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Weekly Newsletter Post 3

This week’s notes are from Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed.  Paul Tough will be coming to Tampa in April to speak.  If you are interested in more information about seeing him, I will pass it on.  I will be going. 

Paul Tough says what we all believe … “We need to teach kids to work harder, be perseverant, put forth effort, have grit, be conscientious, resilient and have character.”  There is research to support that this is what makes students successful, the problem is that we don’t know exactly how to do this and the degree to which one is successful is not measurable. The problem lies in the fact that there is no set curriculum.  This is not something that can be packaged in a “character ed” program.  So, where do we go from here? 

Ann first introduced me to the concept of KIPP schools. The focus of KIPP is to prepare students for life. The fundamental value is that academics and character are equally important to success in school, college and life.  As I was reading Tough’s book, the concept of KIPP schools came up. My schema provided me a platform and my curiosity on the topic was peaked.

At these KIPP schools, the behavioral expectations are thoroughly taught and practiced and inspected.  They start the school year by implementing a SLANT protocol for all learning (Sit Up and Listen, Ask questions, Nod and Track the speaker with your eyes.)  They teach students specifically about Code Switching (this is the ability to recognize and accurately perform behaviors appropriate to each different cultural setting.) Their understanding is vital to success. It’s okay to be “street” on the “street,” but if they are in a museum or college interview, they are going to miss out on important opportunities if they don’t code switch. We understand this, of course, but it becomes vital that the students also understand this. At KIPP schools, they teach the Professional Code of Behavior and they do this every minute. Now … Ann also explained to me that the teachers and leaders in these KIPP schools are provided with a ton of Professional Development before ever entering a KIPP school, but we can adopt and have already adopted many things that ensure the success of our students.

One thing we can do to drive this culture:

Give kids a voice when they are having struggles or difficulties or become frustrated. A good thing to keep in mind is that when students are angry or anxious and they begin to yell at you as a result of such frustrations. Stop them and say … “I will let you talk. You WILL BE heard, but NOT UNTIL you calm down and find a way to communicate with me in an appropriate manner.”  Then once the conversation has occurred, you can thank them for speaking to you properly. Try to get to the bottom of their incident. Then have a conversation about how you solved the problem. It might look like this “… In the world, when you are angry, overreacting and yelling is not going to solve your problems and it will not make people listen to you.  If you want people to listen to you, you have to be reasonable.”   (This is not because they deserve a voice necessarily and it’s not even about solving the problem at hand.  It is about showing them appropriate ways to communicate to get what they need.)  Let’s face it, many children experience first-hand this method of yelling to solve their problems.  This could be a first step in code switching. Remember, the value is not in solving the problem but their understanding that it takes reasonable and appropriate conversation if you want to be “heard.”

       I would love to encourage you to have discussions amongst each other and as always I love this stuff, so you can talk to me any time. No individual has all the answers, but we can leverage our experiences and talents to conquer the challenges we are faced with every day and begin to look at where we are through the lens of opportunity!! 

Feedback from a Teacher

This was a post from one of my veteran teacher.  Made me smile. This is the second comment from a staff member this week about the weekly posts!!

Hi Brandy,

I love the tips at the end of the weekly message, esp. the ones about stress and learning.  I feel I learn a bunch (or re-learn, I am a social worker first in my heart) of information just from reading that information and that can help ALL the students here at the school, not only my own class.  I believe the little relationships I have with some students (students name's were here) can help them in the long run even if we don't see it today.  Thank you for sharing your knowledge :)  Everyone needs a refresher from time to time...

Weekly Newsletter Post 2

Info From the book: Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert Marzano

***Review from last week:

Remember that Dopamine is needed to move information from our students “working memory” to their long-term memory.  Dopamine is a chemical transmitted in the brain when we are happy and experience joy and success.  Remember, as children, when we live in high stress situations, our brains do not produce the high quantities of dopamine to help our brains function to capacity.  Some of the challenges with limited Dopamine production can be depression, impulse control problems, and attention problems including ADD and ADHD, .

To apply the information from last week, it is imperative that we provide students a framework for moving the information from their “working memory” to their long-term memory.  Robert Marzano (yes, many of us both love and loathe him at the same time) gives us the high yield strategies that can be used in the classroom. Some of his research is scientifically based, some evidence based and some is pulling together other research.  (HOLD That thought …)

Our district is starting to talk a lot about about John Hattie’s work.  John Hattie has done s synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to student achievement.  In his book Visible Learning, (which you will likely see adorning every administrators desk in Manatee County) he looks at the “effect size” of each of the strategies used in the classroom.  We are starting to talk statistics (um …yuck) but an effect size of .5 has the ability to move the children a year with regard to academic growth.  So, what that means is this … any instructional practice or strategy that has an effect size of .5 has been correlated with adequate student growth.  This is amazing research because we, lovers of Title I schools, recognize that growing our students a year is not adequate for their success.  Through this meta-analysis, we can single out the most highly effective instructional strategies that have been proven to grow students more than year.  As a Title I staff member, you have the power and ability to move mountains. 

We started with relationships because we know the effect size of authentic relationships where students live in a “fail safe” and nurturing and most importantly “forgiving” environment makes all the difference in the world. 

I digress … back to Marzano.  I gave you the information about the “effect” size because I wanted you to know how the highest yield instructional practices were selected.  Now that you do, I can move on to explain that EFFECTIVE note taking (yes, note-taking) is pivotal.  Please focus on the word EFFECTIVE.  Effective note-taking is not copying information down verbatim or from the board.  Effective note-taking follows these concepts:

• Deleting Trivial Information that does not help comprehension
• Deleting redundant information
• Substituting superordinate words for lists (ex: flowers for daisies, pansies, roses, etc.)
• Selecting or inventing topic sentences or summary sentences if they do not exist.

Happy Teaching and “just keep swimming.”  You make a difference every day!

Weekly Newsletter Post 1

Info From the book: How Children Succeed by Paul Tough

Working Memory=The ability to keep a bunch of facts in your head at the same time.

Dopamine deficiencies occur when students grow up in stress.  Dopamine is produced by our brains when we are happy and well-adjusted. There is a high correlation between students of poverty and high stress situations and low dopamine levels. Dopamine deficiencies result in many struggles including lack of attention and focus and poor working memory.  Students have to move new information from the “working memory” to their long-term memory to really remember, understand, and synthesize new information.  Many of our students struggle with this.  

            The reason scientists are so excited about these findings is because they know that the Pre-Frontal Cortex is malleable.  Just because students have been affected by the stress in their lives and it manifests academically, doesn’t mean that these adverse responses can’t be reversed.  If students are given positive experiences in school and we have culturally responsive classrooms, we can effect change and have an overall lasting impact.  Think about this when you think about what you can do as a teacher.  You can’t change a student’s previous experiences and you can’t change their experiences at home, but you can change their experiences in school.  Scientists are launching the counter-attack on the effects of poverty through teachers.  You can increase the prospect for success just by improving a child’s environment at school, which you do every day!!

I have a plan (insert evil laugh ...)

So ... I have some teachers that are hard pressed for time for reading and some that are reading simply to get through the information, some that aren't reading at all and others who are so entrenched in the reading that they are applying it to their deliberate practice daily.  So ... for those willing participants, providing the book has been an easy solution ...But what about those who are either unwilling to or don't have the time to fully ingest the information about teaching students who come from poverty.  We know that students of poverty come with both unique and exceptional gifts as well as uniques challenges.  I write the weekly each week and there is a section of the weekly called "Intern Notes."  I have decided to use this to spoon feed relevant information about the unique needs that come with our population of low socio-economic students and imbed some instructional strategies in there.  This way they are actually doing the reading in incremental doses and they will have a week between each post to reflect on the information being provided.  This is the second week.  I already had one teacher come to me and say that the reading was interesting.  I am pulling in all sorts of reading.

I am pulling from the following authors:
Why Culture Counts: Teaching Children of Poverty by Donna Tileston & Sandra Darling
Visible Learning by John Hattie
How Children Succees by Paul Tough
Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert Marzano

First Roll out of PLC to select SBLT

This is a link to our first BLOG.  This is our roll out to the school-based leadership team. My mentor advised me to pilot this with a group of individuals that could provide insight into what the school-wide roll out would look like.

Follow Link to view conversation:   http://culturecountsrge.blogspot.com