Reflection

To set the scene, imagine that you are in your classroom. You are getting the kids started on one of your standing assignments that everyone in the room knows will come each week:

You: All right, let’s all get started on (insert that assignment that your students hate to do).

Class: Collective groaning. From the back you can hear one student say “Why do we always have to do this?”

You find yourself wondering why the reaction is like this – you might think to yourself “they loved doing this earlier in the year!” Fast forward to the due date. As you are collecting the assignment, you see that the students who play school well completed the assignment, but it’s clear that they put forth the minimum amount of effort possible. You also notice that some of your students did not complete the assignment, and no amount of effort from you is going to get them to finish the task – you could have them work in the hall, take away recess, call parents, etc. – nothing is going to make a difference for those students.

As a teacher we have all experienced this. So here’s the question – why do we keep asking our students to complete assignments that they hate? Why do we keep giving assignments that students don’t put forth much effort, or simply don’t do the assignment at all? Why do we keep giving assignments that put the effort on us to run down the missing assignments when the students are putting no effort into the assignment?

When I was writing last week’s post, I inserted the HSE²¹ Best Practice Model. As I put it into the post, something jumped out to me in a different way than ever before. Look at the Best Practice Model above – in this blog I have spent a lot of time talking about the boxes on the outside: Student-Centered Approaches; Cognitive Curriculum; Fundamental Classroom Conditions; and Transfer of Learning. Last week for some reason, the purple circle that connects them all jumped out at me – in particular the word at the top “Reflection.” Given that New Year’s Day is approaching, I would guess that a lot of us are taking time to reflect on the last year, and many of us think first of our personal life, however reflection is an important aspect of teaching as well. What better time to take a few moments for reflection than to do so over the 2 week winter break?

Think about how your year has gone so far. What’s working well? What isn’t? Do you often have situations like the one that I referenced at the top? How could you adjust your assignments so that they don’t get stale? Even the most engaging activity today may get old and stale to our students if we do the same thing every day or every week over a long period of time. Find some ways to mix up what you are doing in your classroom to increase student engagement. For me, an important part of reflection is also getting feedback and ideas from my colleagues. If you have an activity that has gotten stale, talk with your colleagues – see if anyone has an idea of how you could spice up that activity and make it more engaging to your students. Or maybe you will just decide to let that activity go for a while – replace it with something else that might serve the same purpose.

If you never take the time to reflect, you may miss out on opportunities for growth as a teacher, as well as opportunities to help your students grow. As I reflect on this school year, one of the things I am most disappointed in is the amount of time I have had to spend in my office rather than out and about during the school day. One of my resolutions for the new school year is to spend more time out in our classrooms seeing the awesome things that you all do on a daily basis with our students. Please help hold me accountable to this goal!

What resolutions have you set for yourself? Personal or professional, share them in the comments below. We can all help hold each other accountable to our goals and resolutions.

Choosing to Cheat

There have been periods in my career in education where I felt as though I was living at school. Back in my coaching days I would often arrive at school around 6, work on grading, planning, or whatever else needed to be done, teach a full day, coach my team, come back to my room to do more work, head home for a quick dinner, grade something else, go to bed, and do it again tomorrow. In those days I was cheating my other priorities – my family, my friends, and my health. How many times have you looked at your to-do list and felt that there was no way you could get it all done? I know that there are days that I walk in to my office with 3 things on my to-do list that are left over from yesterday. Over the course of a day I may add several new items to it, but am not able to cross anything off my list. In those moments, I choose to cheat. I can’t do it all. There are 24 hours in a day, and 168 hours in a week. Sometimes there are things we can’t make it through.

Do you ever feel like your to do list looks like this?!?!

We all have important things in our life that take up some of those 168 hours in a week, and while we are all professional educators, there are other priorities in everyone’s life. Here’s the thing about choosing to cheat though: we have to be strategic in the ways that we choose to cheat. I keep to-do lists (some are on my phone in the reminders app, some are jotted on scraps of paper in my office) and when I create them, I also prioritize them. Certain things can only be done when there are students here, others can be done first thing in the morning, or after my afternoon bus duty. Phone calls to parents – that can happen anytime (thank goodness for *67 and the speakerphone feature so that I can call while I’m in the car). When you look at the things that you are doing in your classroom, prioritize them. Think about the needs of your learners – are you doing things to help the students in your classroom grow? If you can’t emphatically say yes, then that may be something you need to choose to cheat on. Keep in mind, cheating isn’t about slacking off, but rather it’s about making sure you are intentional in how you use the time you have.

Use this to help guide your thinking and the areas where you may choose to cheat.

Throughout the process of HSE²¹, one of the messages that Danielle and I have always tried to share with you is that we don’t expect you to do it all right now. When our teaching and learning team (Jan Combs, Phil Lederach, and Stephanie Loane) came to present a few weeks back, one of their slides talked about “More of this” and “Less of this.” Take a look at that slide to the right. If you’re spending a lot of time in the less of column, that may be something that you need to reexamine. It’s also important to look at the HSE²¹ Best Practice Model (below) to guide our intentional thinking about what is best for the learners who walk into our classroom every day.

Think about the things that you value most. Do you devote your time accordingly? If not, you are probably stressed out, unhappy, and might feel unsuccessful. To be a good teacher, you have to be in the right mental place. Think about the choices you make and how they are benefitting you and your students. If you are making choices that don’t benefit you and your students, try to find a way to make a change. Be willing to set aside things that do not hold as much value, and instead focus on the things that are most valuable to you and the students in your class.

What are some of the ways you choose to cheat? Are there things you have given up, or maybe don’t do as often? Maybe there are things you focus on for a while, then let fall out of focus, only to come back to later. Share in the comments below how choosing to cheat has helped you to be a better teacher and a more rounded person.

Get in the backseat and let them drive!

At the finish line of the Hilly Hundred. Watching the other riders come in!

Many of you know that a physically fit lifestyle is something that is important to me. For quite some time I have gone through phases of running, biking, swimming, or lifting weights. In most of those activities, I seem to hit a plateau and feel I can’t get over the hump to improve any more. Then, someone will convince me to do something to force myself to take it up a notch. One year I participated in the RAIN ride (Ride Across INdiana – a one day bike ride from Terre Haute to Richmond), and this year I completed two half marathons – a feat my younger self would have told you was impossible. Each of these events forced me to get over my plateau, and I did that through training. In the past I always had simply worked out, but to prepare for these events I had to truly train. In work out mode I would show up, do my workout, feel pretty good about it, but I didn’t push myself to go above and beyond. In training mode I had to create a schedule the forced me to go further or faster than I had in the past, and hold myself accountable so that I could achieve my goals.

Some of our students are in work out mode. They show up, they do their routine, and they go home. Some get good grades because they can play the part, others do well because it’s what their parents expect, and some don’t do well at all. Then there are the students who are in training mode. Something grasps their curiosity and they run with it. They truly learn because they can see where their education is taking them

Sitting in the backseat and just along for the ride... — Sitting in the backseat and just along for the ride…

One of the goals that teachers should have for themselves is to help students take control of their own education, to put themselves in training mode. Unfortunately, some of our students don’t yet have that attitude. So… how do we get them there? It all lies in the mindset of the student. If a student doesn’t see the relationship between what they are doing in your classroom and what they want to do one day, they aren’t going to buy in. To get them to buy in, we have to know the kids and know their goals. Goal setting and conferencing will allow us to learn more about our kids and their interests. Then we can help guide them in their learning so that they see the connection between what they are doing in class and their future.

How can we get our kids hooked on their own learning? Giving them opportunities to set their own goals, and choices in their learning will help!

Once we know that the kids see the value in what they are doing, the next step is to hand it over to them. Once again going back to the HSE²¹ best practices model, student choice plays an important role in best practices. Giving up control can be scary – there could be issues, but the fear of possible issues should not prevent us from providing students with the benefits that come from letting students take the driver’s seat of their education.

If you’re looking for ways to integrate more student choice, look into Genius Hour or Twenty-Percent Time programs (Gmail exists because of a Twenty-Percent Time project by an engineer at Google). Or you could look for other ways for students to innovate in their learning. Start with a learning goal, but give students the choice of how to share their learning at the end, or give them choices in how they will reach the learning goal. Not everyone has to do the same thing, and some kids may be able to take their learning beyond the work out phase and into the training phase when given more choices.

What have you done that has allowed you to give up control? How did it go? What were the good things to come from it? What struggles did you find?

Importance of student feedback

A couple weeks ago I had a post on how to influence students (click here to see it again). This weekend I was reading a post by A.J. Juliani on his blog titled “The Future of Learning” and I saw an article that related to my previous post, but he looked at things from a slightly different perspective.

What are the best ways to give feedback to our students?

Through reading Juliani’s blog, I ended up reading a research paper written by a team of psychologists from Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and several other well known schools to look at the type of feedback that is given to students. In this study the authors were testing to see if the type of feedback given on an essay written by 7th graders could result in greater effort (as measured by an increased number of revisions), and improved quality of final drafts.

While there have been many studies on how to provide praise to our students, there has been limited research in how to provide meaningful criticism that will result in improvements for students. Many of us place our criticism in the format of 3 stars and a wish (or something of this nature) to boost self-esteem before delivering the criticism.

The reality is, self-esteem is not the key to being able to hear criticism, but rather trust is the key. Boosting self-esteem will not always boost trust. When trust exists, we are able to see criticism as information to help us improve.

In the experiment, some students received “wise feedback” while other students received “neutral feedback” on their papers. Simply through the type of feedback that was given to a student, there was a marked improvement in students choosing to revise their paper (a 40% increase in student effort) and improvement in overall performance on the final paper (you can see the study here).

So, what was the magical feedback that led to such extreme improvements? What note was written on the top of each paper with similar feedback below? The experimental phrase was:

“I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”

That’s right – 19 words written on the top of the paper. In other aspects of the study, these words helped develop greater trust between the student and the teacher, which in turn provided students with a sense of belonging and connection.

For the students who were in the control group, the note at the top of the page looked very different. It simply said “I’m giving you these comments so that you’ll have feedback on your paper.”

Remember that feedback tells us about the relationship that we hold together. Feedback like what you see in bold above gives the students some clear messages: you’re part of this group; we have high standards; and I believe you can reach those standards. So what lessons can we as teachers take away from this? In the post from Juliani that led me to this research study, he referenced an article by Daniel Coyle, the author of The Talent Code. His lessons from this study are as follows:

Connect: As John Wooden said, they can’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Highlight the group: Seek ways (traditions, mantras, fun little rituals) to show what it meas to belong in your crew.
Don’t soft-pedal high standards: Don’t pretend that it’s easy – do the opposite. Emphasize the toughness of the task, and your belief that they have what it takes!

Have you found success in sharing feedback in this manner? If so, share with us how you let students know that they are part of the group, the group has high standards, and your belief that the students can reach those standards.

Sometimes our feedback can be a little misguided... — Sometimes our feedback can be a little misguided…

Enhancement or Transformation?

Being that we are in the second year of a 1:1 program, we all know that adding technology to education comes at a cost – money, time, and effort. If it’s done well, technology can transform teaching and learning. If it’s done poorly, our students are left holding a “$1,000 pencil” according to George Couros (@gcouros), a Canadian principal and education speaker. As I said last week, our pedagogy must drive our technology. Don’t use tech just because our kids have an iPad; instead use tech to create a learning experience that would not have been possible otherwise. Remember, we want to integrate tech where it works. Hopefully the rest of this post will provide some ideas about how to transform education for our students.

Most of us have seen the SAMR model (to the left) as a framework to help you evaluate the best technology in your classroom. This framework is developed from the bottom up. As you see in the graphic, the creator of SAMR places Substitution and Augmentation in the Enhancement group (think of enhancement as the most basic change – it may improve the lesson, but maybe not the thinking). Then there is a dashed line before you get to Modification and Redefinition which fall in the Transformation group (think of transformation as a thorough change in the form of education – it will improve the lesson and the thinking). Many teachers find that dashed line to be a tall fence to climb. In essence, to get over that fence, teachers sometimes have to throw previous activities out the window and create something new, and other times it requires a complete redesign of the activity. In order to make that jump from augmentation to modification, here are some ideas:

Know your goals – don’t think task or app, think learning outcome.
Think about things you’ve done in the past and identify their strengths – what experiences were important for students, and what were the areas of growth from those experiences?
Find a tool that can meet your goals and has similar strengths – with a quick Google search you can find websites and apps that might work. Scan their features to see if something does what you need it to do.
Keep an open mind – don’t eliminate a tool just because you’ve never used it before.
Generate several ideas for activities – make a list of possible tools. Cross out the ones that you don’t think will work.
Put the plan into action – remember that the best way to learn new tech is to play with it. If you don’t know a tool yet, don’t feel like you can’t let students use it. I have yet to have a student tell me “I can’t use this, we haven’t had PD on it!” Students are just as capable of playing with an app or website to figure out what it can do, and if they’re really stuck, they’ll use Google or YouTube to help them figure it out. Plus, if it’s new, students will be more excited and engaged!
Be ready to adjust on the fly – remember, failure is part of the learning process. If something doesn’t work, go back to the drawing board. Sometimes our willingness to model failure will help our students accept the idea that we learn and grow in times of failure.

One other idea that may help you to transform education for your students is through collaboration. Don’t feel like you have to redevelop everything you are doing on your own. Get together with others who teach the same subject as you and pick a topic. Bring some of your favorite activities that fit that topic, and collaborate to find a way to make the jump from enhancement to transformation. Then, after you try something, come back together to talk about what worked well, what didn’t, and what you would do next. And if meeting together is not possible, use tech to collaborate – create a shared planning document in Office 365, or Facetime with your colleagues to plan when you both are free but cannot be together.

On Matt Miller’s website there is an excellent article titled 10 ways to reach SAMR’s redefinition level. Follow the hyperlink for some great ways to take it up a notch!

Where are you in terms of the SAMR model with the tech you are using in your room? Do you feel you are sticking to the enhancement zone, or have you jumped the fence into the transformation zone?

Sometimes it’s ok to ditch the tech too!

In a previous post I talked about the misconception that some have about HSE²¹ being all about the device. Just a reminder here – IT’S NOT! Technology can allow us to do some really cool things, it can help us be more efficient, we can collaborate more easily, you can create and carry out awesome formative assessments, and you can use technology to help you grade papers more quickly. There are many more things that technology can help us with, but there are also times it gets in the way. Remember that the HSE²¹ best practice model is about so much more than an iPad. It’s also important to remember that just because you are using an iPad for an activity, it doesn’t mean you are “doing” HSE²¹.

Sometimes an app doesn’t work the way we expect it to. Sometimes wifi issues prevent our students from being able to access what we need them to get to. If you’re using a computer in the lab, the amount of time it takes for a student to log in can take away from their ability to be productive.

Ultimately, our pedagogy must drive our technology, not the other way around. Good teaching will always trump a good tool. Someone could put me in a wood shop with every imaginable tool, but without the knowledge of how to use those tools, anything I built would not be something I would want to put into my room (except maybe in the back corner of the garage!).

You all know that I love technology. I consider myself an early adopter of most types of technology, quick to try things out to see if it can fit into my life. Anymore I can’t go for a run, bike ride, or sometimes even a walk, without my GPS enabled device to tell me how far I went, what my average heart rate was, and the average speed or pace I was traveling. However, when we look at the classroom, learning has to be the focus. While I would love to see a classroom where everything is being done digitally, sometimes due to challenges that method is not efficient. There is nothing wrong with an exit slip that is actually on paper, or a quick formative assessment of thumbs up or down. Don’t be afraid to try to integrate tech where it works, but don’t do it at the sacrifice of helping our students to learn and grow into the best they can be.

What are some times you have chosen to ditch your tech and had a positive outcome? Share a few of your experiences in the comment section below!

What I’m thankful for…

Around this time of year, I think it is natural for all of us to take a moment or two to reflect on the things that we are thankful for. As I was thinking about a post for this week, I decided that the most sensible thing to do was to share some of the things that I am thankful for.

The staff at RSI – First and foremost, I want everyone here at RSI to know how much I appreciate all that they do! I’m consistently amazed by the commitment, time, and passion that you all put into everything that you do. It is a rare day that I am the first person here, or the last person to go home. When I come in on the weekends, I often see several of you here. The dedication to your craft and your students shows in all that you do, and it makes me happy to be able to come here and be a part of that!
Our students – Here in HSE we have some awesome students. Every day that I’m here, something happens with a student that makes my day. Whether it be watching something click in their learning while they are in a classroom, counseling them through a difficult situation, or providing them with tools that will allow them to learn and grow more successfully, I love it! One of the consistent messages of my posts this year has been the importance of relationships with our kids. I look forward to the opportunity to continue to build meaningful relationships with the kids who walk through our doors each day.
Our families – It is rare that I have anything but positive interactions with the families of our students. Most of the time I am able to pick up the phone, have a positive conversation about their student, and come up with a strategy that will allow them to learn and grow. I always remind myself that the kids I’m talking to are just as important to someone as my kids are to me. If I keep that in mind, and help the family understand that my goal is to help the kids in our school learn and grow, we tend to end up with a positive outcome.
My family – I wouldn’t be the person I am today without my family at home. They help keep me centered. No matter how difficult a day is here at school, I know that I can go home and see my wife and kids, and that stress just melts away. The support they give me, the laughs we have, and simply time together is such an important part of my life!

I could probably continue this list, but it is almost Thanksgiving, and I don’t want to take too much of your time! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break that allows you to get just what you need to recharge for what’s left of the first semester.

What are some of the things you are thankful for? Feel free to share in the comments below!

How to influence students

Why did you become a teacher? Why do you choose to spend your days with kids? Money and fame don’t generally go hand in hand with education, so that was probably not the motivator. For most of us, we do what we do because of a desire to make a difference in the lives of children. We want to be a positive influence on their lives.

Matt Miller - https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/15133710045/in/album-72157645530010989/ — Matt Miller – https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/15133710045/in/album-72157645530010989/

One of the most well-known books on influencing people was written in 1936 by Dale Carnegie. In his book How to Win Friends and Influence People there are 6 lessons that could help you to be able to better make a difference in the lives of your students.

Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely – “good job” isn’t quite enough here. Give true feedback that helps students know that you value the work they are doing. Remember that an assessment is ultimately about feedback, especially formative assessments. Let students know what they are doing well , and let them know where you are seeing their struggles. Work together to set goals to improve in the area they are struggling!
If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically – given that each of our students has an iPad with easy access to Google, the odds of making a mistake and being caught in it are high. Admitting to it shows students how to take responsibility for mistakes will help them do better in their own future. Also remember that mistakes aren’t always just about the content. Sometimes our mistakes are in how we might react or treat our students (or others for that matter). I can’t tell you the number of times I have apologized to kids because I didn’t have the full story, or was acting on assumptions. If the apology is heartfelt and emphatic, it will smooth over the conflict that may have existed otherwise.
Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately – the more times someone says yes, the more positive of a mindset they are in. Ask some simple questions with yes as the answer to get your kids in a positive frame of mind. I’m currently reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. He discusses the idea of priming the brain. In one study, people were asked to hold a pencil in their mouth. Different groups were told to hold the pencil in different ways. Some held the pencil with the eraser pointing to the right. Others were told to hold the pencil so that the tip was pointing away from them. Try it! You’ll find that one way causes you to frown, while the other way causes you to smile. People were then asked to look at The Far Side comics while holding the pencil in their mouth. People who were smiling while looking at the comics reported that the comics were funnier than those who were frowning. What’s happening? The fast part of your brain is taking over and telling you that if you are smiling, you must be happier, the comics are funnier, etc. We all have probably experienced a time where we were having a tough day and we just tried to smile through it, and things actually got better. That old adage of “grin and bear it” may actually hold some water! If you can prime your students to a positive state of mind at the beginning of class, they will be in a better mood, more likely to work, and more likely to report that they enjoy school. All are wins!
Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing others – did you struggle with your math facts? Could you never correctly diagram a sentence? Share your struggles with your students so that they know they aren’t the only ones to make a mistake. Not only does it show that others have challenges too, it is another way to connect with your kids! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shared with students about the time I got busted cheating on a timed test in math in 3rd grade (Sorry Mrs. Langhoff!). The kids always have a laugh, but then we are able to come up with a strategy so that they can feel successful!
Ask questions instead of giving direct orders – adding the words “would you” to any request makes it seem to our students as if they have a choice. It’s a small change, but it allows them to feel as though they have a choice, even if they don’t really. The 2 + 2 method can also help with this: If you do this then…, if you do that then… When we list the positive choice and the positive consequence first, most kids make the choice that we want them to make.
Dramatize your ideas – a visual lesson will stand out to our students much better than any lecture. If you want your kids to learn something well, act it out! Or, even better, have a student or group of students act it out! It accesses a different part of the brain and leads to more long term memory transfer!

Have you ever used any of these methods without intentionally or unintentionally? What have been your results? Share some of your thoughts in the comments below.

Reading as a way of learning

When posting on the blog this year, I have mentioned several books that I have read in connection to my topics. A few of you have asked me questions along the lines of “how do you find time to read that much?” The reality is that I, much like any of you, have a pretty busy schedule with lots of things to do. If I wanted to, I could work all day on things in my office and never truly feel done, however if I did that, I would be stressed, overworked, and unhappy. Outside of school I have responsibilities too; my family, my friends, and my own fitness and health. With all of these things, it would be easy to say that I don’t have time to read, but I’m not willing to do that! I love reading!

Reading is one of the things I really really love!

So, with all those responsibilities, how do I find the time to read as much as I do? There are a couple of ways. First is at the beginning of the day. Most days I arrive here at school, log into my computer, and before doing anything else, I pick up a book and read for 10-15 minutes. I try to make sure that reading is professional in nature. If you expand that over the course of a school year, 10-15 minutes a school day turns into 30-45 hours of reading in a school yer! Give me that much time and I can knock out a ton of books and learn so much! In addition to those 10-15 minutes, I always have a book in iBooks that I am reading. That means I have it on my phone and I can pick it up anytime – waiting at the shop for them to finish my oil change? I could waste my time on Facebook or Twitter, or I could read some of my book. I also try to take a little bit of time at the end of the day before bed to read. It helps me wind down my day and clears up any stress I may have previously felt. I know a lot of people love to get on their favorite social media site at the end of the day, but that just doesn’t do it for me. I’m intentional in my practice of finding time to read. I could watch a random basketball game, or another episode of whatever I’ve been watching on Netflix, and sometimes I do, but often I end up feeling like I’m wasting my time.

I'd love to have a room that looks like this! — I’d love to have a room that looks like this!

So then the question comes, how do you pick a new book? I’m always looking for book ideas. One book I am currently reading was mentioned during a conference I was at. Another book I saw on a colleague’s bookshelf, and a third book I’m reading because I heard an awesome interview of the author on the radio. I get book ideas from people I follow on Twitter, blog posts I read, conversations with friends and colleagues, or just going to Amazon and looking at the “Customers who bought this item also bought” for books that I might like.

Ultimately I see my reading as my own best form of PD. While many of the books I read are not tied directly to education, I can often find connections in my reading. Below I’m going to list a few of the books that I am currently reading, as well as some of the ones I have finished reading recently. Maybe it will inspire you to pick up a new book over Thanksgiving Break, or add it to your wish list. The books I read are things that I am interested in, but also things that I feel help me grow as an educator. And they help me keep my sanity!

My current reading list:

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. In his research, Kahneman has studied how the human brain works, and he breaks it down into 2 systems. System 1 is our fast, intuitive, and emotional part of the brain, while system 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Most of us would believe that the slower more deliberate part of the brain rules most of our choices, but based on the research, System 1 is much more in control than we might realize. Understanding the 2 systems and how they interact can help us be more intentional in our thought processes.
Great by Choice by Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen. In this follow up to Good to Great and Built to Last, Collins looks at why some companies are able to thrive in times of chaos and uncertainty when others are not. In the book Collins compares companies that find the way to be successful in difficult times with comparison companies were not able to be as successful (think Intel vs. AMD, or Microsoft vs. Apple, or Progressive vs. Safeco). While there are no direct ties to education, some of his theories on success could be used in creating the mission or vision for our schools.
The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. This book combines 2 of my personal passions: Science and Cooking; and it has proven to me that you can truly “read” a cookbook. This book is much more than just a cookbook. Each chapter or section talks first about the science of cooking – a couple of nights ago I read about the pros and cons of brining a turkey, and have decided that I am going to try a dry brine for our bird this year – and then it gets into the recipe. I love understanding the science behind the steps I am taking, and seeing new ways to achieve some of my family’s favorite recipes!

And now for some of my recent reads (I included some fiction too, because sometimes you just have to read for fun!):

Ditch that Textbook by Matt Miller
Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess
David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
King and Maxwell by David Baldacci
Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly
A Song of Ice and Fire (series) by George R. R. Martin

I’m curious! What books are you reading? What have you read? What are you learning about from your reading? Share in the comments below so that others can add your ideas to their reading list!

Know your kids – Love your kids

Growing up, the mother of one of my closest friends was an elementary school teacher. When I graduated from college with a brand new teacher’s license in hand, she gave me a couple of books and some unsolicited advice. One of the books was The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong. The advice was “don’t smile until at least Thanksgiving.”

From Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Days-School-Effective/dp/0962936022

The First Days of School was a great resource in setting up my first classroom, and knowing that this person was a great teacher, I tried to follow that advice. The only problem… I really like kids! I couldn’t not smile at them. They were curious, they were funny, and most of all, I knew they were going to be with me for a whole year. Building a relationship with them was really hard if I couldn’t smile!

Some of you may be of the opinion that if you are a good teacher, it doesn’t matter whether or not the kids like you, as long as they respect you. Let me ask you this… How many people that you don’t like do you truly respect? Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like. Kids will learn from people they feel a strong relationship with.

Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14726101996/in/album-72157645530010989/

Going back to our belief statements, building positive relationships is one of our top priorities. It’s easy to have a relationship with the kids who do really well in your class and seem motivated to learn. Those are the kids who know how to play school and probably have the most positive relationships. Those kids are probably the ones who need you the least because they can build relationships easily. The ones who need you the most are the ones who seem to not be motivated, or seem to not do well. What have you done to build relationships with those students who don’t play school well?

The next time you look at your class, see who it is that you know the least about. Seek out an opportunity to learn something about them. Have a 2 minute conversation that has nothing to do with school or your class. What are their interests? What do they like to eat? What did they do last night? What do you know about their family? Do this as often as possible until you know a few new things about each of your kids, then start again!

Remember the first day of school this year. I asked you to do 2 things – Know your kids, and love your kids for who they are. What steps have you taken this year to be able to know your student better? Share in the comments below some of your successes.

Matt Miller: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126588706@N08/14746751544/in/album-72157645530010989/

The View from 518