Word finds are GREAT for student learning!

No. No they are not.  A few kids enjoy them.  Most do not.  They do not help kids learn.  Stop doing them for the purpose of improving vocabulary or better spelling.  There are much better ways.

Also, very few kids like The Quiet Game.  Most hate it.  They know what you need from them.  Kids choose their friends as the "most quiet" classmate.  Other kids purposely lose quickly because they know deep down inside that they will not be chosen.   Playing the quiet game really just sets the stage for you to be able to more easily spot the talkers.  Let's teach them how to talk to each other appropriately.  If too many kids are unable to act appropriately in the hallway, it is your fault.  If it is only one or two kids, address them individually.  Find a better way.

This week we are learning the letter R!  Letter of the week is irrelevant.  What a contrary and meaningless way to help young students gain ownership of the alphabet.  Start with the letters in their name.  Use environmental print. Stop cutting out 8 little letter R's and gluing them next to eight pictures of things that supposedly start with the letter R.  Kids need to learn letters and sounds through relevant language.  Worksheets with poorly drawn Rats do not help kids learn the capital R.  We can do letters better.

Copying off the board needs to end.  I'm not talking about copying a problem or an expectation for a learning activity.  I'm talking about copying a poem or a paragraph.  Don't make kids copy something that someone else has written.  If kids need to write something down, let them write their own words!  Copying is not learning.  Design something better.

Sitting out at recess for forgetting homework does not help kids remember their homework.  The kids who habitually lose their homework are only missing out on the movement they probably need.  The kids who always remember the homework simply see a stick pointed their direction.  Compliance out of fear is not the best way to do it.  Paying kids with rewards isn't the best way either.  Build intrinsic motivation by giving them better ownership of their behaviors and consequences.

Rainbow writing does not improve writing.  It does not help kids become better writers or spellers.  It does not increase engagement for the great majority of students.  It is a waste of time.  Kids are more thoughtful about choosing the colors instead of correct spelling.  I don't even know what pyramid writing is but it looks worthless.  Writing spelling words five times each is not good.   Spelling is tough to teach, but there are much better ways.

Round Robin reading still happens.  Oh my goodness, why?  The lack of engagement is beyond obvious.  The below-level readers cannot read the text.  Kids more than a couple of reading lower than the text can't even follow along.  Most kids don't follow along.  The high readers are bored to tears!  There are better ways.

These suggestions are not new.  These strategies were equally ineffective in 1994, my first year of teaching.  They were ineffective in 1979, when I was a 5th grader.  They are still ineffective, yet they still happen.

When educational practices are proven to be effective for all students, keep doing them.  The strategies highlighted above are not effective.  They are also not engaging or fun.  They are not fun for the kids or for the teacher.  Design better learning activities.

Justify!

This is my new favorite word!  Asking kids to justify their learning leads to deeper learning!  Asking teachers to justify their learning leads to better teaching!

If I simply need the answer to a math computation problem, I can use a calculator or I can ask Siri.  If a kid needs an answer to a math computation problem, the kid can also use a calculator or ask Siri.  Regardless of how the kid gets the answer, explaining why it is the correct answer makes it powerful.

In math, we no longer need adults who can compute.  We have tools for that.  We do need folks who can solve never-before-seen problems.

Do kids need to know how to compute?  Absolutely.  Will that ability lead to a productive future?  Probably not.  Kids need to turn the ability to compute into deeper problem solving!  That only happens when they talk about it!

It was an accident!

It seems like twice a year, I get to climb up on the roof of the school to retrieve a shoe.  When I ask how the shoe ended up on the roof, I always get the same answer, "It was an accident!"

I love asking kids to show me how it "accidentally" came off their foot and landed on the roof.  I try to "accidentally" kick my shoe up there too!  So far, not one kid has been able to recreate the experience.  We do have a few laughs trying though.

Usually, the kid tells me that he was trying to kick his shoe off of his foot and it "accidentally" ended up on the roof.  That one has been recreated a few times by a few kids and once by me.  Most often, I finally hear the actual truth, "It wasn't actually an accident."

Another accident happens occasionally, "Why did you hit him?"

"It was an accident!"

I know you really can accidentally hit someone, but rarely does it include a balled up fist and a quick jab.  Real accidental hits occur from turning around quickly in a crowd, pointing in a direction you aren't looking, or trying to avoid red hornets!

I ask kids to show me this "accidental" hit.  The two versions never look the same.  Not even close.  Oftentimes, I hear this, "Well, I was pretending to punch him, then I accidentally made contact."

The punching action was purposeful but the contact was unintended.  You meant to throw the punch but you accidentally made contact.  In the same action.

When things happen accidentally on purpose, it is important that we teach them the difference!

Effort ignites ability!

I read Mindset, by Dr. Carol Dweck, awhile back.  I have been listening to the unabridged version in the mornings recently and I am still incredibly moved by her work.  As I listened today, she used the term, "recovering genius," to describe an adult who was in the process of overcoming a childhood filled with an overabundance of praise and adulation.

This made me think of the other side of the coin, the "recovering ignoramus."  Of course we wouldn't ever actually tell a student he was ignorant.  But it made me wonder how many kids leave public school with that mindset.

It also made me wonder which upbringing is toughest to overcome???  One of the best reading teachers I have ever seen told me that she struggled with reading as a child and her teachers were sure to let her know it.  She overcame the low expectations given by her teachers to become an expert in her profession.  I have also watched a teacher who completely knocked my socks off during her rookie year repeat that exact same year several more times without much improvement.  She arrived on campus with confidence and told me that she knew she would be good at teaching because she was good at everything she did.  She struggled to overcome the success that was seemingly easy for her during her first try, and left within five years.

From Dweck's work, the question is not whether we choose between over-inflating kids' egos or constantly pointing out their deficits.  The question is, "How do we talk to kids so that they develop a growth mindset?  How do we foster growth mindsets in a classroom of 25+ uniquely individual students? How do we ensure that every child leaves our school believing their efforts will ignite their abilities?

Did you do your best on this?

I have heard teachers ask this question numerous times through the years.  I have asked it myself.  Recently, I have really started to pay attention to this one.  It is quite interesting!  On the surface, it seems like it could be a good question.  A seemingly simply, non-judgmental query for a kid to self-assess effort.  But the reality of the question is usually far from that.

Little Johnny regularly takes twice as long to finish his assignments even though he spends the majority of time staring at the ceiling or talking to his friends.  His work typically does not show mastery of the learning target.  Then he hands the teacher his assignment and hears, "Is this your best effort?"

Little Johnny can see and hear his teacher's opinion in those words.  He knows she doesn't think he did his best so he answers, "No...," grabs the paper, and walks back to his desk as if he is going to do better.  Really though, it actually was Little Johnny's best effort.  He did the best he could with the tools he had available to him.

Little Jimmy hands his paper to the same teacher and hears the same question, "Did you do your best work on this?"

Little Jimmy replies emphatically, "Yep!"  Then he walks away, even though he knows he barely read through the questions and wrote incomplete thoughts for his answers.  In other words, Little Jimmy did as "best" as he was willing to do.  His willingness to to actually do his best was non-existent and his teacher knew it before even asking the question.

Little Janie hands her paper to the same teacher and hears, "Did you give 100% on this assignment?"

She takes a deep breath, looks down at the ground, and answers, "I guess not..."  She walks back to her desk, scratching her head and thinking to herself, "I always do my best!  I make straight A's!  What does she want from me???  Perfection???"

These different scenarios are just a few of examples I have seen.  Each different one is based these things:

• the student/teacher relationship,
• the student's past experiences,
• the teacher's body language and tone of voice, and
• the mindset of both of them.

How can we consistently ask kids to assess their efforts without prejudice?

Question #2

I love Daniel Pink's work!  The man knows motivation.  Not in a Zig Ziglar way, but in a way that can make a huge impact in classrooms.  Educators are always trying to find the keys to motivating kids.  A lot of time is spent discussing the students that are seemingly unmotivated to do the assigned work.  Sometimes, too many of these conversations demotivate the teacher.  This has me thinking about Question #2 from Pink.

Was I better today than I was yesterday?

Pink says each one of us should ask ourselves this question each night before our heads hit our pillows.  I'm going to try to remember this for awhile.  Of course, a meaningful answer to this question depends a lot on Question #1.  You can see his Two Question video here.

Do what you love!

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are filled with inspirational quotes these days.  So many, that it is impossible to read them all.  It is even more impossible for all of them to be meaningful to everyone.  But everyone can find one or two quips that strike a chord and resonate some kind of meaningful influence all day long.  Over the last few months, the quotes I have noticed most frequently have a similar message:

"Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."

"Doing what you love is where happiness lives."

I know a bunch of people who live this way every day.  Lots of them do so with their jobs.  Other folks do so with hobbies or other creative endeavors.  The lucky folks get to do what they love at work and at home... all the time!

I also know people who don't get to do what they love.  They only do.  They don't love it.  Some barely even like what they do.  They go to a job they dislike, then head home too tired to pursue their passions outside of the workplace.  And they are stuck.  They are in a rut and they can't get out.  Too tired to find their way out of the rut and too tired to enjoy life after the job that provides no joy.

Imagine a world where no one was in that rut!

Are you only happy on weekends?

Some people get to Friday and find themselves suddenly looking for a way to do something that makes them happy.  They go all week long, trudging through the week, with no happiness other than the upcoming weekend.  For some people, the happy times includes time with friends or family.  Others just want to kick off their shoes, sit back, and relax.  Then the weekend ends, and it is back to a Monday through Friday grind.

Don't let it be a grind!  As you head through this weekend, start planning ahead for next week.  Find your joy every single day of every single week!

The whites of his eyes!

Have you ever been so absolutely certain you were right about something that you were unable to see someone else's perspective?  This happens frequently with all of us, but even more with teenagers.  Think about a time you told something to a 13-year-old and witnessed a world record eye-rolling.  As the adult, you know that you are absolutely correct, but the teenager absolutely won't believe you!

Many times, you simply want this kid to hear you when you say, "I have been through this.  I know what I'm talking about.  Just change your mind and believe me."

Most of the time, the teen won't do it.  He not only wants to be correct, he refuses to even entertain the thought of being wrong.  This is where the adult gets to choose frustration or patience.  Which course of action will be taken with this one?

The kid wants to make his own decisions.  He wants to be correct.  He wants to own it.  Sometimes, it is hard to let him own it.  Especially if you know where he is going to end up.  So as he glares at the ceiling through the top of his skull and tells you what he is going to do, what will your response be:

"Are you serious?" {spoken with some level of sarcasm?}

                                                 or

"Let me know how it goes?" {spoken with absolutely NO sarcasm.}

Who worked the hardest?

The Austin Marathon ran last weekend and it reminded me of a conversation I had several years ago after finishing the race.  My friend and I were discussing the various combinations of natural talents with hard work.  He had been planted at the finish line for much of the race, watching everyone who crossed it before me.

He watched the winner cross the line in two hours and 14 minutes.  Between the winner and I, he watched about 1000 other people cross the line.

I joked that I definitely worked harder than the winner because I was on the course for 92 minutes longer!  Chris did not argue that my year-long training regiment to prepare for the race was indeed hard work.  He did argue that the winner had trained for YEARS to get to the point where he could win an international marathon!

So I changed my question...Who worked harder during the race?  Was it me, or the winner, or the guy who finished in seven hours?

I think Chris enjoyed the question!  He started to advocate for two of the sides.  He said that the winner pushed himself to his physical limit to win the race.  We also guessed that the seven hour finisher had to keep working for more than three times longer to finish.  He also joked that I was smack dab in the middle of them, so I shouldn't even be considered in this conversation!

Thinking about students, educators know that some kids pick up new learning more easily than others. Some kids find geometry easy to learn while struggling with reading comprehension.  When I think across the years of the students that I have taught, the differences are amazing, especially considering that all the kids in one class are expected to master the same learning standards.

As a teacher, it can be quite challenging to know when you are truly getting maximum efforts out of each student!

Success Breeds Success

My 6th grader loves oatmeal for breakfast.  When he asks for it, he usually gets it.  Making a quick batch of oatmeal doesn't take long at all and it feeds the whole family.  One particular morning, he didn't ask for oatmeal early enough.  When I told him to grab a quick bowl of cereal because I needed to leave, he asked, "Can I just make the oatmeal myself?"

My brain's warning flag went up!  This kid wants to cook on the gas stovetop with no adult in the house??? He will burn the house down! I don't want to be on the five o'clock news!  I can't take the chance!

Then I remembered...he cooks eggs for himself, he can make his own mac & cheese, and he hasn't caused a single fire yet.  As a matter of fact, he has caused one less kitchen fire than I have.

Instead of blurting out my initial gut reaction, I asked him, "Do you know how?"

He confidently explained the process to me and it took all of 20 seconds.  I smiled and said, "Go for it!  Don't burn the house down!"

When kids want to do things for themselves, we need to let them.  Too often, we choose to do things for them.  We do this for many reasons:

• It is faster
• It is just easier to do it
• We don't want to take the time to work with them through the process
• We don't want them to fail
• It has become a habit to do pretty much every thing a kid asks
• We deem any amount of risk as too much risk

I am happy to report that the fire department did not make a visit to my house!  More importantly, my 6th grader is getting confident in the kitchen.  He even cleans up after himself!  Was there a risk of fire?  Sure, but there is a risk every time I cook too.  Was the risk greater because he is 11 years old?  Sure, but not that much greater.  He wanted to be successful at this so I'm sure he gave it his utmost attention.  He wanted the responsibility of cooking with fire, and he was successful!  Failing forward is incredibly important for learning!  At the same time, success breeds success!

Labels

When I think back to some of the most memorable students I have had over the years, I wonder how my descriptions of them placed limits on what I expected from them???

"Little Johnny never had help with his homework and he couldn't sit still for more than 3 minutes."

"Little Mary takes care of her younger brother and sister every night while her parents work."

"Crazy Karl???  That boy is out of control!"

So often, teachers describe their students to each other like this.  These descriptions are not meant as insults to the children.  They are typically just used to describe the child's situation.  It was true that little Johnny didn't get any help with his homework, even though he could have used a little bit of assistance most nights.  It was true that Little Mary's parents worked nights so she was in charge of her siblings.  And Karl?  He was just a fun boy who was always more interested in playing and laughing than anything else!

Today, it is my mission to see the unlimited potential in each child.  Looking back, I wonder if I unconsciously changed what I expected from Johnny, Mary, and Karl because of the way I described them?  As educators, how do we see beyond the hurdles that every child encounters, even when they may not be able to do?

Isn't it our job as educators to help children shed those labels?

Patient or Proactive?

I have a goal!  It is a big one and I have several active processes in place to help me achieve this goal.  I continue to do what is within my circle of control in order to find success.  There are also some dynamics of this goal that involve other people.  So sometimes, the ball is not on my side of the court and the situation asks me to wait on things to progress naturally.

This is when the principle of patience comes into play.  I am extremely excited about achieving my goal!  Honestly, I can't wait!  I feel like a kid at 6am on Christmas morning!  But I must be patient!

Sometimes it takes time to get what you want.  When you really want something to happen, it always seems to take too much time.  So the question becomes, a matter of two principles.  Should I be patient or should I be proactive?  Should I wait or should I work?

Sometimes, patience is proactive!

Bringing it home!

Last week, my sixth grade son opened his backpack and removed several straws and popsicle sticks held together with masking tape.  He excitedly jumped on the floor to re-create the catapult he made in science class.  The truth is, he is a tough customer when it comes to being entertained at school.  He regularly calls school "normal" and rarely says his days are good.  This day was quite different.

When I asked him to tell me about his catapult, he said he wanted to use what he learned to build a better one at home.  He went into the garage and gathered a few supplies.  He also found a giant box of popsicle sticks (Doesn't everyone have a box of these things sitting around the house?)

I watched him from afar because I didn't want to stifle his creativity.  I loved seeing his brain work through his fingers to make another, even better catapult.  I loved that his school assignment carried over to further exploration at home!  He stayed with it for quite awhile, testing and refining and testing and refining.  He was excited to show me his progress!

It was tough not to play the role of teacher at this point.  He needed me to be the excited parent!  And believe me, I was excited!

After a little more than a week, he has gone back to his interest in catapults and rubber-band propulsion several times.  I love that he has unknowingly become a little scientist and I love that he brought home this excitement from school!

Submitted for your approval

My current job requires most assignments to be submitted to management for approval.  Sometimes I am the submitter and sometimes I am the approver.  Sometimes, I am one of the funnels it most go through prior to final approval.  Confusing?  Yes.

There are a few purposes for the approval.  When something is going to be published, it is always a good idea to get a 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th set of eyes to check it out so that it can be ready for publication.  Another purpose is for the approver to simply determine if the words are to his or her liking.  In other words, does this say what it needs to say in the way that I would say it?  This often leaves the writer trying to guess what is in the manager's head!!

This got me thinking...

When kids turn in assignments, how often are they trying to guess what is in the teacher's head?  I have seen some incredible examples of learning tasks that included simple, yet perfect rubrics so kids could judge their work prior to submission.  Wouldn't it be excellent if a student knew how well their efforts met the expectations for pretty much every assignment?

When teachers design a learning experience, they first determine, "What exactly do my students need to learn?"

Then they ask, "How will I know if they learned it?"  To go deeper with this one, start asking, "How will my students know if they learned it?"  If your students know, they will not be submitting their work for your approval, they will be submitting their work stamped with their own approval!

The best compliment for an educator

Yesterday, I ran into a parent from my old campus.  We were both attending a forum for improving early childhood education.  We talked about her two, fantastic children.  One is in middle school now and the other is still in elementary.  The younger one loves his teacher and is quite proud of his leadership on campus.  Of course, every one is a leader at that campus, thanks to some incredibly dedicated and talented teachers and The Leader in Me!  She told me that her daughter was an excellent middle school student, making all A's and excelling in band, but she missed her old school.

Then she told me what I consider to be one of the best compliments I have ever received, "It is clear that your school was all about relationships, yet the expectations for excellent academics was equally amazing!"

This was music to my ears!  I have always believed that people come first.  Make sure you take care of their hearts and their minds will follow.  Yet I also know that learning is the reason every school exists.  Academics are paramount.  By no means was I perfect in my efforts.  Most assuredly, I made many mistakes along the way.   It is still one of my burning questions, "How do we ensure that the little people we get for seven hours each day leave as caring human beings with as much smarts as we can get in their brains?"

School is not only meant for filling brains and creating a growth mindset, it is also meant to create little humans who genuinely care for the people and the world around them.  I loved hearing that we did both!  I still say all the credit goes to the fantastic teachers and staff that made it happen, but it was nice to be included in the best compliment an educator can hear!