Beginning Middle End

Last week, those of you who were able to attend the DWT at the Museum of Fine Arts or the James Museum got to dig into some wonderful, diverse works of art. In doing so, we got to try out some cool pedagogy called “Artful Thinking”Strategies. These come from Harvard’s Project Zero, which is a cool study on making thinking visible.

Anyhoo, ... I thought it might be nice to a) revisit some of those for those of you who got back in the teaching groove and forgot them and b) introduce them to those of you who were out that day or were at different DWT sites.

So, many of us like a good story, right? For many of us that’s how we were introduced to History -- as a story to be told.

So ...  check out this strategy to use a work of art.

First, picture one artwork you use (or plan to use) in your classroom. It actually works better as NOT a photo.

Got it in your mind? Is it THIS? Or THIS? Or THIS?  Or THIS? Or THIS?

This strategy is called “Beginning -- Middle -- End”

Ok, now, have your kids imagine what the context would be if that artwork were the BEGINNING of a “story”?

Now, how would the context be different if that artwork were the MIDDLE of of a “story” ?

Now, how would that context be different if that artwork were the END of a “story”?

I initially was curious how middle and high school teachers would respond to this. And then I had a high school teacher of AP classes tell me how great it was going to be in those AP classes and I realized that I had been thinking too narrowly...

This is a great strategy to help kids think more richly, more wholey, more broadly about how an artwork intersects with the world... and what the context might look like.  

I love seeing how students can wonder about context around a work of art. And see what they can learn about the actual context.

This strategy helps kids use the idea of a narrative to dig deeper into a work of art. It teaches them to elaborate or extend an idea. It helps kids look for connections, patterns, and meanings.

This strategy is quick and easy. You can use it with any artwork that stands still in time (not a video or something that shows something over time or something. You can have something prepared on the screen/board/handout or you can just wing it and ask the questions as a Turn and Talk, journal moment, bellwork, or discussion.

Try it with whatever artwork moves you. Try it out loud or on paper.

Just try it.

And let me know how it goes!

As always, I love to hear from you! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

And Make A Change

I have recently noticed that my kitchen counters have become overloaded. I remember moving into my house five years ago and thinking “I’ll never fill up all these cabinets!”.

Guess what? They’re full.

AND it seems to be spilling over to my counter tops. The Instapot never gets put away. I have a pile of tupperware that keeps falling out of the counter, so it just sits on the counter.  The charging area is spilling over with ear buds and cords and electronics. There is Valentine’s candy sitting on the counter because it won’t fit in the box of candy in the cabinet.

I think it’s time for me to make some changes in my kitchen.

Like Michael Jackson sang about, sometimes you have to “take a look at yourself and make a change”

How did I decide this? How does anyone decide when it’s time for a change? Something triggered me.

I learned recently in a training about what are triggers for change. Check out the main three triggers for change:

1. A Big Event: Even if it only happens once, a big event can change your outlook, becoming a trigger for change. An enraged parent. A test failed by every single student.. A fight in your classroom. These things are “Big Events” and can trigger change.

2. A Breaking Point: Maybe it isn't’ the first time everyone failed a test -- but the 6th time that MOST kids failed a test. Maybe it isn’t a giant horrible, angry, world-ending parent email but the 10th email from a parent who is annoyed. Maybe it isn’t an actual fist fight in your classroom but the latest in a long string of behavior problems.

3. A Better Way: Sometimes change is triggered by seeing a better way. I used to take home papers to grade all the time (cursing the whole time) until I had a colleague who showed me some shortcuts to minimize my grading time. I used to battle kids not coming in appropriately until I observed a colleague who used bellwork beautifully to start class smoothly.

Now, having said that, there are things we can control and things we cannot. You cannot control the background knowledge that kids come into your class with. You cannot control their parents. You cannot control which kids you teach. You cannot change your state standards (yet?).  You can’t control that public school has some kids tough to teach.

Before looking at change, you need to make peace with the idea that there are things you can control and things you cannot.

Maybe just making peace with something you can’t control IS the change you need!

But once you have identified something you can control AND you are inspired by a) that big event, b) that breaking point or c) that  better way -- now it’s time.

Albert Einstein maybe (but probably didn’t) say “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result”.

So, just a couple of questions to help you think about change this week:

• Where is your tipping point in your classroom?
• What issue is most concerning?
• What area do you have control over? (you might not think you do ... but often you have more choice than you think)
• And how can you make a change? Where can you start?

Need help or just an ear? Want to talk it through? Email me and I’m glad to talk through change with you. Honestly, that’s half of my job. Literally.

Email me your thoughts! No judgement  -- you make changes where YOU feel inspired, not be cause I (or someone else) tells you to make a change

Problem Questions

Ask a better question...

Life is full of questions.

So is teaching!

Tell me if this looks familiar:

• You are teaching something.
• You are not sure if the kids are getting it.
• You ask a question about what the class just heard/read/saw/did.
• A couple of hands raise in the air.
• You call on one
• That kids attempts an answer (that isn’t quite what you’re looking for)
• You call on another kid
• That kid answers well.
• You move on.

This is how we were taught. But what problems might be a part of that?

Problem #1: We only hear back from one or two kids.

1. Really, in many classes the rest of the class has learned to let “Lisa Simpson” or “Hermione Granger” answer the question all the time so everyone else can sit back and not have to think.
2. 
   Possible Solution A -- Try a turn and talk BEFORE you ask for raised hands. That gives kids a chance to TRY OUT a thought or idea. It raises the number of kids THINKING and  TALKING about the question. It increases the number of kids who feel confident about raising their hands and trying to answer.
3. Possible Solution B -- Hold EVERY kid accountable by using a randomized “call on” system. Sometimes these are digital systems (like Class Dojo) but more often, I see teachers with numbered seats and a can of popsicle sticks where every popsicle has a number that corresponds to a seat number. The teacher pulls the popsicle stick out of the can and if they call #17, then the kid in seat #17 has to try to answer. This helps everyone be “on the hook” for participating and trying to answer, not just the hand-raisers.

Problem #2: We ask low level questions

1. Really, kids often trick us into THINKING they can’t do higher level thinking. And because we are honest people ourselves, we BELIEVE them! Sometimes they aren’t ready to answer the question, but they make us think they might NEVER be ready!
2. Possible Solution C -- Try asking “spiraling questions”. Start with a low level (or two) to build confidence and work your way up. One of the things I learned from Core Connections is the idea that kids need to gain a little confidence by answering some “right there” questions -- and them move up from there. What did Hamilton say about a National Bank? WHY did he say that? Or, “what did China trade along the Silk Roads. WHY did they trade THOSE things and WHY is that important? How did that change their lives?
3. Possible Solution D -- open ended “what if” questions with no “wrong answer”. Why would people risk their lives to trade halfway across the known world? Why would the Chinese historians hate Empress Wu? What would you do if you were faced with this choice? If we struggle to ask higher order questions, start with just making open-ended questions.

Problem #3: We-the-teachers ask all the questions.

1. Why is it that the teachers always ask all the questions. Aren’t we (at least theoretically) supposed to know more “answers” than the kids? How can we get our kids to ask more (and better) questions?
2. Possible Solution E -- Start with “Why”.. Once upon a time, your adolescent students were curious toddlers who asked “why” until their parents wanted to go nuts. So, let’s bring that back. Teach them to ask “why” about everything -- and then try to make educated guesses as to the answers.
3. Possible Solution F --Teach higher order thinking explicitly. Give them the Costas Questioning House, the DOK Wheel or the Bloom’s Flipbook. Then, directly teach them how to to make good questions from the various levels -- and how to answer them!

Kids are kids and they struggle with questions. How can we keep them all accountable, using higher order questions AND creating their own questions?  Same way you get to Carnegie Hall -- practice, practice, practice!

How to you deal with problems that come up around questioning? As always, I love to hear from you!

-Tracy

What Are You Good At?

Everyone has strengths and gifts.

When I was in the classroom, I taught down the hall from Ms. C. Ms. C was somehow magic. Kids who were squirrely in most classes came into her class quietly, prepared, and behaving beautifully with “yes ma’am”s and “no, ma’am”s.  She was magic.

Before I knew that it was ok to learn from colleagues, I used to lurk outside her door during class change to see what it was she did that made these goofball kids and turn them into model students.

She thanked every kid personally, by name for coming into her room quietly and respectfully. She didn’t yell. She expected them to behave and they did. And she had some pretty powerful one-on-one conversations in the hall with kids when they didn’t behave. She didn’t try to be their best friend.

She was strong in an area where I needed to grow.

Outside of school, some of you are great cooks or restore old cars or teach Sunday School or foster homeless pets or make beautiful crafts or volunteer or grow kumquats or bartend or play tennis.

Everyone has their strengths outside of school. But I want to talk about those strengths you bring to the INSIDE of school.

What are you particularly good at, teaching-related?

Some teachers make wonderful lesson plans. Some teachers have incredible relationships with their students. Some use innovative technology effortlessly. Some of you get things graded thoughtfully and entered almost immediately.

I used to have great relationships with kids -- but I was never the teacher the kids confided sensitive problems to.

I love writing great lesson plans -- but I take two weeks to get everything graded and then I rush through it and give lousy feedback.  

I was strong at planning and doing one-time events -- running the awards ceremony or the Valentine’s Day dance. But I struggled with corralling and focusing the Student Government kids every single week.

I have had the wonderful fortune to observe in tons of classes over the years in this job. And this year, I have had the joy of taking teachers to go observe other teachers to see them teach.

It is one of my favorite things to do --- and it might be the most powerful PD I can offer! There is nothing more REAL than to see a REAL teacher teach a REAL lesson to a REAL class in REAL time.

And I love getting to see so many different teaching strengths!

Every teacher I see has strengths. Check the list below and identify a few of your OWN strengths.

• Tons of content knowledge  
• Strong processes and procedures
• Gives great feedback to students
• Manages classroom beautifully.
• Creates powerful relationships with students
• Teaches kids higher order thinking well and frequently
• Runs engaging classes regularly
• Uses tons of strategies that are “just right” for each lesson and class
• Really good with English Language Learners.
• Awesome at putting scaffolds into lessons to help struggling students
• Use turn and talks a couple times a period
• Great storyteller
• Makes solid assessments
• Uses new and effective technology -- and uses it well
• Inspires the best in kids to work and learn hard
• Organizes materials and kids for optimal learning
• Keeps a gorgeous classroom
• Makes learning relevant to the kids’ real worlds
• Teaches to different modalities, learning styles and multiple intelligences
• Keeps parents happy and informed
• Differentiates for different kids
• Gives clear, quick, specific directions and transitions
• Stays positive
• Collaborates well with colleagues
• Intentionally teaches study/thinking skills .
• Formative assessment ninja -- and uses that info
• Tries new things regularly -- and adapts them so they work
• __________________________________
• __________________________________

I’m sure there are more teaching skills that I missed. Feel free to add a few more on to the end.

Now, make SURE you have identified a few of YOUR STRENGTHS.

In a field like ours where you never get enough praise and props for what you do, please pat yourself on the back and give yourself a high-five.

Now, think of how you could help another teacher who needed to strengthen that particular skill. If you are a master at giving clear, quick, specific directions and transitions, think about how you could help a colleague who could use some improving in that area.  If you form great relationships with students, how could you help someone who needs to improve their relationships with kids? What would you say or do?

Now, go back through the list again. Identify 3 or 4 of the skills where you could use a little improving.

Nobody is perfect. No shame -- and you don’t have to share this with anyone. We all have strengths and areas to improve!  

As  you talk with your colleagues, have official PLCs, team meetings, informal hallway chats, lunch conversation, even just back-and-forth emails... Think about who has skills you could learn from.

Then, just ask them.

It requires us to admit to being imperfect. But other than that, it is POWERFUL for use to ask our colleagues -- “hey, how come you never have any behavior problems in your classes? What’s your secret?” or “What do you do that works so well with ELL students?” or “How do you keep your class so engaging? Kids are always talking about what they’re doing in your class!”

It’s a little humbling to ask for help. But it’s also the only way we grow.

Even a teacher you might not be BFFs with or who might be out of your grade level or content area or magnet program -- that teacher may have something to teach you.

Ask them how they manage to remember to use turn and talks daily or how they manage to make everything relevant or how they keep such a calm, well-run classroom or how they get everything graded so quickly!

There’s a ton of PD we can provide -- or teachers can be doin’ it for themselves. Think about your strengths and areas for growth. Then, take it in your own hands and figure out who to learn from and go learn it.

Any ideas? Or need help finding out WHO is awesome at a particular skill? As always, I love to hear and help! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org