Reflection and Response

Teaching Is a Process: Student/Teacher Relationships: A Process Requires ...: by Clint Heitz





I love this post from my colleague and good friend! As a relatively new teacher, who came to the career late, I can tell you how disheartening it can be to deal with curmudgeons. As an Academic Interventionist, I can tell thoroughly empathize with teachers whose students aren't working; I know how frustrating dealing with a lack of will can be. However, since I recognize this I do my utmost to use that frustration to fuel my drive and passion for my profession; to try and push myself to new heights with my students, and to work harder to create and maintain a good relationship with my students.



Everyone has days when they hit the door running, I feel like the difference between a curmudgeon and everyone else is that the curmudgeon has too long of a memory--they allow the negativity of yesterday to drag down the possibility of today. Even worse, they often drag down other teachers' possibilities as well.



In the heat of the moment, it can be very difficult for educators to pull away from the negative feelings we sometimes feel. That is why reflection is an absolute must for educators, if we are to maintain sanity and passion for the profession. Viewing the events of the day through the lens of reflection allows us to put into perspective these experiences, and refocus our energies and attention so we can (hopefully) prevent these negative interactions from recurring.



Collaboration with our colleagues is a great way to deal with these feelings. Instead of simply complaining for the sake of complaining, sharing our troubles and difficulties with our teammates with the goal of finding resolution is a great way to find support and hope, even if the answers continue to be elusive.



Thank you, Clint, for inspiring me.

Building "Rule-ationships?"

In teaching, there are many, many philosophies: about classroom management, discipline, rules vs. expectations, etc. "Don't smile until November" is one that comes to mind. In my current position as an Academic Interventionist I've got the privilege to be a part of several PLCs (Professional Learning Community) as well as the MTSS (Multi-Tiered Support System) group. This provides me with a wonderful chance to collaborate and discuss philosophies of teaching quite frequently.

One of the driving philosophies of successful PLC groups is the idea that all students should be learning, not all teachers should be teaching. On the surface, this is an obvious idea, and we teachers all say, "Duh, of course that's true!" But it is interesting to consider that this idea, when deeply considered, can bring into conflict one of the most integral parts of any classroom and school: rules (or expectations, if you prefer).

Specifically, this brings into conflict the essential need to build good, functional relationships with our students, and the idea that we must have a certain type of classroom for students to achieve successful learning. Now, most students will inherently function within the expectations for success in our classrooms; but some won't.

These few students are (usually) the students who most need good relationships with their teachers in order to find success. This creates a major issue for teachers, because many of these students have been singled out or even attacked (from their point of view) for their behavior. Their behavior is usually an impediment to their learning, as well as other students. So how do we create a better rapport with these students?

The easy answer for this issue is to selectively enforce the rules for these students in order to create a greater trust and better relationship. Unfortunately, this creates resentment among other students who are the rules followers, but who see these students getting away with it.

So I put the question to my colleagues in the Twitter- and Blogosphere: Do you feel it is possible to have a good relationship with At-Risk/Troubled students while still holding them accountable for classroom and school rules or expectations? How do you do it?

Please share with us your ideas, strategies and thoughts!

Random Acts

Yesterday, for no real reason at all, I decided to write notes of congratulations and encouragement for my students who struggled so mightily last year, but are managing to Take Care of Business (TCOB: my motto and favorite saying!) much more successfully.

I felt that their hard work and success needed to be recognized, and while I do so verbally fairly often; I know that the feeling I get when I get a hand-written card or note is much stronger than when someone verbalizes the same thing.

Giving my at-risk and potential dropout (PDO) students this kind of recognition had a much larger impact than I expected. A great many of them responded with a note or quick visit of their own expressing how wonderful it was to have their hard work recognized.

Reflecting on the success and impact of this simple gesture, I hope to continue this practice in the future. It felt good on my part to give positive feedback and recognition to students who are all too often on the receiving end of negative feedback. In the end, it was very selfish of me to send these brief notes, and I hope everyone finds the time to be equally as selfish, as it is a great feeling!

Gamification: Easy vs. Right

I've been pursuing the idea of gamifying my room and program for almost a year now. After viewing several ready-made programs and websites, I had selected one to utilize and implement, even though I wasn't terribly happy with its user interface or theme. I chose it because I knew that if I were to custom build my own system using websites and/or Google Docs/Sheets there would be a very great deal of work to do.

After travelling to ITEC this week and listening to Mike Matera speaking about gamification, I've come to the realization that I have to create my own system. The reasons are many, but they all essentially boil down to the fact that when I create my own system, it's exactly what I want it to be. That is to say, I will have complete control over every aspect of my own system; anything I'm unhappy with I can change!

I also came to the realization that I was breaking one of the rules or ideas I communicate to my students on a daily basis: oftentimes the right thing to do is not the easy thing to do; instead it usually involves a deal of work, and trying to avoid that work because it's hard or there is a lot of it, is an almost certain way to fail at the endeavor. Luckily, my eyes have been opened before I rolled out a program I would've been displeased with, which would've led to disappointment and a lack of ownership on my part, and thus on my students' part as well.