5 Tips for Teachers fornthe First Week of School

I have had 16 first weeks of school.  I have learned the hard way about how to manage the stress and nerves.  This are my top 5 tips for a successful, calm and FUN first week.







#1 Know your schedule.

Knowing where you need to be and when will help you stay calm and confident.  There is nothing worse than finding out you are 10 minutes late for lunch and having to scramble to get the kids in line in the middle of an activity.  It will throw you off for the whole day.  Write down your schedule down to the minute and double check it.

#2 Everything will take longer than you expect.

I would always plan 12 fun activities and only actually have time for 3.  I learned to plan for the 3 activities really well to leave enough time for transitions and teaching routines.  If I had extra time, we could read an extra book, sing a song or play a fun team building game.  Be realistic about what you can actually accomplish the first week of school. It will allow you to be more relaxed and avoid the stress of feeling behind.

#3 Be flexible.

Remember that schedule I told you to write out to the minute?  Be prepared for things to change.  In a machine as complicated as a school, there will be unexpected glitches.  Adopt a flexible mindset and anticipate challenges. I have never had a first day of school where everything went as planned.  Never.  Things to be prepared for: late arriving buses, cafeteria delays, schedule conflicts, runners and criers, anxious parents, insects, reptiles and rodents.

#4 Follow the KISS principle.

Keep It Simple Stupid.  One year I planned for an activity that involved watercolors, glue and glitter.
 On the first day of school.  Horrible idea. After that, I would plan activities thinking, how can I make this as simple and foolproof as possible?  Easy = Low Stress = More Fun.  Trust me on this one.

#5 Have fun.

One of my top goals for the first week of school is for the students to have tons of FUN.  I want them to go home and tell mom and dad they LOVE school.  Your students can't have fun unless you are having fun.  Be sure to laugh and smile and feel joy.

Go Slow to Go Fast- the importance of the first days of school

Go Slow to Go Fast. 

I capitalize this phrase because it has become a kind of mantra for me whenever I am embarking on a new and important endeavor.  If you skip building the foundation, your house will crumble.  Crumbling houses/classrooms are not fun.  Ask me, I have been there.

Go Slow to Go Fast.  There are tons of parables, fables and stories that illustrate this point.  Tortoise and the Hare and Three Little Pigs are two examples.  Yet, when receiving our new students to our schools and classrooms in the first days of school, we are tempted to forget the pigs eaten and the loser rabbit.  

Here is my Go Slow advice to you:

Take it slow and teach the routines, procedures, rules and values that your students need to be successful both in and out of your classroom.  Model them, practice them, read about them, challenge them and celebrate them.  I give you permission to take it slow, break it down and give your students the tools to be successful this year.  

Take it slow for your own well being.  Breathe deep, be present in the moment, cherish the small things and be grateful.  Relax and smile.  Enjoy the struggle and learn.  The most important thing in the classroom is your relationship with your students. They don't care about prefect bulletin boards or the cutest name tags (though those things are very cool too).  They care about being in community with you and their classmates.  They want to belong. 

Lastly, take it slow to HAVE FUN with your students.  Everything you do should lead them believe that school is the most awesome place in the world and that you are their biggest fan.  Be that awesome teacher that you want to be and they will LOVE you for it.  

Sing from your heart and let everyone hear it,

Dance like everyone is watching and smile,

Love like you want your students to love,

Live like this is the best day ever. 

Happy new school year! 

Scott

Walking Dead- Teaching Through the Kidpocalypse

I was watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead and I was like, "Hey Rick!  Leave those poor zombies alone!  They are doing the best they can!"  Then it hit me.  I was a zombie too- one of the walking dead.

I see many of my colleagues have the zombie look in their eyes also.  Our life force is used up and we shuffle along, moaning softly inside our heads.  Our faces are masks of pain as we struggle to teach through allergies, colds, sinus infections, wracking coughs, vertigo, and nausea.  The cold, wet winter skies are the perfect backdrop for our misery.

This is compounded by the fact that we are teaching through the Kidpocalypse.  Our students are germ factories creating new superstrains of infection to test our already weak immune systems.  They are struggling just as badly as the teachers- too sick and tired to pay attention, not sick enough to stay home.  Their normally mild misbehaviors are flourishing into full fledged meltdowns, defiance, and work stoppages.

The good news is; it is almost over.  The cold wet days of winter will give way to bright sunshine and the warmth of spring.  Spring break is just around the corner. We will heal and gain back our lost strength.

Stay tuned for my next installment: Survival Kit for the Kidpocalypse.

The Power of Gratitude

My principal tricked me into being happy.  It was a clever ruse, and it worked.  We usually only get to wear jeans on Fridays.  To earn Jeans Passes to wear jeans on other days, all we had to do was tweet messages of gratitude to Twitter.  For each tweet we would receive one Jeans Pass.  It was unlimited.

Sensing a loophole in our "Business Casual" dress code, I counted out the number of days left in the quarter and set my goal of 21 tweets.  I could wear jeans everyday until our winter break.  Sweet.

I began to search for things I was grateful for at work- like my funny-sweets students, my hard working colleagues, and a working copy machine.  My brain became finely tuned to noticing things that were good around me so I could tweet them and earn more glorious jeans passes.

Then, I noticed something strange happening.  I was happy almost all the time.  I smiled at my students more and laughed at their jokes.  I hugged my wife tighter and loved on my own children more.  I said thank you more for the little things people did for me.  Even as we prepared for the end of the quarter with assessments, report cards, conferences and squirrely kids, I didn't feel stress; I felt peace.

Turns out my cunning principal had intended such an outcome.  He knew about the power of gratitude and had been reading about how it affects people and organizations.  It turns out that acts of gratitude have a bunch of positive effects.

Effects of gratitude:

• better immune system
• lower blood pressure
• more feelings of happiness and joy
• acting with greater compassion
• feeling less lonely

Once I knew what was happening, I began to be more intentional about my acts of gratitude (and less self serving).  I also introduced ways for my students to show gratitude to others in class.  Whenever I felt my self feeling down, I would list all the things I was grateful for and soon the cloud would lift.

So here is my assignment for you.  I don't have any Jeans Passes, but I do offer peace and happiness which are pretty good too.  

Find 10 things to be thankful for each day.  Write them down or say them aloud.  Watch what happens in your life :) 

Getting Pummeled by First Graders

Sometimes being a teacher makes me feel like Rocky Balboa in the 14th round.  If you don't recall, Rocky would usually get his ass kicked for 14 rounds and look like he was about to be knocked out completely by his vastly superior opponent.  He would have his gloves up and take punch after punch, getting knocked down and struggling back to his feet only to get pummeled some more. 

That was me yesterday afternoon.  Round 14.  

Here is a link to Rocky getting worked over in case you are unsure what I am talking about: Rocky

I think of Rocky in moments like that because I have to believe that I too will come back in the 15th round and through my courage and tenacity, emerge scarred but victorious.  I have to believe that or I would probably just quit and go work at Starbucks.  I am sure making fancy coffee is harder than it looks but it has to be easier than wrangling 26 first graders.

Let's hope today is round 15.  

Yo Adrian! I did it!

"But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward."  -Rocky

Time for MORE Recess

Sometimes when I am teaching in the afternoon, I feel exhausted.  I look at my first graders and see a glazed look in their eyes as they pretend to be interested. Occasionally a kid will just simply tip over and lay down.  I think to myself, if I feel this tired, they must feel ten times worse.  We get up and do some brain breaks, have dance parties and I throw in a random read aloud just for fun, but by 2:00 pm the kids are done learning.

Our recess comes at the very end of the day.  It is just how it works out in our school's schedule.  I am beginning to think though my students need and deserve more recess, especially earlier in the day.  I did some research about recess in elementary school and found that recess has tons of positive effects.

Some of the positive effects cited:

• increased attention
• increased cognitive functioning
• increased memory recall
• growth of social skills, such as leadership and negotiation
• better health and fitness

One of the big mistakes we make in education is assuming more is always better.  If we spend more time doing something, then we should get better results right?  I would argue that the opposite is true- once you pass the point of "enough" then you actually get negative results.  The brain can become saturated, overwhelmed and and begin to shut down.  We know this from our own experience and research confirms it. 

So what do I do about it?  I need to find at least 10 minutes in my morning schedule for a recess and plan a break mid-afternoon.  My students need to have a chance to recharge their brains and blow off some steam.  These breaks will pay for itself with increased attention later in the day when I am normally teaching to kiddos in total shut down.  

Now I charge you to take a thoughtful look at your students' or child's schedule and advocate for them if needed.  They need and deserve it.

In case you want to read more:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/1/183.full
http://usplaycoalition.clemson.edu/resources/articles/13.11.5_Recess_final_online.pdf
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/irtf/pdf/recess_elem_school.pdf
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/The_Benefits_of_Recess_in_Primary_School
http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200909/On%20Our%20Minds%20909.pdf

Teaching: It's a Marathon not a Sprint

It is around this time of year I have to remind myself- dude slow down.  The excitement of a new school year makes me want to pour all my energy and soul into my work.  I talk too loud, move too fast and stay on my feet all day.  I eat poorly and get dehydrated.  It is hard not to give 120% right now.

BUT, there are 177 more days left.

We need to pace ourselves to go the distance.  Every year I see new teachers going like sprinters early in the year and then losing their voices and getting incredibly sick.  By November they look haggard, emotionally drained and ready to cry.  In some areas, up to 50% or urban teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years.  I have beat this statistic because I know that teaching is a marathon, not a sprint.  In fact, it is a multi-year marathon. 

So here are some tips from a guy who has done this before:

• Sit down whenever you can.  Take a moment to sit and talk to students, reflect or just be.  Even cheetahs spend most of the day laying down or sleeping.  
• Eat good food and drink loads of water.  Make sure you take the time to sit down and eat.  Be sure you have good snacks to sustain you and bottles of water on hand.
• Talk less.  When we talk too much and too loud our students stop listening and we lose our voices, figuratively and literally.  Use non-verbal gestures whenever you can.  
• Slow down.  Walk slower, talk slower, move slower.  It will help regulate your nervous and circulatory systems to a more sustainable level of excitement. 
• Breathe deep.  I actually put a poster on the wall accross from where I teach to remind me to do this.  It helps everything.  Do it.  Now.
• Have fun.  Take time to just have fun with your students.  Be silly, sing a song, read a funny book.  Laughter can renew us (and our students).
• Share the pain.  You don't need to be a hero.  Share how you are feeling with your co-workers.  They are feeling it too and it is good to know you are not alone.  

Grit and the Growth Mindset: Classroom Game Plan

In the past year I have come to be more and more convinced that the most important thing I can do for my students is help them develop grit.  Last March, I posted about what grit is and my thoughts on how it could be taught in the classroom.  Unfortunately, as I dabbled last spring in trying to foster a gritter classroom, I didn't see the results I had hoped for with my students.


This led me to my last post, Growth Mindset in the Classroom, What NOT to do.   I outlined some practices I am going to do my best to eliminate from my classroom.  I found that even if you teach students about and model a growth mindset, it isn't enough to overcome their own basises they have already developed at age 7.  Furthermore, I have come to believe that the way I was measuring student achievement, celebrating student learning, and responding to student mistakes may have contributed to students developing a fixed mindset.

This post is going to be a Game Plan for developing a gritty classroom which pushes all students to adopt a growth mindset.  I am going to write down my intentions as a starting place to develop my own teaching practice, and hopefully create a more effective classroom for my students.  It is my aspiration that I can help them develop a mindset that will last a lifetime.

Caveat: I am not saying I have all the answers.  In fact, if you, dear reader, have any ideas to add, please share them in the comments section.  With your help, I can make this plan even better.  I look forward to your juicy strategies and techniques.

The Growth Mindset Game Plan - Part I

1.  Celebrate Mistakes.  From the first day of school I will teach students that mistakes are how you learn.  I will model this by making my mistakes transparent and explaining what I am learning from them.  I will also create some simple posters celebrating mistakes to keep this idea present at all times and make it clear to anyone who is in the room teaching what this class believes.  Lastly, I will share stories of people, such as Helen Keller and Albert Einstein, that used their mistakes to learn to do great things.  And perhaps most importantly, I will try to always frame student mistakes as a positive experience.

2.  Growth Oath.  I will develop a growth mindset oath that my students and I can read at the beginning of class each day.  I am a big believer in "fake it until you make it".  Developing a growth mindset will be difficult for some students.  Stating our aspirations over and over will help them
make the mental leap when they are ready.

3.  Track Growth.  Last year we had a classroom tracker on the wall for reading levels.  It was based on trying to achieve a benchmark goal.  As students moved to a new level, they moved their name card to the next numbered level.  What this tracker didn't do was measure growth.  Some students were already meeting their benchmark goal in September but only grew one level all year.  Other students started as pre-readers and grew 5 levels.  I want a tracker that celebrates how much a student grows.  I plan on expanding this idea to other trackers such as math and MAP testing.  It will have all students beginning at zero and move up as they make growth.  Ultimately I want students to internalize that the way we measure success is by progress, not product.

4. Lessons on Grit.   One of my school's values is tenacity.  I will make grit an extension of what it means to have tenacity.  I will make grit explicit by teaching lessons about why it is important and how it is developed.  I will give lessons on how each person can actually grow their brain by making mistakes and learning from them.  Mindset Works has a program I plan to use as a model.

5. Teach Parents about Growth Mindset.  I am not sure how to do this yet to be perfectly honest.  I do know that it essential that I get parents on board to support this initiative.  This will include a letter home, part of our first Saturday school, and part of our conferences.  At minimum I want parents communicating to their child the key messages:  I believe in you.  You can do this.  I will not give up on you.  Mistakes are how you learn.

Pause for the Cause: Yoda

Yoda was the ultimate Zen teacher.  He never got mad, he always had just the right thing to say, he totally understood the forces governing the universe.  I am not Yoda, but I do try channel him in the classroom.  

Yoda knew that to do something worthwhile. you could not do it in half measure, or with fear in your heart.  You must instead believe in yourself with your full heart, banish self-doubt, and DO what you do best.  May the Force be with you.

Pause for the Cause: Bruce Lee

Today's pause is focused on the words of Bruce Lee.  I had always thought of Bruce Lee as a Martial Artists guru and movie actor.   Lee was also a teacher of the Martial Arts.  Teaching and learning transcend all field s of knowledge; the essence of what we do as teachers is common, no matter the content.   What makes Lee resonate so strongly with me is that he had a unique style of Martial Arts he developed himself- The Way of No Way.  Meaning he believed one must break from the rigid forms and styles of traditional martial arts and combine what works best for your own practice. 

As a teacher I couldn't agree more.  Teachers must find The Way of No Way for their own teaching style: find what works best for you and your students, be prepared to fail and try again, and keep positive outlook despite countless challenges. Go ahead, jump in the water today.

Growth Mindset in the Classroom: What NOT to do

A while back I wrote about grit and it's importance in the classroom.  I even included some simple tips that you can use to foster grit in the classroom.  Looking back to last year, I used those tips in my own classroom but still felt I fell short in inspiring my first graders to have a true growth mindset.  Maybe it was just too little to late.  Perhaps I didn't do enough to tip the balance.  It is possible I even had routines and language which ran counter to my own goals.  The beauty of teaching is that you get a "do over" every year.

Looking forward to a new school year, I decided I needed a game plan to follow to create the type of classroom culture that would nourish the grown mind set and set the stage for building grit in my students.  Before a student even steps through my door this August, I will have my Growth Mindest Game Plan ready to go.  That will be the topic of my next post.  First, I have to decide what I need to eliminate from my teaching practice and classroom that prevent the growth mindset from flourishing.

Like most people, I like to believe that I have a growth mindset and teach my students to believe in themselves.  However, the more I have read on the topic, the more I have come to realize that I have inadvertently been sabotaging my student's ability to maintain a growth mindset. I recently read this well written and cited post by Steve Gardiner, Stop the Pay, Stop the Play, which helped me define 4 things I was doing wrong in my classroom.  I need to clean the slate before I can begin my Game Plan.

So here is my list of what NOT to do this year:

1) Do not tell students they are smart when they solve a problem.  

This is easier said than done.  It even seems like a good idea.  Kids like to hear they are smart.  But telling kids they are smart actually reduces their motivation to seek challenging activities.  In a study by Carol Dweck of Stanford University, students who were praised for being smart on an IQ test, tended to choose less challenging later in the experiment.  Students who were praised for their hard work chose more challenging tasks.

2) Do not use rewards to encourage good work.

I am not typically in favor of rewards and incentives for kids when it comes to education.  There is plenty of evidence that rewards lead to lower intrinsic motivation.  Read Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn if you are a skeptic.  Here is a link to an interview with the author that is a quick and interesting read from Educational Leadership magazine. The momentum in schools to give rewards to kids is endemic.  I often find myself agreeing to different reward systems in the interest of "collaboration".  This year I will do better about making a stand.

3) Do not use praise to manipulate kids into doing something.

But it works so well!  "I love how Johnny is sitting!"  Boom, all the kids sit just like Johnny.  They want the praise candy too.  Growth mindset it about developing the intrinsic desire to improve yourself- not about pleasing others.  My praise candy will eventually erode my students' desire to work hard at self control.  Even if it works really well for the teacher.  *This is distinct from reinforcing language, which is not designed to manipulate other children.

4) Do not praise the product of a child's work without praising the the process that created it.

If you praise the product, say a 100% on a math test, it can actually diminish the student's desire to work.  See Steve Gardiner, Stop the Pay, Stop the Play for more details on this.  The main idea is that how the student was able to achieve the result is far more important than the result itself when building growth mind sets.  In addition, recognizing and celebrating growth is far more important than only recognizing the students who meet certain benchmarks.  For one child, 100% on a math test is easy.  For another child, growth from 50% to 70% on the math test takes an incredible effort.

So that's my list of what not to do.  I would love to hear from my readers their thoughts and insights in the comments section.  Stay tuned for my next post about my Growth Mindest Game Plan.

*Reinforcing Language: This is noticing what a child does well in order to reinforce positive behaviors.  It is different than praise candy because it done in private, or to a whole group.  It is mean to describe what was done well, and the process that created the positive outcome, so that the behavior can be repeated in the future.  In the about example you could say in private, "Johnny, I saw that you came and sat down right away.  That helped our team get started on our learning right away! What did you do that helped you get ready so fast?"

Going to the Darkside- coming back from from a bad teacher day

Me at 10:30 a.m.- worst. teacher. ever.

Spring fever has set in.  The kids in first grade are gettin' ROWdy.  My patience, is well, a bit lacking.  I try to put on a Zen face but about 9:15 a.m. I starting to lose.it.  By 10:00 I am considering the possibility of calling parents. By 10:45 I am considering that I might need to call 911 because I am having an aneurysm..

I call it, going to the Darkside.  

The movie Star Wars was a big thing when I was a little kid.  I had Star Wars underwear, Star Wars sheets, a Star Wars lunch box and I was Luke Skywalker and Yoda for several Halloweens.  So, you can see that the Jedi mythology runs pretty deep for me.

Basically, the Force is both Light and Dark.  Going to the Darkside means that you have succumbed to the lure or the Dark force and now are using your Jedi (teaching) powers for evil.

Going to the Darkside when you are teaching means that, even though you know better, you lose the ability to do what you know works with kids to get them motivated and engaged.  You lecture them about how they are not meeting EXPECTATIONS and that you are strongly considering sending them back to the previous grade.  You zero in on the tiniest infraction and use it as yet another example of how the students are not ready for the next grade.  "You dropped you pencil!  Do you think second graders drop their pencil?  NO!  And, BY THE WAY, they don't eat the ERASERS either!"


It is at this point either you A) continue on your dark path and become the teacher you always hated in school, or B) seek the path back to the Light.  The path back to the Light involves admitting that you are being an awful teacher and that you are sorry for not being perfect.  Once you have made this crucial step, you must regain the balance in the force.

The only way you can do this is by restoring the positive energy you lost with your students by doing something FUN.  And mean doing something fun WITH them.  You can't have your Jedi mojo back unless you get your Silly on.

Here are 3 things I will do with my students to get my Force back in balance:

I really hate this song but the kids LOVE it, so I will shake it to:
What Does the Fox Say
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYKqlz59lo

I like yoga and I like weird so: 
Cosmic Kids Yoga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY8xx7c6_z0

This guy is amazing.  I wish he was my teacher.  I have used many of his "tips" in the last couple years.  If I can channel a little of his Force, I am golden:
Teacher Tipster
http://www.teachertipster.com/

Hopefully, I will be a better, more cheerful teacher tomorrow.  

But, as Yoda says,

“Do or do not. There is no try.”