Establishing a Positive Classroom Climate

Establishing a Positive Classroom Climate

In my 15+ years of teaching I have never really had too much trouble with my classroom.  With that has always come the question from fellow teachers, administrators and even parents & students: how do you do it?  What is your strategy?  Quite frankly, I had no idea, I just did what I thought was right and how I thought I would like my classroom to be if I were the student.  The problem with that, I know notice is that it comes with the assumption that all students are like me and that cultural differences do not exist.  While my classroom management style was working and there appeared to be a positive classroom climate to me and perhaps the majority of my students, it was not sure for all.

Where I teach, South Korea, most if not all of my students are from a cultural background different than me.  I have a large group of Korean students, a few American students, and one from each of the Ukraine, China, and Taiwan.  The first thing that I need to do in order to establish a positive classroom climate for this class is recognize that my cultural ways are not always the right way and that there is a beauty in the diversity that is my classroom.  I need to learn about the students and their culture to see what it is they care about.  How to they learn and what it and is not acceptable in classroom relationships.  I like to tell jokes in class, often at my own expenses.  This, however, is not something that is seen as normal in the Ukraine, where my student would often stand like a solider to speak or respond to my questions.  For her the classroom was a serious place of learning and for a teacher not to be serious was very difficult for her.  I had to get rid of the cultural bias that many westerners have about Asian students and how incredibly smart and hard working they are.  While, yes, many of my Asian students are very hard working and very bright, not all are and some really do struggle in math.  Assumptions that the Asian kid does not need help in math is just down right wrong!  (I learned that within weeks of coming to Asia).  Another assumption that needs to be thwarted is that all students who attend private international school as wealthy and have no issues at home.  This assumption is common when students are acting up in class.  I have often heard teachers say things like, "Johnny should not be acting this way.  His family is very rich and he wants for nothing."  The problem here is that while Johnny might be from a rich family, his parents might work long hours and he has to cook and clean for himself, or he has a nanny that does everything for him, but he is lacking the affection of a parent.  And then there is the assumption that Johnny is rich only because he attends this school.  The fact is that many parents

Understanding every culture and situation in your classroom can be a daunting task.  There are, however, some simple things that a teacher can do to establish a positive classroom climate.  Those, as highlighted by Marzano (2007) as well as in an article on Teaching Tolerance (2014) are as follows:

• Greet your students, by name, as they come into the classroom;
• Arrange the desks in the classroom so that is fosters collaboration, but not so that the student(s) cannot see the front of the classroom;
• Decorate your classroom with authentic materials such as student work.  This ensures that all the decorations reflect the diversity of the classroom.
• Place identified students with needs in places where they can be support (i.e. not the back of the room);
• Establish an appropriate relationship with your students
• let them know some things about you;
• learn somethings about them (likes, dislikes, interests, family, etc)
• keep your cool while being firm about the classroom expectations;
• make the learning student centred;
• interact with students outside of the classroom (take in one of their games or activities);
• Use what you know about the students to you advantage in not only the teaching a learning, but in the classroom management techniques you use.

In addition to understanding my students as highlighted above and the simple classroom strategies, there is a need for a teacher to be willing to deal with bullying.  Bullying is real, it happens all the time, and in every class.  Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Centre estimates the in schools this year about 22% of students will be bullied.  With the risk including depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, poor school performance and even suicide, it is imperative that any classroom also be a place where the teacher confronts bullying head on.  First, the teacher needs to have clear guidelines that are in line with school policy (as applicable).  Additionally, and in line with much of what I have discussed above, there is a need for the teacher to be a person that a victim is comfortable coming to and speaking about the bullying situation.  There has to be a relationship built such that the teacher, when he/she notices or suspects someone is being bullied, is able to approach the student and talk about it.  If students have the trust in the teacher, as developed using much of the strategies above, then something can be done about.  The teacher must not ignore it because bullying is hard thing to deal with.  The teacher must not assume that it is not happening in his or her classroom because he or she do not see it.  Much of the bullying now happens online or outside of the school walls and cannot be easily detected unless you know the signs.  For that reason the teacher must learn the signs that someone is being bullied.

Building positive relationships can go a long way in creating a positive classroom environment.  It does not mean that you cannot create and enforce rules or that you need to be nice all the time.  It simply means that you must be firm and consistent with the rules while understanding and respecting all the characteristics of your students.  A teacher needs to be caring, understanding, respectful, hard-working, consistent, etc in order to be effective.

References

Marzano, Robert.  (2007).  The Art and Science of Teaching.  ASCD. USA

Pacer's National Bullying Prevention Centre. (2015).  Bullying Statistics.  Retrieved [October 30, 2015] from http://www.pacer.org/bullying/about/media-kit/stats.asp

Teaching Tolerance (2014). Critical Practices for Anti-Biased Education.  Teaching Prespectives.org

Using Mobile Devices in the Classroom

Say What?  Mobile Devices in the Classroom!

Why You Need to include Mobile Learning Activities in Your Classroom

Admittedly when I was first introduced to the concept of mobile learning my mind instantly went to the type of learning where students are moving around and being active in the classroom or even taking the classroom outside.  Not for a second did the idea of using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets come to my mind, and, to be honest, why would it?  Our generation, the digital immigrants, have been scoffing at the mass use of technology for years.  We groan about the number of people captivated by their smartphone on the subway or bus.  Seeing every other person with headphones/earphones in makes us shutter.  And, the digital immigrant teachers, myself included, have been slow to recognize the value of digital devices.  We make classroom rules such as "No Cell Phones" in order to maintain the integrity of the learning environment.  

The problem with the exclusion of mobile devices in learning is that this generation, the digital natives, requires a completely different approach to teaching and learning than we were raised on. I am not going to argue here for a complete shift in teaching where we throw out all the good strategies that work.  The truth is that not everyone has access to a digital device and not all students or teachers are equipped to effectively use technology.  What I am calling for is a hybrid model of education.  As Rudi (2011) points out, this generation of students are demotivated and much of this demotivation is the result of the lack of meaningful use of technology that is integrated into the traditional classroom. Rudi does not argue that every activity needs to be done with a mobile device.  He argues that there needs to be a balance of activities in the classroom that include mobile learning just as much as there is a need for differentiation.  The importance of this increases when you consider the research done by UNESCO (2015), which concluded that over six million people have access to connected mobile device and that for every one person who accessed the internet from a computer, two do so from a mobile device.  The access to information has greatly increased and with that the opportunity for learning can now unfold in a multitude of ways anywhere, anytime.  With that, then, comes the need for teachers to teach technology skills such as digital literacy and digital citizenship.  This can be done effectively when connected to the content of the classroom, and in turn meeting the learning needs of the students.  

As a teacher who has had to transition from a school with little to no technology into one where every student has their own laptop in the classroom, almost all have a smart phone, and about half have a tablet, I can say that the learning curve will be steep.  However, the benefits can be quite encouraging for teachers who are sick and tired of unmotivated and disengaged student who continually show apathy towards their learning.  Just this year alone in my math classes I have seen my own students engaged in learning like I have never seen before.  Students who have a track record of underachieving are now performing at a higher level.  Students who have a track record of struggling to understand the content covered are finally figuring things out.  A perfect example of this is a student in my class yesterday who has been at this school for ten years and deemed a poor math student by teachers and parents being able to explain to the entire class a concept that she had learned through her mobile learning of transformations.  She was engaged, could "play" with the graphs on her mobile device (TI-nspire) and the result was not only her own learning, but the learning of others and development of such 21st century learning skills as collaboration and communication.  What I witness is summarized nicely by Fang (2009) when she discusses how lifting the restrictive nature of technology treatment in the classroom opens up a wealth of learning opportunities and in doing so allows learners to learn the way they learn best without the teacher having to be in complete control.  It turns ownership over to the students and gives them the responsibility to learn for themselves and others.

Guiding Principles for Mobile Learning

It must be noted that whenever you bring connected devices into the classroom there needs to be a set of guidelines for both the teacher and students.  These can be broken down in to considerations for prior to use of the technology, considerations for during to use of the technology, and considerations for after use of the technology.

• Considerations for before using mobile devices in the classroom:
• Does everyone have access to the appropriate device for the activity?
• Is there a need for a network connection?
• How will you limit distractions for students?
• Are there alternatives for the activity in case of technology?
• Is the activity age/level appropriate?
• Are their any technology related skills that need to be taught prior to the activity?

• Considerations for during the use of technology in the classroom:
• Is the activity understood?
• Are students using the technology appropriately?
• Do they understand how to use the technology?
• Are the students engaged?

• Considerations for after the use of technology in the classroom:
• Where there any technology issues that could have been avoided?  If so, how?
• Was the learning goal clear?
• Was the purpose of the activity clear?
• How could the activity be improved in order to increased student engagement and learning?
• Gather feedback from the students.

Mobile Learning Ideas in the Math Classroom

This is no way an exhaustive list, but here are some ideas that I have used for mobile learning in mathematics:

• Flipping the classroom - consider taking your math lessons that are done in the classroom and doing them in a video that is shared with the students before the class.  The idea is that the students would watch them and then come to class and be able to focus on activities and skills development rather than listening to a lecture or watching the teacher do examples on the board.  There a multiple ways to do with with an tablet and a stylus pen.
• Use of mobile devices to gather data (height, arm span, elevation, distance travelled, etc) - instead of giving the students random data from a book or the internet have them collect their own data.  They could use a smartphone app to collect measurements such as height and arm span for a bivariate investigation.  They could use the GPS of their smartphone while walking around a local park in order to map distances, elevation or even work with the speed formula.
• Learning Management System (LMS) - while some LMSs come with a cost, there are others that are free and can be used to push the content of your classroom onto the web whereby students have access to the content anywhere.  This would work nicely with the flipped classroom idea above.
• Graphing Calculators - most don't think of this as a mobile device, but some of the newer models produced by Texas Instruments have connectivity functions that allow students to work with photos loaded onto the calculator and develop functions to model the objects in the photo. You could have students take a picture of a bridge with their smartphone or camera and load it onto the calculator so that they could develop an equation for the spanners of the bridge and even develop force diagrams based on the function (for higher learners).
• Digital textbooks - now that students have devices that allow them to connect anytime anywhere why not consider switching from a paper based text to a digital text.  Many publishers are offering both these days, but this would come at a cost, of course.

References

Fang, Berlin. (2009). From Distraction to Engagement: Wireless Devices in the Classroom. Retrieved [October 21, 2015] from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2009/12/from-distraction-to-engagement-wireless-devices-in-the-classroom

Rudi, Alan. (2011). Hybrid Learning: How to Reach Digital Natives.  Retrieved [October 21, 2015] from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/765/hybrid-learning-how-to-reach-digital-natives

UNESCO. (2015).  ICT in Education: Mobile Learning.  Retrieved [October 21, 2015] from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/

Planning for English Language Learners

Right now in my 10th grade math class I am teaching a unit on Probability and Statistics.  This unit has always presented problems for English language learners and therefore I would like to focus this discussion on that group.

After reviewing the TEACH-NOW literature there seems to be agreement that there are five or six.  Haynes (2005) discusses the five stages as being Pre-production, Early Production, Speech Emergent, Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced Fluency.  Robertson & Ford (2008), however add Beginning Fluency in between Haynes's Speech Emergent and Intermediate Fluency.  In looking over both Haynes as well as Robertson and Ford it appears that the biggest addition seems to be the idea that new contexts and academic language are challenging at the beginning fluency stage and that individual will have trouble expressing themselves.  Although, these characteristics are certainly evident within Haynes's five stages as well.  With that in mind, I would like to consider students that I teach with reference to the six stages offered by Robertson & Ford.

In reflecting in my math class the following four learners (names altered to protect privacy) come to mind:

1. Jay - a beginning fluency English language learner who has minor troubles expressing himself in social situations, but does have difficulty picking up new content specific language and understanding what he is being asked to do in certain questions.  He finds content specific directions to be a challenge and seeks clarification often.
2. Bill - a speech emergent English language learner who over the course of the unit has shown an increase in content specific vocabulary and decrease in errors as familiarity grows.  In challenging problems that are in an unfamiliar context, a requirement of MYP math, Bob continues to have difficulties and relies on context clues from others to tackle the problem.  
3. Yolanda - an intermediate fluency English language learner does especially well communicating in social settings.  Her academic language proficiency is very good and she has been doing well to express her opinion and offer solutions to complex problems.  There are, however, still some gaps in content specific vocabulary, though these are becoming less frequent.
4. Stella - an advanced fluency English language learner, she for all intents and purposes can do all things in math class like a native speaker.  One can only tell that she is not a native speaker by her very slight accent and misuse of common English expressions, which might actually be culturally based than language based.

When we think about English language learners we often think about those students that sit in the corner and are very quiet, trying to get through the class without being called upon by the teacher.  This is not the case for the four students I describe above.  In the case of Stella, she is just about there and all there is that separates her from native like English language use is her accent.  While most strategies call for continued support in content areas and writing (Haynes, 2005) this will not nip the problem.  In order to help Stella, the teacher needs to model correct speech in a natural voice so that Stella can hear it spoken in a neutral accent.  Allow for students like Stella to practice her pronunciation while preaching tolerance and the fact that just everyone has an accent (Rustbelt, 2011).  For Yolanda, Jay as well as Bill the use of graphic organizers, vocabulary and language development strategies and meaning-based context & universal themes would be helpful (Bongolan & Moir, 2005).  

What is interesting to think about is on the surface, two of the four students I refer to here would likely go unnoticed by many others.  In fact, all but one, Bill, is not considered an ESL student by the school and even Bill is scheduled to be taken off of ESL support at the end of this school year.

References:

Bongolan, RS. & Moir, E. (2005). Six Key Strategies for Teachers of English Language Learners.  retrieved from http://suu.edu/ed/fso/resources/esl-six-key-strategies.pdf

Haynes, J.  (2005).  Stages of Second Language Acquisition.  Retrieved from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php

Robertson, K. & Ford, K. (2008). Language Acquisition: An Overview.  Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/

Rusbult, C. (2011).  Improving Pronunciation with a Problem-Solving Strategy.  Retrieved from http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/esl-learning.htm

All the Things I Didn't Know About SEN

Recently for one of my TEACH-NOW assignments I was asked to interview our Special Educational Needs Coordinator as well as a couple of teachers who had experience working with students that had special needs.  Like many students going into an assignment my initial thought was to get it all done an over with.  However, what I found at the end of the interview was that I had learned so much and that there was so much more I had to learn to be an effective teacher.  My school only has the one SEN Coordinator, so the choice was obvious there, but there were many teachers to choose from and what I decided to do was, on the advice of the SEN Coordinator, interview two teachers that were on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of attitude and experience towards having to work with special needs students.

You can click here for the interview notes.

While I have had limited experience in working with students with special needs while I was at the school and the school's admissions policy indicated that only students with mild to moderate needs would be accepted, there was a lot to learn.  I knew all about the referral process - a Google Form that teachers submitted when they suspected a student with a need.  What I did not know was that if a teacher did not attempt to implement alternative educational experiences and document the result that the referral would be sent back and the teacher instructed to try some alternative educational experiences and report back at a later date.  At first when I heard this I was concerned that it was a waste of valuable time where the potential special needs student could, but having hear the rationale from the SEN Coordinator (often times teachers don't want to deal with SEN and want to put it on someone else's plate, and it is generally good data for the referral consideration process in general) I felt a lot better.  However, while one teacher (the one who was deemed to be "on top of things" by the SEN Coordinator as well as the SEN Coordinator could site ways to support students with learning needs, the other teacher was not very convincing.  

This, to me, pointed to a disconnect in the school about the services available and the knowledge and understanding of some teachers of the different learning styles of students and how to accommodate for them.

When considering the list of accommodations provided to me by the SEN Coordinator I could not help but wonder how overwhelming it must be for the teachers who all have 3 or 4 preps and 5 classes to teach.  It was at this point that I asked about the levels of stress and work that they have and how it plays a factor in how they deal with SEN students.  Of course, the answer was not surprising.  No teacher wants to let a student fail or struggle, but no teacher has the time to do everything for each student and still meet the general needs of the school.  While the first teacher I interviewed seemed very much on top of things (as the SEN Coordinator suggested), the second seemed to be overwhelmed.  And why not?  After further questioning, it was easy to see why: a father of two kids under the age of 5, he was teaching 6 classes (normal load is 5), he is the head of his department, coaching a sport, and the assistant athletic director for the school.  So, while one might praise the first teacher for taking the initiative to go get the information, the scorn given to the second might be without warrant.

When I look back at what I learning about the process here at my school it seems very systematic, which is great.  Students are referred, and, if the teacher has done all the necessary steps, the Student Resource Team (SRT) meets and goes over the referral and student files to make a determination of next steps.  Parents are notified of the referral and the process to follow (usually some sort of testing) and modifications and/or accommodations are implemented (with parent support).  This all seems very well and good, but to my point above, it seems that in the busy lives of teachers the extra step of carrying out some alternative methods is not look upon highly.  Once in place, however, the student's accommodations are done in the least restrictive way.  

Thinking about the learning from Finland's Formula for Education Success and The New York School of One it seems that we might be off the mark.  It seems from those two examples that the further of education, special or normal, is individualized for all learners regardless of ability and needs.  This, of course, would take a major shift in a school's thinking and approach to teaching, learning, and hiring.

Overall, though this was a very valuable learning experience and just goes to show that the teacher is always learning and should never stop thinking about how and why we do things.  I was able to learn a great deal about how the referral process works at my place of work as well as a lot about the perceptions of others of the process.  

Reflections on Teaching and Learning in a Concept-Based Curriculum

Back in 2012 I was sent by my school to attend a workshop offered by Lynn Erickson.  The title of the workshop was, like her 2007 book, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom.  This was the first time I had been exposed to such a way of thinking and to be honest at first met it with great scrutiny.  If you have ever watched videos concerning concept based teaching and learning or read any of the literature or attended any of the conferences, you would, too!  It all seemed very much like all other educational theories out there - drummed up by academics who have never been in the classroom in their lives or, if they have, it was 10+ years ago.  But is was some of the examples that caught my attention and made me think about how I taught and how many of my teachers taught me.  While having dinner with other teachers, we discussed the first day and if it really was feasible.  Some of us said, "Sure in a  PYP Classroom where there are not high-stakes exams nor demands of preparing kids for the DP, but not in the higher grades.  There is simply no time for it.  They have to know all the facts in order to do well."  That was what got me to think about education and how it has has for so long been stuck in a vicious cycle of rote memorization and regurgitation of facts.  Students would come to class and be told the key points and facts, causes and effects for their subjects and be tested on their recall knowledge of what they were told. 

Was this really what we wanted for our students?  What this what I wanted for my own children?  How much did I really know about what I learned in school and how much could I use it in context? Was simply knowing the facts giving our students the 21st Century skills required by today's employers?  Certainly not, but what else could we do?  They simply had to learn the material.  They had to, as Brady (2011) puts it, learn the highly-specific standards for each academic subject in bits and pieces, not considering the connections.  He argues, however that it is more important is for students to have a system organizing and integrating what they know so that they can see the "big picture.  Erickson (2007) explains further by arguing that while facts remain important and necessary, it is how they learn those facts and what we have our students do with the facts that is important.  In today's world, employers care less about what you know and more about what you can do with what you know.  

With the growing popularity of tablets and smartphones, the facts are now at your fingertips.  Erickson argues that there needs to be a shift in how we develop our curriculum and teach our students how to think and how to make generalizations that are grounded in the facts for the topics we teach and developed through conceptual understands.  Those conceptual understandings would be subjectless, timeless and transferrable.  They would allow for students to continue thinking and making connections from class to class, very much unlike how Brady (2011) describes the traditional style of education.  By building the teaching and learning on a conceptual framework students would be able to synthesize their learning, transfer their skills and develop critical thinking and problem solving capabilities that are integral in today's workforce.   Sackson (2012) blogged a summary of twitter conversations between teachers who were collaborating on a unit of inquiry.  I would encourage you to take a look at see how it can really work.

So ground-breaking was this research that the International Baccalaureate brought Lynn Erickson along with other leading experts in the field such as Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe to completely rehaul the Middle Years Program (MYP).  The result of a two year study saw the International Baccalaureate MYP completely transformed.  For an international organization such as the IB to make such a change in their educational stance, policy and resources it must be considered to be something special.  Teaching and learning in IB MYP classrooms are now transforming from a place where the facts are learned and given back to a place where learning is based on concepts, and generalizations are leading to transfer.  No longer are questions in history class being asked like: "What were the significant events of WW2?", but now we seem then becoming more conceptual, still requiring the factual knowledge required by states and even the common core.  Questions are now more commonly asked in IB MYP classrooms like, "To what extend did the events of WW2 impact the social, economic and geographic structure of the world?"  In my math class, for example, I do not simple teach students about probability and statistics in isolation.  We learn how they can be used to inform our decisions.  The conceptual idea for my math class is that The Choices we make today will have a profound impact on the quality and quantity of our choices in the future.  The big idea here is that students need the facts and content knowledge of probability and statistics in order to make informed choices.  Without informed choices there will be poor decisions.  

The educational topic of concept based teaching and learning is beginning to have some serious effects on organizations such as the IB as well as the Common Core.  Many of the standards for history in the Common Core are now conceptual in nature, with more such  subject changes promised to come.

Sources:

Brady, M (2011).  Thinking Big: A Conceptual Framework For the Study of Everything.  Retrieved from http://pypacademymiami2011.wikispaces.com/file/view/BRADY+Eng.pdf

Erickson, H. L. (2007). Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom.  Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Corwin Press

Sackson, E. (2012).  Concept Driven Learning.  Retrieved from https://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/concept-driven-learning/

The International Baccalaureate.  http://www.ibo.org