Bring Back the Joy...

Last year we talked about bringing the joy back to the classroom.  This focus is both challenging and essential when working with students whose educational histories are marked by years of hopelessness and failure.  The following tips come from the book, Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms by Timothy Walker

Well-Being:  In Finnish schools, students have more opportunities to learn through activities that are meaningful and relevant and are self initiated with guidance from teachers.  Additionally, they have about 15 minutes of break time for every 45 minutes of work.  American students, by contrast, have few breaks during the day.  Of course, this means their teachers also have fewer breaks.  Building brain breaks into the class schedule can help students and adults be more engaged in meaningful learning and interactions.  

Autonomy: Students in Finland have a higher level of autonomy than American students. At Venture, we have done quite a bit of work in the area of developing student autonomy and teaching them to take ownership of their own learning.  However, kids don't know what they don't know.  Often, it's our excitement about a topic that spawns excitement in them.  What are you doing with your students that feels "cool" to you and them?  What are you reading about, talking about, or doing that is charging your batteries? If you are bored with a topic, change it up for your sake and theirs. Finding ways of presenting material or having students interact with learning in different ways can make learning the same things feel more energizing.  

Belonging:  A classroom community that fosters a sense of belonging in students and allows them to experience connection with you and classmates lays a foundation for joy.  Talking to students and letting them talk to each other about their lives and then about academic subjects all help to build a culture where everyone feels valued and heard.  Is there a class goal or project that every student can get behind?  Are you creating something in your classroom for Exhibit night?  Are students creating a display in the building or pulling together to accomplish a goal?  Part of belonging is having the sense that your contribution matters.  

Recharge.  There is never an end point to the work of teaching.  No matter what we've done, it can be improved upon.  But, at the end of the day it's important to turn off the work brain and recharge.  My best ideas often come when I'm not really thinking about work at all.  Disconnecting from work at the end of the day is the one thing we can all do to make sure our lives are balanced and that we're primed to experience joy for ourselves and create joyful classrooms with students.

As illustrated in this table, the set of circumstances that make adults experience joy at work also contribute to students (and adult) joy in the classroom.  https://hbr.org/2019/07/making-joy-a-priority-at-work

For the Week of October 23
Bus Duty: Vaughan,  Fuller
Monday: Certified PD day: Agenda
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture;  Halloween BBQ

For the Week of October 30
Bus Duty: Wilson and Penske
Monday: Non Work Day
Tuesday: 
Wednesday: 
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture

For the Week of November 6
Bus Duty: Gonzalez and Mazhan
Monday: Certified PD day
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Extended Learning 
Friday: Staff Work Day, day off for veterans to thank them for their service

For the Week of November 13
Bus Duty: Higgs and Levy
Monday: Students are in School
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Extended Learning 
Friday: Staff Work Day, day off for veterans to thank them for their service

For the Week of November 20
Bus Duty: No one
Monday: Happy Day
Tuesday: Happy Day
Wednesday:  Happy Day
Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday: Happy Day

 

"The person doing the talking is doing the learning"

We've all have been in a classroom with a teacher who talks and talks and talks. I've been that teacher (and that principal 😒) spending far too much time giving instructions, repeating instructions, adding information, talking, and telling and blabbing on and on about how students are doing instead of creating a situation where they reflect on their own learning.  Lots of teacher talk time (TTT) feels like we're doing our jobs, but after 15 min. of teacher gab student faces reflect blank stares of boredom and confusion.  

Research tells us a good bit about how children process, evaluate, retain and utilize information.  John Hattie's analyses of classroom observations reveal that the average teacher talks about 80% of the time and poses about 200 questions per day.  However, in effective classrooms with the highest levels of learning, students are talking with their classmates about the topic much more than the teacher is talking. They are posing questions, talking about concepts and responding to one another's ideas.  In fact, student talk is possibly the most easily implemented means of improving student learning.  

What is the teacher doing when kids are talking?  The teacher is walking around, sitting next to, and listening to students with the purpose of gathering information to inform the next instructional moves.  He or she is asking questions to steer the conversation and to scaffold learning.  This approach makes it possible to offer timely feedback and just-in-time instruction that supports learning.  This is the opportunity to deepen student understanding by helping them see things from various perspectives. 

What if students don't want to talk?  It's been estimated that we spend about 80% of our waking hours in some form of communication.  (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220671.1950.10881817)  If that's true (it probably is, a Google search will take you to quite a bit of research on the topic) then we need to teach kids how to communicate.  They will likely give us feedback that they'd rather just sit there while we talk.  However, the fact that they think they can't participate in an academic conversation really just tells us that they need to learn how to have these conversations.  So our job is to teach them how to engage in accountable, academic thinking and talk. 

Mapping classroom conversation:  Imagine if you were to map the flow of student and teacher talk.  In a traditional classroom, it would look like ping pong.  The teacher serves the question, a student pings back a question.  Imagine the map being more like volleyball with the students playing off of each other's responses creating a web.

 Check out this resource for ideas to reduce TTT and increase learning: https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines

Challenges.  Try one of these challenges:  

• Video yourself for a lesson and track your conversations. What percentage of the time is TTT, what percentage is STT (Student talk time).  
• Implement a thinking routine to allow students to process and talk about their thinking.  
• Implement the workshop model (ch.4 Phenomenal Teaching) for as many lessons as possible (it could be every lesson)   This model makes it easier to minimize TTT.

For the Week of October 9
Bus Duty: Doering and Cooley
Monday: Non Work Day  
Tuesday: Kaiser out  Mantz and Mires are principal designees
Wednesday:  PSAT day  
Thursday: Extended Learning
Friday: Wellness, Trent visiting Venture

For the Week of October 16
Bus Duty: Smith and Hook
Monday: Non Work Day:  
Tuesday: m
Wednesday: 
Thursday: Extended Learning
Friday: Wellness

For the Week of October 23
Bus Duty: Vaughan,  Fuller
Monday: Certified PD day
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture;  Halloween BBQ

For the Week of October 30
Bus Duty: Wilson and Penske
Monday: Non Work Day
Tuesday: 
Wednesday: 
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture

For the Week of November 6
Bus Duty: Gonzalez and Mazhan
Monday: Certified PD day
Tuesday: 
Wednesday:  
Thursday: Extended Learning 
Friday: Staff Work Day, day off for veterans to thank them for their service

 

Think about...

Monday, Nov. 13 will be a student attendance day.  Please be thinking/dialoguing about some things we could do to make this a positive, community building experience for students and adults.

Crazy cool science of teaching stuff...

Notice the link to the amazing article .  It's a quick read of 10, easily implemented strategies for immediately improving student learning.  Some of these strategies were in the book Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. by Chip and Dan Heath.

Challenge:  Try at least one of these items every day to boost learning for your students:

https://ditchthattextbook.com/longterm/

Wellness...

I LOVED leading a wellness this week.  It was fun to be with kids in this context.  I was up till 10:30 (past my bedtime) preparing.  It was a great reminder of the work each of you put into your classes and that this is definitely not a 40 hour per week job.  You're selfless, caring, and you put your all into it every day, all day. Thank you.  

One Place Church from Hayden spent the day beautifying our campus.  I will be sending them a thank you note.  If you have a space in your day (maybe you're doing gratitude projects with students or something similar) let's talk about students showing appreciation to One Place for volunteering at Venture.

Good news about Smart Pass...

We have ordered it!  Be watching for more information.

Mike Mattos on How to get insanely clear about learning outcomes and learning objectives: Short, to the point, worth a watch.

For the Week of October 2
Bus Duty: Eastman and Mahoney
Monday: Non Work Day:  Custodian Appreciation Day/Week
Tuesday: Kaiser out all day - Mantz and Mires are principal designees
Wednesday:  Kaiser out @ pm
Thursday: Extended Learning
Friday: Flex Day

For the Week of October 9
Bus Duty: Doering and Cooley
Monday: Non Work Day
Tuesday: Kaiser out  Mantz and Mires are principal designees
Wednesday:  PSAT day  
Thursday: Extended Learning
Friday: Wellness, Trent visiting Venture

For the Week of October 16
Bus Duty: Smith and Hook
Monday: Non Work Day:  Custodian Appreciation Day/Week
Tuesday: Kaiser out @am
Wednesday:  Kaiser out @ pm
Thursday: Extended Learning
Friday: Wellness

For the Week of October 23
Bus Duty: Vaughan,  Fuller
Monday: Certified PD day
Tuesday: Kaiser out @am
Wednesday:  Kaiser out @ pm
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture;  Halloween BBQ

For the Week of October 30
Bus Duty: 
Monday: Non Work Day
Tuesday: Kaiser out @am
Wednesday:  Kaiser out @ pm
Thursday: Extended Learning Picture Make up day
Friday: Wellness; Trent visiting Venture