Student Achievement Best Practices: How to Get Creative

And the Moral of the Story Is...

By Portia Scott, 9th and 10th grade inclusion teacher

Here is a poem, or short story if you will, about getting school work done. As far as best practices are concerned, it is something that I have used with students to teach a variety of literary elements. Additionally, teachers with whom I have shared this find it worth a smile. And the moral of the story is, with the hectic schedules of educators that include instructing, grading, meetings, parent contacts, standardized tests, scaffolding, differentiated instruction, and a plethora of other necessary requirements, sometimes we have to remember to take a break and have a little laugh.

"Please Let Summer End"

By Portia Scott copyright 2012

I’m on the inside, yes on the inside the facts are hard to take.
For the last nine months, nine very long months, I’ve craved my summer break.

Where I sit, it’s nice and cool, not one drop of sweat on me.
But outside, where freedom reigns, other children enjoy liberty.

How did I get here, one might ask, I can now calmly speak.
But when I was first given my fate, I felt like a busted boat headed up a stinky creek.

Things begin as they usually do with all the fuss and drama.
We study math, history, science, English and how to use the comma.

My parents scream. My teachers nag. They are all overreacting.
I wish they could just chill-out and give me a break. I know what I am doing.

Assignments come, assignments go; I get most of them done.
Life really is one big bowl of cherries and I just want to have fun.

The bell has rung. The doors spring open. The students now spew out.
On the street there is a mass exodus as we embrace our familiar routes.

There’s smiling and laughing, clapping and shouting, and even the stamping of feet.
“It’s over! We made it!” someone cried. “Leave those teachers in the agony of defeat.”

Left behind is the path of studying; the streets are all ablaze.
“Cheers to us!” We toast in celebration as our juice pouches are raised.

So long, adios, sayonara, arrivederci--parting comes with no sorrow to leave 4th grade.
It is time to relax and get started with fun; our best-laid plans have been made.

Forging ahead I set my sights on the game store and the local swimming pool.
In celebration of the day’s release, friends “tweet” each other terms like, “righteous,” “gnarly” and “way cool.”

Today is a day for transition. I am reborn, revived, renewed.
I am the sultan of summertime and will now get to do what I want to do.

My morning breakfast has given me great strength. I left not one single Cheerio.
Far behind me are the books, paper, and pencils. I am ready to let the good times roll.

I am covered in sunscreen. I have my hat, my toy, and my towel.
In just a few minutes, I will be out the door. Ooooo I could really howl.

On the fresh horizon, what a beautiful sight, I see sweet shimmering bliss.
When you are 9 ½ in Texas, it doesn’t get any better than this.

All of a sudden my plans are halted; I think I might just pass out.
My eyes well up and my knees buckle. This is more than a little bad, without a doubt.

On the kitchen counter with all the mail, I see a letter from the school I attend.
The envelope is open. No one is around. So, I decide to peek in.

One B, three Cs, a D and two Fs, I thought I was too big to cry.
But as my tears splashed on the words “Summer School,” I knew I could kiss my sweet summer fun good-bye.

I’m in distress. My life is over. I’m head toward the pearly gates.
I beg and plead for just one more chance, but alas, it is too late.

Now here I sit for the next six weeks, six very long weeks as a matter of fact.
Today’s events have been horrific and traumatic. I must straighten up my act.

Believe you me, this won’t happen again. I promise I have learned my lesson.
I do not want spend an eternity in 4th grade, again with Mrs. Wesson.

Books are important; school is too. I’ve got to give it my all.
I’ve changed. I’m new. You’ll see a better me. Just you wait until next fall.

Can you find:
-alliteration
-simile
-metaphor
-onomatopoeia
-foreign words
-hyperbole
-idiom
-allusion
-foreshadowing
-flashback
-theme
-plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution-also called The Witch’s Hat)


Portia Scott is a 9th and 10th grade inclusion teacher at Longview High School in Longview, Texas. She has taught high school for 2 years, elementary for 1 year and taught in higher education for 4 years.

Formative Assessment: The Key to Maximizing Student Potential

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Elizabeth Williams, Math Teacher

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When I started teaching fresh out of college four years ago, I thought that I would be able to teach my students math using the same methods my teachers used. We were taught the material, did homework every night for practice, and then took a test at the end of every chapter.  My first year of teaching I covered nearly the whole Algebra curriculum using this method. The students did not do well on tests and never did their homework. This method was not working. I thought my goal was to TEACH everything, now I realize that my goal is for the students to LEARN as much as they can. The key to this change in mentality is to use formative assessments, not summative assessments. Formative assessments should give students feedback to reflect on and make goals to improve their knowledge and understanding.

Feedback is a critical component of assessment. I use responders in my lessons so that students get immediate individual feedback whether they are right or wrong. We also have discussions about how someone could have reached an incorrect answer. Personal interaction between the teacher and student is also important for students to understand where they need to improve. Another type of feedback is the teacher’s comments on a test. Questions should not just be right or wrong, students should know where they make a mistake.

Once feedback is given, students need to be taught how to use that feedback to improve. Students should look at each question that was incorrect and assess whether it was a careless error or they didn’t understand. If they didn’t understand they need to ask the teacher or another student to help. Then they should redo the problem. The teacher should give them credit for redoing the problem correctly. Once they have reflected on the reasons for their errors, students need to make specific goals to improve.

Finally, the teacher needs to ask the question:  “Are students ready to move on?” Sometimes the students should be retested after the topics have been taught using different methods. The teacher should make specific goals regarding what to do differently and where the students need to be before the class goes to the next topic.

I don’t cover nearly as much material as I used to, but I feel like my students actually LEARN more.  Both teachers and students need to make reflect on their work and make specific goals to reach their full potential.

Elizabeth Williams, Math Teacher, Midland Trail High School, WV

About the Author: I am in my fourth year teaching math in WV.  I graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics from Davidson College and a M.A. in Teaching from Marshall University.  I love trying new teaching strategies and using technology in the classroom.

How to Use Effective Manipulatives for Student Achievement

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Tanya Villacis, 3rd Grade Teacher

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It’s so easy to get caught up in grades and standardized testing when you’re a teacher. They are detrimental to development in the classroom for they serve as baselines and checkpoints; however, that’s not what makes a classroom a truly enjoyable place to be. Those data stipulations and necessities are my responsibility to burden and bear; not my students’. I maintain focus on student achievement by ensuring that my lessons and daily activities are engaging and relatable to my 3rd graders. I aim to keep learning fun, hands on, and intriguing. My personal goal is to never teach a lesson the same exact way as I did the years prior. My student development correlates to how connected my students are to the lesson being taught.

The core of my teaching is centered on technology. 80% of the activities we do in class require the use of my interactive whiteboard. With my Mimio I can involve my students in the development of the lesson. Rather than being strictly observers of the lesson, they are applying and enhancing the information being presented with personal input and student application.

Hands on lessons are my favorite approach to teaching, especially in math. Recently, my students and I were working on perimeter. Perimeter is a fairly simple concept for students to understand, but when you give them a polygon on grid paper and ask them to count the units, things often get perplexing. As an educator I’m always looking for ways to better student understanding and ensure mastery. I turned to the trusty contributors of Pinterest and found a great idea! Someone pinned a picture which showed students using Cheeze-Its for counting perimeter. What a novel idea! I was only disappointed in the notion that I didn’t think of this before.

The following day, I put the idea to the test and my students are tough critics. My students and I used the edible manipulatives to practice the skill. They were so enthralled and committed to the lesson from start to finish! At the end, one of my little darlings came to me and said, “Oh, Ms. V. I won’t be afraid to take the perimeter test or if I see a question on the FCAT (A standardized test we take in Florida), I will know exactly what to do!” She was so sincere in her statement, which gave me goose bumps. To know that I relieved some of her fears and apprehensions on a specific skill reminded me why I selected this profession. There is no better reminder to focus on student development than watching the “AH HA, light bulb” moments of your little kiddos.

I have been teaching 3rd grade for 2 ½ years. When I’m not planning, cutting out center activities, and grading papers, I enjoy going to the theater, reading, and spending time with family and friends.

How a Trouble Child Became an A-Student in 1 Week

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Rhonda Rountree, Reading Specialist

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image courtesy of fctd.info

One thing that I learned by accident a few years ago was give students a chance.  One day while teaching 3rd grade many years ago, I received a call from the office that I had a new student.  I sent down one of my current students to get “Johnny” and escort him to my room.  His parents had to leave and weren’t able to come and meet me that day. 

When Johnny came in my room, I showed him his seat and told him what we were working on.  I wasn’t able to get any information except his name, address, phone number, and what bus he was to ride home.

 A few days later, his parents showed up at my door wanting to know how Johnny was doing.  I told them he was doing fine, making friends, and seemed to be adjusting well.  The parents looked at me dumbfounded.  They even asked me, “Are you talking about our son?”  I reaffirmed that he was very bright, and was getting along with everyone in class.

Now it was my turn to be confused… why was this information so shocking?  His parents informed me that at his previous school, he was in the office just about every day for some type of infraction and it had been this way for a few years.  So when I told him that he was getting along with everyone, it was a shock to them.  Johnny was on the AB honor roll in my class and was well liked by his peers.

When Johnny came into my room, I didn’t have the knowledge of his past behaviors so I didn’t look for bad behavior.  I expected him to behave like a third grader ( inquisitive, impulsive, and wanting to please).  I treated him like I treated the rest of the class.  To encourage friendships and cooperation, my class was set up in groups of 3 and 4 at the time so I introduced him to a group that had just lost a member. The group knew what was expected on cooperation and just started showing Johnny the ropes. 

I saw Johnny this year. He will be graduating from high school and his parents told me that he is getting straight A’s.  They want to give me credit for the change in Johnny but really all I did was give him a chance.

Too often we as teachers see the name of a challenging student on our roster and think “Oh, no! Not them!” Johnny is an example of this mentality.  I think that when the teachers saw Johnny’s name on their roster they started off with the perception of this student is going to be trouble and I need to make sure he doesn’t disrupt my class.

Before Johnny, I was guilty of going to the teacher from the previous year and asking, “What do I need to be on the lookout for?” meaning what "bad behavior do I need to watch for?"  With Johnny I didn’t have a teacher from the previous year to fill me in on all the bad stuff so I couldn’t look for it in him. When I looked for good behavior, that’s what I got.  Johnny didn’t look like a kid with trouble, he looked “normal” so that was the way I treated him.  Johnny finished his elementary career at our school, and he did end up in the office a couple of times.  But he wasn’t in the office everyday like he was at his old school. I don’t think the schools are different in the way they treat students, but I do think the perceptions were very different.  I didn’t see Johnny as a “bad kid”; I saw him as a student that just moved.  I think that perception is what allowed Johnny to reach his full potential.

Now, when I look at my roster and I see the student that is challenging, I think of Johnny and wipe the slate clean.

The Necessity of an Environment Conducive to Learning in the Classroom

Student Achievement Best Practices

By Rebecca Lee Curry, English Teacher

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Student achievement has always been considered the ultimate objective in the classroom, and rightly so.  It would make sense then to seek guidance from teachers who have had great success with their students.  I am a firm believer that no matter how much you “learn” about teaching, there is wisdom that cannot be gained but through experience.  Seeking guidance from the right source is always beneficial and has certainly been the case for me.  When I first began teaching full-time, I was blessed to learn from my dad, who is an amazing teacher.  He has been teaching for 39 years and has helped me more than he will ever know.  He has answered countless (literally, countless!) questions and has given me advice when I desperately needed words of wisdom. 

Casting together the advice I have received that has proven true again and again with my own experience, I believe that as a teacher, you must be able to manage your classroom.  Students are unable to learn in a haphazard environment, thus students will not be able to achieve their full potential.  Knowing this and making classroom management a priority has saved me and my students (though they are unaware of it) several times while going about day-to-day activities in the classroom.  Students simply cannot learn to the best of their ability in a chaotic environment.  I set high expectations for my students from the first day, both behaviorally and academically because classroom management is crucial to giving students a firm-founded learning environment.  If students know what is expected of them, they are then capable of helping create a positive classroom environment. 

Further, promoting motivation through good teacher/student relationships is important to be able to create a positive learning environment.  My expectations never change over the course of the year, but as each day passes, I learn a little more about my students and gain insight into what motivates them.  Motivation is key to student achievement, and we as teachers can easily facilitate motivation in our classrooms.  Classroom management is an integral part of student achievement even being possible, but forming good teacher/student relationships is also essential to motivating your students to be successful in their educational endeavors.

Though I’m sure it sounds cliché, I do always try to be exceptionally encouraging to my students because motivation stems from encouragement.  Before I left one of my student teaching placements, my mentor teachers asked the students I had taught for the past six weeks to write me a letter.  The overwhelming majority of my students thanked me for being patient with them.  I thought they would be appreciative of all the complex lesson plans I had created and stressed over.  I assume it is needless to say that patience was certainly not what I had expected to stand out to them.  Having taught for a few years now, I can see that it is easy to become frustrated in general, as is the case with any job (if we’re all honest).  Even if frustration isn’t directed at students, they are perceptive enough to pick up on this emotion.  I’ll be the first to admit that there are plenty of days when I struggle with keeping a consistently positive attitude and a pleasant sense of patience.  However, I have learned that my encouraging words and attitude put great vibes in my students.  Consequently, great vibes motivate students to seek success.  As Mr. Fred A. Manske wrote in his book Core Strategy for Success, “I’m convinced that there is considerable power in such positive ‘vibes.’  The more you do it, the more sensitive you’ll become to the needs of others.”  The more positive we are with our students, the more we will realize how much of an impact it has on them. 

Learning from other teachers and being willing to seek advice leads to continual self-improvement, and our students, in turn, are the ones who benefit.  Student success is hard to achieve if the students’ environment is not conducive to learning, but if a teacher has great classroom management skills and an encouraging and motivating spirit, student success is much easier to achieve.  Achievement is what every teacher strives for his or her students to experience, and having a heart to teach makes student success possible.

Rebecca Lee Curry teaches ninth-grade English at Columbia Central High School in Columbia, Tennessee.  She currently teaches both honors and standard classes and is certified to teach Advanced Placement Literature and Composition.  Rebecca is a member of the National, Tennessee, and Maury County Education Association(s).

A First Year Teacher's Struggle with Student Achievement

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

 by Tracy West, 4th Grade Teacher, Carver Elementary, GA

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image courtesy of oureducationalbooks.com

As an educator, each year I am introduced to new students, new attitudes, new beliefs, and new goals.  However, it is my job and responsibility to help each of them reach their goals.  In order to do that, I try to instill in every student that they can succeed. 

All I require them to do is start at their level, and work to make a gain.  No, not all children are at the same level, but every child can obtain a goal.  It is my hope that by the end of the year, they have learned enough to meet or exceed the standards. 

My first year, as a teacher, I didn't understand how Bobby could be reading on a second grade level, however, be in the fourth grade.  It took a lot for me to look past his weaknesses, and focus on his strengths.  By the end of the year, Bobby was reading on his grade level.  I owe his accomplishments to him believing that he could succeed if he put his mind to it.  I allowed him and the other students an opportunity to learn through hands-on, the use of technology, peer tutoring, and other teaching strategies. 

In the end, whatever it took to help them reach their goals, I used it.  That is what change is all about.  From then on, I entered the classroom the first day, looking for strengths. 

Hands On, Minds On: Student Achievement and Successful Best Practices

A Post on Student Achievement Best Practices

By Linda Kelleher, Math Teacher

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image courtesy of education-portal.com

When I first started teaching math, my primary focus was planning lessons.  My reasoning was that with so many unknowns in the classroom, I would at least know what I would be teaching.  And, so I thought, after the first year, my plans would be complete and I could focus on other elements of teaching such as classroom management.  Now, nine years later, I’m still making lesson plans.  I’ve changed and grown a great deal as a teacher since then, but one thing that never varied for me was the importance of the plan.  A lot of classroom management issues are avoided with an engaging lesson, and when participation is high, retention of the material is also high. 

Five years ago, I started teaching a large number of English Language Learner students.  One of the things that enhanced my teaching for all, but especially for the ELL’s, is the incorporation of visuals.  Pictures enliven any text, but like my four-year old daughter’s emergent reading, pictures also give children clues to the text.  But beyond this, pictures facilitate hands-on activities.  We use fraction pieces to disprove fraction misconceptions, such as ½ + 1/3 = 2/5.  I also have the students develop a feel for customary capacity by pouring water into a cup, pint, quart and gallon containers.  My students cut out shapes and manipulate them into rectangles or parallelograms in order to show them how the formulas are derived, use snap cubes to help them visualize volume, and they can toss dice and spin spinners when they are learning probability. 

A hands-on classroom is an active classroom.  Far too many children are passive in school and at home, not participating or interacting the way kids did before cable and computers and texting provided constant distractions.  An engaging classroom helps students disprove their misconceptions.  For instance, many students will tell you that the probability of rolling a 2 on a die is 2/6.  In order to dispel their mistaken beliefs, you need to replace it with the correct idea.  So, rather than telling them that there is only one two (favorable outcome) on a die, I let them run the experiment 60 times, and compare the results to their theoretical probability.  On the topic of circles, in order to reinforce the formula for the circumference of a circle, I have students measure the circumference and diameter of various circles and then have them compare the circumference to diameter of each circle with a ratio.

So, now class, who can tell me the rule for adding fractions?  Who can tell me how to improve classroom outcomes?

Linda Kelleher Schirling is a ninth year math teacher.  She is a career-changing Teaching Fellow.  She teaches in IS61, Leonardo Da Vinci, in Corona, Queens, New York.  She was rated as “Above Average” on the Teacher Data Reports and has consistently produced gains with her at-needs students.

Student Achievement Best Practices Thanks to Collaboration

When Children Help Others, Everyone Benefits

 by Renee Heiss, Retired Teacher

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image courtesy of thedoodlerz.com

So often, teachers focus on the student and the learning, but forget about the value of helping others to change student behavior.  The mind set for today’s youth appears to be one of guided egoism. I say “guided,” because most teachers, counselors, and parents help children to achieve high grades through a rewards system.  Honor roll certificates, stickers, National Honor Society membership, and other grade-based rewards force the child to focus on the grade.  While there’s nothing wrong with this system, it’s not the total package.  When children learn that there are others who are less fortunate, and that they can help those people, the children become more responsible with everything they do.

When children think of others first, everyone benefits. There will be fewer fights in schools and fewer bullies in the hallways. A child's boosted self-esteem usually carries over to better class work and regular attendance. Philanthropy empowers children to be positive members of the community. According to Dorothy A. Johnson, President of the Council of Michigan Foundations, “The earlier we introduce the concept of giving and public service, the more successfully we incorporate it into a child’s daily behavior, and the greater the impact on society as a whole.”

Whatever children learn when they are young generally carries through to their adult years. If they learn that you need to get all that you can to become successful, they will probably become greedy adults. If they learn that in helping others, they help themselves, these children are more likely to grow up to be responsible members of the greater community.

When children are responsible for the welfare of others, they also learn the value of commitment. Teens learn punctuality, for example, when a senior citizen waits patiently for a visit and then is disappointed when the youth is late.

Sacrificing time or money for a charitable cause shows the young person that personal needs may not be as critical as they once thought. It is gratifying to the child and his parents when he spends a Saturday morning volunteering at a soup kitchen instead of playing video games. Again, everyone benefits.

Volunteering also teaches the child to budget her time wisely so that she can find time for her own activities and the charitable project. When young people have less free time, they are less likely to cause problems for teachers, parents, and the community. Surprisingly, they also manage to get their homework done in record time with more accuracy when they know that their “cause” waits for their help.

Teens who volunteer regularly become more self-assured in their ability to make a difference in other people’s lives. This same mentality carries over into their own lives. They may find ways to help family members. They should be able to present oral reports with confidence. They will probably become proactive about their future. They contribute positively wherever they go.

When kids work in the community, they see people of many different ages and ethnicity. They learn that senior citizens have unique personalities just like their friends. They learn that people with a foreign heritage have amazing life stories to share. They learn that everyone is different and should be respected for those differences.

So how do you help your students reach their potential?  By showing them how to help others reach theirs.  Organize a buddy system with younger grades.  Arrange for a planned field trip to a nursing home.  Create books for children in hospitals while using the vocabulary words for the week.  Have a fund raiser that incorporates concepts in your science or social studies classroom (imagine a toga car wash, for example!) The possibilities are endless if you have some creativity and a dedication to helping others while you help your students to help themselves.  Try it - I think you’ll like the change in your classroom!

 Renee Heiss is the author of several books for teachers (Feng Shui for the Classroom, Helping Kids Help, and The Kinetic Classroom), and three books for children (Somebody Cares!, Woody's World, and Ducklings in a Row).  Although retired from public school teaching, she keeps active in education as an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature.  Visit her website to see all her activities: www.reneeheiss.com and her blog for tips for teachers and parents from her experience and research: http://parent-teacher-child-connection.blogspot.com/.

Student Achievement Best Practices--Going Old School

Student Knowledge Increases with Simple Twists of Old School Practices

by Sara Roesler, Teacher

image courtesy of spencer.lib.ku.edu

Want a 45% increase in student achievement? The use of similarities and differences is a best practice that surely creates results. Surprised? Me too.  However, the more I thought about the breadth and depth of knowledge with which comparing and contrasting can support, it seems that students need more time with these types of tasks. 

Students must draw on prior knowledge to think about how the topics are the same and different.  Adjacent to that idea is locating, analyzing and evaluating new information to be used in the process of compare and contrast. Thus, they are practicing reading comprehension as well. They must organize their thoughts clearly which can be supported with the application of a graphic organizer. They may also have to justify their reasoning to a small group or as a short presentation to the class. The possibilities seem endless!

Compare and contrast works for every content area on almost every topic. Obviously finding similarities and differences among characters in a story or comparing and contrasting multiplication and division will support clear understanding of basic ideas. But, to take the idea farther, why not use a book, made in to a movie and possibly a graphic novel and have students compare the three mediums. Think of all of the breadth and depth in thinking that would occur! Or, using two completely feasible math solutions from a group-worthy or cooperative learning activity examine the similarities and differences between the answers. In this case, the students will need to draw from what they know about solving the problem and analyze if another solution is possible even before taking on the task of applying the practice of finding similarities and differences. How would you add more complexity to a compare and contrast structure?

No matter how you use the simply complex idea of similarities and difference - as a quick formative or a more in depth examination of a concept – I would say keep it up, and even ramp it up. Be creative about this simple format because a 45% increase is a 45% increase any way you compare it!

Sara Roesler has been teaching for nearly 4 years and holds a Masters from Michigan State University. She is an active reflector focused on how to better teach each child. She strives to build and support positivity and loving-kindness in the students she works with. 

Multi-Media Student Achievement Best Practices

Unexpected Benefits to a Class Project

by Bonnie C. Smith, Multimedia Teacher

image courtesy of iwm-kmrc.de

My students just finished a project in their multimedia class. 

The objective of the project was for them to learn as many of the components of Microsoft PowerPoints while creating a autobiographical photo journey PPT. The students were given the end product task: to create the power point on their life journey thus far; a model was shown, and with some direct instruction on the harder parts (inserting videos, music, and hyperlinks) they set out on the creations.

I was so pleased to see students unfamiliar with one another helping their neighbors when problems were encountered.  The motivation for completion was so high from the start (middle schooler can be egocentric)  and the students enjoyed the appreciative comments from parents who received a copy for home.

The unforeseen benefit of this project was in the presentations of the PowerPoints with the class. The student gained an appreciation of the diverse backgrounds of classmates and developed a deeper understanding and tolerance of one another, something we have been covering in our Bullying Units in the middle school. The Project Based Learning / Assessment tool  was a great experience for our students, and will be used again in other content area classes.

Student Achievement = Expectation + High Interest

  Student Achievement Best Practices

By Josh Watson, Special Education Teacher, Math & ELA

image courtesy of ehow.com

I teach Math and Reading/Language Arts to Special Education students at a low performing school, with a high population of Special Education students and about 90% low income classification. On the best days, it's a trying experience. But it's also rewarding. I wasn't forced into the position or assigned there. I chose to be there. I'm from the area; I know the people. And because of all of this, I care a great deal about the students that go there and about helping them to become better students and better citizens.

The key to student achievement is mixing high expectations with keeping the students' interest. If they are constantly told or given the impression that they can't do something, they won't. If what you are teaching them is putting them to sleep, they aren't going to learn it.

You might think they can do the work and have success but they need to know you think that. Encourage them. Pat them on the back for a job well done. Even if they don't get it right the first time, reward their effort. They'll get better the next time. Most students, especially those in my area of emphasis do not have the support system at home to help them succeed. They need someone to tell them they can be successful and encourage them to do more than the bare minimum.

Keeping students interested in what we have to teach can be difficult. As hard as it is to do, we have to find those things our students are interested in and incorporate it into part of our lessons. Oftentimes, you just stumble into what a student is interested in. Last year, I had a student who hated school, was failing classes, had behavior problems and was in trouble with the principal on a near daily basis. I talked to the student and encouraged him but just couldn't seem to reach him. Then we did a unit on Greek Mythology. We went over the stories of Hercules and the Greek gods, as well as a book study on Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This was a class that had no interest in school and wanted to quit as soon as they were old enough. They were upset when the unit was over. Most went out and bought the next book in the Percy Jackson series.

This year I had my students take an interest inventory to find out what their life is like and what keeps their interest. I've tried my best to find things that I can incorporate into my lessons based on their interests. Sometimes you can't, but it's important that we try as hard as we can to do so. I do things that are hands-on and use lessons as games that they can win prizes for. It builds their confidence and in turn improves their performance. I give my students examples of struggling learners who have become successful. I relate school work to real world scenarios that they can relate to themselves. I encourage them to be better. Not everyone can be the best, but we can always strive to be better. I don't expect perfection but I don't settle for mediocrity either. And now, my students don't either.

About me: I am a 2nd year Special Education Teacher in Branchland West Virginia instruction Behavioral Disorder and Learning Disabled students in Math and Reading/Language Arts. My background is in Computer Science but my life has centered around teaching and learning so a few years ago I decided to pursue teaching as a career. I enrolled in West Virginia's alternative teaching program called Transition to Teaching. With support from the best mentors and teachers I know, I've become passionate about helping struggling learners and getting them engaged about subjects they normally hadn't cared for and I love it.

Managing Behavior with Trust: An Assistant Principal Weighs In

Here's a 3-step process and one highly successful assistant principal's experience in helping students resolve their own behavior issues. Curtis Nightingale, assistant principal at Pratt High School in Pratt, Kansas, returns to the School Improvement blog to weigh in on issues faced by administrators and teachers alike. 

I believe the key to handling discipline, i.e. “classroom management,” is all about people skills. Conflict will happen—that is something we cannot control. But how we approach that conflict—that, we can control. Refusing to take it personal and making your students your allies rather than your opponents is the place to start.

Moment Management

photo courtesy of www.bannockcounty.us

If you will approach difficult moments (those moments where you as an educator feel challenged by a student) in very much the same way you approach teachable moments (when things don’t go as planned, yet a good educator will find a way to make even that event a learning experience) you can begin to see them more as a positive challenge rather than a negative one.

Helping them to break down the conflict in terms they can understand and the ability to see the other side is key to moment management. Many teachers do this through norm setting exercises, tribal councils, etc. The principle is the same. Helping them to recognize the roles in the room--the staff’s and theirs--can help them better understand the conflict. In other words, basic citizenship.

Building Relationships on Trust

I will admit, I rarely had discipline issues in my class. In fact, I am not sure I ever sent a student to the office—short of a fight in the hallway, of course. Now, that may be due to the fact that at 6’2” and 245 pounds I had a “calming effect” on my students, but I like to believe it had more to do with the relationship I developed with them.

I attempted to foster a “we” atmosphere in my room. “We” were going to attack the subject at hand and “we” were going to figure it out. At times I may have pretended not to know the answers, and quite frankly there were times I did not have to pretend, but I was attempting to foster a trench mentality…us against the world, the computers, the textbook, the test…you get the idea.

Many of my potential discipline issues were solved within the first few weeks of school just through the development of an actual relationship with my students. Through our give and take they didn’t want to let me down, thus there was never an issue of disrespect, defiance, or refusal to do what I asked. Did I have kids that failed my class? Yes. Did I have kids who served detentions for me? You bet. Did kids get mad at me? I am sure they did, but I also had to bar kids from eating lunch in my room with me…some of those same kids! I am a firm believer that there are days where the only positive adult contact some of our kids will have is that contact they have with us educators. Sad, yes; sobering, even more so.

How I Help Students Get Over It

As an assistant principal, I will get kids in my office for various defiance issues, and these are the steps I would follow:

1. I always ask them their side first. I validate their viewpoint and then ask them what they believe he teacher’s issues to be.
2. I may then read them the teacher’s comments and we then begin discussing the issue as if they are watching another student involved in the same situation. As we talk through it, I take away emotion, I take away personal viewpoint because of course we can’t know what a stranger is thinking or feeling. As we move through the exercise, they begin to recognize how the teacher/sub/staff member saw their behavior.
3. We then look at the policy and I quote them the worst-case scenario consequence. I ask them how they would apply this to our subject in question.

The next time I deal with this student, the exercise is much more concise, because I have built both trust and a relationship already. And I have done this with one visit of most often less than 5 – 10 minutes. As a teacher I had them for 85 minutes every other day, all year/semester long.

If handled appropriately, imagine the relationship that could be developed with that amount of time!

Students Want Discipline (they just don't know how to say it)

As a former street cop and narcotics detective, Curtis Nightingale is no ordinary administrator. Nightingale is now an assistant principal in Pratt, Kansas, who is armed with an arsenal of child behavior strategies from his previous line of work. This is a peer who knows firsthand how to help children find themselves.

Children truly want discipline in their lives. 

I know, this statement seems overly optimistic, but I honestly believe this to be true. While to us “discipline” means expectations and consequences, to students “discipline” means structure, attention, and connection. Many of our students lack this type of construct in their home lives. Whether through a single-­‐parent working

situation, poor parenting skills, or the dreaded friend-­‐parent relationship, many children lack, yet need and want boundaries. 

Armed with this philosophy, how do we as educators approach setting and enforcing realistic boundaries with some of the most difficult students we have in class? I believe the answer lies in our ability to be firm, fair and consistent while making sure they know we care through the “connection” or relationships we build with them.

Pratt High School

Now, before you think I am one of those bleeding heart, mamsy-­‐pamsy guys I will tell you that education is a second career field for me; my first was in law enforcement. Whether as a street cop, a narcotics detective, or later as an administrator I found out fairly quickly that you would not get far in that profession without an ability to build relationships quickly. The ability to separate the person from the conduct, and to not judge was as much a survival tool as it was an investigative one. When I traded in the handcuffs for the detention list, I found that many of these same instincts were applicable. The ability to identify with what is going on with a student before you lay into them for missing a detention or being rude to a staff member is important.

Let me emphasize, I am not condoning the behavior at all. In fact, if you lay the groundwork correctly they will actually explain to you how wrong their conduct was and more often than not choose a far more aggressive consequence than the one you had in mind—you will actually have to negotiate them down from their stiff penalty to your own. Done correctly, they may even thank you for the detention/suspension they end up with. But before we get there, how can we minimize those conversations? It is as simple as moment management.

A friend and colleague of mine developed a fantastic discipline/facility management system that he literally travels the country sharing and training educators in. And although I have never taken his course, he and I were discussing classroom management one time and he said something to me that really rang true to my own philosophy. To paraphrase him, he mentioned instead of trying to think of managing an entire class, or an entire day, if teachers could just learn to manage those critical moments it could drastically reduce not only their stress levels, but also their classroom behavior issues as well. Critical moments…you know the ones. You give an instruction; Johnny challenges you…this is a moment.

In our next installment we will discuss ways we can approach these difficult moments and maintain composure while still addressing  he behavior and showing the student that rather than it being him/her versus you, it is actually you and the student versus the behavior.

Don't miss the free webinar on February 29th at 1:00 p.m. EST with Autism Training Solutions! Child behavior expert Emaley McCulloch will  present "Training Educators to Do Behavior Assessments." By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Define and understand a range of student behaviors, and recognize why students are acting out
• Determine the psychological and situational motivations behind student behavior
• Use new understanding to better manage the classroom environment

3-Minute Classroom Management

Robert O'Brien is an exceptional principal in Spencer, MA. He shares an experience here that helped one of his teachers regain control of a particularly unruly classroom. His experience is as illuminating as it is simple. 

During my first year as an administrator, I was assigned to observe a new teacher to our high school. Her resume, recommendations, and job history made her appear to be the perfect candidate. However, when classes started, students from her class began to trickle to the office, either being “thrown out” or leaving of their own accord. I was instructed to investigate.

She had been a teacher for approximately five years—why was she having so much trouble?

I entered the class early and watched students come in, many after the bell. She stayed seated at her desk, and waited for the students to take their seats. This was a grade eleven American Literature class, a graduation requirement. The students jostled, slowly becoming aware that the assistant principal was in their classroom, and finally settled down.

After an agonizingly long attendance called, the teacher began the lesson, still sitting behind her desk, told the students to go to a table at the front of the classroom. There where five stacks of papers; the students were instructed to take one page from each pile, staple them together, and return to their desks. What ensued was chaos. All the students approached the table at the same times, the papers soon became a pile of disarray, and pushing and shoving broke out over the staplers.

I sat quietly, now knowing why she had so much difficulty.

Even before the class started, effective teachers have things in order. If a class is working on a five page packet, they are ready to go before class starts. An activator is placed on the board, with the expectation that the students begin working as soon as they walk into class. The teacher should meet the students at the door, offering words of encouragement and appropriate salutation while watching both the hallway and her classroom. When the bell rings, she stands among the students, using her personal space to prevent any disruptions. Attendance can be taken with an old fashioned seating chart. And never, ever have the students collate their own papers. The class is orderly and student are learning. The teacher is stress free and the students are on task.

What a difference three minutes can make.

Don't miss the free webinar on February 29th at 1:00 p.m. EST with Autism Training Solutions! Child behavior expert Emaley McCulloch will  present "Training Educators to Do Behavior Assessments." By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Define and understand a range of student behaviors, and recognize why students are acting out
• Determine the psychological and situational motivations behind student behavior
• Use new understanding to better manage the classroom environment

Is Collaboration Essential for Students to Learn?

“If school isn’t about doing things together, just about everyone has better places to spend their day.” Ira David Socol declared this statement in his blog post about the necessity of collaboration in creating and sustaining real learning. The dilemma of students becoming prepared for careers in the 21st century and centuries to come in what Socol calls a 19th century school (a classroom with a bunch of kids doing the same thing in the same way on the same device) is not a new one, but while many discuss the problem, Socol outlines what he believes is a solution.

He explains that classrooms where, “educators think the information of the world still moves via paper and pencil, that there are ‘correct answers’ to everything, and that there is a structured cultural norm of learning behavior, best exemplified by the silent child bent over a wooden desk with a thick physical book, which must be duplicated if a student is to succeed in their learning spaces” is an environment that impedes the desire for students to come to school at all.

Instead, Socol gives four ways to provide an environment that promotes self-motivated learning:
1. A learning environment in which students make most decisions
2. A time environment in which students learn and work along a schedule which makes sense to them
3. A technological environment which supports collaboration across every barrier
4. A social environment where adults do not rank students according to their oppressive standards

To learn more about Ira David Socol’s solution and improving collaboration in schools, click here.

How Do We Determine Teacher Effectiveness?

National leaders, teachers’ unions, state officials—all have tried to come up with the most effective method for evaluating teachers. What will ensure quality educators for the students in our schools? Although there is no simple, ready-made solution, Nancy Folbre argues in an article in the New York Times that rating teachers according to their students’ performance on standardized tests and firing those who don’t make the grade will likely backfire.

Too much pressure to improve students’ test scores can reduce attention to other aspects of the curriculum and discourage cultivation of broader problem-solving skills, also known as “teaching to the test.” The economists Bengt Holmstrom and Paul Milgrom describe the general problem of misaligned incentives in more formal terms – workers who are rewarded only for accomplishment of easily measurable tasks reduce the effort devoted to other tasks.

Advocates of intensified teacher assessment assert that current practices leave too many incompetent or ineffective teachers in place. But many schools suffer from the opposite problem: high teacher turnover that reduces gains from experience and increases the costs of personnel management. As Sara Mosle pointed out in a recent review of Mr. Brill’s “Class Warfare,” about 40 percent of teachers in New York City quit after three years.

Is there a solution?

To read the full article, click here.

Cincinnati Closing Achievement Gap and Increasing Graduation Rates

For years, leaders in education have worked hard to close the achievement gap between white students and African American students. While many schools and districts are still pushing forward in this effort, Cincinnati, Ohio Public Schools (CPS) has managed to close the gap with their high school graduation rates.

For over a decade, CPS has involved coordinated, research-based strategies towards closing the gap, but without the creative and courageous work by those actually in the schools, such an ambitious goal could not have been realized. So how did they do it? Is there a way other districts can repeat such success?

Cincinnati, Ohio Public Schools used several strategies including:

• Focusing on just a few goals (increasing overall graduation rates and reducing the high school graduation gap).

• Taking educators, parents, community leaders and students to visit some of the nation’s most effective urban district and charter public schools.

• Focusing staff development on a few key areas: literacy, numeracy and learning to work more effectively with today’s urban youth.

• Increasing youth/community service so students learned they are capable of more than they thought.

• Positive ongoing leadership from the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers

• Holding principals accountable and replacing some in schools where there was not much progress.

To read the full article and see the full list of strategies, click here.

A New Way of Learning for Teachers

Every day, teachers are focused on how they can use technology and innovative strategies to prepare students for their future in a fast advancing world. However, while most of those teachers are being asked to think “outside the box,” many of them are still being in very traditional methods and environments, until now.

Instead of instructing teachers through typical courses, Relay Graduate School of Education will contain 60 modules, each focused on a different teaching technique. There will be no lectures and no building to hold class. Instead, the graduate students will be mentored primarily at the schools they teach.

Do you think this new type of graduate school will make a greatly improve K-12 classroom instruction?

To read the full article and learn more, click here.

Does Class Size Really Make a Difference?

Principals and teachers across the nation have been fighting for small class sizes in spite of budget cuts and increased enrollments. For several years, San Diego has been successful in maintaining these small class sizes in a district of 130,000 students, but that may no longer be possible. Using state and federal stimulus dollars, San Diego has held class size to 17 in kindergarten through second grade at its 30 poorest schools. However, with stimulus money spent and budgets deadlocked, San Diego’s young students are looking at a future of 30 students instead of 17.

While educators debate whether the academic gain from reducing class size is worth the cost, research has shown that significantly smaller classes make a difference in the earliest grades. In fact, Mr. Barrera, the school board president, believes that the rise in the district’s state test scores — to 56 percent proficient in English from 45 percent three years ago — is due, in part, to smaller classes.

So, the question is: Does class size really make a difference?

Read the full article here.

One-to-One Laptop Program Helps to Raise Test Scores

How would lesson plans change if every student in your school in grades 4-12 had a laptop in the classroom? In Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, students’ faces light up as they pick up their laptop ready for the school year to begin. 

Mark Edwards, superintendent, launched the one-to-one laptop program four years ago in an attempt to bring technology to the classroom on a more personal level. Most districts nationwide were using laptops in at least one grade at one campus, according to the 2008 “America’s Digital Schools” report from The Greaves Group and The Hayes Connection, but the success of such efforts isn’t widespread.

Yet, the 5,400-student Mooresville district has drawn national recognition, securing a visit last summer from Karen Cator, director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology. “I think Mooresville has a tremendous amount to offer in terms of leadership and what they've learned along the way,” Cator told local media.

Since the “digital conversion,” test scores in the district have increased, with overall student proficiency rates growing from 73 percent to 86 percent in three years, putting Mooresville in a fourth-place tie in North Carolina’s academic index ratings. And the district’s four-year graduation rate improved 22 points to 86 percent over five years, according to district data.

Read the full article here.