate unit, lean into talk prompts that allow students not only to press for more information but to respectfully express differing viewpoints.

As kids grow in this work and try on other successful ways to lift their talk, notice, name, and celebrate what they are saying, then add it to your shared chart. Empower students to use this cocreated visual to gauge their own progress, connect their language to the progression, and set goals to grow. Elevating talk skills in a dynamic way enables students to truly express themselves both in and out of the classroom, shifting responses like "What?!" to "I'd love to hear you say more..."

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Teaching Students How to Have an Academic Discussion

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This teacher-created scaffolding tool can elevate classroom dialogue, empowering students to express themselves while learning from the ideas of others.

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Tips for Guiding Students to Use Writing Time Effectively (MS)

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Tips for Guiding Students to Use Writing Time Effectively (MS)

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Thinking like a coach can help new teachers alleviate some of the common struggles students have with writing assignments.

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For many new elementary and middle school language arts teachers, writing time is one of the most difficult parts of the day. Students have trouble getting started, teachers are unsure of their instructional focus, and there's not much progress. This hurts my writing teacher heart because I know that writing time can be a wonderful time for students and teachers, filled with excitement and productivity.

When working with teachers on their writing instruction, I often hear many of the same struggles:

The variety of needs is too high.

Some students can't keep up with the class.

I'm not sure how to help them.

All of these issues can be brought back to, and helped by, getting to know your students as writers.

Imagine a coach starting the first practice with a new soccer team. The coach has never seen this team in action, but they have a child this age who has played soccer before, so they believe they have an idea of what the children will need to work on and get started with a drill. A few minutes go by, and the coach notices that one player is standing still with his hand in the air, one is speeding through the drill over and over again, a few others are trying their best, and a few more are doing it completely incorrectly.

As much as this coach's heart was in the right place, they missed one important step: assessing the ability of the players. Wouldn't that drill have gone more smoothly, or perhaps not have been started at all, if the coach had watched the players kick the ball around for a bit or play a short scrimmage? Seeing the players in action might have allowed the coach to choose a practice strategy more appropriate for the level of the team as whole.

Just as a coach needs to know their players, a teacher must know their writers. You must be aware of students' understanding of the writing process, their ability to work independently and self-start, and their skill level with writing, as well as what's important in each student's life.

Here are three ways to get to know your students that will allow you to better support them as writers and help alleviate the common struggles of writing time.

Identity Work

You want to know your students not only as writers but as people. Learning about their families, activities, favorites, and places where they choose to spend time will help you interact with them as writers, and it will help them choose topics and story events. As students share about themselves with the class, they'll also get to know each other, which helps create a safe space for students to be writers.

Here are some examples of activities for students to share about themselves.

For grades K-3:

Heart Map: Using a template in the shape of a heart, students draw or write about people, places, or things that they love.

Poster: This can be an All About Me pre-made form or a blank poster paper on which students can do the same as above.

For grades 3-8:

Word Splash: Using a paper template or a digital source, students can list words that have to do with their identity-their likes, culture, family, hobbies, etc.

Questionnaire: Ask students about themselves to get to know them better.

After completing these activities, have students share with the class what they feel comfortable sharing. Students can do this as a whole class, in small groups, or with partners, taking turns on different days. Partners/groups can also switch throughout writing time. In the upper grades, students can share digitally and then discuss.

Pre-assessment

A pretest at the beginning of a math unit provides a starting point for progress monitoring, as well as a data source for student skill level. A pre-assessment in writing will do the same. Have students write something for you that's appropriate to their grade level, with only a little guidance (the same guidance for each student) and zero support. This will serve as your baseline for the unit.

For first grade, for example, use the narrative: "Tell me a story about a time in your life. It can be about a time you felt sad, happy, scared, or excited. Be sure to include a beginning, middle, and end, just like the authors do in stories that we read."

For fifth grade, assign an opinion piece: "Write a persuasive essay on something about which you feel strongly. Once you have chosen your topic, choose your audience and make a plan for your writing. Then, draft your essay, including everything you have previously learned about writing a persuasive essay."

Writing pre-assessments is most effective when you administer them with a class that has built community, where students feel safe. It's also important to calm students' anxiety by letting them know that this writing is not being graded; it's just to help you, their teacher, get to know them as writers.

Analyzing your students' writing pieces will give you an understanding of the skills they've mastered and those they still need to develop. This will allow you to tailor your teaching to the class and their needs as writers. There are some examples of pre-assessments and assessment rubrics in Writing Pathways, by Lucy Calkins.

Observation

As you watch your writers during independent writing time, you'll gain valuable information that will inform your work with individual students as well as the class as a whole. This observation occurs throughout the year.

As they work, observe the following for each student:

Time management

Independence

Attitude

Engagement

Volume of writing

Skill level-generating ideas, planning, sentence structure, structure of writing piece, elaboration, craft, mechanics

When you allow your students to show you what they can do as writers, you'll no longer have the struggles you once had. You won't be wondering how you can help them, because you'll be aware of their strengths and needs. Knowing your students will help you to choose teaching points that will be most effective for all of them.

So, if you're struggling with writing time in your ELA block, try the above helpful strategies and see how knowing your students as writers helps alleviate the problems and bring forward new practices in writing instruction. Before you know it, you'll see a class of busy, excited writers.

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Tips for Guiding Students to Use Writing Time Effectively

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For many new elementary and middle school language arts teachers, writing time is one of the most difficult parts of the day. Students have trouble getting started, teachers are unsure of their instructional focus, and there's not much progress.

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With the right prompts, the bulletin boards in a school hallway—and their digital equivalents—can be used to foster social and emotional learning.

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When you're walking down a school hallway, what do you notice? Does the environment seem inviting and accepting, or does it seem dull and neglected? Are the walls overpowered with color or bare and gray? My point is, bulletin boards are the billboards of classroom halls-they can capture a school's mission, display what students are learning, and be interactive for bystanders.

I'd like to share some strategies to use bulletin boards to promote social and emotional learning. The pandemic brought a wave of anxiety to teachers and to the students and families we care for. Consequently, social and emotional learning is even more important now.

Over the past six years, I have taught in environments with a high number of military children. I can recall growing up as one of these kids and experiencing a lot of anxiety and fear of the unknown, and with the pandemic we've seen even more anxiety, stress, and fear. The ability to recognize feelings and manage them is vital-prior to learning and teaching, our students and staff must first feel emotionally supported.

With the idea of supporting students, when I create bulletin boards I think about how to make them inclusive and helpful. They don't have to be extravagant, over the top with decorations, or overstimulating. If we are displaying student work, I want the work to be varied and not just focused on the "best." This helps every student feel seen and included.

I enjoy creating boards that catch students' attention and make them want to invest a few minutes into looking at what we are sharing. I believe bulletin boards are something that can get easily overlooked, and the right displays can be a helpful tool for students. Below are a few examples of bulletin boards to support students' social and emotional learning and inclusivity.

Supporting SEL and Inclusivity With Bulletin Boards

Breathing exercises: In social and emotional learning lessons, I always incorporate breathing exercises to promote self-regulation, and I believe these exercises make one of the best types of bulletin boards. Combining a visual that introduces students and adults to a calming exercise can be beneficial for all. When you teach breathing exercises, students will start to incorporate these strategies when they need to, like when they are taking a test or feeling anxious. I have used bulletin boards to share images that show students how to do "triangle breathing" and "mountain breathing," for example.

Student check-ins: Checking in with students is a great way to encourage them to express themselves, especially those who may be hesitant to speak up if they feel dysregulated. Connecting students to something like different characters in the Avengers movies is a great motivational tool to get students to recognize how they are currently feeling-are they feeling like the Hulk or Groot today, for example? So I have put up a bulletin board with "Which Avengers character do you feel the most like?" as a prompt above images of five or six characters with different facial expressions.

While students can be hesitant to share how they are feeling, it's important to know how they are feeling because it will affect their learning. You can construct this kind of board as a virtual board using Jamboard, or as a physical interactive board using sticky notes.

Self-reflection: I believe that as educators, we are constantly reflecting on ourselves and our work. A reflection can be a wonderful tool to recognize our accomplishments and a great way to celebrate them. To support this with students, I created a bulletin board-with a laminated background and dry erase markers handy-with the prompt "What have you done today to make you feel proud?" When my class showcased something they were proud of, more classes joined, and eventually students from all grade levels participated.

This board helps create a positive atmosphere and promotes empathy. One student wrote, "I felt proud when I helped someone up when they fell during recess." Having students be reflective is a great way to have them create goals and recognize that we all do something every day we can be proud of, whether it be big or small.

Building empathy: Empathy can be a difficult skill to teach and learn. It takes time to understand how others are feeling and requires being present and listening intently. It gives a sense of hope to see a student being empathetic toward another student, and it builds up the community. For these boards I love using emojis because kids can easily connect to them and they're gender neutral. They're a simple way to have students connect how someone's body might look or feel with specific feelings, and they can promote ways to self-regulate.

For example, a board I call Emoji Emotional Awareness has an angry emoji on the left and a relieved emoji on the right, with this prompt: "If you notice your body feeling like the emoji on the left, what is something that helps you to feel like the emoji on the right? Add a sticky note and give your suggestions."

Then if students are curious they can view the notes and suggestions that fellow classmates have given to help support each other.

Activities: When we engage students in activities, we can challenge them to work toward a goal. With a bulletin board similar to the game tic-tac-toe, students can choose what challenges they want to do.

To set this up, I make a big tic-tac-toe board and fill the spots with the following prompts:

Row 1: List 3 things you like about yourself; What is something you're thankful for?; Stretch up like a tree

Row 2: Write a positive note to someone you care about; Complete a breathing exercise; What is something you do well?

Row 3: Write a goal you have for the week; What is something you hope for?; What was the last thing that made you laugh?

Students can pick three activities in a row-across, down, or diagonally. When students have choice, we know it increases engagement and helps provide motivation to complete a task. This board is a great tool with a variety of tasks to complete that include physical movement, breathing exercises, and reflection.

Situations: When students are tasked to respond to a situation, they need to synthesize it and figure out if it's something positive or dangerous. For example, consider asking students to choose two of the situations below and talk to a partner about what they would do:

There's a new classmate and it's their first day at school.

During recess, a classmate called another student unkind names and shoved another peer.

You see two classmates arguing at recess about who gets to go first in a game.

These scenarios give students a chance to reflect on their own actions and start to recognize situations where they could bring something positive.

Billboards can be more than a tool to hang student work. When used effectively, they can help students embrace social and emotional learning and teach them tools to help reflect and build empathy and kindness toward themselves and others. Making social and emotional learning the first priority for students creates a positive and inviting culture that brings one classroom community together with everyone else in the school.

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When you're walking down a school hallway, what do you notice? Does the environment seem inviting and accepting, or does it seem dull and neglected? Are the walls overpowered with color or bare and gray? My point is, bulletin boards are the billboards of classroom halls-they can capture a school's mission, display what students are learning, and be interactive for bystanders.

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Ready to go and simple one page activities for explicit teaching and practice of ATL skills organized by cluster. Feel free to stop by your MYP Coordinator’s office to borrow a paper version!

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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A Critical Thinking Strategy for Student Note-Taking

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A Critical Thinking Strategy for Student Note-Taking

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This graphic organizer guides students to categorize information while they’re taking notes, leading to deeper engagement.

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This graphic organizer guides students to categorize information while they're taking notes, leading to deeper engagement.

Wavebreakmedia Ltd UC5 / Alamy

Close your eyes and imagine a classroom of students deeply engaged in critical thinking. My bet is that you are not imagining a lecture or anything that resembles a traditional sit-and-get learning environment.

This is unsurprising. As I travel across the country with thinkLaw, supporting teachers with strategies to integrate critical thinking into their daily instruction, I find that teachers are always eager for practical opportunities to get students collaborating, thinking deeply, and engaging in critical thinking.

It is less popular to admit an important reality about instruction: Teachers must plan for and ensure student learning of key vocabulary, procedures, algorithms, and other content-specific and context-specific topics. Even if the idea of the permanent sage on the stage has rightfully been largely discarded, the temporary sage on the stage still has an important place in the classroom. The quadratic formula is still the quadratic formula. The structure of a five-paragraph essay is still the structure of a five-paragraph essay.

Whether you are guiding students through content yourself or having students read, research, or watch a video, the WICK charting process gives students an easy-to-implement method to deepen their engagement during this portion of your lesson. Instead of being stuck in sit-and-get mode, they will shift into sit-and-get-and-scrutinize-and-discuss mode as they process the lesson.

Step 1: Creating your WICK

Have your students divide their notes into a graphic organizer with four quadrants labeled as follows: Weird, Interesting, Confusing, and Knew This Already/Kinda Like. Here is a completed sample WICK on the (not-so-exhilarating) topic of corn prevalence in the United States. The instructions for what goes into each box are straightforward.

Weird: List any facts or details that stand out as weird, strange, or out of the ordinary. This is where students place shocking statistics, surprising scientific phenomena, or "can't believe that works" shortcuts that simplify problems. Students should include anything they might want to fact-check here.

For example, students learning about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly may find it weird that the eggs caterpillars hatched from end up being food for the same caterpillar. It would be like chickens eating their own eggshell.

Interesting: Students should list any facts or details that intrigue them here. This includes information that speaks to their passions, interests, and curiosity. Information in this area of the WICK chart should include topics students want to explore for further research.

For instance, a student studying Shakespeare might find it interesting how dedicated this playwright was to iambic pentameter. Ten syllables in nearly every sentence? That's real commitment!

Confusing: Any facts or details that do not quite add up go in this area of the WICK chart. Include anything that seems contradictory, arguments that are not well reasoned, and ideas that feel flat-out wrong.

Students in racially homogenous schools learning about the Brown v. Board of Education case may find it confusing that their school is so deeply segregated decades after this decision ruled segregation unconstitutional.

Knew This Already/Kinda Like: Students can list any facts here that they knew already or that remind them of a fact, detail, or piece of information they previously learned. Any information that is "kinda like" other things they have learned in the past and can make a connection to goes here.

Discussing The Scarlet Letter in English? Here is where students might note that the protagonist's treatment reminds them of the Salem witch trials or the McCarthy-era hearings on communism. These kinds of connections are a personal way for students to engage in critical thinking.

Step 2: Discussing your WICK

After students have completed their individual WICKs, have them engage in discussion. Talking is simply thinking out loud, so the discussion part of the WICK process allows students to simultaneously integrate critical thinking and transform passive content.

When students discuss their WICKs, a one- or two-minute conversation is often enough to share some deep reflections. Depending on the context, students may not have every quadrant completed. One student's "interesting" could easily be another student's "kinda like," which generates even more opportunities for students to push each other's thinking.

You can also use WICKs to break up the typical "I do, we do, you do" pattern of instruction. If your direct instruction is set to last 10 minutes, consider pausing at the halfway mark to have students share their WICK responses so far. This way, the WICK serves as a helpful classroom management tool during the part of lessons that often leads to off-task behaviors.

In sum, the WICK process helps students critically analyze information as they learn it. Students will actually enjoy taking notes, and gain a deeper mastery of the content in the process.

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A Critical Thinking Strategy for Student Note-Taking

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This graphic organizer guides students to categorize information while they're taking notes, leading to deeper engagement.

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Bounce balls with your microphone! A fun way to manage classroom noise or visualize music.

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Bouncy Balls – Manage classroom noise with bouncing balls!

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A free classroom noise level meter, monitor and management tool. Perfect if your school kids are too noisy! Bouncing balls react to sounds from the microphone.

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We Drastically Underestimate the Importance of Brain Breaks

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We Drastically Underestimate the Importance of Brain Breaks

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When it comes to optimizing learning, we don’t value breaks enough, neuroscientists suggest in a new study.

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Practice makes perfect. To become ambidextrous in basketball, dribble with your left hand, switch to your right, and repeat the process again and again. Likewise, to solve differential equations in math, pile them up and work your way through them diligently.

According to one popular school of thought, it's this active, repeated manipulation of material that lays the neural foundations for skill development. All too often, time away from the basketball court-or the math books-is seen as a break in the learning process, a way to cool off, reenergize, and then return to the vital work of actual practice.

But for Leonardo Cohen, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health and the senior author of a June 2021 study published in the journal Cell, the idea that breaks are a cooling-off period is a misconception.

Cohen and his colleagues used magnetoencephalography-a highly sensitive brain-scanning technique-to observe the neural activity of young adults as they learned how to type with their nondominant hand. After a practice session, the study participants were given a short break and then continued practicing for a total of 35 sessions.

When analyzing the data, Cohen's team made an intriguing discovery: They observed a spike in brain activity, mimicking the neural pattern seen during the practice session, but compressed by twentyfold. Rather than being idle, the brain was replaying the practice session over and over at an astonishingly high rate of speed-flipping the material from the neocortex, where sensory and motor skills are processed, to the hippocampus, the brain's memory center, over two dozen times in the span of 10 seconds. Stepping away from the activity, it turns out, is not stepping away from the activity at all.

The findings echo the groundbreaking discovery in 2001 that after successfully running through a maze, rats replayed those memories repeatedly during REM sleep, with the same spatial circuitry flickering to life as they slept.

An Inside Look

When we learn a new skill, we need to connect it to previous memories, explains Cohen, a process called "binding." For example, when learning how to play piano, our brains need to link a simple action-pressing a piano key-with a larger, more complex skill, such as playing a song. Until now, scientists have been unable to decipher how the brain connects these two discrete actions into a consolidated skill.

Cohen's team discovered that after learning new information, our brains continue to whir, using cognitive downtime as a virtual staging ground to process, organize, and integrate learned information. The key, they believe, lies in neural replay, the "temporally compressed reactivation of neural activity patterns representing behavioral sequences during rest." In other words, after practicing a skill, our brains rapidly cycle through the experience, compressing and imprinting the material to optimize storage and recall.

We greatly underestimate the value of breaks when learning, Cohen and his colleagues assert, commonly opting for an approach that views active practice as the only way to advance. But that's a mistake, because incorporating breaks into learning "plays just as important a role as practice in learning a new skill. It appears to be the period when our brains compress and consolidate memories of what we just practiced."

Brain Breaks During School

In the classroom, "brain breaks should take place before fatigue, boredom, distraction, and inattention set in," writes neurologist and classroom teacher Judy Willis, and that means they should be far more frequent. "As a general rule," Willis continues, basing her conclusions on decades of research, "concentrated study of 10 to 15 minutes for elementary school and 20 to 30 minutes for middle and high school students calls for a three- to five-minute break."

You don't have to overthink it, or add to your workload by planning entertaining activities. Willis recommends simple techniques, such as a stretch break, moving to a different part of the room, or singing a song to give students time to "replay" what they've learned and to prepare them for more practice or new material. Letting students chat informally for a few minutes should also work well.

As the school day progresses, there's evidence that brain breaks become increasingly important. A 2016 study found that "cognitive fatigue" sets in toward the end of the day, leading to a notable drop in test performance: For every hour later in the day, test performance decreased by 0.9 percent of a standard deviation, the researchers found-roughly the equivalent of losing 10 school days' worth of learning. Incorporating breaks, however, not only eliminated the decrease but actually increased performance. "Importantly, a break causes an improvement in test scores that is larger than the hourly deterioration," the researchers discovered. "Breaks, it appears, recharge students' cognitive energy, thus leading to better test scores."

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We Drastically Underestimate the Importance of Brain Breaks

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When it comes to optimizing learning, we don't value breaks enough, neuroscientists suggest in a new study.

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“Welcome to Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox. This toolbox highlights Thinking Routines developed across a number of research projects at PZ. A thinking routine is a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking.”

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STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR LEARNING TARGET AND ANALYZE FOR CLARITY

STEP 2: CREATE ACTION

STEP 3: REQUIRE A CONVERSATION

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High school teachers can use this method to guide students to give each other specific, actionable comments on their writing.

Allison Shelley for the Alliance for Excellent Education

The educator Dylan Wiliam notes in his book Embedded Formative Assessment that "feedback should cause thinking. It should be focused; it should relate to the learning goals that have been shared with the students; and it should be more work for the recipient than the donor." Providing this kind of feedback experience is ideal but is not always logistically tenable because of the burden it places on teacher workload. It would be ideal if we never thought twice about providing feedback on 80 eighth-grade text analyses, but the fact is, we do think twice-and that's OK.

As a 15-year International Baccalaureate educator whose primary method of assessment is essay writing, I've struggled with the trade-off between workload and feedback my entire career. Recently, I began to realize the power of peer feedback. Peer feedback empowers students to play an active role in the learning process. Indeed, there are few learning experiences that have the educational payoff that peer feedback brings to your learning community.

Creating quality peer feedback experiences for your students takes practice, persistence, and precision-and, yes, work on the teacher's part. However, I've realized that peer feedback is one of the most powerful teaching tools we have. The following guide should give you a solid foundation upon which to craft your own peer feedback experiences.

Step 1: Identify Your Learning Target and Analyze for Clarity

Challenging experiences

Opportunities to practice

Creative conversations

Time for reflection

Charles Jennings, cofounder of the 70:20:10 Institute, famously claimed that there are four main drivers of learning:

Peer feedback, when done correctly, creates all of these experiences for our students. The first step to creating a peer feedback experience is to decide the following: What skill, standard, or learning outcome do you want your students to receive feedback on? And, more important, "what does this standard look like in practice?"

It can be tempting to simply copy and paste a standard into a single point rubric and have your students get started with the feedback process. However, before you have your students put pen to paper, it is important to ask yourself: Do students understand the language used in the standard or learning target as written?

Break the standard or learning target down into its component parts, and

Ensure that you are using language your students will understand.

If the answer to the above questions is yes, great. However, if the answer is no, then do the following:

For example, the IB Theory of Knowledge essay rubric is notoriously opaque, using descriptor words like "cogent," "formless," and "mainstream." To combat this lack of clarity, I have fun creating clarifying addendums to the rubric like "The arguments were so persuasive that I want to show my mom how well you write!" or "I found myself saying 'huh' a lot."

While you can certainly construct a peer feedback experience in which a student is assessing multiple standards and skills (my seniors do this all the time), it is better to scaffold the experience for both you and your students by starting with a single skill or standard. Then, after the students (and you) have become comfortable assessing single skills or standards, you can combine those elements into a larger experience such as a final essay, inquiry project, or lab report.

Step 2: Create Action

John Hattie's Visible Learning report identifies self-efficacy as having the largest impact on a student's "beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions" about learning. As I read the report, I said to myself, "Why not nurture self-efficacy by empowering my students to assess themselves and each other?" I realized that doing so would require students to be responsible to one another for their own learning as well as require greater engagement.

That greater engagement comes from requiring action after identifying learning targets. You need to require that your feedback providers do something. While it is certainly OK to have your feedback providers underline or highlight an element, it doesn't actually engage them with the "opportunity for practice" that we want to require of them. The better you engage your feedback providers, the better quality of feedback and reflection.

When my U.S. History students had to provide feedback on a component of College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards indicator D4.1.9-12, "Construct arguments using precise and knowledgeable claims...," in regard to an inquiry focused on methods of oppression, I realized that students may not know how to do this. So I asked myself, "What does this look like in practice?" I decided that precise and knowledgeable claims required topic sentences that made a claim while simultaneously explicitly linking that claim to the prompt/problem/question.

I required my feedback providers to "write the word or phrase that links the claim to the prompt in the topic sentence of each paragraph." This not only guaranteed that students would get the feedback they needed to be better writers; it also served as a cognitive reminder to the feedback providers themselves that such an element was necessary for quality work.

Step 3: Require a Conversation

After the feedback is complete, it is important that your feedback provider and the student whom they are working with have a conversation. I require my feedback providers to orally explain their feedback in order to leverage what we know about the power of "creative conversations" and social interaction in learning. Students provide their peers with specific feedback about ways in which they were successful in regard to the learning target, as well as specific elements that should be improved.

As teachers, we are always searching for that intervention or pedagogical approach that can help our students be their best. Peer feedback is that intervention. Not only does it allow your students to receive the frequent and focused formative assessment that they need, but also it leverages what we know is best practice from both a neurological and a social science perspective: challenging experiences, social interaction, and personal reflection on achieving learning targets. And hey, the fact that you'll get home before sundown isn't bad either.

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High school teachers can use this method to guide students to give each other specific, actionable comments on their writing.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Teaching Students to Work in Groups

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Teaching Students to Work in Groups

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A strategy for giving students explicit feedback on group interactions promotes participation and collaboration.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Teaching Students to Work in Groups

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A strategy for giving students explicit feedback on group interactions promotes participation and collaboration.

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4 Steps to Discussing Challenging Behavior With a Student

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4 Steps to Discussing Challenging Behavior With a Student

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Addressing students’ behavior can be tough, but it’s possible to approach them in ways that show compassion and help them feel ready to discuss the issue.

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Addressing students' behavior can be tough, but it's possible to approach them in ways that show compassion and help them feel ready to discuss the issue.

We've read about and witnessed firsthand the mental health crisis and increase in behavioral challenges of students this year. Because of those challenges, which are coupled with a lack of mental health providers in schools, educators often find themselves in a position of having difficult conversations with students around social, emotional, and behavioral struggles. As many teachers report an increase in stress, responding to challenging behaviors and student emotional needs can leave us feeling exhausted.

The four simple steps that follow can assist you when having difficult conversations with students. They can be used as part of a process after a student has escalated, when a student shares about a struggle, or when you are trying to interact with a disengaged student.

1. Start by Checking In

Check the situation: Before you enter a conversation, it's important to first determine if the situation warrants a conversation or requires a behavioral intervention. Ask yourself, "Is this a crisis?" If the student is engaging in behaviors that are unsafe toward themselves or others, attend to the safety issue first, and then once the crisis is over and the student is de-escalated, you can prepare for a conversation.

Check yourself: Before you enter any conversation, do a quick check-in with yourself to see how you're doing and if you're ready and able to engage in a difficult conversation. These are questions to ask yourself: What am I feeling? Am I my best self? Am I calm? Can I think clearly and rationally? If you find yourself feeling anxious, frustrated, or not your best self, take a few minutes to settle your own emotions. There are many great mindfulness exercises that will quickly help you settle your own emotions and help ground you. Remember, you put on your own oxygen mask first before you can help anyone else.

Check the student: Take a few seconds to look at the student and observe their body language, eye contact, and behaviors. See if you can quickly determine any information about whether it's a good time to approach the student by carefully observing their appearance and actions. Perhaps the student is looking disheveled as if they have not showered recently, or they seem tired or hungry. These may be signs that the student's basic needs must be addressed and could also be impacting their behavior.

Check the environment: Make sure that you and the student are in a safe and confidential place before engaging in a conversation.

2. Converse to Understand the Student's Needs

Once you've completed your checks and come to the conclusion that you're emotionally ready to have a conversation, the student is willing and able to talk, and the setting is conducive to chatting, then you can start the conversation. Using restorative practices in the conversation helps you focus on supporting the student.

Engage the student: The first part of any effective conversation involves engaging the student. This can be done through a regular greeting like "Hey" or asking an opening question like "How are you doing?" As you start engaging the student, it's important to focus on the issue at hand. State the facts without any emotions or feeling statements, making comments such as "I have noticed you've been showing up late" or "You seem really tired and have been sleeping in class." If the student doesn't immediately respond to the facts, it's helpful to normalize struggles through compassionate statements such as "It's a hard time for a lot of people right now" or "I know a lot of people are really struggling with... now."

Explore what's going on: Take some time to explore what's going on in the student's life. You can do this by asking open-ended questions to elicit more information, focusing on details such as who, what, when, where, and how. When you find yourself stuck on not knowing what to say next, you can always ask, "Can you tell me more about that?"

Validate, don't fix: When a student starts talking, it's important to provide validation through comments such as "That sounds really rough" or "I think a lot of people would feel the same way in that situation. It makes perfect sense that you felt that way."​ Validation shows that you care about the student. Remember, it's not your job to fix everything. Watch this short video, It's Not About the Nail, for a humorous look at the difference between validating someone and trying to fix the problem.

Confirm your understanding: To ensure that the student feels heard and to make sure you have an accurate understanding of the situation, it's helpful to ask clarifying questions like "When you said..., what did you mean?"​ Paraphrasing or summarizing involves retelling what the student shared and voicing statements such as "It seems like you have a lot going on. You talked about..."​ and "In my understanding, the main challenges here are..." It's helpful to ask, "Was there anything else that I missed?"

3. Make a Sincere Connection

Connect with the student: To let the student know you care, you can say things like "I'm here for you" and "You have a lot of people, including me, who care about you."

Connect potential solutions: To let your student know that they're not alone, use "we" instead of "you" statements, as in "What can we do to make this better?" Instead of simply offering advice, ask the student questions like "What are some options of what could be done?" or "What do you need right now?" If the student is having trouble thinking of ways to help the situation, you can ask, "If your friend had this challenge, what would you say to them?"

Connect to resources: This is the important part of the conversation, where you help direct the student to supportive resources and coping strategies. Through asking questions like "What can you do the next time you're struggling?" "Who else can you talk with about this?" or "What or who can make this better?" you can guide students in exploring and identifying their support systems.

4. End on a Positive Note

Thank the student for sharing​: To wrap up the conversation and reinforce that you care about the student, it's important to thank them with phrases such as "Thank you for talking with me today" or "I appreciate you opening up and sharing with me." It's helpful to think of difficult conversations as a gift and an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with the student.

After conversation, plan to follow up​. Serious conversations aren't simply a onetime thing but are opportunities to continue the topic at later times. To conclude the conversation, you can end it with a statement such as "I want to check in later. Let's plan to talk more tomorrow" or "Next week, I'll follow up with you to see how you're doing with this."

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4 Steps to Discussing Challenging Behavior With a Student

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Addressing students' behavior can be tough, but it's possible to approach them in ways that show compassion and help them feel ready to discuss the issue.

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19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies

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19 Big and Small Classroom Management Strategies

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Here are some different classroom management strategies to consider (from hypnosis to finding things to appreciate)

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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7 Attention-Getters to Use Instead of Raising Your Voice

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7 Attention-Getters to Use Instead of Raising Your Voice

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Great ways for bringing an active classroom back to attention (The clap-in, give me five, class-wide countdown, call-and-response, timer/song, hit the lights, sound effects.)

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These visual and audio cues can help middle and high school teachers quickly get students back on track.

For many new teachers, classroom management can be one of the biggest obstacles to achieving success.

Without a toolbox of strategies to get students' attention, raising your voice may feel like the only option when students are engaged in a loud activity or simply not meeting expectations. To avoid creating a negative classroom culture, which ultimately impedes learning, new teachers, or teachers facing new circumstances in this less than ideal school year, can employ these attention-getters.

For each of the attention-getters below, it's important to explicitly teach students what your expectations are for how they should respond. For older students, it will likely take only a few minutes for you to demonstrate the attention-getter and share your expectations-voices are off, eyes are on the board, etc.

7 Effective Attention-Getters

1. The Clap-In (or Snap-In): The clap-in is a classic attention-getter for good reason! While many teachers resort to raising their voices when the classroom gets too loud, clapping provides an equally noticeable but far more positive way to get students' attention. To use a clap-in, simply pick a pattern to clap and have students repeat it back. As more students join in, the clap gets spread across the room until all students are participating in the clap and ending their conversations.

There are a few ways to make this more interesting for students. One option is starting with a clap and switching to snaps. This requires students to be even quieter to be able to hear the pattern you snap and then repeat it. You can also select a student to lead the clap-in or snap-in to build further investment in the attention-getter. Finally, rather than making up your own pattern, you can work with your students to design a unique clap-in or snap-in pattern for your class.

2. Give Me Five: This is a great option that not only helps bring students' attention back to you but also provides an opportunity for them to work together to get everyone back on track. For this attention-getter, raise your hand high so that students can see you. As each student sees the signal, they will also raise their hand. This will continue to spread until all students are silently raising their hands and looking to you for further directions.

To make this more exciting, I have timed my students to see how long it takes for everyone to raise their hand and then challenged them to beat their time. This has been a very efficient way to get the attention of all students without even using my voice at all.

3. Class-Wide Countdown: This strategy is similar to Give Me Five, as it has a cascade effect across the classroom when students join in to bring their attention back to the teacher.

To employ this strategy, the teacher begins a countdown, generally from 10, but teachers can make adjustments as needed for their individual groups; and as students hear the countdown, they join in until all students are participating. Once the entire class reaches zero, all students are silent and have their attention back on the teacher.

4. Call-and-Response: Using a call-and-response is another easy way to get students' attention, as they will have to not only listen to join in but also stop any side conversations in order to provide the accurate response. This attention-getter provides lots of room for creativity that both teachers and students can use to make the calls-and-responses best suited for them.

It's beneficial to involve students in the process of creating these calls-and-responses and then practice how they sound and what students are expected to do when they hear them-similar to the Clap/Snap-In.

5. Timer/Song: This strategy uses other sounds rather than a teacher's voice to get attention and relies on a specific timed activity.

I use this strategy if I have given my students a group or partner task to complete for a specific amount of time. When they start, I begin the timer or song (instrumental works best!), and by the time the timer or song goes off, students are expected to end their conversations and return their attention to me. The timer works best for potentially louder group activities, while the song is a great option for a slightly quieter partner activity.

6. Hit the Lights: This strategy is one I use only when I need student attention immediately back up front on me. Just like the theater signal that a performance is about to begin, a quick flash of the lights can alert students that something is about to happen. I explicitly explain to them that a quick flash of the lights means that they need to turn off their voices and track me.

I often use this strategy if students are working in groups and I only need to remind them of one quick piece of information but plan to let them return to working at their previous noise level.

7. Sound Effects: This strategy can be a more fun way to get student attention but one that must be explicitly taught so that students can be mature and meet expectations when it's used.

For this strategy, the teacher should identify a sound-I like to use this one -that will quickly get student attention and play the sound when needed. My students know that when they hear the sound, they are expected to be in their seats, silently tracking me for directions.

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7 Attention-Getters to Use Instead of Raising Your Voice

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These visual and audio cues can help middle and high school teachers quickly get students back on track.

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Like JamBoard but better! Easier visibility for teachers but less collaborative. Students have the option to help each other if you enable it too!

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Helping Teachers Be Awesome See all your students working and give high-quality feedback–from anywhere. Sign Up (Free!)

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Helpful resource in addition to the great ones Ryan provides. It has lots of clarification about terms, expectations and it’s all in one easy to navigate visual guide. It also includes guiding questions to help you with feedback and supporting your students.

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A great (and free) teaching tool that has many pre-made quizzes and lessons. Search for your topic and see if there are any relevant (and appropriate) quizzes that you can use. Great for an icebreaker or review.

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Repairing Harm: A Better Alternative to Punishment

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Repairing Harm: A Better Alternative to Punishment

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This is something for teachers and admin to consider when dealing with some of our current behavior issues.

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Sponsored by Public Consulting Group and ViewSonic

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

When students behave in ways that are disruptive, when they do things that harm others, or when they otherwise make choices that go against established rules, schools often respond with punishment: removal from class, a phone call home, detention, suspension, even expulsion if the behavior is considered extreme enough.

It's been this way forever, at least in traditional western schools, and most of the time, these punishments don't really work. Sure, they remove the student from the situation, temporarily stopping the challenging behavior. And it could be argued that in general, many students choose to follow the rules because the threat of punishment acts as a deterrent; they don't want to get in trouble, so an acceptable level of order is maintained.

But punishments don't really do anything to address or correct the source of the misbehavior, and most of the time, they do nothing to fix any damage that may have been caused by it. On top of that, exclusionary punishments like suspensions create their own set of problems: When students are removed from class, they miss instruction, putting them behind their classmates and making them more likely to fail academically. This often leads to higher dropout rates and puts far too many students-especially students of color-on the path to prison.

After decades of using these ineffective practices, more schools are turning to restorative justice, an approach to student behavior that originated in the criminal justice system. In 2018, Victor Small, Jr and I did a broad overview of Restorative Justice to go over the basics.

Now I'm going to narrow the lens to one specific restorative practice called repairing harm. This is when, instead of simply being sent off to a punishment, a student who has misbehaved is tasked with figuring out how to repair whatever damage was caused by their behavior, and then to actually carry out that repair with everyone who was impacted by their actions.

To learn about this practice, I talked to Brad Weinstein and Nathan Maynard, authors of the book Hacking School Discipline: 9 Ways to Create a Culture of Empathy & Responsibility Using Restorative Justice. Weinstein is a former classroom teacher and administrator, and Maynard started his career in the juvenile justice system before going into teaching. Now they work together at Behavior Flip, a digital behavior management system built on the principles of restorative justice.

Brad Weinstein

Nathan Maynard

In their book, Brad and Nathan share the restorative justice strategies they've used successfully for years with students. In our conversation (which you can listen to above), they took me step-by-step through one of those strategies: the process of repairing harm after a misbehavior as an alternative to punishment.

How Repairing Harm Works

1. Identify the Harm and the Stakeholders

After an incident has occurred, the student meets with the administrator or other adult responsible for behavior management. In a private conference, the two work together to identify the harm caused by the behavior and all of the stakeholders who were impacted by it.

This list of stakeholders often turns out to be longer than the student first thought.

"A lot of times students don't understand that a behavior has a ripple effect," Maynard says. "Like throwing a rock into a pond, it affects a lot of different people. We have to show them what those ripples are and who those really are affecting, so when they're repairing the harm they need to think of each stakeholder individually. That's developing the empathy skills for each and every one of them."

2. Consider How the Behavior Affected Others

Once all stakeholders have been identified, it's time for the student to think deeply about how all of them were impacted by the behavior. This exercise in empathy will help the student come up with the right repair later.

Sometimes this process requires help from the adults. Maynard describes what this could look like, starting by saying something to the student along these lines: "When you throw something in a class, and let's say that hits someone else, how do you think their mother would feel if I called them up and said, hey their son just got hurt in class? Something like that that's going to drive the empathy and create that sense of, oh, another stakeholder is that kid's parent."

3. Create and Carry Out a Plan to Repair the Harm

Finally, the student- not the administrator -creates a plan to repair the harm with every stakeholder. The plan doesn't have to be anything elaborate; it can be as simple as an apology.

"Let's say a student was yelling at the class," Maynard says. "That affects the rest of the class. What can you do to repair it (with them)? Sometimes I've had students go in front of the class and just apologize. Something like that-owning that behavior-shows the rest of the class that it's not acceptable."

Although some might see this as getting off easy, consider the courage it takes to stand up in front of your peers and publicly admit wrongdoing. "I mean," Maynard says, "that's a lot more tough than sitting at home for three days."

There are times, though, when sorry isn't enough. "Prime example, student throws food across the cafeteria," Weinstein says. "They spill milk all over the floor, they cause a big mess. If they just say, I'm sorry, you just say, I'm glad that you apologized, but I think we're going to have to do something a little bit more, because you caused a mess. Who are the stakeholders? They might realize that there is somebody that has to clean up after them, and they're going to take away time from their job-as somebody who cleans the tables, I have to go home 20 minutes late now, because I'm cleaning your mess."

Weinstein says in cases like this, the solution "might look like cleaning all of the tables, mopping the floor, and working with the custodian to help clean, because when they cause harm to the environment, a good way to repair that harm is to make that environment clean. If I were to just put (the student) in detention or ISS for the rest of the day, that would teach that kid to not get caught next time. They wouldn't have any understanding of who they hurt, why what they did was a bad thing, and how they can repair that harm."

Questions About this Process

Won't this take extra time?

It depends on how you look at it. Punishment is definitely quicker than working with a student to consider the impact of behavior on stakeholders and develop a plan for repair. But because traditional punishment doesn't usually end the behavior, you're likely to spend more time on it later.

"An Edutopia article just recently came out that says classroom management takes about 144 minutes per week out of (instructional time)," Maynard says. "So if you think about 144 minutes per week, think about what can you do to integrate these proactive approaches and meet those kids' needs."

This idea is captured in the quote that starts the book's chapter on repairing harm, from author Pam Leo: "Either we spend time meeting children's emotional needs by filling their cup with love or we spend time dealing with the behaviors caused from their unmet needs. Either way we spend the time."

What if the student denies the behavior?

Sometimes a student will flat-out deny having done the thing they're being accused of doing. This can even happen when you, the teacher, were an eye witness.

When this happens, Maynard gives students two choices. "I say, okay. I believe this was you, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Let's deal with this situation now, fix it, move forward. Right now it's just between me and you. If I find out later that it's you, then there's just going to be an additional situation. Why not just deal with it right now and then if there's an additional situation that's showing that you're dishonest, (then) I have to deal with what happened and you being dishonest, instead of just what happened. You make the choice."

Afterwards, he always gives students time to process, to think about what they want to do. "Because immediately if I say something like that, they're still going to be oppositional," he explains. "So I give them some time to process what's going on. I back away, say okay, I'm going to give you a few minutes."

When he does this, Maynard says, students will often calm down and become more cooperative. "Giving them that time really does help out."

Shouldn't People Suffer at Least a Little Bit After Doing Something Wrong?

When someone misbehaves, our logic tells us that they should experience some kind of negative consequence; otherwise how will they learn not to do it again?

On top of that is the fact that we're all human. After a student has disrespected us or caused a problem for us, we might honestly start itching for a bit of revenge.

"Punishment makes us feel better sometimes," Maynard says. "You know, someone did something wrong, they harmed me, I want there to be some sort of harm. We've heard someone say before, you disrespected me, so now you need to suffer a little bit."

But underneath that feeling is a desire to have the student experience real regret, a regret that can be deeper and longer-lasting if it emerges in the student from a place of empathy.

"That statement shows that (teachers) do want to show the students how to be empathetic and realize how they felt." Maynard says. "Restorative practice is the way to do that, but it's just less traumatic. And it's a way more effective way to open up that child's eyes to how their behavior made us feel."

To learn more, follow Nathan on Twitter at @NmaynardEdu and Brad at @WeinsteinEdu, visit their website at hackingschooldiscipline.com, join their Hacking School Discipline Facebook group, and explore their app, BehaviorFlip, at behaviorflip.com.

Come back for more.
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Repairing Harm: A Better Alternative to Punishment

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Exclusionary punishments don't really change behavior. Having students work to repair the harm done by their actions can be much more effective.

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Some great insights into what our expectations should be, and some classroom management tips. Perfect for Middle School if your students are too talkative sometimes.

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Listen to my interview with Michael Linsin ( transcript):

Sponsored by Write About and Peergrade
In my first few years of teaching, student talking was like popcorn.
I gave the class instructions for some kind of work; let's say journal writing. And for a few seconds, they did it. Things were quiet. Then, like that first kernel of popcorn, one student said she didn't know what to write, so I walked over to her desk to help her. While we talked, two more raised their hands-two more pops-and said they were stuck, too. I signaled to them that I'd be over in a minute, but in the meantime, someone else was closing his journal, finished already. Another pop. The two who were stuck asked him what he wrote about.

The room needs to stay quiet so we can concentrate, I told them.

Someone else had a question. Another pop. I squatted by her desk, and behind me, a conversation started between two others. Pop pop. Another journal closed while a different hand went up.

Okay people, I said, this time louder. Let's keep it down. And with rascally smiles, they turned back to their journals to pretend to write some more. At this point, it had turned into a game.

Someone needed to sharpen their pencil. Pop. Someone else decided to race them over to the sharpener. Pop. In a matter of seconds, the whole room had erupted, a huge hysterical bowl of popcorn, exploding all around me, and I couldn't find my way out.

And then I yelled.

If this sounds anything like you, you're not alone. I hear it from teachers all the time. One of the things they don't teach us in our education courses is just how freaking much students talk, and how hard it can be to quiet them down in order to get anything accomplished.

To find solutions to this problem, I went to Michael Linsin, the creator of Smart Classroom Management and my go-to person for all classroom management needs. Last year, he taught us how to set up a clear, simple classroom management plan. Now he's going to help us understand the causes of excessive talking, what you should be able to realistically expect from students, and how you can fix the problem.

First, two quick caveats.

One: I believe students need to talk. People need to talk. So if you're shooting for a classroom environment where students sit silently and do rote seat work all day long, where they never have an opportunity to talk to their peers, where they never get out of their seats, and where the work is not engaging, you are going to have problems.

Two: A big part of good classroom management is building good relationships with your students. If you haven't taken the time to get to know them as individuals, if you mispronounce their names, if you regularly use sarcasm or make them feel stupid for asking questions, then they aren't going to want to behave well for you. And that's a different problem.

So this post is based on the assumption that you're planning engaging lessons and you have a decent relationship with your students. Without those two, these solutions might kind of work, but you're still probably not going to love your job.

Why It's Happening

Before you can solve this problem, you have to understand its cause. According to Linsin, excessive talking-talking that occurs during independent work time or direct instruction-happens for two reasons.

Reason 1: They don't believe you mean it.

Despite the fact that you specifically tell students not to talk, deep down they don't believe you mean it. "Or they don't care," Linsin says.

"At some point," he explains, "Your authority has faded. If you're able to teach to a quiet classroom in the beginning of the year and now you're not able to, or if it happened right off the bat, then somehow at some point, the students' respect for you and for the process, for the classroom, and your authority has faded."

So even if they hear you, even if they understand that you want quiet at a certain time, they don't believe anything negative will happen if they ignore your request. If they come to you with this behavior, it's likely that it has just been part of their conditioning.

"Because so many teachers struggle with this problem," Linsin explains, "many after a while kind of throw up their hands and just decide they're going to talk over students, they're going to do their best to keep things as quiet as possible during independent work time, so the students come to you (from) classrooms where the teacher asked them to be quiet but doesn't really follow up on it."

Reason 2: They don't understand what "no talking" means.

This one is going to be harder for teachers to believe, but bear with us here: "No talking" may not mean exactly the same thing in different contexts, and if your students are talking more than you want them to, there's a good chance you're working with different definitions.

"When they come to your classroom," Linsin explains, "and they've had teacher after teacher say the same thing, yet continue to allow it to happen in the classroom, then students think, Well, he or she just means we need to kind of keep our voices down, or We're mostly quiet, but if we have important things to say to a neighbor, then we're allowed to do that. And so they're confused as to what the definition of 'quiet' really is."

In many cases, Linsin notes, the problem is likely being caused by a combination of both of these reasons. But notice that neither reason is a blanket statement about students being disrespectful. This is why I like Linsin's approach: He puts control for classroom management in the teacher's hands, rather than placing blame on the student. That's not to say that you won't have disrespectful students, but shifting the blame to them means you have no power over the situation. Blaming the students simply isn't a useful way to address the problem.

"When students are not doing something that you've previously taught them how to do," Linsin says, "whether it's talking or entering the classroom, and they don't do it well, even though the students are responsible for their behavior, when most of the class is not doing what you ask, it's on you. It's about you. There's some disconnect there, there's something they're not understanding."

What You Should Be Able to Expect

Some teachers might wonder whether it's reasonable to expect students to be quiet at all, especially if they are younger. Linsin says yes without hesitation. "You should absolutely expect, no matter where you're teaching or what grade level, that the students are able to sit quietly while you're giving instruction or directions, and they should be able to sit quietly and work during independent work times."

Should there also be times when talking is permitted? "Absolutely," Linsin says. "It's really important to give students an opportunity to express themselves, to get up and move around, to work in groups and pairs and discuss. Classrooms should be vibrant and interesting, exciting places, and so I'm all for getting students up and moving and having fun. Those things just make classroom management stronger, and they free you to ask anything of your students, including silence."

The Solution

If you came here looking for a few tricks to end excessive talking, the bad news is that you won't find anything clever or earth-shattering. The good news is that the solution is pretty simple, and it requires no behavior charts, tokens, or Jolly Ranchers.

Step 1: Define expectations in explicit detail.

"The fix," Linsin says, "is to define, in detail, exactly what you want during independent work time and when you're teaching a directed lesson."

If you believe you've already done this, and it hasn't worked, the issue is probably lack of detail in your explanation. Linsin says you need to go far deeper than what most teachers probably do.

"So you may bring a desk or a table up in front of your classroom, sit down, and pretend to be a student. You may have other students acting as models also. Show students how you expect them to behave while you're giving instruction, and then how you expect them to behave when they're doing independent work."

"It's also important to include what not to do," he adds. "So you'll model those exact behaviors that you're seeing, those exact talking behaviors, whether it's side-talking or standing up and whispering to someone, or whatever your classroom looks like. Even if it's chaotic, whatever that chaos looks like exactly, you want the students to be able to see themselves in your modeling and what isn't okay."

Step 2: Have students practice.

Once you've modeled the desired behavior, have students practice it, just like you'd have them practice any skill you're teaching.

Linsin gives an example of what this might look like. You'd start by saying, "'I'm going to give you 60 seconds, and I want you to show me what good listening looks like, and no talking. So let's pretend I'm standing and giving you a lesson. I want to know what that looks like.' And then you'll stand and maybe you'll cross your arms and put your hand under your chin, and you'll watch them."

Keep this instruction light, he says. Keep it fun. "You'll stare at them and you'll walk around the room, and you'll watch one of them, and you'll nod your head and say, 'Mmhmm, okay, that looks good. Mmhmm. Chin up a little higher!' It's okay to have fun with it. None of this is a punishment. It's just good teaching. Whether you're teaching how to find a topic sentence or how you want your students to line up before recess, it's all teaching. So it's okay to have fun with it. It's okay for them to laugh at some of the things you say or to see themselves in the behaviors, which they love, by the way, especially if you exaggerate it and have some fun with it."

The Sign Strategy: Students are often put in an awkward position when a classmate tries to talk to them during these quiet times. They want to follow your guidelines, but they also don't want to be rude to a classmate. Agree on some kind of physical sign they can give each other at these times. "It can be a scissors or peace sign or whatever's culturally acceptable wherever you teach. And all they do is just hold the sign up, and the sign means, 'I'm really sorry, but I have to listen to the lesson,' or 'I'm really sorry, but I have to do my work.' And you can tell them that if they give the sign and that student who sees the sign turns and gets back to work, you will not enforce a consequence, because they're showing responsible behavior."

Step 3: Teach the consequences.

"Walk them through the exact steps that would happen if they turn and talk to a neighbor, for example," Linsin says. "The exact steps a misbehaving student would take from your initial warning to contacting parents or whatever your consequences look like."

In order to do this, you have to know what your consequences are. Spend some time making sure you're clear on that. If you need help, read our post on creating a classroom management plan.

Step 4: Do it for real.

Once students have been taught your expectations and have practiced exactly what they look like, it's time to apply it in a real lesson. "Have a directed lesson ready," Linsin advises, "to have them prove to you they can do it in practice."

If you've taught the expectations in detail, students should do a good job, but if they don't, you need to enforce your consequences exactly as you described. "You almost hope during that first wonderful lesson, that one student maybe turns, and so the class can see that you're holding them accountable."

If enforcing your consequences is difficult for you-and for many teachers, it will be-read Linsin's post on why teachers struggle to consistently enforce consequences.

Step 5: Continue to define expectations in small chunks.

This last step is crucial. From this point forward, keep telling students what is expected of them before every switch in classroom activity. When you are about to do group work, let students know that talking within the group is okay. If you then switch to independent work, remind them that absolute quiet will be expected. Briefly describe what that will look like, even spelling out what not to do if that fits the activity.

Taking time to do this might seem unnecessary, but being clear ahead of time will prevent problems. "Anytime you can give a reminder before misbehavior," Linsin says, "it's a good thing. Anytime you give a reminder after you see misbehavior, it's a bad thing. You should be holding students accountable, but be preemptive whenever you can."

Learn More from Michael Linsin
The Happy Teacher Habits
(Links to this book are Amazon Affiliate links, which means I get a small commission on purchases you make through my links at no additional cost to you.)

There's more where this came from.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration-in quick, bite-sized packages-all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to my members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Come on in!!

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What they don't teach us in education courses is just how freaking much students talk, and how hard it can be to quiet them down. Help is on the way.

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How to engage students in any subject area

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How to engage students in any subject area

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Some great tips for how to make your class more engaging! Particularly these 3:

There’s a culture of caring and kindness within the class

Students know why they’re studying the subject

There’s a student-friendly revision policy

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A high school teacher with four decades of experience shares the principles she has used to build student excitement in a wide variety of subjects.

Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Decades of teaching social studies, math, biology, English, French, and journalism taught me that no matter what the subject, getting high school students excited about it was the key to learning. I also discovered there are definitely some tricks to getting the kids engaged and having a productive learning environment.

4 Characteristics of Effective Classrooms

1. There's a culture of caring and kindness within the class: You can feel it-kids are smiling, working in groups, engaged. The teacher seems relaxed, and the kids are excited about learning. They feel trusted and respected, and they are. Students aren't afraid of making mistakes because they know they can revise. Grading isn't punitive, new ideas are welcomed, and the teacher is approachable.

I always started out my new classes with an activity I called "personality feature." It was an opportunity for each student to interview one other student in the class and also to be interviewed. The idea was to introduce each student to the class, so they all could get to know each other and work collaboratively. Kids work better when they know the other students and have a sense of trust and respect for them.

2. Students know why they're studying the subject: Their work has to be authentic and relatable. Kids love learning if it connects to their lives. Teachers need to tie whatever students are studying to their lives today, and kids can help with this. For example, in history, kids can work in groups looking for ties about policy decisions to events that happened years ago or even in the last century.

3. There's a student-friendly revision policy: Make sure that students always have the opportunity to revise, even on tests. Kids get discouraged because of poor grades. If there's no chance for them to get a better grade, they lose motivation. Giving them the opportunity to revise (with a deadline) gives them hope that they can improve and so can their grade.

I even had a student-friendly revision policy in math. I gave kids the opportunity to relearn the concept and take the test again. Some kids just take longer, but once they learn it, they retain it as long as it's meaningful to them. That's one of the advantages of adaptive learning. Kids can relearn a concept that's complex as many times as they need until they get it.

As Professor Carol Dweck at Stanford writes in Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, what you think about yourself and your ability to learn is the key to how you learn. Giving kids the opportunity to revise helps them see they can actually learn whatever they want to learn.

4. Embed collaboration in most of the assignments: Working with a partner or in groups makes learning fun. Allow students to pick their partner unless it's not a good fit. Humans are social beings, and no one likes to learn alone.

One example of the importance of collaboration is what's happening with massive open online courses (MOOCs). As many as 90 percent of the learners may drop out before completing courses. People don't like to learn alone or in isolation. They don't like lectures.

They like to talk to each other about what they're learning. Even math concepts, especially complex concepts, are up for discussion. One student can explain the concept to another student, and each learns-the one who teaches learns leadership skills, so it's beneficial for both students.

In a world where kids are focused on "learning loss," test scores, and memorizing, I cofounded a company called Tract a year ago to help give them agency and excitement-to bring the joy back to learning and not focus on test scores. It's a peer-to-peer, project-based, kids' social media platform focused on independence and collaboration. Teens create the learning for preteens on the assumption that no one is more exciting to a kid than a kid who's a little bit older.

Tract is built on the above key points and on my TRICK philosophy (trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness), which I explain in my book How to Raise Successful People. TRICK belongs in all teacher-student and parent-child relationships.

TRICK worked in my classrooms for 40 years and with my own children who became highly successful. It can help empower your students to be passionate about school and learning, too, if you treat them with TRICK, it can make your life as a teacher much easier and more satisfying and bring joy into the classroom.

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How to Engage Students in Any Subject Area

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A high school teacher with four decades of experience shares the principles she has used to build student excitement in a wide variety of subjects. Wavebreak Media ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Decades of teaching social studies, math, biology, English, French, and journalism taught me that no matter what the subject, getting high school students excited about it was the key to learning.

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Liven up your classroom with some live plants!

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Plants do more than liven up your decor-they can help students feel better, and learn better too.

With student stress on the rise, teachers are trying all sorts of things to put students at ease-outdoor walks, mindfulness activities, even allowing fidgets. Class plants are worth adding to this list.

Greenery has been shown to reduce student stress and enhance attention levels. Plants also shift students' perceptions. In one study, university students taking the same course with the same professor were broken into two sections: one in a classroom with plants and one without plants. Students in the classroom with plants rated the course and instructor as significantly better.

A few plants can transform a classroom's atmosphere, providing a connection to nature for students who don't love the outdoors. "Outside, students complain about heat, rain, bugs, mud," explains special education teacher Regina Hawkings. "Having plants in the classroom is not as overstimulating."

Admittedly, most classrooms are not exactly greenhouses. They tend to be dry, with more indirect light than sunshine. But there are plants that can survive and even thrive in these conditions.

3 Reliably Lush Plants

Even when a teacher has absolutely no time for plant care, these stalwarts still have a good chance of long life.

Pothos ( Epipremnum aureumare) grows quickly and soon becomes a decorative vine. The Florida nonprofit A Plant in Every Classroom uses pothos as its flagship plant to donate to schools. As founder Kerry Schabacker explains, "Pothos is a great choice since it is low light, low allergy, low toxicity, and low watering-just once a week. A lot of the classrooms have air-conditioning units or the windows blocked so the students can see the teaching screen. Pothos does well in these conditions."

Schabacker has witnessed students form emotional bonds with their plants. "There was a child who would pet the pothos each day to make himself feel better. In one class, the students liked the plant so much, the teacher got four more."

3 Charismatic Succulents

In a sense, this group of plants enjoys neglect. The same waxy cuticle that insulates them from the sun also protects them from drying out indoors. Water once a week at most and be sure there is good drainage. A dish at the bottom where the extra water can run out works best, so your succulent isn't sitting in a puddle.

Aloe is a lovely first plant for any classroom. It prefers bright light, but too much sunshine will turn the leaves brown. Students love aloe "pups"-the small clones that pop up around the mother plant over time. One of my most popular lessons challenges students to perform "surgery" to separate and then repot the pups.

4 That Are a Little Different

If you have a bit more time to spare-15 minutes a week-these plants bring extra panache to a classroom.

Microgreens aren't a plant but a raft of baby plants. They require more equipment (a heating mat and sometimes a grow light) but less commitment than an ornamental. Students can eat them. "Microgreens are a good place for educators to start because they are harvested quickly and can be grown in very low light," according to Sarah Pounders of the nonprofit organization KidsGardening.

A Note on Ingestion and Allergies

Many ornamental plants can sicken people if ingested. If your students might nibble a classroom plant, look up its toxicity using the scientific name before buying. Most classroom plants seldom flower, and that keeps pollen from irritating allergies. Waterlogged soil presents a greater threat because of its potential for mold.

With minimal care, plants can provide myriad benefits to both classrooms and students' lives.

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Plants do more than liven up your decor-they can help students feel better, and learn better too.

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This article has some good strategies for helping students with low engagement/motivation.

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For students who have internalized a message that they’re destined to fail, promoting realistic optimism can be game-changing.

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Understanding and Supporting Your Student with ADHD.

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Understanding and Supporting Your Student with ADHD.

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ADHD can be frustrating for both teachers and students, but coming together to find strategies that work helps your student—and your relationship—blossom.

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The characteristics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, often get misinterpreted as intentional misbehavior or daydreaming in the classroom. But when teachers engage their student with ADHD in exploring what works for them, it can lead to stronger connections and more academic success. To find more strategies and resources for working with students with ADHD, or to learn more about the studies and articles cited in the video, visit the links below:

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Understanding and Supporting Your Student With ADHD

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ADHD can be frustrating for both teachers and students, but coming together to find strategies that work helps your student-and your relationship-blossom.

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“Over a period of four sessions, we will show you how to implement the Approaches To Learning (ATL) through Concept-Based inquiry, differentiated instruction, using assessment models, collaborative coaching, and hands-on unit design”

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approaches to learning: bridging the gap myp/dp

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approaches to learning: bridging the gap myp/dp tickets

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Approaches to Learning: Bridging the gap MYP/DP

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Eventbrite - Faria Education Group presents Approaches to Learning: Bridging the gap MYP/DP - Tuesday, November 23, 2021 | Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - Find event and ticket information.

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10 relatively simple strategies to support language learners 

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10 relatively simple strategies to support language learners 

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A list of 10 strategies, some really quick and simple adjustments to support our language learners.

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English Language Learners

Teachers of any subject can use these tips to help English language learners be more engaged and at ease in class.

While we bring the mental health needs of our students into laser focus this year, it's still crucial that we keep the social and emotional world of our English language learners (ELLs) front and center. Just like their peers, ELL students come to our classrooms with the burning need to be seen and acknowledged for their unique personalities, life experiences, and talents. But language challenges can obstruct all these amazing facets of their personalities. Additionally, the social pressures of suddenly being in person again and needing to communicate may make them feel anxious, isolated, and embarrassed.

Because of the often-obvious communication difficulties, grade-level and subject-area teachers understandably often rely on ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers to step in and help these students. However, even if you aren't an ESL teacher, there's a plethora of strategies you can use to help these incredible students feel comfortable sharing their strengths and unique perspectives on the world.

Helping ELL Students Across All Subjects

1. Closed captioning isn't just for the hearing impaired. If you're showing video content, turning on closed captioning supports ELL students' comprehension as well as everyone's literacy skills. According to a 2017 study, the simple act of using closed captioning improves learning, even for students without learning challenges.

2. Voice typing in Google Docs (under the Tools menu) provides students with a voice-to-text option that can help learners who have some oral language but struggle with spelling and writing. By clicking the arrow next to the language, students can even dictate a text in their native language, if need be, and then use Google Translate to translate it.

For older students, or for those who are somewhat more advanced in English but need material translated immediately, the Google Translate app also lets you hold your camera (on a smartphone/iPad, etc.) up to a document and instantly see it in another language, no typing required.

3. Offer choices of what students can say if they're called on and aren't sure how to respond. This helpful anchor chart, for example, offers students options other than the ubiquitous "I don't know."

4. Add gestures to reinforce communication.Remember that in order to communicate, we need to ensure that the sounds coming out of our mouth create a mental image or concept in our listener's mind. You can increase comprehensible input (the amount of language that's understood) by using good, old-fashioned gestures. If you want to take it a step further, TPR (Total Physical Response) is a method of teaching vocabulary that uses physical movements to react to verbal input, similar to how young children naturally learn language at home.

5. Draw or write key words frequently as they come up during instruction to help students further decode what you're saying. You can also use Google Image search to help students visualize what your words refer to and share the images.

6. Utilize a chart: A PECS (Pictorial Exchange Communication System) chart can help individuals with communication challenges to express themselves. By pointing to an image on a classroom-themed PECS chart, students can let you know, for example, that they need to go to the bathroom by pointing to an image of a lavatory or that they are thirsty, sad, or confused, need a pencil, and so on. You can give them a laminated copy to tuck into their desk or hang one up on the wall for little learners. You may want to encourage students to say the words aloud as they point to the images to decrease their dependence on the chart. Try searching Google for "PECS chart for classroom" to find a chart that fits your needs.

7. Add images: A picture is truly worth a thousand words, but for ELLs, images are worth exponentially more. Document cameras provide ELL students with much-needed visual input of texts, worksheets, books, and other printed materials or realia. Project pages from a novel or picture book as the students follow along, display handouts and student writing samples, or use math manipulatives to solve a problem together. Document cameras make a world of difference in showing ELL students exactly what you're talking about rather than trying to explain it.

8. Pair up: If you want to pair an ELL newcomer with a bilingual student to help them, ask the ELL student to choose a student or two whom they'd prefer to work with, if possible. This prevents you from inadvertently pairing them up with someone they don't feel comfortable asking for help or with whom they really don't get along.

9. Give students a "language toolbox," a notebook full of pages of illustrated vocabulary words organized by theme that students can use as a reference. This is like a simplified version of an illustrated dictionary that younger ELLs can look through by theme to see vocabulary related to the colors, days of the week, classroom items, family members, and so on. In my classroom, I put these pages in plastic page protectors inside a binder for each student to flip through quickly. They can pull it out to help them fill in missing vocabulary when they write or as an easy reference whenever they need it.

10. Use a microphone or voice amplification system, which can help ELL students hear the nuances of your voice more clearly and understand you better. Record the lesson (if permitted), and digitally share the resulting video or audio with ELL students who might benefit from hearing/watching a replay. Similarly, ELLs have a hard time producing sounds correctly when the speaker's mouth is covered by a mask. Consider sharing posters of mouth formations or videos of you unmasked, creating some of these sounds.

Think about trying these strategies to help alleviate the communication difficulties that can prevent ELL students from becoming fully engaged in their learning and sharing who they are and what they can bring to the classroom.

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10 Strategies That Support English Language Learners Across All Subjects

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Teachers of any subject can use these tips to help English language learners be more engaged and at ease in class.

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Simple rubric tool that takes them to the next level. Hyperlink parts of your rubric to the tools that will set students up for success for that task (eg slides, vocabulary lists, etc.)

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Sponsored by Listenwise and ISTE

I've always believed in the power of a good, clear rubric for helping students understand how their work will be assessed. As an English teacher, I can't even imagine assigning a writing task without a rubric. But all rubrics are not the same: Some can be convoluted messes that overwhelm students, while others can be far too vague to really be helpful. Ideally, all teachers would use the most effective rubrics all the time, but we're not quite there yet.

On this site, we've explored lots of rubric tweaks and iterations that make them more effective, and this post will add more to that work: A different way of developing and using a rubric that changes it from a tool for evaluation to a tool for marking progress and pushing students to keep moving forward.

Two English language arts teachers- Tyler Rablin and Jeff Frieden -developed this idea (first Tyler, then Jeff) and are calling it a HyperRubric. On the podcast we talked about how this style of rubric came to be and how it works. The full transcript is available above. What follows here is a summary of our conversation.

Part 1: Hitting Walls with the Traditional Rubric

This story starts with Tyler Rablin, a high school English teacher from Sunnyside, Washington. After working for several years with the traditional four-column rubric, Rablin found himself wanting more. "I know rubrics are important, I know there's value in them, but I'm not seeing them really impact my students in a way that I would like to see."

He identified two main issues with the traditional rubric:

1. Finality
The four-column rubrics Rablin was using did nothing more than describe student skill levels, and they did so in a way that discouraged future growth. "The earlier levels were often stigmatizing," Rablin says. "It was, These are all the things I can't do. I'm weak at this. The later levels were the better ones: Good is here and bad is here. When I was giving students that feedback they were not getting the message of, You're at the beginning stage in this learning process. They were getting the message of, You're not doing well at this. When you hand that to a student, it just, it crushes them, and there goes motivation almost right away."

2. Clarity
"The language was basically like, I kind of get it, I sort of get it, I mostly get it," Rablin says. "And for the student, what does that mean? Where do I go next?" For a student who doesn't really understand the concept, "they don't have a way into that learning. They don't really know where to start."

He started to envision a different kind of rubric, one that would actually help students make progress. It would spell out what they could already do in concrete terms, then show them the skills they needed to develop to move forward.

Part 2: Imagining a More Progressive Rubric

Rablin began experimenting with a new approach: replacing the static descriptors in his rubrics with language that was progressive. He referred to this style of rubric as a Learning Progression.

The image below shows the difference. To keep things simple, this example just focuses on a single row in a rubric containing criteria for using commas with coordinating conjunctions.

In the top rubric-done in a traditional style-the criteria vaguely labels the student's skills in terms of how many mistakes they make. It doesn't give them any information about what skills to develop and how to get better.

In the bottom rubric-done as a Learning Progression-the criteria is couched in terms of concrete things a student can learn to do, things that will help them improve.

Click image for larger view.

In this example, and in many of Rablin's other rubrics, those concrete demonstrations start at the lower levels of Bloom's, where students are simply defining and identifying, and move up to higher-level tasks where they apply, evaluate, and create with the target skill.

Part 3: Making the Rubric "Come Alive"

If the rubric is digital, teachers can also add an additional layer that hyperlinks the skills in the rubric to resources that teach the skill, thus enabling students to start making progress right away.

With the addition of these hyperlinks, the rubric now becomes a HyperRubric.

See the difference in the examples below, which assess students' skills in analyzing character development in a text. The top rubric is traditional, with vague descriptors of the skill at different levels. The bottom version, a HyperRubric, not only offers more concrete sub-skills students can work to develop, but also contains links to videos, articles, and models that teach the student how to apply those sub-skills.

Click image for larger view.

Part 4: Putting the Rubric to Work in a Real Classroom

Now that we're clear on what a HyperRubric is, it's probably obvious how much more useful it could be than a traditional rubric. Still, if we're only using it at the end of a learning cycle, as a tool to evaluate work that is already done, its value will still be limited.

Ideally, a HyperRubric will be used within a cycle of feedback, reflection, and iteration, where students can use it to actively work on their skill development.

One example of this is how Jeff Frieden uses it.

Frieden, a high school ELA teacher in southern California (and the person who brought us the ongoing conversations strategy in 2018), first heard Tyler Rablin talk about his new approach to rubrics on an episode of the Teachers on Fire podcast. As he listened, he realized that this different kind of rubric would be perfect for the shift he'd been trying to make with his writing instruction, a shift that moved assessment from the end of a writing piece to the middle.

"For 13 years, I had been assessing the final product," Frieden explains. "I had a (traditional) rubric and it tended to come at the end. So it was really just an impact on the grade. And full confession, I was using it to justify the scores I was putting on the papers. The hope was that it would transfer to their next piece of writing. But that's not really what happened. Maybe occasionally it would for a few students, but for the most part it was just me sort of covering myself just to make sure that everybody could understand why points were missing from the document."

Recently he shifted his approach, giving students a prompt for a writing task, having them do a first draft quickly, then planning his teaching around the areas of need he identified in the first drafts.

The new process, when face-to-face instruction was still the norm, looked something like this:

1. Students write first draft, then teacher assesses drafts to reveal trends in writing for whole-class feedback/instruction.

2. Students write second draft after receiving targeted mini-lessons in small groups through station rotation.

3. Students write third draft, followed by quality check through station rotations.

4. Submission and evaluation.

Pre-pandemic, this system worked well, but once students and teachers moved into remote teaching, station rotation became much harder to do. Frieden knew he'd need a vehicle that would enable students to self-assess, along with resources that could help them teach themselves the skills they'd need to progress.

In the midst of this, Frieden saw Rablin's rubric and knew he'd found the answer. Now his writing cycle follows a similar pattern to the one he was already working on, with the HyperRubric now taking the place of the targeted mini-lessons:

1. Students Write First Draft

Based on a prompt, students write a relatively quick first draft with very little instructional support from the teacher. From there, Frieden reviews the drafts for trends.

2. Teacher Builds HyperRubric

Frieden now builds a HyperRubric based on the trends he saw in the first draft, areas for growth that are common to many students. "At the maximum I would do three of these," he says. "If I really want this learning to stick, if I really want them to see it's valuable, then I will reduce it to the really high leverage items."

Within each cell of the HyperRubric, he links to mini-lessons that will help students reach that specific level.

3. Students Self-Assess and Write Second Draft

From there, students self-assess their work using the HyperRubric, clicking on links to the mini-lessons, and revising. "Right as they're learning the lesson," Frieden says, "it's impacting their draft as soon as they get it."

Here's an example of a HyperRubric for persuasive writing, where the focus is on organization. The student has identified their current level, has completed the mini-lesson on transitions at the next level, and has written a reflection about this process:

For an editable template that matches the style of this HyperRubric (on a different topic), click here.

Once the second draft is written, Frieden's students write another reflection on the changes made to their draft:

From there the cycle can continue with more self-assessment, reflection, and revision until the piece is ready to be submitted.

Other Questions About HyperRubrics
We're looking at examples of single skills on a rubric, but teachers are expected to teach many different standards. How does that work?
At Rablin's school, where they operate on the trimester system, he has recently begun focusing on about eight progressions per trimester, eight skill areas that he targets through various assignments over the course of the term.

"It was kind of a shift for me," he says, "because at first, that didn't sound like a lot. I'm used to if it's just I can analyze theme in a text, that feels like one thing that we're learning. But when I broaden it out and thought about it in terms of learning progressions, I had to recognize that every single thing I was doing, students were learning five separate skills. Does that mean this is all we're learning? Absolutely not, but in terms of the progressions I'm being really intentional with, I had to learn to limit it to a lot more than I was used to."

Frieden limits his use of the HyperRubric to certain types of assignments. "If you're a teacher listening to this and you're thinking, oh, that sounds like I have to set up an entire trimester geared towards that and I'm not ready for that. I'm actually using the HyperRubric as one point in a particular type of assignment."
What about grades? If these are meant to be progressive, how and when do you actually assign students a grade?
Rablin bases a lot of his grades on conferences with students. "Our conversations are centered around these learning progressions. There is an average of scores that results in their final grade. But I'm not averaging those scores over time. It's not necessarily that I'm counting your earliest attempts and your latest attempts (equally). We had eight skills; overall, what was your final performance or what was your most consistent performance with those eight skills? Your most consistent or more recent scores are what are going to determine your final grade for the course."

When he calculates grades with HyperRubrics, Frieden gives the most weight to student reflection. "The standard is the focus, and it's trying to move them along on this progression. But I'm very, very much going to be asking students when it comes to their letter grade, can you articulate to me how this learning that you had in the middle of this assignment impacted the second draft? And then that's where I'm going to focus all of our energy and importance and I guess the worth of the grade."

To learn more about how Rablin and Frieden use HyperRubrics, you can find them on Twitter at @Mr_Rablin and @SurthrivEDU.

Come back for more.
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Introducing the HyperRubric: A Tool that Takes Learning to the Next Level

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Unlike the traditional rubric, which serves mainly to evaluate, the HyperRubric pushes students to keep moving forward.

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Variety of thinking routines put together by project zero. Organized in an easy to find, plug and play manner!

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Free webinar recordings from the IB on a variety of topics including but not limited to international mindedness, ATLs, service as action, making use of partially completed unit planners.

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Enhance your learning about the IB curriculum and authorization process, with our free Professional Development (PD) learning resources, across all four IB programmes.

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You probably know all of these - but this is a good reminder!

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When I was a new teacher, I got a lot of practical teaching tips from veteran colleagues. One tip was to seat kids alphabetically so I'd learn their names quickly. Another was to use a laminated hall pass to avoid writing a new one every time a student asked to go to the bathroom. Most, but not all, of their tips were useful-I decided not to make kids turn their desks around and face the wall if they misbehaved.

As a veteran educator myself, it's now my duty to share teaching tips, based on what I've learned over time, that might be useful to perspective teachers or those just starting their careers.

1. Don't Grade Everything

When I was a new teacher, I dragged home a briefcase stuffed with students' work every night. I collected everything-homework, rough drafts, work sheets-and spent my evenings and weekends trying to grade it all.
Further reading: Formative Assessments
Then I went to a workshop that explained that grades should indicate progress toward mastery, not whether kids had done homework. I continued to grade tests, of course, but I learned to use classroom strategies like writing workshops and think-pair-share so kids could share their work and learn together.

2. Let Students Know What's Going On

I used to just hand out the books and start teaching, but it's a lot easier to get where you want to go if everyone's onboard. Students should know what they're going to learn, why they're learning it, and how it'll be evaluated. I also learned to use a rubric so that kids know right from the beginning how their work will be evaluated and, therefore, what they should strive for.

3. Explain Procedures and Expectations

It's a mistake to assume the students in your class know how to work in a group or how to behave on a field trip. However, most kids will cooperate if they know what they're supposed to do. Remember, as an educator, you have to teach not only the "what" but the "how."

4. How You Treat Students Matters

What you say to students, or how you treat them, can make or break their day. When I was a new teacher, I didn't fully understand how an off-handed comment or criticism could affect a child. Once my own kids started school and came home with stories about what their teachers said or did, I realized the impact we can have on students. After that, I kept a poster in my room that said, "They won't always remember what you taught them, but they'll always remember how you treated them."

5. You Don't Know Every Kid's Home Life

A friend of mine teaches at a high school where 44 different languages are spoken, and she told me that she overheard a student say, "I'm really tired. Last night, I had to sleep next to someone who snored." Kids might be dealing with issues we know nothing about, so don't assume video games are to blame when homework isn't done.

6. Keep Your Sense of Humor

I was so serious about being a good teacher, I didn't see the role humor could play in my classroom. After a few years though, when I had more skills and more confidence, I was able to let my guard down and actually be funny or silly. Even better, my students began to understand that they could make jokes now and then, and we could all laugh together.

7. Socializing with Colleagues Is Good for You

Whether it's the faculty holiday party, Relay for Life, or stopping at the local pub for a drink on Friday, sharing the joys and frustrations of teaching and supporting one another is essential to your well-being. Forming close bonds with a colleague can even improve your levels of job satisfaction, so don't isolate yourself.

8. Your Connection to Your Students Might Surprise You

I've known teachers who loved their subject and loved teaching, but who didn't necessarily love kids. They didn't dislike kids; they just kept their professional distance. I was like that at the very beginning of my career. But as I became more skilled and comfortable in the classroom, I began to really enjoy connecting with my students as people, and teaching became a lot more fun.

At the end of the year, I always ask my students to write a letter to their core teachers, telling us what they liked, what they didn't like, and how we could improve. The letters are honest, funny, and often heartfelt. One student wrote: "I loved all my classes (math best of all) and I knew you guys cared about us." I didn't even teach math, but I kept that letter.
Further reading: A Teacher's Love for Punk Rock Music Helps Her Connect to Students
As I look back, I realize that my focus as an educator was always on the best ways to interact with kids. Maybe that's the most important tip. Make sure your students know that you care about them, and the rest will fall into place.

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8 Essential Teaching Tips from Someone Who Has Seen It All

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When I was a new teacher, I got a lot of practical teaching tips from veteran colleagues. One tip was to seat kids alphabetically so I'd learn their names quickly. Another was to use a laminated hall pass to avoid writing a new one every time a student asked to go to the bathroom.

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To get students attention after a small group activity you can do “call and responses.” Students can help create them as well.

Examples:

Teacher: Hakuna -- Students: Matata!

Marco/Polo

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ATL Tool Kit!

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IB Approaches to Learning (AtL) TOOLKIT 

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This includes several images including the ones used in today’s meeting that can be used with the games for introducing key concepts (also included in the packet).

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Some great tech tools to check out. Especially “Google Lens” app!

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
Sponsored by Kialo Edu and National Geographic Education

It's hard to imagine a time in recent history when we had more distractions, more challenges, more stuff to think about that is way more important than technology. But as someone reminded me earlier today, the show must go on. You still have work to do. You still have students who need an education. And the tools in this year's Teacher's Guide to Tech can help.

If this is the first time you're hearing about the guide, here's a quick video I made two years ago to give you an idea of what it is and how it works:

Because technology changes so quickly, I update the guide every year, and when I do, I also put together a list of tools I think are worth checking out in the upcoming year. Here are my six picks for 2021.

The Tools

1. Mote
justmote.me
Giving good quality feedback is one of the most important things teachers do for students, but it can be so time-consuming, so most teachers don't give nearly enough. A tool like Mote makes it easier to give feedback faster. It's a Google Chrome extension that lets you add voice comments in the comment field of any Google Doc, Slide presentation, spreadsheet, or inside the Google Classroom environment.

Using voice instead of writing is not only faster; it's also more personal. Students will hear your actual voice rather than having to read dry, written comments. And with all the subtleties that voice offers, you have a much better chance of communicating your message clearly, rather than being misinterpreted, which can easily happen with written communication.

The free version of Mote is great, but with the paid plan you get a longer time limit for comments, auto-generated comment transcriptions, and the ability to save voice comments for re-use in an online library.

2. AllSides
allsides.com
This year's guide contains a new section on media literacy, and boy do we need it more than ever before. We're living in a time when anyone can create and publish anything and make it look credible, a time when our students spend the bulk of their days consuming user-generated content, a time when algorithms are showing us more of the stuff we agree with and less of what we don't.

One of five tools in the new section is Allsides. This free site offers news from all sides of the political spectrum. Choose a topic-like Coronavirus, elections, health care, and so on-and Allsides provides you with a curated list of news and opinion pieces from publications that are clearly labeled as leaning left, leaning right, and centrist. Click on any of them and you go right to the full original article. This site would be an excellent resource for anyone who teaches history, social studies, or any kind of writing or research where students need to support their ideas with textual evidence.

The site also includes free classroom activities like a Red Blue Dictionary, topic pages with background information on popular current events topics, and lesson plans for teachers.

3. Google Lens
lens.google.com
You ever wish you could Google something you're looking at, something you don't know the name of? That's what Google Lens can do. Just point your smartphone camera at an object, an image, even a plant, and the app can give you information about it. Point it at text in one language and translate it into another. Point it at a math problem and it will help you find a solution. Point it at any text-special ed teachers, this one's for you-and the app will read it out loud to you. (I just tried it with this paragraph, then took it to a box of pasta and it worked on both.)

Augmented reality and machine learning get cooler every year, and this app is not only one of the most fun ways to play around with it, it might also become one of the most useful tools on our phones.

4. bulb
bulbapp.com
Portfolio assessment is a fantastic alternative to grading, and a tool like bulb makes putting together a digital portfolio a pleasure.

On this beautifully designed platform, users can create separate portfolio pages for different purposes and organize them into collections. The individual pages can include text, images, videos, embedded content from other apps, and attached files. Privacy can be set for individual pages, making it easy to decide who sees what, and pages can be revised and updated at any time.

The possibilities for this kind of tool are vast: It could be used by students to put together portfolios for capstone or genius hour projects; showcase creative work like visual art, writing, speaking, or video editing; collect artifacts of performance in sports or extracurricular activities; or build a portfolio for college applications. Teachers could use the site to create a professional portfolio or gather items around some other interest or passion.

5. EmbraceRace
embracerace.org
This year's guide contains a brand-new Social Justice and Anti-Racism category, featuring a huge collection of 24 websites, apps, YouTube channels, and other digital resources that can help teachers educate themselves and their students more deeply on issues around discrimination and how to work actively toward a more just world.

One of the listings is EmbraceRace, a site created by an multiracial couple who wanted to do a better job of educating their children about race. The site offers resources, discussion spaces, webinars, and networks to meet the challenges of raising children in "a world where race matters." The site is not directed at educators, but teachers will still find their resources useful. It would also be a good site to share with parents.

Although all the resources in this section of the guide are excellent, I chose this one to feature here because it emphasizes conversation and goes deep. It's tempting at times to look for fast fixes to race-related problems, and really, there's no such thing. Long-term change requires sustained thought, honest talk, and reflection, and the work they're doing at EmbraceRace embodies all of these.

6. Prezi Video
prezi.com/video
This tool allows you to combine the animation features of a Prezi presentation with a talking-head video. You stay on the screen, talking the whole time, while your animated presentation is layered right on top of that video. Within that side presentation, you can share a screen, show a video, provide text or images or anything else you would do with a shared screen presentation. This video covers some teacher-specific features.

After nearly a year of creating videos for hybrid and remote learning, I love that this offers something fresh. You get the really interesting animations that are possible with Prezi, plus the intimacy that comes from having you on the full screen, rather than just in a tiny box in the corner.

Even after we "get back to normal," I'm hoping that all teachers take at least some of the direct instruction they used to deliver via lecture and put it into well-planned, high-quality videos that can be accessed at any time. A tool like Prezi Video can help.

The Teacher's Guide to Tech

The seventh iteration of the Teacher's Guide to Tech is loaded with tools that can enrich your teaching. With over 450 tools in 57 different categories, this is the resource you need to quickly make smart decisions about the technology you choose for your classroom.

This year's guide has over 90 new tools and six brand-new categories: Financial Literacy, Images & Icons, Keyboarding, Media Literacy, Social Justice & Anti-Racism, and Vocabulary Builders. Plus there's a new section on remote and hybrid learning that summarizes the key things I've learned over the last year about teaching under these circumstances and links to the tool categories in the guide that are the most relevant.

Where to Get Your Copy

Single-User Licenses: If you just want a copy for yourself, you can get a copy at Teachers Pay Teachers or on Teachable.

Multi-User Licenses: To get the guide for your team, school, or even district, you can save a lot by getting multi-user licenses. I offer the deepest discounts for these on Teachable.

Purchase on Teachable
Purchase on TpT

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Listen to this post as a podcast: Sponsored by Kialo Edu and National Geographic Education It's hard to imagine a time in recent history when we had more distractions, more challenges, more stuff to think about that is way more important than technology. But as someone reminded me earlier today, the show must go on.

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All in one page with multiple tools to use in the classroom (eg. timer, dice, etc.)

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Free resources from Teachers Pay Teachers.

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Free resources from Teachers Pay Teachers.

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Some subjects have more resources than others, but hopefully everyone can find something useful in there!

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No More Easy Button: A Suggested Approach to Post-Pandemic Teaching | Cult of Pedagogy

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With this fresh start, let’s take the wisdom we’ve gained over the last year and use it. Let’s not go back to the way things used to be.

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Icebreakers that Rock | Cult of Pedagogy

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Too many classroom icebreakers require students to take big social risks with people they barely know. Or they don’t really help students get to know each other. Or they are just plain cheesy.