Revisiting Summer Research

It's so easy to read and research, and then to let go of what you've learned. To truly embed new research into the school year, one has to revisit that research often and reflect upon application. This morning I'm reflecting on the research I read by Friedman, Darling-Hammond and others, and Emdin. I highlighted main points in these mini posters, and then reflected on what needs to happen in the classroom below. In the days ahead I will review other research posts related to brain-friendly learning and cultural proficiency to look more deeply at how research may positively affect the teaching/learning this year.

Continued dialogue with students as we co-construct the classroom. Infusing this language into the daily teaching/learning efforts.

Curriculum Focus:

• Reading and talking/writing about reading daily.
• Math everyday utilizing the math practices effectively and deeply
• Blended learning and focus on how to maximize the use of "intelligent assistants."
• Critical and creative learning projects, activities
• SEL focus throughout the curriculum that emphasizes respect, ethics, character, metacognition, and more. 

Equity Efforts

• Team emphasis
• How can we provide opportunity to students?
• When and how do we listen?
• Differentiation
• Informal/formal data analysis to lead learning/teaching
• Everyone belongs focus
• Effectively embed equity efforts.
• Revisit the "No Prejudice Here" theme/discussion regularly.

Starting with Emdin's research, I have the following to do:

• Institute call and response routines
• Create expression/question bulletin boards
• Foster positive team competition (we'll do that with upcoming STEAM activities)
• Continued teaching with the arts
• The hello project - multiple greetings. We'll focus on this in Open Circle too. 
• Continue to co-construct class protocols.
• Open-ended math teaching project. We'll do this at the end of the place value unit.
• I've used recess as a time to have open ended, friendly conversations with students regularly.

Darling-Hammond and others' research about future-ready teachers and students.

• We started showcase portfolios earlier, and have slowed down the classroom to include more reflection, analysis, and reasoning.
• I've advocated to include lots of tech into teaching, and have received some refusals here, but I am including what tech I can, and will continue to advocate for more and better as I research.
• We've done initial assessments, and as new data comes in, we'll continue to analyze. 
• As I get to know students more and have more analyses, we'll begin to differentiate more. At this point, we've begun to differentiate in small ways with teaching assistants' support.
• We've been focusing a lot on vocabulary across the curriculum, and looking at curriculum through multiple lenses. 
• Teamwork has been a strong initial focus and will continue throughout the year. 
• Our initial STEAM explorations have fostered creativity as did our initial selfie project--we have many more projects planned that will include lots of creativity. 
• We began with a deep look at cross-cultural issues with a historic lens and will keep that focus going with projects, discussions, current events, reading, and more. 
• We've emphasized that students need to lead their own learning in brain-friendly ways. We also discussed that the sum of passion plus knowledge equals success. We'll continue to focus on growth mindset and brain/cognitive knowledge.

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 2017

It's hard to believe it's the first full week of school as it feels like we've been back for a long time. The children quickly grasped new routines, finished a short read aloud, and are almost done with a number of introductory activities. Next week will find students completing early year assessments, completing introductory activities, starting the first math unit, reading the remaining books in the read aloud trilogy, attending reading, writing, and social studies rotations, reading, adding to their showcase portfolios, attending specials, and reading on their own.

I'll spend some time in the days ahead reviewing students' study efforts that will later be placed in students' portfolios. I'll also attend to some new assessment data as I begin to get a good picture of the class as a whole and think about how to best coordinate the curriculum efforts ahead.

Learning Tears

Sometimes learning is very challenging, and when you face that kind of learning it can bring you tears. It's happened to me and it has happened to my students.

To cry over learning is not all wrong, but it does signal a need for reflection with the learning endeavor. Sometimes a person may cry over learning because their expectations are off--they expect the learning to be easier or their skills to be better. At other times, the tears can be due to frustration, the kind of frustration that occurs when learning doesn't come easy even after many tries. And tears too can arise from competition when a learner sees everyone else quickly completing a task that he or she simply can't master. There's lots of reasons that tears can arise from learning, and the fact of the matter is that sometimes it's not such a bad thing to cry when learning evades you or provides you with a challenge.

When those tears come, it's important to reflect with questions like these:

• Are my expectations too great?
• Am I using effective effort?
• Have I made good use of the intelligent assistants available such as colleagues, computers, experts, and learning events?
• How can I break down the task to make each step more reasonable?
• Am I celebrating the small wins?

If students cry, a teacher has to analyze the situation. Is the task too much of a reach? Were the proper supports put in place? Is this time for some coaching for a learner who, perhaps, has sky-high expectations?

Learning well is not a simple affair. Good learning takes practice, mistakes, reflection, revision, and collaboration. It's a step-by-step affair that profits from the intelligent assistants around us, assistants both human and technological. Good learning is not always easy, and can make you cry from time to time, but that shouldn't obstruct the learning journey ahead. Onward.

Professional Learning Keeps You Fresh

Any job can get old without continued professional learning. New learning reinvigorates investment and effort. As I think of that, I'm focused on a new learning path or shall I say a deepened learning path which is the path of brain-friendly learning.

How can students and educators teach and learn with the brain in mind? What can we do to learn in ways that are friendly to our brains. A colleague and I often say, we teach to students' brains. That means we watch carefully how the children respond to information and make our choices dependent upon what appeals to their brains or ways of learning.

A few years ago, I read Daniel Willingham's book, Why Don't Students Like School, and learned a lot about brain-friendly learning and teaching. I relay a lot of that information to students as I teach during the year. On Friday a colleague and I will attend a day-long event at Boston University about the mind and brain. I expect that we'll learn a lot that will help us to teach and lead in brain-friendly ways. I also want to watch these TedTalks related to brains and learning as part of my study.

It's exciting to deepen an area of interest particularly when you know that the learning path will positively affect what we can do for students in important enriching ways. If you have links, books, or other resources to offer me, please do. In the meantime, stay tuned as I'll likely share my learning via this blog.


Related Links
Book to Increase Children's Cognition/Science Literacy

Teach the Children or Teach the Curriculum

This is a familiar debate in schools, and of course the right answer is both. Yet, if you don't teach the children first, you'll make no headway with the curriculum. What this means is that you can't jump right into the curriculum without building a relationship with the children.

A little boy in the back of the room didn't follow directions during the third day of school. I watched him carefully to notice what he was doing. I noticed that he was clearly uncomfortable and distracted. I didn't ask him to move as I knew that would upset him, but I did move a child near him as I knew that child would not mind. That calmed the child down. Later I talked to the child about his discomfort--we came up with some strategies.

On another occasion during the first week of school two girls who wanted to work with each other were unable to get anything done. I wondered about that, and for the next challenge, I changed the groupings. Both girls were more successful.

In neither case, did I have to scold, reprimand, or have a consequence. That would not be right so early in the year when I hardly know the students, and they hardly know me. Instead, I chose to let some things go as I tried to figure out what the students needed.

I've slowed down the way I start the year a lot. I'm doing that because of what I've read related to cultural proficiency and building strong teacher-student relationships. It's the key to a good year of teaching, and when we forget that, and rush too fast into the curriculum, we deny both the students and ourselves the chance for that successful relationship, the kind that leads to a successful year of teaching and learning.

So if the year is starting with a lot of problems, it may be because you have to back up and focus on learning about the learners first, developing a good repertoire, and then moving into the curriculum. That's the advice Ruth Charney gave us so long ago in her great book, Teaching Children to Care, and that's the advice Emdin's book, For White Folks. . .reiterates. Onward.