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One Idea That Changed My Thinking About Interacting with Students:

The idea that failure is essential to learning has really shifted how I think about interacting with my students. I’ve often been focused on helping students succeed on the first try, but this article made me realize that encouraging failure as a learning opportunity can be even more powerful. When students see failure as a chance to grow, rather than as something to fear, they develop resilience, persistence, and a growth mindset.

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As a substitute teacher, I don’t have a permanent classroom where I can set the classroom protocols and the learning environment. The permanent teacher sets the classroom protocols and the learning environment at the beginning of the year. How can I better enforce the protocols and learning environment that the permanent teacher set at the beginning of the year?

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In the article Is the Term ‘Classroom Management’ Outdated?, Angela Watson provides a list of changes to the way that I could structure the activities in my learning environment that would benefit my scholars. These include “not about controlling kids, but teaching kids how to exercise self-control,” “not a one-size-fits-all “system”, but an intuitive approach that empowers teachers to follow their own unique style of relating to students and running the daily tasks of a classroom,” and “not a teacher-centered classroom, but a classroom community in which students understand the importance of their actions and decisions.”

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In the article Room for Improvement, one idea that changed my thinking about how I manage activity in my classroom is the power of quiet. As a substitute teacher, having students work quietly on their assignments is my classroom management goal for each day. Students also desire a quiet classroom. According to the author, “many students need quiet for reflection, processing, and decluttering their working memory. Quiet isn't about taking a decibel reading in the classroom, though. It is a vibe. It is a flow. It's a reflection of a way of learning that allows students to feel a level of creativity, imagination, and play in their learning.” The author suggests having quiet moments of mindfulness and a quiet space for students, specifically for quiet worktime.

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Let me start by stating that I fully agree that building community in our classrooms is vital for sucess in the learning environment. However, I do wonder that if we are shifting the focus to SEL initiatives, what we are going to have to give up in other areas. For example. I have 40 minutes, twice weekly. This year, I am expected to teach a 5 minute "mini" session for SEL each section (80-10). Then I am expected to have students login and do a typing program which takes approximately 10 minutes per session (70-20). Then I have to teach the focus of the lesson for the unit we are on, about 5-10 minutes per sesssion (50-20). It is at this point that students are able to work on the unit, normally for about 10 minutes each session (30-20). 5 minutes before class ends we have to log off and do the launch for the day (10-10). This means that students only have approximately 20 minutes a week to do the curriculum work that they are expected to master. It does not allow for absences, or misunderstandings, or misconceptions. While I do try to do cross curricular activities, it is still difficult to eek the amount of SEL time out of my lessons. Right now, a full QUARTER of my lesson time is SEL, which IS IMPORTANT, however, the curriculum is also important, and those are the skills that my evaluation is based on. If we are expecting SEL initiatives accross the learning spectrum, shouldnt those initiatives be given just as much priority? If we know that the learning environment is critical to success, why is that not included in the overall picture when evaluating performance, of both the student and educator?

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I am a part of a fantastic team of people and I feel like this is where we shine. The teacher in the classroom is great at valuing and listening to everyone's input. One area that I personally can work on is modeling language on coreboards and devices more. Most of our students use devices and visuals to communicate, so this it is important to model various forms of communication, but it's a hard habit to get back into every school year. We have visuals everywhere, so I just have to make it a conscious habit of using them.

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When one part is missing, there is a break in the routine that can be difficult for our students who don't like change. I think it's good when we have missing parts because it can help our students practice flexible thinking and the idea that not every day is going to be the same. With that said, we have been short-staffed and the constant inconsistency can be really difficult for learning routines. There is a fine balance.

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The adults in the room are constantly modeling how to interact with others. Most of our students are nonverbal, so we model language with our voices and on communication devices. We also show our students ways to play with toys. Every year we have students that just hold objects and look at them, so we model what they can do with the object (build, imaginative play, organize, etc.) We also play on the playground with other pre-k classrooms so the students have peer models as well.

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In ECSE there are alot of helpers in our in classroom including the teacher, 2 paraeducators (this is my role), speech therapist, social worker, psychologist, OT/PT for students who need it, and there is a lot of collaboration between the ECSE and ASD teachers in our building. Of course, the students are the biggest part of the learning environment.

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With our earliest learners, the biggest part of the classroom protocol is learning the school routine. We practice sitting with calm bodies, quiet voices, and eyes watching (we increase the time for sitting throughout the year from 5 minutes to 20 minutes.) We learn practice the routine of going to different centers and staying in an area until the timer rings as well as cleaning up and transitioning from center to center. We practice working with others, sharing, taking turns, and phrases we can use to communicate our needs.

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The first chapter of Creating Cultures and Thinking helped to solidify what I've been noticing in classrooms through my teaching career. Working in special education, it's so frustrating to me when student success is reduced to numbers and testing. The students I work with are all so brilliant and have wonderful characteristics that would make them successful adults. They view the world differently, which is good because I'm constantly learning or relooking at things with a different angle. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the book, those characteristics don't show up on test results and most of testing is rote memorization (and in the case of multiple choice tests, it can boil down to lucky guessing.)

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I loved thinking deeply about "the purpose of school." I found it so interesting that across many nations and people groups, all basically have similar goals. We want well rounded students who can think critically and have soft skills (as well as academic skills) that will prepare them for adulthood. I would add that I think we as a schools are now called to "fill in the gaps" from what students lack at home. To challenge unhealthy mindsets and patterns and to somehow physically provide for some of the needs of students (food, clothing, shelter).