It Might Not Be About the Nail: The Key to Parent Conversations

      After being a new teacher and now mentoring new teachers, parent communication is an important topic that I feel like is often overlooked in education programs.  Yes, teachers are often taught ways to mass communicate expectations and standards, but rarely are teachers taught how to deal one-on-one with a parent concern or when a parent is upset. So, our immediate reaction is to get defensive.
     Any why not?  I feel like more and more of my job is becoming documentation of, or defending, the choices I make in my classroom.  I make notes on spreadsheets for why I chose to give students an infraction, or an office referral, or why I chose one strategy over another to teach a specific skill, like why I used a t-chart over a Venn Diagram.  The knee-jerk reaction is to get on the defensive side to once again explain our actions.  But just because defending my choices is my first reaction doesn't make it the right one.
     I had the opportunity to hear Gerry Brooks speak at the 2017 Teacher Blogger Retreat in French Lick, Indiana.  (Honestly, if you can say that town's name without laughing, you're a Hoosier!)  His whole keynote was about climate, culture, and how we create those in our classrooms.  A big chunk of that is how to create the right climate and culture with parents and guardians of our students.
     I returned to school to earn my teaching licensure after completing a degree in Communication.  One of my favorite courses was Interpersonal Communication and how we create positive communication with small groups.  One of my big takeaways was I vs. You statements, which I still use in teaching.
     You statements put someone on the defensive, like it almost corners them so that being defensive is just about their only option.  Think of it this way: a parent checks their student's grades and isn't happy.  They email you and and write, "You gave my student a C on this assignment?  Why did you give them that grade?"  It puts us in a corner.  We now have to defend why the student earned a C.  "Little Johnny earned a C because he never completed one homework assignment all quarter, after I gave him until even the 9th week of the quarter to make up everything.  He never wants to do work in my room."  Sound familiar?  Well, the "You" statement backed the teacher into a corner, and they used absolute language like "never", which will then put a parent into a corner. The problem is yes, we might have a right to say Johnny does nothing, but it doesn't mean we are right saying it.
     Brooks stated that no matter what a parent emails a teacher about, the root cause is the parent wants to know their child is safe and happy.  The C is concerning for a parent that wants their child to  make good grades, to earn scholarship money, to get into a good college, to get a great education, to better prepare themselves for a fantastic career, that will in return make them happy and safe.  A parent is angry that their child can't go on a field trip because they didn't turn in their permission slip?  Really, that parent is concerned about their child's happiness, they are not angry at the teacher.        Much like this video - it isn't about the nail, so to speak.

     When communicating with parents, it is important to think about their perspective - remember, it might not be about the nail. Don't think about how it is being said, but really listen to what is being said.  Ask for specifics and respond professionally.  Finally, remember you are never talking to just one parent.  Your conversation will be repeated at the next PTO meeting, a birthday party, the grocery store, etc.  Don't put yourself in the position where the only thing a parent might know about you comes from an angry parent.

Love and Sparkle,

Stop the burnout: Here's the secret to engaging students without exhausting yourself

     In the past few years, I have felt a push to make sure all of my reading lessons are "rigorous" and "engaging".  So, like most teachers, I turned to Pinterest to find engaging lessons with rigorous texts.  I was printing, making, gluing, laminating, glittering (I'm choosing to believe that is a word), and any other thing I could do to create engagement.  And to be honest, I could feel myself burning out...quickly.
    Then, I met two of my professional heroes - Kylene Beers and Bob Probst.  During their presentation, they said, "Teachers are making themselves exhausted trying to create interest.  Use an interesting text and you will get engagement."  Whoa!  I remember sitting up a bit more in my chair because I felt like they were talking directly to me.  There were three things they suggested about the texts we use in class:

"1. Relevance is about keeping their attention.  Relevance equals engagement.  2. Rigor resides in the energy and attention given to the text, not the text itself.  3. When kids finish reading, they want to talk."

     It was one of those moments where I was like, "Duh! This is so obvious, why didn't I think of it?" I was spending all of my time trying to create interest by making all of these gimmicks I found on TeachersPayTeachers or Pinterest, but in reality, what I needed to do was start the lesson with a better text.
    When I returned to school after the conference, my goal was to find more relevant texts, because I felt like more relevant texts would naturally lead into more talking (I needed to show them how to talk, but how could they talk about something they didn't find interesting?) and rethink what I was asking students to do with the text.
    I was so nervous in the beginning because I was spending a really long time finding texts.  I kept wondering, "Will this be worth it?"  What would happen if I spent all of this time finding a text, and creating 2-3 discussion questions to start us off, but nothing else?  Would we just sit and stare at each other?  Will this be considered "rigorous"?
     As I spent my time finding more relevant texts for my students, I realized that a relevant text was all I really did need.  The relevant text was enough.  Relevant texts led to kids wanting to talk about what they were reading, and since they had so many ideas, it led to deeper, thoughtful class discussions.
    Finding the right text really does transform your class...and keeps you from wanting to pull out your hair!  Spend less time on "perfect" lessons, and more time on finding the right texts to increase engagement.  That is the perfect lesson!

Here are some of my favorite places to find engaging texts:

Argumentative:  Anything from the Room For Debate section of the New York Times is great!  Check  out this text set on Participation Trophies go get your middle schoolers talking!

Informational:  Excerpts from Chew on This and Garbology are nothing short of amazing.  Lots of information leads to kids wanting to talk about these for hours!  Check out this excerpt from Chew on This.

Narrative:  Pictures! Lots of inferencing required, which leads to  lots of class discussion on perspective.  Here's a unit I created using pictures from the Civil Rights Movement to teach narrative writing. 

Love and Sparkle,

What Good Professional Development Does for Teachers and How to Make PD Good

   

     I start every school year feeling like I can change the world, one student at a time. I really do.  Going back to school after summer break is easy because I truly believe in the power of education. Education is the key for social justice.  Education is the great equalizer.  I love teaching and the joy of each day's adventure.  However, ask me if I love my job around testing season (February-April), and I'm sure the response won't be pretty.  Except for this year.  This year was different than the others.

     Our school was awarded a grant that has given us professional development opportunities that we could only dream of before this year.  In the past year, I talked about argumentative writing strategies with Kelly Gallagher, learned ways to engage kids in a rigorous text from Kylene Beers and Bob Probst, discussed goal and technique charts with Lucy Calkins, came up with academic vocabulary lessons (and triggers!) with Kristina Smekens, and laughed at school day shenanigans with Gerry Brooks (twice!).   Not only did I get to hear them speak, but each opportunity kind of rekindled that back-to-school eagerness that starts to smolder around the third quarter of school.

     That's what good professional development does for a teacher.  It empowers, encourages, and engages teachers for the work ahead.  This doesn't happen easily, though. Want to make sure your PD is one teachers love?  Here are the 3 things teachers want from PD:

All the materials I received
at the Smekens Literacy Retreat

Lessons that are ready to use

There are times to talk theory and there are times to talk strategies.  A good PD talks strategies immediately.  My favorite thing about the PDs I've attended this year is that each one gave me strategies I could immediately use in my classroom with very little prep.  For example, after an entire session on tangible triggers for lessons, Kristina Smekens then gave every teacher those triggers, including a card to explain how to implement the trigger in the lesson.  

Opportunities to collaborate

When I hear a great idea, my first instinct is to turn to my colleague and say something like, "We could totally use it for..." and then they will usually explain how they were thinking we could use it.  I give my kids time to talk to each other to make sense of what we're doing in class, and I want the same from a PD.  I need that time to collaborate with my colleagues and bounce ideas off of each other.  Kylene Beers and Bob Probst did a great job of providing that "turn and talk" time during their sessions at the National Reading Recovery Conference in January.  Like they mentioned, "The smartest person in the room...is the room."  I'm an okay teacher, but the opportunity to discuss new things with my colleagues makes me a much better teacher!

Humor

Teaching is a stressful job.  Any opportunity we get to laugh at the ridiculously funny things that happen during our day makes that job a little easier, and a good presenter recognizes that.  Gerry Brooks is phenomenal at this.  Brooks engages the audience by getting us to laugh at the absurd-to-any-other-profession events that happen in our day, and then uses those events to teach us valuable lessons, like unwritten teacher-code when talking to parents and then teaching how to effectively communicate with parents.

Professional Development not only teaches new strategies, but when well-executed, it also gives much needed inspiration.  Be sure to leave your favorite PDs in the comments!

Love and Sparkle,

Narrative Writing: The Most Undervalued Element of the Language Arts Curriculum

     During a recent meeting, I was shocked when I felt like the importance of narrative writing was questioned.  No one was trying to diminish the work of an ELA teacher, but really, just trying to decide where does it fit in the middle school literacy curriculum, and how does the ELA curriculum support Social Studies and Science.  More or less, the rationale was the narrative writing is taught in grades K-5, so why is there such an importance in grades 6-12?

     As a teacher, I understand there are too many standards for kids to master in grades K-12.  In fact, if a teacher were to truly teach each standard to student mastery, we would need to change K-12 to K-22 before sending them off to college.  As the leader of my classroom, I choose which standards need our attention, and for how long. Sure, we have a pacing guide, but I'm not tied to it. During a quarter that focuses Reading Literature standards, I can choose how long my students need to spend on narrative writing in that time frame.  And as long as I have an option, I will always teach narrative writing because I see a great value in it. Narrative writing is the most undervalued element of the ELA classroom.

Student works on autobiography portfolio unit.
This student stated it was her favorite project 
of the year, and her favorite assignment since 
starting middle school.

     Narrative writing is still important in grades 6-12 for a myriad of reasons.  Narrative writing and storytelling is something our students do everyday, from telling friends what happened over the weekend to describing the cafeteria food fight to the dean.  Narrative writing and telling a story in a logical sequence is a relevant skill students - and adults - use daily, whether school officials want to believe it or not.

     I think one of the reasons for narrative writing's bad rap in grades 6-12 is that the wording of the standard doesn't drastically change, leading some to believe that narrative writing is just a repetition of previous years.  In middle school, it isn't.  This is a time for students to explore with structure - start with the exposition or the climax?  It is a time for students to play with the timing - do we slow down time with lots of description of the short time, do we use a technique like a flashback? Basically, the standard becomes as rigorous the teacher makes it.

     Most importantly, though, is that this is a time for students to find their voice.  Our kids see and experience so much in their lives.  Writing about it, processing it, working through it is therapeutic.  The creative release of narrative writing is something some kids seek and relish during their school day.

     I've been reading Disrupting Thinking by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst (expect a book review on here soon).  If you've read anything else from Beers, you'll remember her anecdotes from Marcus, an 8th grader in 2008.  His story is very haunting for me because I know his story is very similar to some of my students.  When asked about his spiral notebook, he replies "its kinda private" and that the writing he does in his notebook is the "wrong kinda writing for school" because it doesn't have topic sentences.  With his full notebook, it is obvious Marcus is a writer, yet he doesn't see himself as one.  In fact, when asked if likes to write, he responded with "No I don't think so.  I got a D in writing last year.  I turned in this one paper about the time my dad came for a visit and the teacher says it was good but it had agreement errors and that was why it had to get a D."

     Have we really reduced good writing to nothing but topic sentences and subject-verb agreement?

     Similar to Marcus, I have a student who lost a parent this fall.  Just two weeks ago, we worked on a visual I Am poem.  Students wrote the poem, then created a slideshow of images to go along with the poem, and then used Screencastify to record themselves reciting the poem over the images being displayed.  The student chose to write about her mother's death, and what her life is like now without her mother here with her.  She is a reluctant writer on most days, but spent a week on this project, perfecting every line, every word.  When recording, she rushed through the poem because she didn't want to start crying.  She stopped the recording and then started to tear up.  "Moman, that's the first time I've said any of that stuff out loud.  You know, I think it all the time, but I thought saying it would just make me more sad.  It didn't though.  I liked remembering my mom."  Narrative writing that allows for reflection - on an life event, on yourself, anything - helps our students grow in ways that we can't fully understand

     Common Core's push for more argumentative and informational writing has made several administrators and Language Arts teachers question how much time classrooms spend on narrative writing. Topic sentences, claims, good evidence,and attribution are all important, don't get me wrong.  But in real life, argumentative writing is best when supported with a strong narrative.  Kelly Gallagher urges us to think to about it in his book, In The Best Interest of Students.  Gallagher states that during the State of the Union Address, while the president is convincing other legislators the importance in his initiatives, he stops to point to at the crowd, illustrating the story of everyday Americans whose stories support his agenda.  We have to balance the writing genres our students are exposed to in order to make sure we have a well-rounded student.

     While argumentative and informational writing are important skills, our students having a voice and the opportunity express themselves in our classrooms should be the forefront of our teaching.  Forget the subject-verb agreement.  Narrative writing that gives students an outlet for creative expression is the "why" in my classroom.

Love and Sparkle,

     

They Work Hard for the Money: Rewarding Middle School Students with a Token Economy

I love my kids.  I really do.  And I love working with them everyday.  But, if we can be honest for a minute, if something happened and I didn't get my paycheck one Friday, I would be finding a different job.  I'm not in teaching for the money; however, my paycheck that is used to buy me a Cookies-n-Cream milkshake from Chick-fil-a during a stressful week is my incentive to work really hard. Without it, I would definitely move on to something else that could bankroll my milkshakes.

While seeing my kids grow throughout the year is definitely a reward for me, so is my paycheck.  This is why I fully believe in rewarding students for their hard work.  I am asking them to think critically, dig deeper, and work hard every single day in my room.  I am pushing them outside their comfort zone, and because of that, they are growing so much, but that doesn't make the work any less challenging. Going to school is a job for our students, and while a good education is the outcome, they really need something immediate and tangible for their efforts, much like teachers get a paycheck for their work.

What the students earn, how they earn it, and what they can spend it on are the important concepts of an token economy system.  Hopefully this post will give you some ideas for all three parts.

1. School Money

When I first started teaching middle school, our 6th grade teams had team money that was used as an incentive.  The next year, that concept was incorporated throughout the whole school.  Our students can earn Raider Bucks (our mascot is a Raider) from any staff or faculty member in the building.  Raider Bucks come in $1 and $5 bills.  It is up to each teacher to determine what warrants Raider Bucks in their classroom.  I give Raider Bucks for sharing writing pieces, 100% on tests or quizzes, improvement on progress monitoring tests for reading, answering questions, as Reading Counts prizes, and doing anything "extra" (helping others when finished, proofreading papers for others, etc.).

2. Prize Wheel

The Prize Wheel is a big hit in our room!

Sometimes, just handing out the Raider Bucks gets to be a little monotonous.  To help switch it up, I bought this prize wheel from Amazon last year. (Click here to purchase it.) Kids love it - it really adds another "umph" of motivation.  For example, if we are working on Moby Max skills in class, I might say, "Okay, for 20 minutes, anyone who earns an 80% or higher on a skill will get to spin the prize wheel."  They go crazy!  Student show me their screen so I can see where they've earned it, and then they spin the prize wheel.  They can earn Raider Bucks or candy from it.  Another time we use it is when we play Kahoot!  Top three winners get to spin the wheel as their prize.  Nothing is more entertaining than first place getting $1 Raider Buck, but third place winning candy!  Their faces are priceless!

3. Prize Closet

Prize Closet visits happen once a month.

Students can use Raider Bucks at our school Success Store on items like pencils, calculators, notebooks, erasers, lanyards, hat passes, lunch level passes, and all sorts of other items.  It is a work of art!  Anyway, I wanted kids to be able to spend the money in my room, too, so I created a Prize Closet.

We do Prize Closet about once a month, and it usually takes between 15-20 minutes.  I sell mechanical pencils, eraser, posters, books, bracelets, nail wraps, games, craft supplies (tie-dye kits are really popular with my kids!), stickers, and anything else I think the kids will buy with their Raider Bucks.  The best part is that most of the items are free to me, or really inexpensive.  The books are usually free books from Scholastic orders, craft supplies and games are usually donated (one kid's

Inside of the Prize Closet. The lights mean it
is open for business!

junk is another kid's treasure), and the Dollar Tree is perfect for cheap, fun prizes.

4. Reward Coupons

The most popular items in the Prize Closet cost no more than the paper used for printing.  My students love purchasing different coupons I have created.  I have coupons for lunch in my room with three friends, music during writing time, 15 minutes of computer game time, no homework pass, extra time to work on an assignment, and a class game.  I make the cards about the size of a business card, and then I use library pockets to store them on the doors of the cabinet. (See the picture of the Prize Closet).

Click here to download the Reward Coupons from my TeachersPayTeachers store - for FREE!

5. Popcorn Fridays

A student enjoying popcorn
while reading.

Last school year, I really wanted to add another reward for students.  My students love food and will do just about anything for a food reward, but I didn't want it to be too unhealthy.  So, I thought a popcorn reward would be okay, and relatively cheap.  However, I wanted the popcorn machine to be in my room, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting popcorn from our concession stand to my classroom.  I put up a Donor's Choose project for a popcorn machine and it was funded!  Once a month, students can spend $30 Raider Bucks to buy a bag of popcorn to eat during Independent Reading.


These are just some of the ways I reward my kiddos.  What kind of rewards and incentives do you use in your classroom?  Be sure to share your ideas in the comments!

Love and Sparkle,