First Year Teachers

Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers

How community schools can beat summer learning loss for low-income students

Laura Bronstein, Binghamton University, State University of New York

This article is a part of The Conversation’s series on summer learning loss. For other articles in this series, read here and here.

My children spent summers reading Harry Potter, playing chess, swimming and hiking the Adirondack high peaks in upstate New York.

As a single parent with a career as a social worker and academic, I wasn’t rich. But I had enough to make sure that my children had what they needed to excel in education and enrichment outside of school.

While middle-class homes can often provide for summer enrichment activities, studies show a different reality for children from low-income families. These children and youth often lose months of reading and math skills over the summer, widening the achievement gap between the classes.

What can schools do to address this learning loss?

Summer slide

The learning loss for youth in low-income communities adds up dramatically over the years. By ninth grade, about two-thirds of the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged youth and their more advantaged peers can be explained by how they spend their elementary school summers.

What makes this of concern is that a majority of U.S. students in public schools are now from low-income families. A 2013 study found that for the first time in U.S. history, a majority (51 percent) of public school students in the United States were eligible for a free or subsidized school lunch, indicating that they fell below the government’s low-income cutoff.

The majority of these students lack quality summer activities.

A majority of kids do not have quality summer activities. Children image via www.shutterstock.com

Furthermore, these issues do not exist in isolation. Children from low-income communities who often experience summer learning loss also often face multiple related challenges that impact their ability to attend school or focus when they’re there. These challenges include insufficient access to health care, poor nutrition, community violence and lack of adult supervision, among others.

Partnerships between schools and communities can help students’ academic success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law in December 2015, addresses the achievement gap between children from low- and middle-income families.

Title IV of the ESSA under the program, “Community Supports for Success,” calls for a range of partnerships between schools and communities so students (especially those from low-income families) can gain access to services they need for academic achievement (e.g., physical and mental health care, adequate nutrition, supervision and access to healthy activities beyond school hours).

How can schools implement these partnerships?

Earlier this year, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a US$175 million plan that demonstrates a way to enable such partnerships. Cuomo’s plan aims to convert schools with the lowest test scores and graduation rates across the state into “community schools.”

Providing comprehensive services

So, what are community schools? And how do they help with student learning?

Community schools pursue a unique learning model whereby they supplement classroom-based instruction with out-of-school (before school, after school and summer) learning. They provide support to students whose families do not have access to academic support beyond the classroom. Their support is not limited to the school term, but continues all through the year.

My research on community schools across the U.S.and the world shows that they look different in each community as they develop in response to each school’s specific needs.

The idea behind this learning model goes back to the late 19th century. The first set of school-linked services (precursors to community schools) can be traced back to the 1890s. Back then, they were developed in response to the massive changes being brought about as a result of immigration and industrialization.

As teachers struggled with new sets of challenges in their classrooms, this model provided additional support. For example, in 1894, doctors visited Boston schools on a daily basis – a practice that helped bring down rates of communicable diseases.

The amount of school-linked services and their gold standard – community schools in the U.S. – have ebbed and flowed over the years. In the last few decades, there has been a marked increase in the number of community schools.

Many individual schools, several counties and an array of cities have incorporated the community school model to reduce the achievement gap between students from low- and middle-income homes. These include Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon), Broome County (upstate New York), Cincinnati, Chicago, Hartford, Tulsa and more recently, New York City, among others.

What’s the impact?

The community school model has shown numerous successes.

For example, Oyler School in Cincinnati had fewer than 20 percent of its students reaching 10th grade in the late 1990s. After implementing a community school model in 2010, 82 percent of students graduated high school.

Many of these schools provide extra outreach efforts to involve families that may be hard to reach in the education of their children – a critical component of the partnership. A recent study of the impact of family engagement in elementary and secondary schools found positive correlations between engaged families and improved academic achievement.

Oyler School in Cincinnati. Sean Biehle, CC BY-SA

School-based health centers are another frequent component of community schools. Studies indicate when there are school-based health centers, lost class time as a result of sickness reduces by as much as three times.

Summer programs are often part of community schools. These programs provide enriched summer activities for students, such as music, dance, crafts, athletics and academics. This enables teachers in high-poverty neighborhoods to begin teaching new content at the start of the school year, without losing months backtracking over content forgotten from the previous year.

Why we need community schools

The community school model has been so successful that universities too are making this a focus of college students’ civic engagement efforts.

In 1985, the University of Pennsylvania took the lead in developing a university-assisted community school approach. College students work with the community schools to integrate knowledge gained in their UPenn classrooms.

An example is the Moelis Access Science program where UPenn faculty and students provide STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) professional development to teachers serving students in West Philadelphia neighorhoods, which are marked by extreme poverty, violence and low educational attainment.

Over 20 universities are now part of the network of university-assisted community schools including Binghamton University (SUNY), Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In an increasingly diverse society facing more complex social problems, the traditional model where education occurs completely within the school building, provided solely by teachers from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from September to June, needs reviewing.

That calendar was designed long ago to leave youth free to work in their families’ fields in the summer. Since farming is no longer a major role for the vast majority of students, time outside the classroom can either enhance academic year learning or diminish it.

Do community schools that offer year-round programming and supplemental services cost money? Of course they do. But they have also been shown to save health care costs. They can also save funds that are now being spent on residential treatment facilities for youth, prison and remediation.

With too many youth dropping out of school, the jobs and workforce necessary to compete in a global economy are at risk. Community schools make sense in a country that is committed to opportunities for educational success for any and all students, irrespective of their family income or their zip code.

The Conversation

Laura Bronstein, Dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers

How civic intelligence can teach what it means to be a citizen

Douglas Schuler, Evergreen State College

This political season, citizens will be determining who will represent them in the government. This, of course, includes deciding who will be the next president, but also who will serve in thousands of less prominent positions.

But is voting the only job of a citizen? And if there are others, what are they? Who decides who will do the other jobs – and how they should be done?

The concept of “civic intelligence” tries to address such questions.

I’ve been researching and teaching the concept of “civic intelligence” for over 15 years. Civic intelligence can help us understand how decisions in democratic societies are made now and, more importantly, how they could be made in the future.

For example, my students and I used civic intelligence as the focus for comparing colleges and universities. We wanted to see how well schools helped educate their students for civic engagement and social innovation and how well the schools themselves supported this work within the broader community.

My students also practiced civic intelligence, as the best way of learning it is through “real world” projects such as developing a community garden at a high school for incarcerated youth.

So what is civic intelligence? And why does it matter?

Understanding civic intelligence

Civic intelligence describes what happens when people work together to address problems efficiently and equitably. It’s a wide-ranging concept that shows how positive change happens. It can be applied anywhere – from the local to the global – and could take many forms.

For example, civic intelligence was seen in practice when representatives of the world’s governments created and unanimously approved a global action plan last year in Paris. While climate change remains an immense threat, this global cooperation involving years of dedicated debate and discussion produced a common framework for action for worldwide reduction of greenhouse gases.

Civic intelligence describes when people work together to address problems. Takver, CC BY-SA

Another example is that of mayors around the world establishing networks such as the Global Parliament of Mayors to bring elected officials together on a regular basis to discuss issues facing cities, such as housing, transportation and air quality. One of these networks, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, was launched when representatives of the world’s 40 largest cities wanted to collaborate to address climate change.

Similarly, millions of researchers, teachers, artists, other individuals and NGOs worldwide are working to improve their cities and communities. These efforts are amazingly diverse.

In one such case, groups of church members and others from the community in Olympia, Washington, worked for several years with homeless people and families to develop affordable housing solutions. And in Brooklyn, a group of young people started an experimental School of the Future to develop their ideas on what schools could or should be.

What’s the history?

The term “civic intelligence” was first used in English in 1898 by an American clergyman Josiah Strong in his book “The Twentieth Century City” when he wrote of a “dawning social self-consciousness.”

Untold numbers of people have been thinking and practicing civic intelligence without using the term. A brief look at some notable efforts reveals some historic approaches to its broader vision. Let’s take a few:

Laurie Chipps, CC BY-ND
  • John Dewey, the prominent social scientist, educator and public intellectual, was absorbed for much of his long professional life with understanding how people pool their knowledge to address the issues facing them.
  • The American activist and reformer Jane Addams, who in 1889 cofounded the Hull House in Chicago, which housed recent immigrants from Europe, pioneered scores of civically intelligent efforts. These included free lectures on current events, Chicago’s first public playground and a wide range of cultural, political and community research activities.

Civic intelligence today

There are more contemporary approaches as well. These include:

  • Sociologist Xavier de Souza Briggs’ research on how people from around the world have integrated the efforts of civil society, grassroots organizations and government to create sustainable communities.
  • With a slightly different lens, researcher Jason Corburn has examined how “ordinary” people in economically underprivileged neighborhoods have used “Street Science” to understand and reduce disease and environmental degradation in their communities.
  • Elinor Ostrom, recently awarded the Nobel Prize in economics, has studied how groups of people from various times and places managed resources such as fishing grounds, woodlots and pastures by working together collectively to preserve the livelihoods’ sources for future generations.

Making use of civic intelligence

Civic intelligence is generally an attribute of groups. It’s a collective capability to think and work together.

Advocates and practitioners of civic intelligence (as well as many others) note that the risks of the 21st century, which include climate change, environmental destruction and overpopulation, are quantitatively and qualitatively unlike the risks of prior times. They hypothesize that these risks are unlikely to be addressed satisfactorily by government and other leaders without substantial citizen engagement.

Civic intelligence reminds us that citizens assume responsibility. Gonzale, CC BY-NC

They argue that with or without formal invitations, the citizen must assume more responsibility for the state of the world, especially since in some cases the leaders themselves are part of the problem.

“Ordinary” people could bring many civic skills to the public sphere, such as innovation, compassion and heroism that are indispensable to the decision-making processes.

That is what brought about changes such as human rights, overturning slavery and the environmental movement. These were initiated not by businesses or governments, but by ordinary people.

Twenty-first century civics

The civics classes that are required in the public schools mostly focus on conventional political processes. They might teach about governance in a more conventional way, such as how many senators there are (100) or how long their terms are (six years). But self-governance needs more than that.

At a basic level, “governance” happens when neighborhood groups, nonprofit organizations or a few friends come together to help address a shared concern.

Their work can take many forms, including writing, developing websites, organizing events or demonstrations, petitioning, starting organizations and, even, performing tasks that are usually thought of as “jobs for the government.”

And sometimes “governance” could even mean breaking some rules, possibly leading to far-reaching reforms. For example, without civil disobedience, the U.S. might still be a British colony. And African-Americans might still be forced to ride in the back of the bus.

As a discipline, civic intelligence provides a broad focus that incorporates ideas and findings from many fields of study. It involves people from all walks of life, different cultures and circumstances.

A focus on civic intelligence could lead directly to social engagement. I believe understanding civic intelligence could help address the challenges we must face today and tomorrow.

The Conversation

Douglas Schuler, Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies, Evergreen State College

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in First Year Teachers, Parental Involvement, Teachers

Do kids who grow kale eat kale?

Garrett M. Broad, Fordham University

It’s back-to-school time in the United States, and for countless children across the nation, it’s also time to get back into the school garden.

For centuries, educators and philosophers have argued that garden-based learning improves children’s intelligence and boosts their personal health. In recent years, concerns related to childhood obesity and young people’s disconnection from nature have led to a revitalized interest in the topic.

Tens of thousands of American schools have some form of school garden. Many are located on school grounds and others are run by external community partners. Most are connected to the school’s curriculum. For instance, seeds are used in science class to explain plant biology, fruits are used in social studies to teach world geography and the harvest is used in math to explore weights and measures. Some even incorporate food from the garden into the school lunch.

As a researcher and an activist, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade working to promote a healthy, equitable and sustainable food system. Through this process, I have heard bold claims made about the power of garden-based learning to meet these challenges.

School gardens claim a variety of benefits.

Given the enthusiasm that surrounds garden-based learning today, it’s worth taking stock of their overall impacts: Do school gardens actually improve the education and health of young people?

Promoting school gardens

School gardens have become a favorite strategy of prominent advocates in the “Good Food Movement.” Both celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and First Lady Michelle Obama have been vocal supporters.

An elementary school garden with six raised beds is meant to help kids learn. U.S. Department of Agriculture

Nonprofit and grassroots groups, who see these gardens as a way to provide fresh produce for the food insecure, have forged partnerships with local schools. Then there are service-based groups, such as FoodCorps, whose members spend one year in a low-income community to help establish gardens and develop other school food initiatives.

Philanthropic organizations like the American Heart Association have also sponsored the construction of hundreds of new school garden plots.

Taken together, upwards of 25 percent of public elementary schools in the United States include some form of garden-based learning. School garden projects are located in every region of the country and serve students of all ages, ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic classes.

Transforming kids lives through gardens?

Advocates argue that gardening helps kids make healthier eating choices. As the self-proclaimed “Gangsta Gardener” Ron Finley put it in his popular TED Talk,

“If kids grow kale, kids eat kale.”

Does garden-based learning help school kids?UGA College of Ag & Environmental Sciences – OCCS, CC BY-NC

Many proponents go even further, suggesting that garden-based learning can inspire a variety of healthy changes for the whole family, helping to reverse the so-called obesity epidemic.

Others, like Edible Schoolyard founder Alice Waters, argue that experience in the garden can have a transformative impact on a child’s worldview, making sustainability “the lens through which they see the world.”

Sure, gardens can help

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that garden-based learning does yield educational, nutritional, ecological and social benefits.

For example, several published studies have shown that garden-based learning can increase students’ science knowledge and healthy food behaviors. Other research has shown that garden-based learning can help students better identify different types of vegetables as well as lead to more favorable opinions on eating vegetables.

In general, qualitative case studies of garden-based learning have been encouraging, providing narratives of life-changing experiences for children and teachers alike.

Do gardens improve the intake of fresh foods and fruit? RubyDW, CC BY

However, when it comes to actually increasing the amount of fresh foods eaten by young people, improving their health outcomes or shaping their overall environmental attitudes, quantitative results have tended to show modest gains at best. Some of the most highly developed school garden programs have been able to increase student vegetable consumption by about a serving per day. But the research has not been able to show whether these gains are maintained over time.

A lack of definitive evidence has led some critics to argue that school gardens are simply not worth the time and investment, especially for lower-income students who could be concentrating on more traditional college prep studies.

The social critic Caitlin Flanagan has gone so far as to say that garden programs are a distraction that could create a “permanent, uneducated underclass.”

There are no magic carrots

There is no doubt that the power of garden-based learning is sometimes overstated.

Particularly when describing garden projects in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, popular narratives imply that a child’s time in the garden will rescue her from a life of poverty and chronic disease.

I call this the “magic carrot” approach to garden-based learning. But as we all know, there are no magic carrots growing in the school garden.

Gardens alone will not eliminate health disparities, close the educational achievement gap, fix unemployment or solve environmental injustice.

When is a garden successful?

For gardens to effectively promote learning and health, they must be supported and reinforced by the community as a whole. Surveys of school garden practitioners show that garden programs have serious potential to enhance school and neighborhood life – but only if certain conditions are met.

Notably, school gardens are most successful when they are not held afloat by a single dedicated teacher. Instead, multiple involved stakeholders can ensure that a garden doesn’t dry up after only a season or two.

If kids grow kale, do they eat it? U.S. Department of Agriculture, CC BY

For example, participation from administrators, families and neighborhood partners can turn a school garden into a dynamic and sustainable community hub.

Many experienced practitioners have also shown that garden-based learning is more powerful when its curriculum reflects the cultural backgrounds of the young people it serves. When children of Mexican descent grow indigenous varieties of corn, or when African-American youth cultivate collard greens, the process of growing food can become a process of self-discovery and cultural celebration.

In other words, if kids grow kale, they might eat kale, but only if kale is available in their neighborhood, if their family can afford to buy kale and if they think eating kale is relevant to their culture and lifestyle.

Creating valuable green space

As my own research has highlighted, there are organizations and schools across the country that incorporate garden-based learning into broader movements for social, environmental and food justice.

These groups recognize that school gardens alone will not magically fix the problems our nation faces. But as part of a long-term movement to improve community health, school gardens can provide a platform for experiential education, create valuable green space and foster a sense of empowerment in the minds and bodies of young Americans.

The Conversation

Garrett M. Broad, Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, First Year Teachers, Teachers

The First Year Teaching: The desist approach to classroom discipline

By Matthew Lynch

As you look for your own way of operating your classroom efficiently, there are several styles of teaching discipline to consider. One that is often used because of its easy-to-implement practices is the “desist” approach. Unlike the self-discipline approach where students are responsible, the desist approach places teachers as the responsible ones. This approach can be viewed as a power system, as teachers have the power and they set the specific rules to give students discipline and correct students’ behaviors. Here is how this method is put into practice:

Assertive Discipline

This approach bases itself on the fact that teachers have the power to ask and require specific actions from students. However, this discipline still has students’ best interest in mind. Canter and Canter, in their historical study conducted in 1992, found that teachers who use this discipline are actually calm when it comes to the rules and limits. This discipline makes teachers assert clear rules.  It gives students the clear idea that misbehavior has consequences and if students want positive consequences, they know how to achieve them.

Behavior Modification

This approach centers around four types of punishment/reinforcement.  These are:

  • Positive Reinforcement: Giving extra credit for a question answered with much thought
  • Positive Punishment: A meeting with a Principal
  • Negative Reinforcement: Removal of an activity that the student does not enjoy
  • Negative Punishment: Decrease in free time

This approach finds the positive reinforcement to be the most effective while punishments are comparatively ineffective. It goes without saying then that teachers are expected to encourage students’ good behaviors instead of criticizing the misbehavior.

In both cases, a lot of the responsibility of the enforcement of acceptable classroom behavior falls on the shoulder of the teacher but for individuals who want to have a tighter control over how things operate, this may be favorable. In classrooms with younger students, this may also be something that is desired as students, particularly in grades K-3, have not yet had enough classroom exposure to really understand how to implement self-discipline models.

In most cases, teachers will subscribe to more than one type of classroom management when it comes to discipline and order. If you are a teacher with different students depending on the period of the day, you may find that one style is preferable over another based on the personalities in your specific class. Conversely, you may go into the process with one style in mind and then find that in practice, something else works better. The main thing is that you at least consider how you want your classroom to operate before going into the process blindly, hoping for the best.

It may be hard to believe, but at some point you won’t need to put so much upfront effort into determining the kind of teacher you want to be — it will just come naturally. In the mean time, consider the best ways to function in your classroom to benefit your students and make your early teaching years more manageable for you.

Check out all our posts for First Year Teachers here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers

3 Keys to Inspiring True Dialogue in Your Classroom

A longtime educator and nonprofit leader shares his blueprint for turning contentious topics into teachable moments that help turn students into global citizens.

By Dr. Ian Jamison

More than any other generation in human history, the students who are in school today will live alongside, work with, and relate to peers with the widest possible range of cultural backgrounds, beliefs, values, and perspectives. To help them thrive in this complex world, it is imperative that we give them the tools they need to build societies that welcome diversity rather than fearing it, that encourage open-mindedness rather cultivating prejudice, and that include rather than exclude.

The alternatives are too terrible to contemplate. Every day we see news reports that indicate what happens as a direct result of people rejecting diversity, celebrating intolerance, and wishing to impose their monolithic vision of reality upon others. With the rapid growth of social media and other forms of online communication, our students are almost certainly already participating in global discussions. At best, young people are being subjected to poor examples of how to interact online, and at worst, we know that a great deal of radicalization into violent extremism takes place online.

Read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers

6 Best Practices for Internal Communication in Public Schools

Written by Eric Walters and Karen Gerberry

Internal communication may be more important than many think. 42% of communication is  delivered   through   other   people.  Whether  it  is  information   needing  to  be communicated  to  teachers,  students  or  administration  a  student  success  is highly dependent on the frequency and quality of communication. Successful communication between teachers and parents is most common in schools with well-informed, effective educators.

Schools, realizing this, have implemented practices to communicate valuable information within their school systems. What are some of these strategies and what benefits do they provide to these school districts?

  1. Developing New Policies

School systems can often be dispersed, making meetings and collaboration difficult. With advancements in technology, however, sharing thoughts and ideas is becoming increasingly easier. In the past, in order to make policy changes, the school board would have to coordinate meetings between all interested parties to develop new policies. Now, with the use of wikis, administrators can access information regarding changes in the school district and make adjustments accordingly.

Not only has technology made it possible for people to access this information from anywhere at any time, but it has also expanded the reach of this data. Before the use of wikis, many parents and faculty were left out of the policy­making process altogether. Whether the problem was logistical or time related, some would argue that there was not an accurate representation of all interested parties.

By using technology to streamline an antiquated process, school districts have afforded many people the opportunity to provide insights and opinions on some of their most important educational concerns.

  1. Schools Employing Internal Communications Managers

With all of the responsibilities involved with being an educator, it is easy to get caught up in day today activities and lose sight of larger issues within the school district. Schools are realizing that a disconnect exists in the communication process and are becoming more active in increasing engagement with employees.

To assist teachers in becoming more involved with internal communication, some districts are employing Internal Communications Managers. These managers act as facilitators of information throughout the school district. Their primary responsibilities are to keep employees informed on major initiatives, events, and news affecting the school district.

Although this method is slightly different than wikis, the idea is essentially the same. The Internal Communications Managers help teachers stay involved by gathering the information and releasing it to interested parties, thus reducing teachers’ time devoted to the discovery of this information.

  1. Developing Employee Portals

There are many facets and resources on school districts’ websites that provide valuable information to visitors.  But, often, what lies within these sites are valuable portals tailored for specific audiences.

At this point, it is commonplace for both students and teachers to have portals in the school district website. Portals are valuable resources for educators to find information that pertains strictly to the data that is important to them. With the obvious value that these portals provide, think of the value that may be added if every school made these resources available to their employees.

  1. Being Recognized by Leadership

Few things at the workplace are more satisfactory than hearing how much your boss appreciates you.  So,  when  we  talk  about  internal  communication  in  schools,  it is important that we address the interaction between the school board and the educators. It is vital that the school board keeps acknowledge educators that are making an extraordinary effort to enhance students’ education. When board members recognize these educators, they need to implement positive reinforcement practices to encourage future innovation.

On the other hand, if the school board notices teaching practices that are less than expected, they can communicate this to educators and push for corrective action.

  1. Using Digital Signage

The challenges of communicating with staff in a public school system are apparent. Whether checking and responding to emails or logging into portals, communication can require a great deal of effort.

Because of this challenge, we are now seeing schools take the “billboard” approach throughout their buildings. These digital signs are easily recognizable and don’t require additional effort to absorb the information. Schools are using these billboards to display both general and emergency information.

If these signs are placed throughout the school, educators will also see them as they pass by. This eliminates the need to have a phone conversation or to send out a memo

to all interested parties. The digital signage creates a platform to simultaneously provide all of the necessary information to the entire staff.

  1. Remembering that Communication is Key

If we want educators to be as effective as possible, we need to keep them informed. Parent­teacher communication is crucial to student success, and in order to maximize the effectiveness of teachers we need to master the internal communication process.

With these 6 best practices for better internal communication in public schools you are sure to see an improvement in overall employee communication. A school that is engaged together will have students that succeed together. To kick off your communication this school year sign up for your FREE trial of Ving here. It is time to start using a tool that allows you to be in control of your communication and start knowing what is and isn’t working at your school.

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, First Year Teachers, Teachers

Hearing is Believing

By Dale Mann, Ph.D.

It’s no secret that teachers do a lot of talking in class. Since Ned Flanders’ documentation of classroom talk beginning in the 1960s, it has been widely understood that teachers talk about 80% of the time in a classroom for lower-achieving students and 55% of the time during classes for higher-achieving students. Flanders’ work can be summarized in the “rule of two-thirds”: during about two-thirds of the time in a classroom, someone is talking. Next, the chances are two out of three that the person talking is the teacher. Finally, when the teacher is talking, two-thirds of the time she will be lecturing, giving directions, and controlling students.

But there is a big gap between teachers talking and students hearing. Between the air conditioner, the bare floors, the traffic outside, the classes passing in the hallway, the whirring of laptops, and kids murmuring, the average classroom can reach 55 to 75 decibels of ambient sound, depending on grade level. Most of the time, teachers strain to close that gap by talking more loudly, but consider that a jet engine from 75 feet away is 140 decibels. To be heard by all children in an ordinary early-grades classroom, a teacher would have to project at half the volume of a jet engine, all day long, every day.

Also, the farther sound travels, the less intelligible it is. That means that the farther students are from the teacher, the more of the message that is lost. The research department of the Dade Public Schools in Florida puts the price paid by students in the back of the class as follows: “…(S)tudents sitting in the back of the class…may miss up to 30% of what their teacher says…” That’s like being absent from an hour and half of instruction during each five-hour instructional day.

To see how Lightspeed Technologies’ Flexcat classroom audio system could help address these issues, Interactive Inc. undertook a yearlong quantitative-qualitative analysis of nationally distributed groups of Flexcat users at all levels of K-12 schooling. The quantitative data came from self-reports and from extensive on-site observations and interviews with K-12 teachers in urban, suburban, and rural districts around the country.

A classroom installation of Flexcat looks something like the following: There is a speaker seven feet up on a bookcase and it projects “all-call” volume. Each small-group table for students has a pod that serves as both a speaker and a microphone. The pods are battery operated and last all day on a single charge. The sound from the pod in the middle of a small group is remarkably localized with unambiguous, unavoidable clarity. The teacher’s messages to one pod are not audible to students in other groups.

How Flexcat Helped Teachers

The average teacher we spoke with used Flexcat to monitor students five times a day. A majority of the responding teachers concluded that using the tool had made some positive difference with their “hard-to-reach, hard-to-teach students,” while two-thirds of the teachers said they used Flexcat both to check on-task behavior and to confirm the quality of student work.

Two-thirds of the teacher respondents thought that, “The on-task behavior of my students has increased since I started using Flexcat.” And, as one teacher said, “When I see a group that’s off-task, that’s where I put the pod.” Two-thirds of the teachers we interviewed agreed that “management of multiple small groups is more efficient with Flexcat” and that Flexcat made project-based learning more feasible.

Nine out of 10 teachers concluded that students were more likely to stay on task if they knew their teacher was watching and listening. Perhaps most powerfully, 100% of the teachers agreed that they were “better able to catch students doing good” by using the pods to listen in to small group activities.

The fact that the pods allow teachers to listen in to student conversations makes Flexcat, as one teacher put it, “A window into their brain that you don’t get from paper and pencil. Or from a standardized test. What, really, does a ‘B’ tell me? If I can listen to their logic and their train of thought, then I know where they went wrong and right.”

Dale Mann, Ph.D., is professor emeritus at Columbia University (Teachers College and the School for International & Public Affairs) and managing director of Interactive, Inc. Since 1985, he has concentrated in developing and evaluating the gains from e-learning, a field in which Dr. Mann has been identified as one of America’s ten most influential leaders. Want to follow Lightspeed or Interactive Inc. on Twitter? Follow them @lightspeedtek and @interactiveinc.

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, First Year Teachers, Teachers

Supporting the Struggling Writer

Caption: A Turnitin study reports that technology tools can overcome psychological barriers struggling students encounter in writing. Pre-writing and frequent, informal writing exercises often guided by technology tools, can help.

In a recent survey of students from middle school to graduate school by Turnitin, half of the 1,400 students who responded said they find it challenging just getting started with a writing project.

For teachers, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There are always students in every class who, for one reason or another, find it daunting to begin filling a blank page or screen with words. And they aren’t necessarily the worst students in the class: They could be anyone, including the highest achievers.

In talking with several teachers, U.K. researcher Paul Gardner identified a number of possible reasons for this problem. For instance, students might be perfectionists, and their fear of “getting it wrong” prevents them from starting to write. They might lack confidence in their ability, or they could be having trouble coming up with ideas—or maybe they’re just reluctant to take risks.

Often, the barriers to writing are deeply psychological in nature. In his paper, Gardner describes how one professional writer can only write on lined A4 paper with four holes punched in the margin. “On an occasion when he mistakenly bought paper with only two holes, he found he was unable to write until he had the correct paper,” Gardner noted.

Students who struggle with their writing need help overcoming these barriers, so they no longer think of writing as a difficult process. This is critical for so many reasons. The ability to write well is essential for academic success—and in today’s Information Age economy, it has become increasingly important for professional success as well.

New state standards place more emphasis on writing skills, and though the SAT has made its essay portion optional as of spring 2016, many colleges prefer or even require applicants to take it. What’s more, writing is the third most highly coveted skill among today’s employers, an analysis by Burning Glass Technologies found.

Fortunately, there are a number of strategies and technology tools that can support struggling writers. Here are four key ideas to start with.

  1. Pay attention to the prewriting process.

Prewriting can help students ease into their writing with a clear plan, which makes the actual writing process simpler. During prewriting, students focus on choosing a topic, developing a purpose, identifying an audience, and collecting and organizing ideas. If students spend quality time prewriting, they won’t be as overwhelmed when it’s time to begin writing, making the process less stressful.

Use mind mapping software and brainstorming strategies to help students generate ideas. Encourage outlining and storyboarding to help them visualize and organize their project. Provide prompts and templates to help them get started.

  1. Provide a safe, supportive environment that removes the sense of risk.

Writing is a more intensely personal activity than, say, solving an algebra problem or balancing a chemistry equation—and so students are likely to be more sensitive to critiques of their work. Therefore, it’s critical to put students at ease by establishing a safe, supportive environment where they feel comfortable sharing their ideas and getting feedback.

Establish a classroom culture in which everyone feels supported and valued. Help students understand that all feedback is designed to make them better writers, and provide plenty of encouragement and support.

Also, consider using a software-based formative writing tool, such as Turnitin’s Revision Assistant, to help students receive timely and actionable feedback on their writing. Technology can provide a safe, non-threatening environment for students, because they might be less inclined to feel as if their work is being judged by someone whose approval they desire, such as a teacher or fellow student.

  1. Mix in opportunities for frequent, informal writing.

Not every writing assignment has to be a formal paper with a prewriting process, multiple drafts and revisions, and a final product. Giving students frequent, low-stakes opportunities to write helps them grow as writers, just like exercising every day helps develop one’s muscles.

If you get students writing more frequently—even with short, informal assignments, such as daily journal entries—then writing will become more natural to students, and they won’t be as intimidated when they have to write a formal paper.

  1. Inspire students’ creativity.

There is plenty of research suggesting how the design of a learning space affects student creativity and achievement. You can inspire students’ creativity by making learning spaces more inviting and giving students multiple seating options, such as comfy chairs with various textures and colors rather than traditional desks arranged in formal rows.

By giving students a choice in where to sit and work comfortably, you are giving them a sense of ownership over their learning space—which can help them to relax and do their best work.

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, First Year Teachers, Teachers

The First Year Teaching: How do I handle misbehavior?

By Matthew Lynch

New teachers will find that one of the most frustrating parts of teaching is classroom misbehavior. This misbehavior is easy to identify, but finding the solution to effectively deal with it by finding the causes may be more difficult. As misbehavior will continue if not successfully dealt with the first few times, teachers need to get to the root of the problems that are the causes of students’ misbehavior as soon as possible (Moore, 2008). Teachers should take close looks into students’ behaviors to find the influential factors that are shaping students’ behavioral patterns.

Consider Background Factors

One notable place to start is by examining students’ home environments. Children model their behavior on that of their parents, and their parents are also likely to have a high degree of influence over their point of view.  Students with well-educated parents are more likely to have been instilled with respect for education and the institutions and authorities that accompany it. It follows that these children will be more likely to maintain a high level of personal discipline because they see the purpose of their presence at school and understand what they will achieve from adhering to prescribed behavior. On the other hand, it helps to be aware that there are also students whose parents expect perfect scores, forcing their children to take the most advanced courses offered, against the wishes of the child.

Rules and customs that are set by parents for children directly influence students’ behaviors. Students with extremely tolerant parents who let their children have things their way all the time will talk back to teachers and get into trouble with other students who disagree with them.   The student may struggle to understand why such behavior is not allowed at school but is allowed at home. Students who grow up under authoritarian-style also exhibit classroom misbehavior, although this may be manifested in a different way. These students may show overt fear and anxiety in response to authority figures, including teachers.  This may result in under-performance, lack of engagement in activities or an inability to focus appropriately. On the other hand, these students may feel that they are able to release their frustrations on other students, whom they see as their equals.

Poverty, among other socioeconomic factors, is cited as being a particularly important factor in understanding why students misbehave. This is not necessarily because there is a direct lack of discipline in homes affected by poverty. It is a reflection of the different values that are present at different socioeconomic levels of society. If children grow up in a home where they are unsure of where their next meal is coming from, or are unable to rely on parental support (parents who work multiple jobs, for example), their values will be fundamentally different than children who grow up in homes where they have the privilege of being able to take these things for granted. People living in poverty, particularly in extreme poverty, will value survival more highly than academic achievement. Other values will include interpersonal relationships and entertainment, the former likely to assist with survival and the latter because this will allow them to temporarily mentally escapes the confines of their situation.

Conversely, high-income families may come about as the result of parents allowing inadequate time for effective parenting. Parents may have demanding jobs, leaving their children unsupervised during this time, particularly once they are old enough to look after themselves. Parents who show over-involvement in their work for any reason may also play a less active role in their children’s lives. Increasingly, parents of high-income families are also providing their children with access to their credit cards. These children now have the ability to live and function as adults in every other aspect of their lives, other than at school. This may have an influence on their behavior at school.

Consider Classroom Factors

Various factors within the classroom may also affect whether or not students behave appropriately. Good air circulation in the classroom is essential and should never be compromised. Students should be made as comfortable as possible in their environment, as discomfort may prompt them to engage in undesirable behavior. Observe whether or not students are seated at desks and chairs that are suited to the size of their bodies. It will be impossible to accommodate every child, but various efforts can be made.

Mismatches between the abilities of the students and the learning material being presented will also tend to encourage misbehavior. Students who are being insufficiently challenged will display a lack of interest in various ways. This may take the form of abject disinterest in the teaching, or may result in them being disruptive to other students. It is important to adjust your teaching to make the lesson interesting to even the most gifted students in the class, while also taking into account the interests of all your students. Conversely, students who are unable to grasp the material being taught, or who are being presented with material that they are completely unfamiliar with, will also be more likely to misbehave. Bear existing levels of knowledge in mind when you plan lesson content,and conduct frequent informal assessments, to ensure that you understand what is appropriate for your students to be learning.

In some cases, misbehavior may be due to factors arising from the teachers themselves. In some cases, teachers are not aware that they are indirectly a cause of the poor classroom behavior, making it clear why you should conduct regular self-evaluations and self-reflective exercises. Continuing your professional development is important to enable you to remain in touch with effective teaching practices. There is always room for improvement to your personal teaching methods and your approach to teaching. In particular, ensure that you identify situations which you are unable to cope with early and seek assistance from other teachers, principals or school counselors — all of whom may offer creative and innovate ways of addressing classroom behavior problems.

Ensure that you strive to treat all your students with respect as individuals as well as in terms of their cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. If you set a good example of behavior for your students, they are likely to pick up on this and treat you with respect. Avoid raising your voice or using a disparaging tone, and always ensure that you respond to students with appropriate validation where necessary.

Never humiliate or embarrass your students, as this is highly counterproductive, and is never in the best interest of your students. Students may try to provoke you during classroom time, which requires you to be able to identify these attempts without reacting to them and without losing self-control. You need to demonstrate adult methods of conflict management when dealing with your students at all times. This may be difficult when you are dealing with personal difficulties or frustrations, which is why it is important for you to remain aware of the boundary between your duties as an educator and your personal duties towards yourself. Leave your own personal frustrations outside the classroom as much as possible.

It is important to be clear with your students about what behavior will be tolerated and what will not, as consistency in your approach to them as students will encourage them to adhere to your requirements of them. Always aim to plan effectively and avoid frequent and unnecessary disruptions to your teaching plan, as this may contribute to misbehavior by allowing students idle time. Prepare class materials and be ready to deal with any unexpected disturbances, giving students minimal idle time and ensuring that there is something to keep them adequately occupied should anything unplanned arise.

Consider Physical and Psychological Factors

Although there are differences in behavior of students according to their age, many physical and psychological factors can have an influence at different stages of their school career. Children are unable to make adult-like choices in how they behave, but are often trying to communicate a need or desire. It is important to be able to determine whether or not this behavior is under their control to determine whether or not there is a need or desire that you can assist in addressing.

It would likely be unwise to determine that misbehavior is the result of a physical or psychological problem in a child who commits a single act of undesirable behavior, but it would be as unwise not to consider these factors in a repeat offender. Sometimes students will simply be acting on the desire to break any rules that have been imposed on them. Some students, however, are subject to various medical conditions or are exposed to environments that have severe effects on their ability to function normally. Enlisting the assistance of a school nurse or school counselor is crucial in ensuring that these students also receive the same standards of education as their peers.

A commonly encountered disorder is Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly known as ADHD. Children who suffer ADHD will commonly have a reduced ability to control their impulses and have bouts of hyperactivity, which are disruptive to both themselves and their peers. On the opposite end of the spectrum are Autistic Spectrum Disorders, in which children have difficulty with social interaction and perform compulsive, repetitive behaviors which may equally be perceived as disruptive to themselves and their peers.

There are also mental health problems that are more commonly encountered in adults which may present during later childhood years, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder, in which sufferers cause severe difficulties in interacting with them due to their excessive and sometimes unprovoked aggression. These students will often be a source of extreme frustration to teachers, but may also be so aggressive that they cause physical harm to teachers, and therefore there may be teachers who are simply afraid of them. Other mental health conditions include Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Major Depressive Disorders, all of which are much more difficult to diagnose in children than in adults. It is imperative that you consult with your school counselor or similar mental health professional in order to determine if your students is suffering from any of these disorders.

Behavior changes may also result from the intake of substances, whether narcotic or simply unfamiliar to the body. Students who are taking medication for any condition, including antibiotics or anti-epileptic medication, may show changes in their behavior. These will be more easily disclosed to a teacher than the taking of narcotic or illegal substances, and you will be required to maintain a certain degree of suspicion with regard to children whose behavior changes drastically during the course of a school day.

Medical conditions such as viral infections and meningitis may also cause changes in a student’s behavior. Some medical conditions are so subtle that children may not even realize that they are sick because they are not feeling any obvious symptoms. In many cases, however, they may be feeling quite marked symptoms, which have either not been addressed by their parents or caretakers or are ignoring these symptoms out of fear. Changes resulting from medical conditions have the advantage of being easier to detect as they are more likely to occur suddenly, giving a clue as to their cause. With experience, you will learn to identify different behavioral problems more effectively.

If you are a veteran teacher, how did you get a grip on behavioral issues in your classroom when you were first starting out?

photo credit: Lotus Carroll via photopin cc

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, First Year Teachers, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

New Teacher Tip: Time Management – Organizing your Cabinet

There is so much paperwork that a teacher needs to do within a few weeks of starting a new school year. In fact, your cabinets may look as if though they have been hit by a tornado. Your cabinets are most likely overflowing with folders, teaching materials, handmade cards from students, wads of paper, pencils and other stationery, all of which seem to be appearing on their own. Remember that the bigger the mess, the more time it will take you to rummage through and find what you are looking for, which may cause you to lose precious minutes. Use these tips to keep your cabinet organized and in order:

  • Create a designated place for your material. All folders should be marked and kept in one place. There should also be a separate place for personal belongings.
  • Highlight all original copies of master sheets with a yellow colored highlighter, to tell you that this is the master, preventing you from giving it away or losing it.
    Label all your files and folders, and mark the worksheets based on the folder that they need to go into. Once you have identified the specific folders that each worksheet goes into, you can ask a student or volunteer to help you with the filing.
  • Many times there are some sessions in a year that require more material than others. If you feel that material from one session is crowding your cabinet, try putting all the relevant teaching material into one box. Remember to label it and store it in a cabinet in the classroom. You can then find all the required material ready for use when the time comes.

Every three months go through everything in your cabinet and ask these questions

Do I really need this?

  • What specific purpose will I use it for?
  • Should I keep it in my cabinet?
  • Is this a duplicate of something that I already have?
  • Is it outdated or can it come in handy even now?
  • Is it relevant to my current assignment or will I only need it later?

Don’t clutter your cabinet just because you do not have the heart to throw some things away. When you discard items, put them in a carton labeled as ‘free’ and let everyone know that they can dig around to see if they can use anything. Something that you discard may be useful to someone else.

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