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1. Does the activity, strategy, task, or idea allow for the student to personalize his or her response? Can they bring their life experiences into the activity and make it their own?

2. Are there clear and modeled expectations?

3. Is there a sense of audience above and beyond the teacher and the test? Does the activity have value to someone else?

4. Is there social interaction? Do students have an opportunity to talk about the learning and interact?

5. Is there a culture of emotional safety? Are mistakes valued because they are an opportunity to learn?

6. Do students have opportunities to choose within the activity?

7. Is it an authentic activity? This doesn't mean it always must connect directly to the student's world, but it should connect to reality.

8. Is the task new and novel? If kids are bored, it's hard to see engagement

It's undoubtedly hard to get all eight measures of engagement into every classroom activity, but research by John Antonetti shows that at least three can make a big difference for how much kids learn. "In classrooms where you had at least three characteristics in each assignment students demonstrated sustained cognitive engagement between 84 and 86 percent of the time," Almarode said. When only two characteristics were present students were only cognitively engaged about 16 percent of the time, and that number dropped to less than four percent when only one characteristic was present.

"As a teacher, as you design a task you need at least three of those characteristics in there," Almarode said. More than that, the characteristics should be observable to anyone who walks into the room. For example, when Almarode walks into a room on a visit, he should be able to ask any student what the class is working on, what the teacher's expectations are and how it will lead to learning. He might also look for whether students are talking about the topic and bringing in their own experiences. These observations show him students are on-task, as well as emotionally and cognitively engaged.

The other thing he watches out for is whether the activity meets the expressed expectations. For example, if a student says the activity is to describe the phases of the moon, but the actual task only requires him to match pictures to vocabulary, then the activity isn't actually requiring students to describe. In that example, the cognitive engagement expected did not match the cognitive engagement Almarode saw in the work students were doing.

Effective feedback on work is another crucial aspect of three-dimensional engagement. Almarode knows how difficult it is for teachers to grade all the assigned work, but he's also convinced by evidence that shows immediate feedback is crucial to cognitive engagement and thus learning.

"If you give effective feedback to students you double the rate of learning," Almarode said. "So here's my argument: cut back on the volume of assignments and increase your feedback on those you grade and you will double the rate of learning."

That feedback doesn't necessarily mean returning fully graded papers the next day. Instead, after students turn in their papers, Almarode suggests handing out three papers that demonstrate what it looks like to have met expectations, to still be developing, or to be below expectations. Alternatively, the teacher could hand out a rubric and ask students to score a work sample. Both of these strategies give students a sense of how they performed, and the feedback comes while the process of writing is still fresh.

"Give them something to actively engage with immediately," Almarode advises. This feedback strategy doesn't mean teachers shouldn't assign other work, but he suggests doing more peer feedback sessions or dialoguing about the assignment to free teachers up for high quality feedback on fewer assignments.

Almarode realizes that his suggestions and strategies around engagement often feel to teachers like one more thing to do. He believes everyone within the profession needs to be better at filtering out demands on teacher time that aren't the most important for classroom learning. He said it's time to let go of old structures like math time in the morning or long staff meetings to go over procedures. When time is precious it should be spent collaborating, reflecting, improving and prepping. Administrators have a crucial job in protecting teachers time, not adding to long list of things they "should do."

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How To Ensure Students Are Actively Engaged and Not Just Compliant

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Does the activity, strategy, task, or idea allow for the student to personalize his or her response? Can they bring their life experiences into the activity and make it their own? Are there clear and modeled expectations? Is there a sense of audience above and beyond the teacher and the test?

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17 Ideas to Help Combat Learned Helplessness

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Author-consultant Sarah Tantillo identifies 17 common teaching actions that can lead to student inertia & learned helplessness and suggests better alternatives.

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"This year I'm really going to make time for more professional reading." Sound familiar? It's easier said than done. But these must-read books for teachers, recommended by our friends on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE, are worth staying up a little past bedtime for. These are the professional development reads teachers are raving about. Check them out!

In an era of mandated testing and ready-made curriculum, it's important to take time to reflect, refresh, and renew our teaching practice in order to make it our own. This easy-to-read book encourages us to remember the reasons why we teach the way we do.

An inspiring must-read book for teachers who are looking for ways to get out from behind the lectern in order to give students the opportunity to facilitate their own learning and become their own best teachers. Particularly thought-provoking for middle and high school teachers.

This book encourages teachers to tap into their passion for teaching and engage their creativity and energy in order to make their classrooms brilliant, dynamic places of learning. Includes practical techniques and innovative ideas to use in the classroom, including over 30 hooks and 170 brainstorming questions.

Another great book that offers practical tips and techniques for increasing rigor and engagement, thus getting the most out of your student community. You can even opt for the version that includes sample lesson plans, videos, and the teachlikeachampion.com online community.

Streamlining your work to yield maximum efficiency is an effective way to not only avoid becoming overwhelmed and burned out but boost your students' academic performance. This must-read book for teachers offers management suggestions and tips for increasing student responsibility and includes one section for teachers and another for students.

This book argues that creating a culture of thinking in schools is more important to learning than any particular curriculum. The author spells out the eight cultural forces (expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment) that are critical for creating this shift.

Research shows that personal qualities like grit and self-control play a critical role in children's success. This book argues that rather than trying to teach these skills directly, we should focus on creating the kind of environment in which those qualities are most likely to flourish.

This must-read book for teachers is "an urgent call for the radical reimagining of American education in order to equip students for the realities of the twenty-first-century economy." It presents a new vision of American education, one that focuses on wonder, creativity, and initiative.

The basic message of this book is that we have much more potential to affect the learning of students than we realize. Translating neuroscience into practical classroom applications, topics include include how to prepare children for school, how to motivate students to participate, how to influence emotional states, how to design smarter schools, and how to enhance memory and critical-thinking skills.

Many intelligent children are struggling in schools-not because they don't understand, but because they need support with their executive function skills (the fundamental habits of mind required for getting organized, staying focused, and controlling impulses and emotions). This must-read book for teachers offers practical, realistic advice in a respectful, hopeful tone.

Based on compelling scientific research, this must-read teacher book emphasizes that students learn best when they are engaged in lessons that involve seeing, hearing, doing, speaking, and feeling. And when kids are engaged, behavior issues subside.

What do you do when traditional methods of rewards and consequences are not effective with students with behavioral problems? This book provides a different framework for understanding challenging behavior and introduces methods for solving problems collaboratively, improving communication, and building relationships.

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12 Must-Read Books for Teachers to Hack Learning - WeAreTeachers

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"This year I'm really going to make time for more professional reading." Sound familiar? It's easier said than done. But these must-read books for teachers, recommended by our friends on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE, are worth staying up a little past bedtime for. These are the professional development reads teachers are raving about.

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It's a golden age of education podcasts. Teachers, professors, education innovators, and tech skeptics have switched on their microphones to share their insights and analysis-and you'll find plenty of lively characters and fresh voices via your earbuds. After all, let's face it, teachers can be great talkers (we mean that in a good way), and they're also seasoned storytellers.

Take Michael Wesch, for instance. Inspired by the long-running radio show This American Life, he tags along with his students to better understand their lives and struggles on his Life101 podcast. (That includes crashing a frat party-you'll want to check out that episode).

Other education podcasts take a more Socratic approach, drawing out their guests through dialogue. When asking around, several folks we talked to praised Teaching in Higher Ed as a podcast with particularly engaging discussions.

Below are our favorites (including our own podcast, which relaunched this week), organized by topic. Please share your own picks in the comments section below.

Teaching Strategies
Cult of Pedagogy Podcast
Jennifer Gonzalez, a former middle school teacher, hosts this podcast as part of her popular blog on teaching strategies, education reform, and ed tech. Recent episodes include "How to Approach Your Teaching Like a Master Chef," and "Creating a Welcoming Classroom for Special Ed Students."
The Teach Better Podcast
Doug McKee, a senior lecturer ad Cornell University, and Edward O'Neill, a freelance instructional, designer have been sitting down to talk teaching since 2015. They update the show "fortnightly," and past episodes have covered why professors should ditch PowerPoint, how a group of high school students used a John Madden video game to teach math. "It's really teaching and learning, and technology comes up when it's relevant," explains O'Neill in an e-mail interview.
Teaching in Higher Ed
Bonni Stachowiak, an associate professor of business and management at Vanguard University and a business consultant, hosts this weekly conversation podcast. Though the main focus is teaching (as the name makes clear), she also devotes some episodes to tips on improving personal productivity (there's plenty of talk about a technique she likes called GTD, or Getting Things Done). Popular episodes include an interview with a researcher who studies teaching evaluations and one outlining her top five gadgets for teaching.
Teaching Online Podcast (TOPcast)
Two officials from the University of Central Florida -- Tom Cavanagh, associate vice president of distributed learning, and Kelvin Thompson, director of online design and development strategy, have been co-hosting this chat-format show since 2015. On a recent episode they went meta to focus on how podcasting can be used to create professional development opportunities.

The Beauty-And Difficulty-of Learning
CodeNewbie
Saron Yitbarek, founder of this community group for coding students, hosts this weekly podcast that "talks to people on their coding journey, with hopes of helping you on yours." Recent episodes explore the ethics of coding and diversity in tech.

Michael Wesch turns his research skills as an anthropologist to his students in this powerful story-based podcast. Wesch is a professor at Kansas State University and has won national awards for his teaching (he's a former U.S. Professor of the Year) and creativity (he scored a 2007 Rave award from Wired magazine for his viral videos). His new podcast has only one episode so far, but it's a tour de force, documenting love, self-doubt, hope, and loneliness and general messiness of being a college student. And ultimately, it's about his quest to become a better teacher. Wesch says he's working on a new batch of episodes that are scheduled to appear in August. In the meantime, his site lists some resources for those who want to tell their own stories in audio.
Tech Gypsies
Audrey Watters has established herself as an important critical voice against a rush to tech for tech's sake in education. Each week she and her partner, Kin Lane, an advocate for API software standards, dissect the latest tech news, with an eye to education and open software.

Interviews with Edtech Innovators and Thought Leaders
EdSurge On Air
Co-hosted by EdSurge's Mary Jo Madda and Jeff Young, this homegrown podcast has brought the likes of Reading Rainbow's LeVar Burton, Los Angeles Unified School District's John Deasy, and author Paul Tough-to name a few-into the EdSurge recording booth to discuss the in's and out's of edtech. Starting January 2017, the podcast will alternate weekly between K-12 and higher education interviewees.
Re:Learning Podcast
Jeff is biased on this one, since he helped start it when he was at The Chronicle of Higher Education. It continues with host Goldie Blumenstyk, who literally wrote the book on American Higher Education in Crisis. Her most recent "get" was Jim Shelton, who is heading up the education portfolio at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
House of Edtech
Christopher J. Nesi, a K-12 educator, has made podcasting his main gig. He hosts this weekly podcast, and he also created the Education Podcast Network with several other shows. Recent House of Edtech episodes include interviews with experts on augmented reality in education and ideas on how to make a classroom podcast.
Stanford Innovation Lab
Tina Seelig, a professor of the practice in Stanford's department of management science and engineering, hosts this weekly podcast that promises to "give a taste" of topics covered in the university's classes on entrepreneurship. One episode particularly worth a listen features Richard Miller, founding president of Olin College talking about its unusual model of higher education. "One thing we learned," he says, is that "young people are more capable of learning things on their own than we ever expected."

Ideas Podcasts (Occasional Education Coverage)
Conversations with Tyler
Tyler Cowen is an economics professor at George Mason University, a popular blogger, a video-courseware provider, and lately, a podcaster. He draws A-list guests (including Peter Thiel and Nate Silver) for long, smart discussions on big ideas.
Revisionist History
Whether you love or hate bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell, it's worth checking out his podcast, which devoted a surprising amount of time to education. The first season ran ten episodes, three of which were a mini-series on college access. He pulls no punches when trashing Bowdoin College for, as he sees it, devoting so much money to gourmet dining-hall fare and so little to financial aid. And he grills Stanford University's outgoing president for sitting on such a large endowment and going after ever-larger donations.
Spark from CBC Radio
Journalist Nora Young hosts a weekly radio show on Canada's public broadcasting network with sometimes playful, always thoughtful features about how technology is shaping our world.
Surprisingly Awesome
A product of Gimlet Media (the producers of famed entrepreneurship-themed podcast "Startup"), Surprisingly Awesome is, well, pretty awesome. Hosted by two guys named Adam, it catalogues unique stories to show the novelty in everyday events and occurrences, from wedding planning to picking a mattress.
TED Radio Hour
If you're a fan of TED talks, you'll want to check out this podcast. With themes like "why we lie," "the hero's journey," and "growing up," each episode weaves together four to five TED talks around a central concept, from experts in all sort of industries. Guy Raz hosts the show, offering insightful commentary and asking earnest questions of the TED speakers, many of which he brings onto the podcast to elaborate further on their talks.

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16 Education Podcasts to Check Out In 2017 - EdSurge News

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It's a golden age of education podcasts. Teachers, professors, education innovators, and tech skeptics have switched on their microphones to share their insights and analysis-and you'll find plenty of lively characters and fresh voices via your earbuds. After all, let's face it, teachers can be great talkers (we mean that in a good way), and they're also seasoned storytellers.

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Mobile Learning- Find activities in my book, Learning to Go! For my bookmarks check out ShellyTerrell.com/mlearning.

Learning Missions- Check out my new book in 2017, Hacking Digital Learning: 10 Missions That Skyrocket Achievement in Any Class! In the meantime, check out this post.

The future of technology lies in virtual reality, augmented reality, wearables, and gesture-based technology, which I'm excited about because it means people will live more active, healthy lives. Check out ShellyTerrell.com/cooltech for ideas and resources.

Game Creation- Try Hopscotch, TinyTap (iOS/Android), Scratch MIT, Zondle, GetKahoot, Stencyl, SketchNation, GameSalad, Purpose Games, ClassTools, Game Maker Studio, Sploder, Gamestar Mechanic, X-Note, What2Learn, Kodu, GamePress, Adventure Games, and Textbased Adventures. For more resources and ideas check out ShellyTerrell.com/games.

Comics- My favorite comic creators are Makebeliefs, ToonDoon, Friendstrip, Comics Head, and Pixton (Web/iOS/Android). For more resources and ideas check out ShellyTerrell.com/comics.

Infographics- Students can create infographics using Piktochart, Infogram, Adioma, Visme, Smores, Canva, or Genial.ly. For resources check out and ideas ShellyTerrell.com/infographics.

Citizenship- For resources and ideas check out ShellyTerrell.com/citizenship.

Problem Based Learning- For resources and ideas check out TeacherRebootCamp.com/pbl.

Digital Portfolios- Check out this post with ideas and examples from my students.

Sketchnoting- Syliva Duckworth has a new book with her sketchnotes. You can follow her @SylivaDuckworth. Also, check out this video tutorial where she walks you through the process.

Coding- For resources and ideas follow these hashtags #coding, #kidscancode, #code, and #hourofcode. Also, check out this Edshelf of coding resources.

Social Bookmarking- Get students to bookmark their research with these free tools and apps like Diigo, Pearltrees, Storify, Pinterest, Livebinders, and Educlipper. For more resources and ideas check out ShellyTerrell.com/research.

Global Projects- Skype or do a Youtube live event with classes worldwide. To connect with other classes try Skype Education, Epals, or Quadblogging. For more resources and ideas check out Teacherrebootcamp.com/survivaltips/globalprojects.

Makerspaces- For resources check out this awesome Edshelf of resources.Many makerspaces include 3D printers, which really inspire students to solve problems. Read about the college student who 3D printed his own braces for less than $60.

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

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15 Ideas and Tons of Resources to Try with Learners in 2017

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Mobile Learning- Find activities in my book, Learning to Go! For my bookmarks check out ShellyTerrell.com/mlearning. Learning Missions- Check out my new book in 2017, Hacking Digital Learning: 10 Missions That Skyrocket Achievement in Any Class! In the meantime, check out this post.

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Episode 44 of the EdTech TV Podcast interviews an anonymous member of a professional development organization trying to affect change using subversive tactics.

Google's PhotoScan

Google put out a new app that lets you scan photographs from your phone without "just taking a picture" - definitely a useful addition to anyone's app toolbelt.
Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play
Subversive Education

Revisiting the last episode's professional organization, CATESOL, an anonymous member reached out to me to talk about the value of social media in professional development.

This member took an extreme approach to affecting change in the organization, going outside the normal pathways to try to make change.

This is by far the weirdest interview I've ever done. I'll leave the judgement on whether it's a good idea to the listeners.

If you are interested in following the account, they are at:

@CATESOLers - though that may not last long, depending on how things pan out.

This interview has gotten me thinking a lot about subversion in education. There are some books on the topic which I haven't read yet that I need to check out. At the top of the list is:
Teaching As a Subversive Activity:
This book is ranked highly but for some reason wasn't included in my Master's program. Some reviews claim it is cynnical, which is worth considering as well.

Follow EdTech TV:
Twitter: @EdTechTV Facebook.com/EdTechTV Instagram: @EdTechTV EdTechTV on YouTube

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044 - Subversive Professional Development - Implementing Change without Permission

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Episode 44 of the EdTech TV Podcast interviews an anonymous member of a professional development organization trying to affect change using subversive tactics. Google's PhotoScan Google put out a new app that lets you scan photographs from your phone without "just taking a picture" - definitely a useful addition to anyone's app toolbelt.

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Simply putting students into small groups, however, does not guarantee desirable outcomes. Success depends on listening and sharing. Here is a description of students who did not collaborate well.

Sagging in his chair, Daryl gazed away, pointing his outstretched legs toward another group. Elizabeth, disgusted, looked down as she paged through the anthology. Across from them, Josh and Kara talked animatedly. When I stopped at their group, Kara told me the group had chosen Raymond Carver's poem "Gravy." Elizabeth complained that no one was listening to her and that she hated "the dumb poem they both want." . . . Finally came the day of their presentation. . . . Kara and Josh had taken over the presentation. The other two never really found their way into the project. (Cohen & Lotan, 2014, p. 25, citing Shulman et al., 1998)

Kara and Josh did the lion's share of the content work, and it may have been very good. Nevertheless, they did not listen to Elizabeth, and Daryl did not share any thoughts at all. The example resonates with people because most of us have been Daryl, Elizabeth, and Kara and Josh at some point. Fortunately, listening and sharing as cooperative techniques can alleviate frustration and, more importantly, allow group learning to surpass what would be possible by a single student (Slavin, 1995). Effective collaborative learning yields gains in motivation and conceptual understanding. Ideally, it also helps students learn how to cooperate in the future.
1. How Listening and Sharing Works
Everything is more fun with someone else!! Well, at least it should be. Many college students dislike group projects. Some of this is naïve egoism and an unwillingness to compromise-I can do this better alone than together. But more often than not, it is because one or more of five ingredients is missing: joint attention, listening, sharing, coordinating, and perspective taking.
Joint Attention
To collaborate, people need to pay attention to the same thing. If two children are building separate sand castles, they are not collaborating. They are engaged in parallel play. The abilities to maintain joint attention are foundational and emerge around the first year of life. Infants and parents can share attention to the same toy. Next, infants learn to follow the parents gaze to maintain joint visual attention. Finally, the infants learn to direct their parents' attention (Carpenter, Nagell, Tomasello, Butterworth, & Moore, 1998). Visual attention provides an index of what people are thinking about. If you are looking longingly at an ice-cold beer, it is a good bet that you are thinking about an ice-cold beer.

Using a common visual anchor (e.g., a common diagram) can help people maintain joint visual attention. In one study, Schneider and Pea (2013) had partners complete a circuit task, where participants had to figure out which circuit controlled which outcome in a simulation. They collaborated remotely over headsets. They saw the same image on their respective computers, so it was possible to maintain joint visual attention. In one condition, the authors used eye tracking: a moving dot showed each participant where the other was looking, so it was easier for them to maintain joint visual attention. These partners exhibited better collaboration, and they learned more from the task than did partners who did not have the eye-tracking dot to support joint attention.
Listening
Thoughts can be much more complex than an eye gaze. It also helps to hear what people are thinking. A common situation is that people refuse to listen to one another because they are too busy talking or they just discount other people's ideas. The How-To section describes a number of solutions.
Sharing
Sharing operates on two levels: sharing common goals and sharing ideas. First, if people do not share some level of common goal, they will collaborate to cross-purposes. Two professors of mathematics may agree to design homework together for a large class, but if one professor aims to increase students' interest in the field while the other aims to weed out the faint of heart, they will have a hard time reaching consensus. Second, if nobody shares ideas, collaboration will not go very far. In school, getting people to share can be difficult. Learners may be diffident, or they may not have good strategies for sharing. Children often do not know how to offer constructive criticism or build on an idea. It can be helpful to give templates for sharing, such as two likes and a wish, where the "wish" is a constructive criticism or a building idea.
Coordinating
Have you ever had the experience of a group discussion, in which you just cannot seem to get your timing right? Either you always interrupt before the speaker is done, or someone else grabs the floor exactly when the other person finishes and before you jump in. Collaboration requires a great deal of turn-taking coordination. When the number of collaborators increases, it is also important to partition roles and opportunities to interact. You may hope coordination evolves organically, which it might. But it might turn into a Lord of the Flies scenario instead. It can be useful to establish collaborative structures and rules.
Perspective Taking
A primary reason for collaborating is that people bring different ideas to the table. The first four ingredients-joint attention, listening, sharing, and coordinating-support the exchange of information. The fifth ingredient is understanding why people are offering the information they do. This often goes beyond what speakers can possibly show and say (see Chapter S). People need to understand the point of view behind what others are saying, so they can interpret it more fully. This requires perspective taking. This is where important learning takes place, because learners can gain a new way to think about matters. It can also help differentiate and clarify one's own ideas. A conflict of opinions can enhance learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009).

An interesting study on perspective taking (Kulkarni, Cambre, Kotturi, Bernstein, & Klemmer, 2015) occurred in a massive open online course (MOOC) with global participation. In their online discussions, learners were encouraged to review lecture content by relating it to their local context. The researchers placed people into low- or high-diversity groups based on the spread of geographic regions among participants. Students in the most geographically diverse discussion groups saw the highest learning gains, presumably because they had the opportunity to consider more different perspectives than geographically uniform groups did.
Daniel L. Schwartz, PhD, is the Dean of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and holds the Nomellini-Olivier Chair in Educational Technology. Jessica M. Tsang, PhD, and Kristen P. Blair, PhD are both researchers and instructors at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education.

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How Listening and Sharing Help Shape Collaborative Learning Experiences

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Simply putting students into small groups, however, does not guarantee desirable outcomes. Success depends on listening and sharing. Here is a description of students who did not collaborate well. Sagging in his chair, Daryl gazed away, pointing his outstretched legs toward another group. Elizabeth, disgusted, looked down as she paged through the anthology.

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Teachers who report higher levels of burnout have more students with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

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Sixty-three years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, many schools across the country either remain segregated or have re-segregated.

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that when it comes to school segregation, separate is never truly equal.

"There's never been a moment in the history of this country where black people who have been isolated from white people have gotten the same resources," Hannah-Jones says. "They often don't have the same level of instruction. They often don't have strong principals. They often don't have the same technology."

Still, when it was time for Hannah-Jones' daughter, Najya, to attend kindergarten, the journalist chose the public school near their home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, even though its students were almost all poor and black or Latino. Hannah-Jones later wrote about that decision in The New York Times Magazine.

For Hannah-Jones, sending Najya to the neighborhood school was a moral issue. "It is important to understand that the inequality we see, school segregation, is both structural, it is systemic, but it's also upheld by individual choices," she says. "As long as individual parents continue to make choices that only benefit their own children ... we're not going to see a change."

Hannah-Jones adds that her daughter is thriving at school. "I know she's learning a lot," she says. "I think it is making her a good citizen. ... It is teaching her that children who have less resources than her are not any less intelligent than her or not any less worthy than her."

Interview highlights
On why she chose to send her young daughter to the public school in her neighborhood

The original mission of public schools ... is this understanding that no matter where you come from, you will go into the doors of a school and every child will receive the same education.

One of the things I've done in my work is kind of show the hypocrisy of progressive people who say they believe in inequality, but when it comes to their individual choices about where they're going to live and where they're going to send their children, they make very different decisions, and I just didn't want to do that. So for me it was a matter of needing to live my values, and not being someone who contributed to the inequality that I write about.
On the importance of having students from different races and income levels in the public schools
The original mission of public schools ... is this understanding that no matter where you come from, you will go into the doors of a school and every child will receive the same education.

And no, my daughter is not going to get an education that she would get if I paid $40,000 a year in private-school tuition, but that's kind of the whole point of public schools.

And I say this - and it always feels weird when I say it as a parent, because a lot of other parents look at you a little like you're maybe not as good of a parent - I don't think she's deserving of more than other kids. I just don't. I think that we can't say "This school is not good enough for my child" and then sustain that system. I think that that's just morally wrong. If it's not good enough for my child, then why are we putting any children in those schools?
On the history of school desegregation since the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board happens, and the way that we're taught it or the myth about it is immediately our nation repented and went into an integrated future together. That's not what happened. There was massive resistance, and we don't see real desegregation occurring in this country until 1964, and really most rapidly from 1968 on. ...

Then you see pretty rapid desegregation particularly in the South, but then that changes, and in 1988 we start to go backwards. So we reach kind of the peak of schools integrating, of black students attending majority white schools at the highest rates that they ever have in the country, and then we start to see school districts re-segregating, which means black students are starting to go to schools that are more and more segregated. And school districts that had had a degree of integration are losing that integration. ...
On American resistance to desegregating schools and housing
When I started what I kind of call the segregation beat about five years ago ... I think we had stopped talking about this as a problem. If you look at No Child Left Behind, which comes out of the Bush administration, that was all about giving up on integration in schools and just saying, "We're going to make these poor black and Latino schools equal to white schools by testing and accountability."

So no one was discussing integration anymore. I think it's because ... we never really wanted this. ... It's always had to be forced, and as soon as ... our elected officials and our courts lost the will to force it, most white Americans were just fine with that. ...

One of the things that I really try to do with my work is show how racial segregation and racial inequality was intentionally created with a ton of resources. From the federal government, to the state, to city governments, to private citizens, we put so much effort into creating this segregation and inequality, and we're willing to put almost no effort in fixing it, and that's the problem.

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How The Systemic Segregation Of Schools Is Maintained By 'Individual Choices'

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Sixty-three years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education , many schools across the country either remain segregated or have re-segregated. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that when it comes to school segregation, separate is never truly equal.

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It seems like every store I've gone into recently has a display of adult coloring books. Some stores are even hosting wine and coloring nights! What is this trend all about? Well, it turns out coloring helps adults unwind and relieves stress. By focusing on coloring, adults set aside their worries and their stressful schedules and are transported back to a simpler time. I admit, that I was a skeptic. But, I tried it and it worked!

As I colored, I thought of my high school students. Particularly, it made me think of my honors and AP kids whose loaded schedules and crazy after school activities have them running on fumes most of the year. And, when it's time for mid-terms and finals, I can almost feel the stress radiating from them. So I decided to revamp my exam prep days to include opportunities for coloring (and doodling).

Now, I'm not saying I gave my students random coloring books and had them color away, but I incorporated coloring into my actual exam review. I did this for all levels of students, not just my AP and honors students, and the change in my classes was amazing! My students were less stressed and they enjoyed studying for their exam!

Still skeptical? Try these free downloads from my store in your class:

If you enjoyed this post, you should sign up for my monthly newsletter for more great ideas, tips, and exclusive freebies!

You may also like these posts:

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The Coloring Revolution and Why Your Students Should Be Doing It

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It seems like every store I've gone into recently has a display of adult coloring books. Some stores are even hosting wine and coloring nights! What is this trend all about? Well, it turns out coloring helps adults unwind and relieves stress.

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Hey teaching friends! I know many of you are in the midst of testing season right now and will be running hard through the end of the school year to finish things up and pack as much as you can in before summer break. When you are going 1,000 miles an hour each day, it can definitely take a toll on how you feel about your job. I have been there too.

How about a pick-me-up to help you along and maybe even get you excited about finishing up the year on a high? I have just the thing for you!

My good friend and amazing professional author and educational speaker Angela Watson has just released a NEW book called Unshakeable and she has asked several blogger friends to help her in discussing each of the chapters over the last 20 days for a virtual book study if you will - super fun!

You can follow along from the very beginning starting at Angela's blog right HERE.

Today, I will be covering the last chapter in the book: Innovate and adapt to make teaching and adventure.

I really enjoyed this chapter in the book as I truly believe that only we are able to make our jobs and adventure each and every day in the way an adventure should be: exciting and something to look forward to without knowing what is coming.

One of the first steps mentioned was reflecting on our own practices. That is something that every formal teacher education program will have you do over and over and over again. But it really is a good habit to be in and will help you realize what is working for your students - and what isn't. Or how a good lesson could be GREAT. I enjoyed Angela's idea to grab some sticky notes for your lesson plans and jot down your thoughts after the lesson was taught for the day. Make note of what worked, what didn't, what activity the students loved, or what they could have used instead to make it more concrete. Just by taking a few moments to write it out, you are already more prepared for next year when you pull out that lesson again. Much like a artist, you are honing your craft and tweaking it until it is the best version of your teaching.

Next, Ms. Watson mentions something I have always done instinctively from year to year as a teacher - and I guess I never realized it wasn't something all teachers did: Choosing your own classroom changes and challenges. What does that mean? Basically, we have so many things in the classroom we CANNOT control. Data to be collected, how we teach our reading block, or even allowing students to choose their own reading selections from the library at times are all examples of our jobs being dictated to us. It can be frustrating to say the least and it can feel like all the joy and creativity has been stripped from us. But there are lots of things we CAN control - and we need to embrace those choices and be excited about trying something new.

For example, one year I decided to try Student Led Parent Conferences with my third graders. I did my own research, read about how it worked in other classrooms, and then sat down and created a version I felt would work best with my style and my class. And each year, I tweaked it as needed until it was the best version of a conference I knew was amazing. I didn't do it because I was told to try it by administration (in fact no one else in my building had tried them). I didn't do it because I wanted some big announcement to the staff (a funny story actually: my principal DID ask me to present it to the staff which I politely declined. I didn't want anyone getting "extra" work for something I pulled together on my own). I did it because I wanted to stretch myself and try something that would make a difference to both my students, their learning, their parents, and to how I felt about conference night. It was exciting to try something new!

Last - I ADORE this subheading in the chapter: "Choose to innovate and subvert the system quietly." While I always made sure to complete benchmark assessments, I didn't always teach every single lesson in the math book if I had pre-assessed students and they already knew it. As long as I knew I would cover what the students needed to learn for their grade level standards, I was free to try some out of the box lessons. But I also didn't blab about it in the Staff Lounge either. I think the key to the subheading is "quietly." Just be you and be at peace with those things you cannot control - and be excited about those you can.

In the end, you don't need free reign on a curriculum and the full school day to be a creative and pumped up teacher. You just need a few pieces that you can choose. If it were more than that, you would be overwhelmed anyway. Pick 1-3 new ideas you might want to incorporate next year now and start getting excited about them. It's time to bring back your adventure. 🙂

I highly suggest to everyone to check out Angela Watson's newest book: Unshakeable for yourself - it is fabulous! For those that are reading along, what was your biggest takeaway from this chapter? I would love to hear in the comments below!

~Charity

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Innovate and adapt to make teaching an adventure

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Hey teaching friends! I know many of you are in the midst of testing season right now and will be running hard through the end of the school year to finish things up and pack as much as you can in before summer break.

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This #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about grading policies in the ELA classroom. Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed what work is graded and what work isn't, and how to hold students accountable for implementing feedback. Teachers also shared their experiences with standards based grading, thoughts on students grading themselves, and tips for making grading easier.
Read through the chat below for ideas on what type of assignments should carry the most weight and how to use rubrics and conferencing to encourage revision and reflection. You'll find ways to simplify grading using gradebook/rubric codes and a check system instead of points. You'll also get ideas about how to use technology to lighten the marking load.

Hope you'll join us next Tuesday September 27th at 8pm EST to talk about reading and writing workshop. We'd also love for you to join our 2ndaryELA Facebook group (even if you aren't on Twitter). 2ndaryELA is a group of middle and high school English Language Arts teachers looking to share ideas and best practices. This group is an extension of our Twitter chat and a place for collaboration, questions, and encouragement. Feel free to post teaching ideas, success stories, resource links, photos, etc. that will enhance our instruction.

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The Literary Maven: Grading Policies for Middle & High School: Making It Meaningful & Increasing Student Accountability

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The red pen is mighty, but are you maximizing its impact? Middle school and high school English Language Arts teachers discussed what work is graded and what work isn't, and how to hold students accountable for implementing feedback. Teachers also shared their experiences with standards based grading, thoughts on students grading themselves, and tips for making grading easier.

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Listen to my interview with Seth Perler, executive function coach (transcript):
It seems every teacher in every school struggles with what they might call unmotivated, lazy, or disorganized learners. These students seem to have a ton of potential, their test scores might even be pretty high, but they can't ever seem to get it together school-wise.

In my own teaching experience, I spent an inordinate amount of time on these students, giving them lists of make-up assignments to do, meeting with them at lunch or after school to help get them caught up, contacting parents, helping them go through their binders and backpacks and lockers to find missing work, and coming up with lots of different ways to basically say the same thing: You just need to stay organized.

It's not motivation; it's executive function.

It turns out this set of skills actually has a name: executive function. The first time I heard this term in Paul Tough's 2012 book, How Children Succeed, it was like a light bulb going off: Kids who struggle with executive function often have perfectly good academic abilities, but they don't have the same ability as most students to stay on top of the little details that make life run smoothly. So when we try to get them to manage those details like most other kids do, our efforts fail.

If I had known that, and if I'd had someone like Seth Perler to show me what to do differently, I would have been able to help these kids have a much more rewarding school experience.

Seth Perler is an Executive Function coach who works with these students he refers to as "outside the box learners." Because Perler was an outside-the-box learner himself, when he became a teacher, he knew how to reach this type of student. During his years in the classroom and then as an education coach, he has developed seven systems that he teaches these kids to help them meet deadlines, keep track of materials, and manage their time.

What's interesting about these systems is that although some of them may seem obvious at first, it's the little tweaks Perler gives them that actually make them work. What most of us have tried with these students turns out to be counterproductive; we've approached them in the same way that we approach our other students. For most kids, our standard methods for keeping them organized work just fine, but these kids need something different. Once you learn about these little tweaks-like why folders are far better than 3-ring binders-you'll be able to change your approach, share these insights with parents, and start to see some real differences in how these kids do in school.

Implementing the Systems

For these systems to work, Perler says, parents and teachers have to help students build them into habits. This takes patience, compassion, and more time than is typical for most students.

"It takes two good solid months of continuous effort with these kids to really build a habit," he says. "It's not easy. The brain is literally changing. The neurons in the brain are changing. They are building new networks that are helping them to execute, to use executive function to manage what are really an overwhelming amount of details we expect these kids to manage."

What does that "time" look like? Perler recommends a weekly overhaul, done on Sunday nights, to hit the reset button on all of these systems and prepare the student for the week ahead. Done consistently, this will eventually make habits out of all of these systems, and the student should start to see big improvements.

1. Paper Management
Use a separate folder for every class.
"Organized adults will often recommend that kids use three-ring binders," Perler says. "Their idea is, 'Well if it helps me stay organized, obviously it would help a disorganized kid become more organized.' But for kids who struggle with executive function, three-ring binders are horrible. There are so many details in terms of opening a big binder, finding the right place for the paper, unclicking it, putting it in with the three holes, re-clicking it, closing it carefully. These are kids who really just want to get it done."

What works better? "Cheap paper folders," Perler says. He recommends the following:

Use a separate folder for every class, with a different color for each folder.

Choose paper folders, not plastic, because plastic is too slick and can cause papers to slide out too easily.

Write the subject name directly on the folder in big letters, so it's easy to find. Then turn the folder over and write it on the back.

2. Backpack Management
Everything out, once a week.
Most kids are what Perler calls maintainers, because they are able to maintain a semi-organized backpack, taking out unnecessary items as they go and keeping things more or less organized. But students who struggle with executive function tend to be overhaulers, waiting until things get totally out of control and then doing a complete overhaul.

"Let's say you have a really disorganized kid," he says. "One day you come home, they've completely rearranged their bedroom, put all their furniture in different places, and completely cleaned out the whole bedroom. That's an overhauler. They like to overhaul."

When it comes to backpacks, however, this overhaul doesn't come frequently enough, and that results in backpacks where papers are lost or damaged. Perler recommends students do a weekly backpack overhaul:

Once a week, pull everything out of the backpack.

Throw out things you don't need, reorganize the things you do.

3. Planner
Keep it plain and simple.
"A lot of schools will buy planners for the entire school," Perler says. "They'll have the hall pass in the back, the school handbook in the front. They have the periodic table in the back, commonly misspelled words, famous quotes on the papers, and a bunch of colors often on the pages. It turns out that these planners are awful for the kids that I work with, for kids who struggle with executive function. It's too much. These are kids who really want to get at the heart of the matter within seconds. They don't want to have to flip pages and find things."

Perler recommends a much simpler planner for these students:

Get a month-at-a-glance planner, rip out every single page that isn't the calendar of the months they will be in school. 10 pages max. "These kids tend to be very global thinkers, so seeing the entire month is a lot easier for their brain to learn to conceptualize time," Perler says.

To make the most of the smaller spaces on the planner, develop a shorthand system for recording important deadlines and other information.

Do regular check-ins with a parent or teacher make sure the planner is being maintained.

4. Grade Monitoring
Check once a week at minimum.
Although we have discussed on this site about the danger of parents monitoring their child's grades too closely, with students who struggle with executive function, it's helpful to work with the student to develop a habit of monitoring their own grades.

Once a week (at least), go into your school's online grading portal and check all grades.

Look at the details: Are there incomplete grades? Missing grades?

If the teacher hasn't been inputting grades on a regular basis, recent grades may not be available. Check with the teacher if you need more recent grades.

5. Self Advocacy
Make an actual appointment to see the teacher in person.
Although teachers make themselves available to students for help, and struggling students may intend to see them for it, in reality they often forget or put it off. For that reason, Perler recommends students agree on a time to meet with the teacher, rather than just intending to talk with them.

"Usually I'll have them write a short email to the teacher that says, 'Hey, I'd love to see you at office hours. When's the best time for me to come in?' The teacher can then say, 'Come in at 3 o'clock tomorrow,' and it puts accountability on the situation that they didn't have before. Most of the time the student will show up, and I will tell you that I have so many kids come back to me and say, 'Wow, that was so helpful. That was so easy.'"

Perler says self-advocacy is one of the easiest habits to develop. "Once they ask for help from their teacher two or three or four times, they have crossed a magical threshold that changes their whole academic experience. They realize that teachers are not mad at them. That teachers are there to support them. That teachers will give them the time they need. And that teachers will even give them secret tips and tricks for how to pass their classes or how to do well in their classes."

6. Sacred Study Space
Establish a distraction-free space at home just for school work.
This is a classic, but it may be an overlooked factor in a student's poor performance. "We really need to help kids learn to create a space that has the supplies we need that is decluttered, that is free of distraction. And that's very hard for families, by the way. Because real life is happening."

Rather than prescribe a specific type of space, Perler recommends building sharper awareness about the choices that will work for the specific student and the kind of school work they need to do at a given time. "The couch might actually be an effective place for some students some of the time to study. But I want them to make conscious choices: 'Sitting on the couch is going to help me relax into this book, so that I can really get in the mode,' or 'Sitting on the couch, especially with the TV on, is a ridiculous idea for me to be studying this biology stuff right now.'

7. Weekly Overhaul
Choose a time once a week to overhaul all systems.
Rather than "intending" to do the weekly overhaul, Perler recommends setting a specific time to do it every week, and post that time somewhere visible. "If you miss a time or two, that's fine," he says. "It's going to happen. But print up when it is and what time, so that you don't have the argument with your child about it, and it's concrete, and it's on the wall."

Here's what the overhaul should include:

Empty out and tidy the backpack

Update the planner, tear out old pages, cross everything out that is no longer relevant. Look forward to the upcoming week.

Go through each folder and get rid of everything you no longer need.

Check grades online.

Overhaul the desk or home study area.

You can learn more from Seth Perler by going to his website, sethperler.com, and subscribing to his email updates & Student Success Toolkit. Seth has created a special Student Systems Assessment to help students determine which of these seven areas they need the most work on. You can download that here.

Learn something new every week.
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 also get access to my members-only library of free downloadable resources, including my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, which has helped thousands of teachers spend less time grading!

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7 Systems that Work for Outside-the-Box Learners

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Listen to my interview with Seth Perler, executive function coach (transcript): It seems every teacher in every school struggles with what they might call unmotivated, lazy, or disorganized learners. These students seem to have a ton of potential, their test scores might even be pretty high, but they can't ever seem to get it together school-wise.

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Imagine a public middle school-we'll call it Hypothetical Middle. Like most public schools in our country, its student body is composed of mostly low-income students. Many are English language learners, and 70 percent receive free or reduced lunch. You check in at the office, pass through the metal detector, and admire the student work posted on bulletin boards in the hallway.

As you begin your tour, you'll see some clearly dedicated teachers and a lot of engaged students. There's a standardized test pep rally on Friday. Lots of classes are playing review games to get ready for the test. Every teacher is working to pump up the students for testing and make sure they're prepared. Every classroom you enter is filled with standards-based talk. It sounds something like this: "Remember, how are we going to start our constructed responses?" "RESTATE THE QUESTION!"

Now we'll take a trip across town to the private school, Our Lady of the Fictional Example. As soon as you arrive, the video production class is starting the school news show. It's an elective class available to eighth graders, but don't worry; sixth and seventh graders can get involved with the school newspaper. What's that the English class is doing? Oh, they're making iMovies showing the hero's journey. Look! The physical science class is building earthquake-resistant structures with marshmallows and spaghetti noodles! And the social studies class is outside making maps of the school campus.

The "why" behind learning matters

Both these schools may offer high student engagement and energetic teaching. However, the focus is completely different. You see, Hypothetical Middle is working to bridge the education gap between its low-income students and their wealthier peers over at Our Lady of the Fictional Example. Their main measure for doing so is increasing standardized test scores (which the private school kids don't have to take). Hypothetical Middle kids have deficits in reading and math, so those weaknesses have to be addressed. This leaves no time for experiential learning, exploring interests, and time-consuming hands-on projects.

Hypothetical Middle is a good school. Ninety percent of its students generally pass the state-mandated standardized tests. So the school earns awards and even gets extra funding for the work they're doing. After all, their students learn a lot during their three years at the school. A lot about how to take a standardized test.

We hear a lot of well-meaning talk these days about bridging the education gap between low-income and middle-class or wealthy students. It's a serious challenge for a variety of reasons. Low-income kids are less likely to attend high-quality preschool programs. They learn fewer words in early childhood than their middle class peers. They are more likely to experience trauma and less likely to attend college. And they often struggle academically (where our primary measure of academic achievement is standardized tests). If we can raise their test scores, we reason, we've raised their educational level to equal that of the kids over at Our Lady of the Fictional Example.

Tests don't define achievement

The problem is, that's not true. The schools with the highest standardized test scores do not necessarily provide the best education. More often, they provide the most test-centered education. While these kids are masters of bubbling in a Scantron, they may have never written a full-length essay. It's entirely possible that their English classes include only four-paragraph test prep reading passages, rather than novels that provide a rich experience with literature. There's a good chance if the scores are high, that art, music, and recess have been sacrificed to provide time for extra reading and math instruction.

Schools that work to bridge the education gap in testing use a variety of mathematical, data-based gymnastics to determine the most efficient ways to raise scores. They track kids in classes based on standardized test scores. They focus on deficits, which means that a kid who struggles with math spends her school day doing twice as much math as her peers. And they target the "bubble kids," those whose test scores linger on the border between passing and failing. The kids who are either advanced enough to pass without much help or so behind that they don't stand a chance are often neglected.

While the free lunch kids are doing test prep drill and attending summer school at Hypothetical Middle to boost their constructed response writing skills, their well-off peers have a completely different educational experience. Their schools offer more electives and a wider range of classes to cater to their interests. They have the opportunity to explore their strengths, rather than constantly focusing on their weaknesses.

And don't forget that they also have resources outside of school. While low-income kids often head straight home after school, stopping only to pick up younger siblings from the babysitter's house, wealthy kids can take private lessons, attend extracurricular activities, and enroll in camps for almost anything. STEM camp, Lego camp, creative writing camp, you name it, not to mention good ol' sleep in a cabin and drink bug juice camp. Low-income kids, of course, are more likely to spend summers working or providing child care. They often spend most of the summer indoors in front of a screen since their neighborhoods may be unsafe.

We must change the rubric of success

It's not possible to right all these wrongs and provide complete parity. All kids will never be equally intelligent, or have the same level of parental support, or have access to all the same resources. Our schools can, however, work to level the playing field. The only way to truly improve the achievement and quality of life for our low-income public school kids is to change the rubric by which we measure success. Instead of how well students answer multiple choice questions, we need to look at college acceptance rates. We need to assess the opportunities we provide for kids to explore and develop their passions, to struggle and experiment, to create products they're proud of and to find solutions to problems that interest them.

Think back to what you learned as a teenager. Do you remember any word problems or any of the questions you answered at the end of the chapter? Probably not. If you're anything like me, you probably remember learning to use geometry and algebra while building sets with the drama department. Or maybe you got your major sense of accomplishment when you broke your personal record for the 50-yard dash. Perhaps it was the amazing creative writing you produced at that summer program or the skit you and your classmates did about the city-states of ancient Greece.

This kind of hands-on learning is disappearing from our low-income kids' lives to make room for more test prep. And don't expect this trend to end anytime soon because it's "working."

In many schools, test scores are improving, and administrators, government officials, and the media are celebrating this evidence of "success." Cutting recess in order to practice word problems boosted test scores? Great! Let's cut art, too!

My students-all of whom receive free lunch-start testing today, and chances are they'll do very well. Most, if not all of them, will at least pass, and many will exceed expectations. And we'll celebrate the hell out of them, because they've put real work into overcoming their deficits and they absolutely deserve to be celebrated. But it's not enough.

We've got the education gap all wrong

No middle class parent would be satisfied with an education that teaches a child only how to fill in bubbles and write a RACE paragraph: Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain. Those are not the skills we need in life. For our own children, we want the opportunity to struggle with complex ideas, expand their horizons, exercise their creativity. So why do we settle for increased test scores for low-income kids and call it a victory?

We may be bridging the education gap between low-income and middle-class students, but we've chosen the wrong education gap. Rather than the disparity in standardized test scores, we need to examine the chasm that exists in the quality of learning experiences for low-income children.

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We're Talking About the Wrong Education Gap. Here's Why That Matters.

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Imagine a public middle school-we'll call it Hypothetical Middle. Like most public schools in our country, its student body is composed of mostly low-income students. Many are English language learners, and 70 percent receive free or reduced lunch. You check in at the office, pass through the metal detector, and admire the student work posted on bulletin boards in the hallway.

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by Anna Gratz Cockerille

Short class periods. Moving from room to room. Limited space. Adolescent emotions. These are just a few of the challenges middle school students (and teachers) face. To be sure, teaching writing in middle school takes special planning, creativity, and patience. But it can be done, and it can be done well, even with its challenges.

The Units of Study for Argument, Information, and Narrative Writing Grades 6-8 offer curricular plans for a full, rich year of teaching middle school students to write well. The series includes considerations for these grades, including:

Topics meant to grab and keep middle schoolers' attention, such as digital presentations, investigative journalism, and argumentation.

Adaptable plans, including three full units and nine additional units, so that teachers can customize a year-long curriculum to best meet their students' needs and interests.

An increased emphasis on building independence and growing students' writing lives, including suggestions for homework and self-assessment.

Ways to tap into students' desire for peer relationships with enhanced partnership work.

In addition to these big pillars of the curriculum are hidden gems tucked into each unit. These are the teaching moves and planning tips that make the work come alive in classrooms. This week, staff developers Emily Campbell, Laurie Burke, and Heather Burns will lead the TCRWP Twitter community in sharing ideas and questions about both the big pillars and the hidden gems. Please join to learn more about the Middle School Units of Study and ways they can support students' best writing yet.

♦ ♦ ♦

Each Wednesday night at 7:30pm eastern, The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project hosts a Twitter chat using the hashtag #TCRWP. Join @estrangcamby, @burkelf, and @header334 tomorrow evening to chat about unpacking the Middle School Units of Study for Writing.

♦ ♦ ♦

Anna Gratz Cockerille

Coauthor of Bringing History to Life (Grade 4) in the Units of Study for Teaching Writing Series.

Anna was a teacher and a literacy coach in New York City and in Sydney, Australia, and later became a Staff Developer and Writer at TCRWP. She served as an adjunct instructor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College, and taught at several TCRWP institutes, including the content literacy institute, where she helped participants bring strong literacy instruction into social studies classrooms. Anna also has been a researcher for Lucy Calkins, contributing especially to Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement (Heinemann 2012), and Navigating Nonfiction in the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Grades 3-5 series (Heinemann 2010). Most recently, Anna served as an editor for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, K-5 series.

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Unpacking the Middle School Units of Study: Big Pillars and Hidden Gems

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by Anna Gratz Cockerille Short class periods. Moving from room to room. Limited space. Adolescent emotions. These are just a few of the challenges middle school students (and teachers) face. To be sure, teaching writing in middle school takes special planning, creativity, and patience.

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How to Teach Middle School in 49 Easy Steps*

1. Write a lesson plan.

2. Gather materials.

3. Write your agenda on the board.

4. Stand at the door to greet students in the hallway.

5. Run back inside because you hear a student screaming.

6. Trap cockroach under plastic cup and put a book on it. Make mental note to figure out what to do about cockroach later.

7. Go back in hallway to greet students.

8. Tell student to stop running.

9. Run down hallway unironically to catch and punish running student.

10. Walk back to classroom with hands on head, inhaling deeply.

11. Go inside classroom when bell rings.

12. Begin to talk to class about today's plan.

13. Stop mid-sentence to write down the names of two tardy students who walk in the door on a Post-It note.

14. Ask reliable student what you were talking about before you lost your train of thought.

15. Continue with your debrief and move on to warm-up.

16. While students are doing warm-up, log in to online attendance to mark students tardy.

17. Attempt to find the Post-It note among the 1,205,281 Post-Its currently on your desk.

18. Go over the warm-up with students.

19. Tell student "DON'T TAKE THAT BOOK OFF THAT CUP."

20. Begin modeling new concept under document camera projected on the board.

21. Field student questions and comments, including, "Why don't you ever paint your nails?" and "YOU'RE GOING TOO FAST!" and "Who farted?"

22. Have students try sample problems independently.

23. While students are working, glance at inbox and see several red exclamation point emails.

24. Cry a little inside.

25. Go over answers.

26. Realize that 11 of your 35 students aren't showing mastery and have them move to the front to work on some other problems with you.

27. Assign independent work to remaining students.

28. Alternate between teaching your small group, answering questions from big group, and reminding big group to be working quietly 8,391 times.

29. Send student to bathroom because you're out of Kleenex.

30. Tell student to use Scotch tape because you're out of Band-Aids.

31. Answer the phone and tell clerk you're so sorry, you'll take attendance right now.

32. Look up and see two students having light saber wars with stacked markers, one student texting, and another student crying.

33. In one fluid motion, confiscate marker sabers and texting student's phone.

34. Gently tell student who is crying to join you in the hall.

35. Listen and console as crying student tells you about break-up.

36. Give student a hug and send to bathroom.

37. Go back inside.

38. Give students reminder of time left to work independently.

39. Yell "PANICKING LEADS TO IMMINENT DEATH" when students scream as fire drill alarm goes off.

40. While taking students outside, remind them to be silent 8 bazillion times.

41. Wait for all-clear announcement to come back inside.

42. Send student who stood directly in anthill during fire drill to nurse.

43. Tell students to finish independent work.

44. Assign homework.

45. Literally run to your computer to take attendance before you get another email about it.

46. Actually take attendance this time.

47. When bell sounds, dismiss students, tell them you love them, and encourage them to make good choices.

48. On your way out, accidentally kick over the roach cup.

49. Spend the next 8 hours thinking there is a roach on you somewhere.
*An Autobiographical Account

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How to Teach Middle School in 49 Easy Steps - We Are Teachers

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1. Write a lesson plan. 2. Gather materials. 3. Write your agenda on the board. 4. Stand at the door to greet students in the hallway. 5. Run back inside because you hear a student screaming. 6. Trap cockroach under plastic cup and put a book on it.

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Engagement Does Not Always Equate to Learning
No matter where I am, whether it is a physical location or virtual, I am always hearing conversations about how technology can be used to engage students effectively. This is extremely important as the majority of students spend six to eight hours a day in schools where they are completely disengaged. I for one can't blame today's learner for being bored in school when I all have to do is observe my own son at home playing Minecraft to see firsthand his high level of engagement. His Minecraft experiences provide meaning and relevance in an environment that is intellectually stimulating but, more importantly, fun. Schools and educators would be wise to take cues from the real world and make concerted efforts to integrate technology with the purpose to increase student engagement. Engagement, after all, is the impetus for learning in my opinion.

Hidden Curriculum (2014) provides the following definition of engagement:

In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education. Generally speaking, the concept of "student engagement" is predicated on the belief that learning improves when students are inquisitive, interested, or inspired, and that learning tends to suffer when students are bored, dispassionate, disaffected, or otherwise "disengaged." Stronger student engagement or improved student engagement are common instructional objectives expressed by educators.

The last line in this description elicits a great deal of concern for me. With or without technology, there always seems to be a great deal of emphasis on student engagement, but the fact of the matter is that engagement does not necessarily equate to learning. I have observed numerous lessons where students were obviously engaged through the integration of technology, but there was no clear indication that students were learning. Having fun, collaborating, communicating, and being creative are all very important elements that should be embedded elements of pedagogically sound lessons, but we must not lose sight of the importance of the connection to, and evidence of, learning. Thus, students can walk away from a lesson or activity having been very engaged but with very little in the form of new knowledge construction, conceptual mastery, or evidence of applied skills. When speaking at events I often ask leaders and teachers how they measure the impact of technology on learning. More often than not I receive blank stares or an open admission that they have no idea. The allure of engagement can be blinding as well as misleading.

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How to Determine if Student Engagement is Leading to Learning

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Engagement Does Not Always Equate to Learning No matter where I am, whether it is a physical location or virtual, I am always hearing conversations about how technology can be used to engage students effectively. This is extremely important as the majority of students spend six to eight hours a day in schools where they are completely disengaged.

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"If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve," Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: "Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities..." Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) - an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives.

One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality. A "fixed mindset" assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can't change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those givens measure up against an equally fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A "growth mindset," on the other hand, thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs a great deal of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

The consequences of believing that intelligence and personality can be developed rather than being immutably engrained traits, Dweck found in her two decades of research with both children and adults, are remarkable. She writes:

For twenty years, my research has shown that the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value. How does this happen? How can a simple belief have the power to transform your psychology and, as a result, your life?

Believing that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character - well, then you'd better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn't do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.

[...]

I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves - in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser? . . .

There's another mindset in which these traits are not simply a hand you're dealt and have to live with, always trying to convince yourself and others that you have a royal flush when you're secretly worried it's a pair of tens. In this mindset, the hand you're dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way - in their initial talents and aptitudes, interests, or temperaments - everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

Do people with this mindset believe that anyone can be anything, that anyone with proper motivation or education can become Einstein or Beethoven? No, but they believe that a person's true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it's impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.

At the heart of what makes the "growth mindset" so winsome, Dweck found, is that it creates a passion for learning rather than a hunger for approval. Its hallmark is the conviction that human qualities like intelligence and creativity, and even relational capacities like love and friendship, can be cultivated through effort and deliberate practice. Not only are people with this mindset not discouraged by failure, but they don't actually see themselves as failing in those situations - they see themselves as learning. Dweck writes:

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them? Why look for friends or partners who will just shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it's not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.

This idea, of course, isn't new - if anything, it's the fodder of self-help books and vacant "You can do anything!" platitudes. What makes Dweck's work different, however, is that it is rooted in rigorous research on how the mind - especially the developing mind - works, identifying not only the core drivers of those mindsets but also how they can be reprogrammed.

Dweck and her team found that people with the fixed mindset see risk and effort as potential giveaways of their inadequacies, revealing that they come up short in some way. But the relationship between mindset and effort is a two-way street:

It's not just that some people happen to recognize the value of challenging themselves and the importance of effort. Our research has shown that this comes directly from the growth mindset. When we teach people the growth mindset, with its focus on development, these ideas about challenge and effort follow. . . .

As you begin to understand the fixed and growth mindsets, you will see exactly how one thing leads to another-how a belief that your qualities are carved in stone leads to a host of thoughts and actions, and how a belief that your qualities can be cultivated leads to a host of different thoughts and actions, taking you down an entirely different road.

[...]

The mindsets change what people strive for and what they see as success. . . they change the definition, significance, and impact of failure. . . they change the deepest meaning of effort.

Dweck cites a poll of 143 creativity researchers, who concurred that the number-one trait underpinning creative achievement is precisely the kind of resilience and fail-forward perseverance attributed to the growth mindset. She writes:

When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world. In one world - the world of fixed traits - success is about proving you're smart or talented. Validating yourself. In the other - the world of changing qualities - it's about stretching yourself to learn something new. Developing yourself.

In one world, failure is about having a setback. Getting a bad grade. Losing a tournament. Getting fired. Getting rejected. It means you're not smart or talented. In the other world, failure is about not growing. Not reaching for the things you value. It means you're not fulfilling your potential.

In one world, effort is a bad thing. It, like failure, means you're not smart or talented. If you were, you wouldn't need effort. In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.

But her most remarkable research, which has informed present theories of why presence is more important than praise in teaching children to cultivate a healthy relationship with achievement, explores how these mindsets are born - they form, it turns out, very early in life. In one seminal study, Dweck and her colleagues offered four-year-olds a choice: They could either redo an easy jigsaw puzzle, or try a harder one. Even these young children conformed to the characteristics of one of the two mindsets - those with "fixed" mentality stayed on the safe side, choosing the easier puzzles that would affirm their existing ability, articulating to the researchers their belief that smart kids don't make mistakes; those with the "growth" mindset thought it an odd choice to begin with, perplexed why anyone would want to do the same puzzle over and over if they aren't learning anything new. In other words, the fixed-mindset kids wanted to make sure they succeeded in order to seem smart, whereas the growth-mindset ones wanted to stretch themselves, for their definition of success was about becoming smarter.

Dweck quotes one seventh-grade girl, who captured the difference beautifully:

I think intelligence is something you have to work for ... it isn't just given to you.... Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, 'How would this be solved?' or 'I don't get this. Can you help me?' Just by doing that I'm increasing my intelligence.

Things got even more interesting when Dweck brought people into Columbia's brain-wave lab to study how their brains behaved as they answered difficult questions and received feedback. What she found was that those with a fixed mindset were only interested in hearing feedback that reflected directly on their present ability, but tuned out information that could help them learn and improve. They even showed no interest in hearing the right answer when they had gotten a question wrong, because they had already filed it away in the failure category. Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, were keenly attentive to information that could help them expand their existing knowledge and skill, regardless of whether they'd gotten the question right or wrong - in other words, their priority was learning, not the binary trap of success and failure.

These findings are especially important in education and how we, as a culture, assess intelligence. In another study of hundreds of students, mostly adolescents, Dweck and her colleagues gave each ten fairly challenging problems from a nonverbal IQ test, then praised the student for his or her performance - most had done pretty well. But they offered two types of praise: Some students were told "Wow, you got [X many] right. That's a really good score. You must be smart at this," while others, "Wow, you got [X many] right. That's a really good score. You must have worked really hard." In other words, some were praised for ability and others for effort. The findings, at this point, are unsurprising yet jarring:

The ability praise pushed students right into the fixed mindset, and they showed all the signs of it, too: When we gave them a choice, they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from. They didn't want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent.

[...]

In contrast, when students were praised for effort, 90 percent of them wanted the challenging new task that they could learn from.

The most interesting part, however, is what happened next: Dweck and her colleagues gave the students a subsequent set of harder problems, on which the students didn't do so well. Suddenly, the ability-praised kids thought they weren't so smart or gifted after all. Dweck puts it poignantly:

If success had meant they were intelligent, then less-than-success meant they were deficient.

But for the effort-praised kids, the difficulty was simply an indication that they had to put in more effort, not a sign of failure or a reflection of their poor intellect. Perhaps most importantly, the two mindsets also impacted the kids' level of enjoyment - everyone enjoyed the first round of easier questions, which most kids got right, but as soon as the questions got more challenging, the ability-praised kids no longer had any fun, while the effort-praised ones not only still enjoyed the problems but even said that the more challenging, the more fun. The latter also had significant improvements in their performance as the problems got harder, while the former kept getting worse and worse, as if discouraged by their own success-or-failure mindset.

It gets better - or worse, depending on how we look at it: The most unsettling finding came after the IQ questions were completed, when the researchers asked the kids to write private letters to their peers relaying the experience, including a space for reporting their scores on the problems. To Dweck's devastation, the most toxic byproduct of the fixed mindset turned out to be dishonesty: Forty percent of the ability-praised kids lied about their scores, inflating them to look more successful. She laments:

In the fixed mindset, imperfections are shameful - especially if you're talented - so they lied them away. What's so alarming is that we took ordinary children and made them into liars, simply by telling them they were smart.

This illustrates the key difference between the two mindsets - for those with a growth one, "personal success is when you work your hardest to become your best," whereas for those with a fixed one, "success is about establishing their superiority, pure and simple. Being that somebody who is worthier than the nobodies." For the latter, setbacks are a sentence and a label. For the former, they're motivating, informative input - a wakeup call.

But one of the most profound applications of this insight has to do not with business or education but with love. Dweck found that people exhibited the same dichotomy of dispositions in their personal relationships: Those with a fixed mindset believed their ideal mate would put them on a pedestal and make them feel perfect, like "the god of a one-person religion," whereas those with the growth mindset preferred a partner who would recognize their faults and lovingly help improve them, someone who would encourage them to learn new things and become a better person. The fixed mindset, it turns out, is at the root of many of our most toxic cultural myths about "true love." Dweck writes:

The growth mindset says all of these things can be developed. All - you, your partner, and the relationship - are capable of growth and change.

In the fixed mindset, the ideal is instant, perfect, and perpetual compatibility. Like it was meant to be. Like riding off into the sunset. Like "they lived happily ever after."

[...]

One problem is that people with the fixed mindset expect everything good to happen automatically. It's not that the partners will work to help each other solve their problems or gain skills. It's that this will magically occur through their love, sort of the way it happened to Sleeping Beauty, whose coma was cured by her prince's kiss, or to Cinderella, whose miserable life was suddenly transformed by her prince.

This also applies to the myth of mind-reading, where the fixed mindset believes that an ideal couple should be able to read each other's minds and finish each other's sentences. She cites a study that invited people to talk about their relationships:

Those with the fixed mindset felt threatened and hostile after talking about even minor discrepancies in how they and their partner saw their relationship. Even a minor discrepancy threatened their belief that they shared all of each other's views.

But most destructive of all relationship myths is the belief that if it requires work, something is terribly wrong and that any discrepancy of opinions or preferences is indicative of character flaws on behalf of one's partner. Dweck offers a reality check:

Just as there are no great achievements without setbacks, there are no great relationships without conflicts and problems along the way.

When people with a fixed mindset talk about their conflicts, they assign blame. Sometimes they blame themselves, but often they blame their partner. And they assign blame to a trait - a character flaw.

But it doesn't end there. When people blame their partner's personality for the problem, they feel anger and disgust toward them.

And it barrels on: Since the problem comes from fixed traits, it can't be solved. So once people with the fixed mindset see flaws in their partners, they become contemptuous of them and dissatisfied with the whole relationship.

Those with the growth mindset, on the other hand, can acknowledge their partners' imperfections, without assigning blame, and still feel that they have a fulfilling relationship. They see conflicts as problems of communication, not of personality or character. This dynamic holds true as much in romantic partnerships as in friendship and even in people's relationships with their parents. Dweck summarizes her findings:

When people embark on a relationship, they encounter a partner who is different from them, and they haven't learned how to deal with the differences. In a good relationship, people develop these skills and, as they do, both partners grow and the relationship deepens. But for this to happen, people need to feel they're on the same side. . . . As an atmosphere of trust developed, they [become] vitally interested in each other's development.

What it all comes down to is that a mindset is an interpretative process that tells us what is going on around us. In the fixed mindset, that process is scored by an internal monologue of constant judging and evaluation, using every piece of information as evidence either for or against such assessments as whether you're a good person, whether your partner is selfish, or whether you are better than the person next to you. In a growth mindset, on the other hand, the internal monologue is not one of judgment but one of voracious appetite for learning, constantly seeking out the kind of input that you can metabolize into learning and constructive action.

In the rest of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Dweck goes on to explore how these fundamental mindsets form, what their defining characteristics are in different contexts of life, and how we can rewire our cognitive habits to adopt the much more fruitful and nourishing growth mindset.
Public domain photographs via Flickr Commons

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Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives

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"If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve," Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: "Do what you love, and don't stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities..."

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"I would meet with teachers once every two months about what we were doing, and that made a massive difference," Craig said. At first only 50 educators came, but as they got excited about the work and spread the word, soon 300 teachers were showing up voluntarily after work to learn more. This change model focuses relentlessly on improving teacher instruction, moves professional training back into schools, and emphasizes that coaching should happen in teams. Together, teachers themselves worked on how to improve instruction by observing each other's classes, even just for a few minutes on a regular basis, and discussing what they saw.

"This really resonates with teachers, they want to do this work," Craig said. "It's really about how do we structure ourselves so we can do this work." He likes to say "these are simple ideas, but socially complex." One of the best ways Craig found to navigate the social complexities was to give schools autonomy. He and his region-level (or district-level) team presented the learning research, grounded in neuroscience, much of which wasn't revolutionary to many teachers. Then he left it up to school leaders and teachers to work on what was most important in their own context.

"Schools decide how long to work on that and they just keep checking progress and move on when ready," Craig said. Treating teachers and school-site leaders as professionals in this way helps build that intrinsic motivation and moral purpose that Caig identified as key to improving instruction.

1. Prioritize high expectations and authentic relationships

2. Emphasize inquiry-focused teaching

3. Adopt consistent teaching protocols

4. Adopt consistent learning protocols

5. Harness learning intentions, narrative and pace

6. Set challenging learning tasks

7. Frame higher-order questions

8. Connect feedback to data

9. Commit to assessment for learning

10. Implement cooperative groups

"The level of enthusiasm was just staggering," Craig said, especially since "school improvement" was as much of a nonstarter to Australian educators as it is to American ones. "They get inspired by the work. They want to do a good job and they can see that this is a way they could be successful. It's not a bridge too far."
TEAM COACHING
A centerpiece of northern Melbourne's success with inside-out school change came from triads of teachers coaching one another in teams. Two teachers would observe another's classroom and later all three would talk about what they'd observed and what that teacher could try next time. Three team members was crucial to avoid one person becoming the mentor and the other the mentee. And, it was crucially important that the observations be non-judgmental, focused on improving instruction, not evaluating performance.

"Good teaching looks the same pretty much everywhere," Craig said. "The variability was the issue." Teacher teams also worked on only one theory of action at a time, until they felt they had made real progress on it. For example, all the teams in a building might be working on improving the ratio of higher-order thinking questions to lower-order thinking questions for several months. All along, their colleagues were making quick 10-minute observations of one another's classrooms and passing on the feedback, as well as discussing ways all could improve.

Teachers in this Australian region responded to the challenge and continue to be excited by the ideas. Although the region no longer exists as a geographical school area, and Craig is no longer its director, he is still working to spread this change model to other regions in Australia.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AT SCHOOL SITES

Tonia Gibson was the assistant principal at Green Hills Primary School in northern Melbourne at the time Craig was beginning the inside-out focus on school improvement. She said Craig was effective as a leader because he listened to teachers and backed up the best practices he promoted with research. "He was such a fierce champion for making sure school leaders were educational leaders, they weren't just administrators," Gibson said. That attitude, in turn, empowered her to work to improve the school alongside the teachers in the building.

'It is awesome and not as hard as what people think. The number one barrier to people changing is they think it's going to be hard.'

Craig gave all schools a Curiosity and Powerful Learning document that offered a framework for thinking about change, but wasn't prescriptive. "It was: Here are some ideas about excellent teaching practices," Gibson said. "Here are some ideas about student learning, and you could take it away and use it based on where your teachers were."

At Green Hills, one of the first things Gibson and her principal worked on was changing school culture from one of top-down leadership to one of distributed leadership. They solicited feedback from the staff about what they were doing well and what needed changing. Even that first step was a challenge -- 80 percent of teachers said they'd never before been asked what they thought and if they had suggested something, they had been shut down by previous administrations.

To empower teachers to take ownership over the good and the bad parts of the school, Gibson shared all the school data with teachers, including performance data and parent, staff and student opinion surveys. As a school community they spent six months breaking it down and understanding what it meant for where they should focus their efforts.

"Once they started to reflect and own some of the data, then they started to question," Gibson said. That first year was all about relationship building, listening and handholding, but soon the teaching staff was diving into meaty topics, like how to scaffold a curriculum from kindergarten through grade six, making sure every teacher in the building knew what was happening in each grade level.

"It was all about aligning our curriculum and aligning our beliefs about teaching and learning and monitoring our kids from year to year," Gibson said. Teachers started soliciting feedback from students to help them plan their next lessons.

"It was messy," Gibson said. "It was a huge shift in what these teachers had been doing." That was especially true in the school's professional learning communities (PLCs). Those groups existed before the changes, but most consisted of teachers getting together to complain about tough students. Gibson says 18 months after they began to try and change from the inside out, PLCs were looking at ongoing student data and critically analyzing individuals and cohorts. And teachers were using that time to help one another design differentiated lessons for the needs of their students.

"It is awesome and not as hard as what people think," Gibson said. "The number one barrier to people changing is they think it's going to be hard." She recommends school leaders take a hard look at the systems in their schools and remove any barriers to this type of active collaboration, and then trust in the professionalism of their teachers. In Australia, one crucial component of this work was an hour each day for teachers to work together.

This work also created a strong principal's network in the region where leaders shared ideas, asked for help and built on their learning. Even though Craig stepped down from the directorship in 2012, and the region itself no longer exists, the principals are still in touch with one another.

"It's not just improving your own school, but improving the system," Gibson said. When the entire region engaged in this process, all the teachers got better. Now that the region has been divided up and leaders and teachers are scattered throughout different regions, they are raising the bar wherever they landed.
INSIDE OUT CHANGE
Intrinsic motivation and the power of purpose are not new ideas in education, but the discussion is often limited to student learning. It's easy to forget that those same qualities are essential to spur teachers to do their best work. Instead, many education systems around the world, including the one in the U.S., have primarily tried to change academic outcomes by leveraging extrinsic rewards (or punishments), to little effect.

"We're trying to call out that there is a paradigm we've been operating under that we can use extrinsic rewards to drive all the change we need in the education system," said Bryan Goodwin, president and CEO of McREL International and author of a report titled "The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools From the Inside Out." Goodwin says when you look at international examples, many of these types of extrinsic rewards programs see a bump in achievement in the short term, but then hit a plateau. They don't continue to produce growth in student achievement over time.

Goodwin says the problem with the types of high-stakes consequences tied to laws like No Child Left Behind is that educators are worried about making "adequate yearly progress," which translates into moving a few bubble students over a line, rather than focusing energy on changes that transform how teaching and learning happen.

"If you focus on something, you can get some initial bump in achievement, but over time you find it's no longer working," Goodwin said. "So then you push something else down from the top." Instead, he'd like to see an end to the expectation of quick change in favor of a slow, steady improvement of leadership and teaching practice.

"Let's start with helping people get why they're doing what they're doing and then really working on their professional capacity," Goodwin says. He thinks an inside-out model of change, like the one that was so successful in northern Melbourne, could be adopted by school districts and states in the U.S. It starts with articulating a vision and a moral purpose for the work, one that includes the community in its formation.

In Australia, this method worked. Craig said two-thirds of schools in the region made gains, with the most significant improvement coming from students achieving at the bottom and at the top. Even more exciting, his team started to see that the quality of teaching in poorer schools started to match the quality of teaching in more affluent schools. Those changes were reflected in student and parent surveys as well as test scores. Everything improved. "Our argument is, if you teach well everything takes care of itself, including the test elements," Craig said.

One of Craig's most dramatic stories of improvement comes from two schools serving kids living in public housing. Neither school had seen any improvement in achievement in 30 years, so they were shut down and reopened. Craig fired some bad teachers and focused on high expectations and quality instruction for everyone else. In three years, the median scores went from 18 to 25. They're now at 29.

Those low-performing schools had been so bad for so long they also had very low enrollment. Families were desperately trying to send their kids elsewhere. Only one in three kids living near those schools was choosing to go there. Now that the schools have seen some improvement, they have 93 to 94 percent attendance rates and 98 percent of kids are going on to pursue further study.

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Tapping Teachers' Intrinsic Motivation to Develop School Improvements | KQED

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When a struggling region of Australia put improving teacher quality at the center of its work it saw achievement gains and excitement from teachers.

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An awareness of the views of those in other countries, an understanding of how Google ranks the results of a web search, a knowledge of the permanence of information posted online: These are some of the lessons that every student should be learning in today's schools, says education technology consultant Alan November-but not every middle or high school is teaching these lessons.

November was the featured speaker at a Jan. 14 luncheon session during the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) in Orlando. Although the session focused on how to balance safety and learning in the digital age, during the course of the discussion November also revealed several topics that he said every member of the Net Generation should learn:
1. Global empathy.
November said he was talking with a senior executive at a global investment bank recently, and he asked the executive: What is the most important skill for today's students to learn so they are prepared to succeed in the new global economy?

"Empathy," the executive replied-the ability to understand and respect different points of view.

Most of today's companies do business with customers all over the world, and several also have branches in multiple countries. Chances are good that when students enter the workforce, they'll be working with-or doing business with-someone from another nation, with its own culture and its own unique perspective, at some point in their career.

It's not hard to find people who are smart, the executive said. What is hard to find are employees who have to ability to empathize with, and be sensitive to the needs of, people from other countries.

Fortunately, November said, technology makes it easy for today's students to learn global empathy. Students can discover the current social and political conditions of other nations online, and they can interact with their peers from abroad and learn their perspectives on issues firsthand through web conferencing or eMail.
2. Social and ethical responsibility on the web.
Topics such as cyber bullying and sexting have made frequent headlines in recent years, and often with tragic consequences. The latest example occurred in western Massachusetts last month, when a 15-year-old freshman at South Hadley High School committed suicide after being harassed online.

With several states passing laws to address cyber bullying, and a new federal law requiring schools to teach internet safety in order to receive e-Rate funding, many schools now highlight the dangers of inappropriate online behavior as part of their lessons.

November weighed in on the importance of these lessons, calling out schools that neglect to teach online responsibility.

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Four things every student should learn ... but not every school is teaching

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An awareness of the views of those in other countries, an understanding of how Google ranks the results of a web search, a knowledge of the permanence of information posted online: These are some of the lessons that every student should be learning in today's schools, says education technology consultant Alan November-but not every middle or high school is teaching these lessons.

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She also noticed how hard it was to engage in group work, even as an adult. "I was shocked that in all of my confidence as an adult, I had a hard time joining the conversation," Torres said. Students subtly told her with their body language that they didn't want to hear what she had to say. "It made me feel like I didn't want to keep going or trying," she said. The experience made her rethink how the school uses group work and how effective it is. It became an instructional focus area.

"We spent a great deal of time this year explicitly teaching some of the practices that students need to successfully participate in a group," Torres said. They focused on things like asking each other questions and talked through what real collaboration looks like.
GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER
This year, Torres chose to shadow 10th-grader Anderson Tejada, an English-language learner who she thought might not be challenged enough in all of his classes. Before shadowing, Torres had already tried suggesting to Tejada that he might enjoy taking a math class at a nearby community college, but he denied that he needed more challenge.

For his part, Tejada was very agreeable about having his principal follow him around all day. "I think she wants to know how, she told me she wants to know how I feel," Tejada said. He explained that how he experiences school is different from anyone else; each student has a unique experience. His insight is one that often gets lost in education discussions that focus on scalability and generalizing observed truths to all students. But ultimately each student brings his or her own life experiences to the classroom, which affect how each interacts and learns.

Tejada was puzzled that Torres thought he might need more challenge. "She thinks that I'm really good and she wants to give me a challenge," he said. "I'm not sure exactly why."

I talked to Torres again after she finished shadowing Tejada -- she was exhausted.

"What really struck me throughout the day was how much I felt that he wasn't challenged, both in terms of the content being covered, but also how class time was being used," Torres said. She observed how teachers tried to juggle the various learners in their classrooms, often slowing down to make sure every student was understanding. But in those moments, quicker students like Tejada were often left with nothing to do. He carried a Rubik's-cube-type toy in his pocket to keep himself busy while he waited for more directions.

"They were so sweet and compliant," Torres said of Tejada and another student who had clearly already mastered a lesson. "They didn't complain, they just completed their sentences and sat back to do their Rubik's cube." But to Torres that was evidence they weren't being challenged.

But that wasn't true in every class, Torres observed how teachers were able to challenge Tejada either in how he uses language or in the content. For example, a social studies discussion of the graphic novel Maus focused on all the things that led up to the Holocaust. Students were having a sophisticated discussion about historical concepts while using language appropriate for those still learning English.

"I think our goal is to have students engaged in tasks that have multiple entry points," Torres said. This shadow day challenged her to think about how she can better support her teachers to do this. She noticed that in Tejada's math class, the teacher gave students a problem with a real-world application (painting the outside of the school building), and had them discuss what information they would need to solve the problem.

"At first it fell a little bit flat because it's not something that had an easy answer," Torres said. "But that's one of the times when I saw Anderson, who is more advanced, and another student who is not as advanced, both engaged in productive struggle."

Figuring out how to use the insights gained from the shadow day is another challenge for administrators. Last year, Torres wrote a blog post about her experience, but felt that was the wrong way to instigate change. It alarmed her teachers and made them feel exposed. This year, she's considering trying to give teachers some release time to observe one another's classrooms so they can come to the same conclusion she has, but on their own.

"That may be more useful than me pushing my conclusions on them," Torres said. While she's disappointed that students like Tejada aren't being challenged, she described it as a "productive disappointment," a tone she wants her whole staff to take with the information they gain. "We always want to push ourselves to give our students the very best learning experience that we can," she said.
MAKING SHADOWING ROUTINE
This kind of Student Shadow Day Challenge, while well-intentioned, can feel a bit gimmicky. Programs like this pop up every few years, and principals report they never realized just how short those passing periods feel from a students' perspective. But then it fades away, and often little changes systemically. But what if a principal regularly shadowed students as a valuable way to collect a different kind of data?

That's what Principal Lena Van Haren has done at Everett Middle School in San Francisco's Mission District. Her school regularly looks at data from test scores, data from student surveys, data from classroom walk-throughs. But she says, "the difference with the shadow is there's really no way to explain things away."

Van Haren often uses shadowing as a way to dig into data she may have come across in a different format. For example, she noticed that on the most recent student survey, Asian and Pacific Islander students reported very low levels of belonging to the school community. That concerned her, so for her shadow day she's accompanying a student from that demographic to see how the school might accidentally be alienating this group.

"We do it when we feel like we need more information," Van Haren said. But, it's a time-consuming proposition, and often a principal doesn't have a whole day free to do something like this. At Everett, different educators work shadowing into their schedule for parts of the day or in shifts. The goal is to get information that can be used to focus in on instructional goals, not to critique individual teachers.

"One of the things we look for is who's doing the heavy lifting," said Van Haren. She'd like to see students reading, writing, grappling with difficult concepts or explaining their reasoning, not the adults. "As a former teacher I know that there's so much to learn and only so much time, and sometimes it feels like the most efficient way is to tell the kids a bunch of stuff," she said. But that's not how students learn best, so she's trying to encourage teachers to build in changes that force students to interact with the material.

Since shadowing is a regular part of Everett's school culture, its purpose is clear to teachers. Van Haren said often teachers are involved in developing the focus of inquiry. That helps build investment in the information that gets uncovered through shadowing.

Once they have a better sense of what is going on in their classrooms, teachers and Van Haren sit down together and look at what best practice says about the point of inquiry. Then, they often set goals for themselves, like "increase academic language use among English-language learners by 10 percent." This focus informs the professional development they plan to support teachers in reaching the goal.

Van Haren is excited that San Francisco Unified made shadowing a priority this year, especially for district-level administrators who can get very disconnected from what is actually happening in classrooms. She'd like to see aggregated data about everyone's experiences, specifically about how much time children spend absorbing data and how much time they spend grappling with learning.

"When we all think about our most powerful learning experiences, it's never just sitting and listening," Van Haren said. She'd like to see the district set its own goals, look at best practice and then let school sites contextualize those goals for themselves. Then maybe something that will likely only happen every few years, like a districtwide Student Shadow Challenge, could have some lasting impacts.

In San Francisco, administrators who participated in the Shadow Day Challenge were eager to build the practice into their professional lives. "The conversations made it obvious that there was inspiration that came out of the experience to do something more," said Angie Desuyo Estonina, an elementary supervisor of Multilingual Pathways. She feels energized by the experience and is already thinking of ways she can work with school sites to focus on relationship-building.

The 100 administrators who participated in the challenge met to talk commonalities and "hacks" that could be implemented immediately. Administrators noticed several commonalities, including strong teacher-student relationships, too much sitting, difficulty transitioning between classes or activities, and students behaving differently, depending on who they were with and what was being asked of them.

A few quick hack ideas included giving students more warning time before a transition and asking them what they are doing next so they acknowledge the transition, and creating more opportunities for older kids to help younger ones. Administrators noticed students enjoying the responsibility of being an older mentor, and that translated into better behavior and in some cases a more positive experience of school.

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Beyond Data: Building Empathy in Adults Through Student Shadow Days

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She also noticed how hard it was to engage in group work, even as an adult. "I was shocked that in all of my confidence as an adult, I had a hard time joining the conversation," Torres said. Students subtly told her with their body language that they didn't want to hear what she had to say.

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Education Week - The Art of Coaching Teachers

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Do you coach people who sleepwalk through days of teaching or leading? Are you looking for a way to wake up your coachees, ignite their commitment to change, and spark their passions?

Engage them in a conversation about their purpose, their why, their dreams of the legacy they'll leave. Such a conversation can kindle the soul of an educator and make them more receptive to coaching and changing.

What is your why? Why do you do what you're doing? How long has it been since someone asked you about your why? Since you sat and reflected and rambled about it for half an hour? Since someone listened to that story with complete attention and got excited by what they heard?

Ask your coachees why they do what they do.
Ask them why they became a teacher.
Ask them how they want their students to remember them; how they want one specific student to remember them when he or she is graduating from high school. Here's what I say:

"Tell me about a student whom you find challenging, but about whom you see some positive aspects, perhaps there's something you appreciate about him or her."

And then after the teacher has told you about this student, I say:

"Tell me a little more about him/her."

And then I say:

"I want you to imagine that ____ is graduating from high school (or college if I'm talking to a teacher who teaches 11th or 12th grade) and he/she gets in touch with you and invites you to his/her graduation. And you go. And you're sitting there in the audience right behind his/her family and when ______ crosses the stage, he/she looks out and sees you there. And he/she gets a huge smile on his/her face. And in that moment, how do you want him/her to remember you?"

And this question ALWAYS delivers a jolt, and sometimes results in a watery welling of the eyes, and often I can see that sometimes recalcitrant teacher melt in front of me. And their heart pours out and their Why emerges and we both see the teacher-they-once were (perhaps when they started teaching, their heart all open and soft and vulnerable). And I understand why their heart got a little hard over the years--teaching is hard business. But my job is to reconnect them with their why. And then our work is much easier.

Ask the people that you coach: Who do you want to be in this world? Who do you want to be for your students?

Statements of being can sound like any of these:

I want to be a force of hope and inspiration

I want to be an advocate for equity

I want to be kind and loving

I want to be courageous and compassionate

I want to be a source of healing

I want to be someone who believes in the potential of every young person who walks in my door.

Statements of being can sound like a mission or vision statement, but they're generally shorter and more direct. They feel good to say.

Asking these questions and offering your clients an opportunity to share their why and their legacy is a reflection of your belief in them. Just by asking the questions you are communicating a belief that they have something worthy and wonderful inside them. Listen openly. Ask a few questions. Appreciate them for sharing. And then see if they want permission for you to coach them in that area. Here's what that sounds like from me:

"I hear that you want your students to remember you as caring and as someone who taught them a great deal. Are you open to having me coach you on this? To helping you to connect these ways of being to how you show up and teach every day?"

Your teachers will say yes, if they trust you.

And then I say:

"So, in order for _____ to know that you care about him, how might you welcome him in to class tomorrow? How might you modify your lesson plan for tomorrow so that _____ is sure to learn a lot?"

This is backwards planning. The vision has been set--both the teacher's vision for themselves (how they want to be remembered) and a vision for the student (that they'll learn a lot and feel cared for). So what needs to happen so that this goal can be reached?

And what's happened is that you've got the teacher bought into the planning-because the best parts of them have been activated, their vision for themselves has been reignited.

Just try. And see what happens. And before you head out to coach, take a little time to reflect on your why. How do you want the teachers that you coach to remember you?

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How to Ignite Educators' Willingness to Change

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Do you coach people who sleepwalk through days of teaching or leading? Are you looking for a way to wake up your coachees, ignite their commitment to change, and spark their passions? Engage them in a conversation about their purpose, their why, their dreams of the legacy they'll leave.

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"My grades were affected because I didn't want to do anything in school," Zepeda said. "I would just be sitting down and spaced out. My teachers began to check in with me. They were trying to support and give me help." He knows he didn't do everything he could to take advantage of the help teachers were offering.

Zepeda exhibited the kind of deep reflection and willingness to take responsibility that make this ritual successful. The other students are asked to stand if they believe the graduating senior has fully reflected on his or her obstacles and has set goals to improve. If friends believe a student can do better, they won't stand for them.

A concern about processes like this is that students pass one another without much critical thought, hoping peers will do the same for them when the time comes. But Life Academy teachers say they haven't seen that. Students explain why they will or will not stand for a classmate. The students often push each other to do homework on time or learn better work habits. Together, they come up with solutions.

Educators at Life Academy say this process works because middle and high school students care deeply about what their peers think. Many are more motivated to live up to peers' expectations than to those of adults,.

"The opinions that their peers have are much more influential," said former Life Academy principal Preston Thomas. "I believe that in turning it over to a peer process, it really does support the students to hear it differently."

When school leaders saw how well peer accountability worked for graduating seniors, they began to use the process at the beginning and middle of high school as well to help keep kids on track and shore up the community.

"For our 10th-graders, I feel like they get a reality check that the school doesn't revolve around them, that they're a part of what's revolving," said chemistry and health sciences teacher Amanda Issa. "If they've been hurting our community with the kind of drama that kids can have in high school, it's a chance to make them aware of it. When it's their own classmates saying, 'You hurt me because you're a distraction in class,' it opens their eyes."

When students don't stand for each other, it hurts, said Jamie Ortega, who graduated this year. During her reflection time, an advisor and a fellow senior hesitated to stand because they felt she hadn't proved she had a plan for how to advocate for herself when she is on her own in college.

"At the moment you feel really sad, especially when you're really attached to the person," Ortega said. "But at the same time you want to make sure you can give it your all so they can stand for you, and when they do, you feel very proud of yourself."

Life Academy began focusing on student reflection in this way about 10 years ago, after a teacher observed it happening at another high school, Bay Area School of Enterprise, in Alameda at the time.

"We were grappling with the question of how do you ensure that a student has really solid academic skills, but also create an environment where you're able to talk about character and work habits? We knew those were really important for success in life, but we didn't really have a way to hold students accountable," Thomas said.

Thomas said one circle of kids suggested that an eighth-grader should work on his reading, so he made a plan for five books to read over the summer and to stay after school in study hall next year because he realized he doesn't get his homework done at home.

Just this year, one of Amanda Issa's students didn't pass his reflection ritual at first because some of the people in the circle didn't feel he had done everything he could to get the credits he needed to graduate.

"This is a big strong guy and I've never ever seen him cry, and he was in tears because people were saying they were proud of his growth and they know he can graduate," Issa said. The trust and care of his peer community during the reflection process made a difference for this student.

"I felt like he just lit up. He realized that time was running out and he had to get things together," Issa said. "He managed to do quite a lot in the last few weeks of school to make up credits and get a job for the summer."

Creating a space for kids to be vulnerable is hard to do so trust is an essential element for a program like this to work. "Rarely do I ever see adults do it," Thomas said. "I think kids have a greater capacity to do that than adults do." That space itself provides a valuable life lesson for students.

"Everything is confidential," Zepeda said. "It's kind of like a diary. You can express yourself and they'll give you advice if they need to. I feel like that's something I'll have in my future. I'll be able to express myself to the people in my life and see if they can help."

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Can Peer Accountability Groups Help Students Achieve Their Goals?

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"My grades were affected because I didn't want to do anything in school," Zepeda said. "I would just be sitting down and spaced out. My teachers began to check in with me. They were trying to support and give me help." He knows he didn't do everything he could to take advantage of the help teachers were offering.

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In search of inspiration or hard-won strategies for improving student learning? A 10-minute video may hold some answers for educators. TED Talks are short, informative, and often eye-opening talks given by leaders in their fields addressing all kinds of challenges. Many TED Talks are given by leading educators, or at least have important messages related to the field of education. Get fired up about teaching in the following 10 recent TED Talks for educators, posted in 2015 and 2016:

1. 4 reasons to learn a new language, John McWhorter

Math, English, science, history: these often represent the core subjects students are taught in grade school. But John McWhorter makes a persuasive argument for adding foreign languages to the list. The linguist and Columbia professor outlines four huge benefits that students - or anyone willing to learn - will reap when they learn a new language. From highlighting the delight in learning a "funny sounding" language to revealing the incredible effects language learning has on warding off certain medical conditions, McWhorter's TED talk is a powerful reminder of the importance of words, no matter what language they're spoken in.

2. How Argentina's blind soccer team became champions, Gonzalo Vilariño

For many students, mastering a tough school subject can seem like an impossible challenge. If your classroom is in need of a pep talk, share this captivating true story from lawyer and coach Gonzalo Vilariño's TED Talk. Vilariño outlines the improbable success of Argentina's blind soccer team, who went on to become two-time world champs, thanks to their determination and fierce belief in their own abilities.

3. How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, love hard, Linda Cliatt-Wayman

Sometimes educators need a pep talk, too! Linda Cliatt-Wayman certainly delivers, recounting the obstacles she faced as principal of a failing high school in North Philadelphia. Determined to turn her school around, she faced her challenges with clear eyes, and she never stopped loving her students along the way. In her TED Talk, the inspirational principal shares the three strategies she used to rid her school of its "low-performing and persistently dangerous" label.

4. Help for kids the education system ignores, Victor Rios

Having grown up in the inner city, Victor Rios knows what it's like to be an "at-risk" student, and how that label defines what kids lack. Rios argues that it's time to define kids who've experienced difficult upbringings by what they contribute, instead. Watch the author's passionate TED Talk to learn what strategies educators can use to shift their mindsets about what "at-risk" students are capable of achieving.

5. The best kindergarten you've ever seen, Takaharu Tezuka

Every educator knows that a child's learning environment affects learning itself. This is why teachers work so hard to make their classrooms warm, welcoming spaces for their students to thrive in. Architect Takaharu Tezuka takes this principle a step further with one very special kindergarten class in Tokyo. In his charming TED Talk, Tezuka shares his design process for creating a kindergarten that fosters creativity and lets children's imaginations soar to new heights.

6. For these women, reading is a daring act, Laura Boushnak

Sometimes, students lose sight of the importance of education and what a privilege being able to get an education is in the first place. Photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak's TED Talk reminds us all that in many regions around the world, literacy is a privilege that few get to enjoy, especially women. Her talk takes us to countries like Yemen, Egypt, and Tunisia so we can "meet" the brave women and girls fighting for the privilege of cracking open a book.

7. What's so sexy about math?, Cédric Villani

Perhaps no other school topic has been the subject of as much student ire as math. If you're an educator searching for a way to make math seem "cool" to your students, share this TED Talk by mathematician Cédric Villani with them. Villani highlights the drama of math and how understanding mathematical concepts can help us make sense of the world around us in astounding ways.

8. Why some of us don't have one true calling, Emilie Wapnick

At some point, every student has to answer the question, "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" The truth is, some students will struggle to answer this question their entire lives. Artist and writer Emilie Wapnick shares a TED Talk on "multipotentialities," people with varied interests and skills that don't lead clearly to one lifelong career. This talk is a good reminder for educators that many students can't be funneled toward one particular path, and that's okay.

9. How students of color confront imposter syndrome, Dena Simmons

Many high-achieving students of color struggle with feeling like they don't belong, as if they were "imposters" in an accelerated classroom. As a high-achieving student of color who grew up in the Bronx, Dena Simmons can relate all too well to that feeling of not belonging. In her eye-opening TED Talk, the inspiring educator shares why we must make classrooms welcoming for all students, and how to do it.

10. How to fix a broken education system ... without spending anymore money, Seema Bansal

Education innovator Seema Bansal set a lofty goal for improving the education system in her native India: by 2020, 80% of students should be on grade level. To achieve that goal, Bansal and her team have implemented creative and budget-conscious solutions and strategies for improving engagement and communication in schools. Any educator can benefit from Bansal's innovative approach to improving learning.

Want to watch more inspiring TED Talks about education? Check out this article from Edudemic.com highlighting the 10 best TED Talks for educators from 2014.

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TED Talks are short, informative, and often eye-opening talks given by leaders in their fields addressing all kinds of challenges. Many TED Talks are given by leading educators, or at least have important messages related to the field of education.

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We've all made mistakes in the classroom. A spelling error left for students to catch or losing our patience during a moment of weakness. We've all been there, but the key is to be aware enough to use those moments to grow as a teacher and as a person.

I love this quote, and I remind myself of it regularly - especially when I still find myself making some of the mistakes listed below. Take a look at some of the errors I've observed and experienced. I hope that they will offer some perspective as you soak in the daily challenges of being a life changer to so many little minds.

1. We try to go at it alone.

When we start out, we are fueled up and can't wait to get started. What we quickly realize is how many questions we still have. Don't hesitate to seek answers and suggestions from others with experience. Reach out for support. Ask for help from colleagues. Collaborate.

2. We expect perfection.

Before stepping foot into our own classroom, we dream of having that beautifully decorated room filled with Pinterest ideas gone right and color-coordinated walls. We believe in our hearts that our students will behave, learn, and succeed. Our days have to go flawlessly! This is not realistic nor what we should expect. Teaching isn't the perfect profession. Lessons can go terribly wrong and piles of stuff will accumulate dispelling your "picture perfect" ideal. Yet those things are what help us see what is truly important. We are here to teach and to help students learn.

3. We lack classroom management strategies.

One of the biggest challenges facing teachers is classroom management. We are introduced to groups of different personalities, needs, and learning styles. Without a system in place or a plan on how to handle complexities, we may find our days difficult and stressful. It's important to have a few positive strategies in place before anyone walks through the door. Be prepared to teach the ins and outs and make your expectations known. Strategies may need to change as your classes do, but being open and willing to this change is important.

4. We avoid parent contact.

I try to think of ways that relationships with families can help the classroom environment and strengthen student outcomes. Parent volunteers can help with classroom projects and help lighten a teacher's prep load. Make that necessary phone call. Keep lines of communication open so that, when needed, they are ready to reciprocate your level of concern. The support of parents at home to help with school work when needed can mean the difference between success and failure.

5. We try to do it all.

Teacher burnout is a real thing and unfortunately leads to many hard-working educators leaving the profession too early. Once you realize this, make it something you strive to avoid. Leave work at work. Do something fun that you enjoy on the weekend besides lesson planning. Strive for balance.

6. We are disorganized at times.

The endless amount of papers to grade, notes from home, and supplies to sort can quickly take over if there isn't a system in place to stay organized. Think logically and map out a space in your room for all the "stuff." Teach your system of organization to your students at the beginning of the year and stay consistent. It will save you a lot of time and help promote student responsibility.

7. We treat all students the same.

While it is important to care for each student equally, they come to us with different needs and concerns that need to be addressed. A lesson cannot be taught and an assignment cannot be delivered in only one way to all students. There is a need for differentiation in lesson delivery to follow-up activities. Students with special needs require that their learning environment and assignments be tweaked to meet their needs. Listen, observe, and adapt daily.

8. We want to be a master of everything.

Elementary teachers teach many different things. While we need to know a lot, we don't need to know everything. Recognize and utilize your strengths. Work on your areas of weakness. Have a growth plan and goal for the school year. Pick something new to focus on each year and work on it. Strive to grow and learn continuously throughout your career - you don't need to know everything right away.

9. We lack preparation and knowledge.

Do you ever feel like you don't have the answers or materials ready? It's what happens when you teach something without doing your due diligence. You quickly recognize how important lesson planning and preparation is. Spend time reviewing facts, practicing a skill, or reading appropriate facts to become well versed in a topic before presenting it to students. Educate yourself first. Being under-prepared for lessons is unfair to students. If a lesson lacks clarity to you, imagine how hard it will be for students to learn.

10. We don't have purpose.

Ever choose an activity just because it seemed fun? Plan a craft that would look cute hung on your wall? We're all guilty of using assignments like this to fill time. Unfortunately, activities like this can lack purpose. Lessons that engage, excite, and decorate our classrooms have a place if they are tied to a goal. If the goal is for kids to improve their cutting skills, then that craft is meaningful. If the goal is to build number sense, then that card game has a purpose.

11. We fail to properly assess.

One of our jobs as an educator is to track the growth of our students. We need evaluations in order to properly serve our students with what they need to grow and learn. Not having a clear plan of how to properly assess students, what data to collect, and when to perform the evaluations, leads to a lack of focus in lessons and planning. Ask yourself what you want to know and what you need students to show and tell you.

12.We take it personally.

There will be moments and meetings when things will be said or done that will make us question our ability as an educator. Stay strong and stay true to yourself. Keep your chin up. Walk away and give yourself time to reflect. When you are ready to act, be professional. Often we get upset when what was said holds some truth. Think about that. Think of ways that you can improve instead of becoming critical of one's self. Growing a thick skin comes with experience and maturity.
Teachers, tell us: What would be your #13? Share in the comments.
Join our Facebook group WeAreTeachers-First Years! to connect with other new teachers, and learn more about how you can navigate your classroom and life.

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12 Mistakes All Teachers Make (And How to Get Past Them)

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We've all made mistakes in the classroom. A spelling error left for students to catch or losing our patience during a moment of weakness. We've all been there, but the key is to be aware enough to use those moments to grow as a teacher and as a person.

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Plugged In: Connected Education for Teachers

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Plugged In is a free online, self-pacing, video course that makes you an expert at Twitter and other tools that help you leverage the ability of the world's most powerful free professional development tool. Educators learn how to improve their practice from anywhere at anytime.