Relationships

Approximately six years ago, I met a young man that I'll call "John."  I had been entrusted with one (just one) honors English 1 class, and I was very excited to have a group of so-called non-problem children.  I mean, let's be honest.  The students that we usually promote to advanced courses fit a profile: active learners, no behavioral issues, well-supported by family, great SRI scores, does well on state tests, etc., etc., etc.  I knew I would be able to have at least one class of perfect little students, and I would be able to save my energy for my regular and co-taught classes.

This class lived up to my expectation.  I let them know from the beginning that this was my first time teaching the best and brightest which meant that I would need their feedback.  I tried my best to focus the class more on active learning than total points.  In the end, I learned beside a group of students who were thirsty to try new activities and learn as much as they could.  They gave me constant feedback that I then used to plan new, more creative lessons.  I was incredibly sad to see them move on to the grade level.

However, throughout that time frame, there was one young man that did not do as well on organized class activities, even while his personality shined outside of class activities.  Each day, he would come to class and almost pick a (playful) fight.  We eventually settled upon a ranking system that he used to gauge that day's relationship status.  On bad days, I was "31 out of 32" of his best teachers ever (there was always 1 person worse than me).  On good day, I made it to number 2 (one teacher always beat me out for favorite). Throughout the school year, I grew to love him.  I hoped that he felt the same about me, but I wasn't always sure.  We ended the year with him passing my class, and I was happy to have known him.

It wasn't until the following year that I was something so significant that it would have changed the way that I taught him.  I was told that all while I had John in class, he was struggling with the fact that his father was on trial for murder and that he was finally sentenced to multiple years in prison.  I was shocked!  I mean, this was a clean-cute white kid from an affluent family.  John dressed nicely, spoke well, and acted as if all was right with the world.  His middle school grades were A's and B's, so his underperformance  stumped me significantly.  However, with this information, I now understood him a bit better.

From this relationship, I learned that all stereotypes, even the positive ones, can impede our ability to see the needs of our students.  Because I made assumptions about John based upon my perceptions of his "okay-ness."  That perception was rooted from his ability to fit into a stereotype.  However, I did not fully see his needs because I assumed that he was, and would be, alright.  His lack of success was his own fault, and was not a result of circumstances outside of his control.  John's facade finally collapsed towards the end of his sophomore, and we were all forced to acknowledge that he needed the help of all of us if he hoped to succeed.  We assembled a team around him, but I often think about how much further along he would have been if we had not been so blind to his needs.

The blessing in all of this is that John is okay.  He still has some struggles, but he and his mother have now partnered with me to speak to others about their story and the required supports we should put in place for all students.  They are both still in my life, and I'm proud to say that they are like family to me.  Most importantly, they are constant reminders that I must SEE my students individually.  When I fall into the stereotype trap that ALL human beings fall into, I have a tangible example of why I should be ever vigilant.  For students, it is a matter of life and death, failure and success.

A School That's Not a School

I know that I am very fortunate to work in a school district that is one of the top in my state and a school that is listed on several lists of top schools in the nation.  However, despite the successes we might have, we still deal with some of the same issues and struggle with some of the same questions that educators in any district would deal with: how do we ensure success for all no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in?  I think about this question often from both a teacher perspective and a leader perspective.  Considering all of the turmoil that has occurred in the St. Louis region with school districts losing accreditation and students selecting other districts to attend (sometimes to protest of residents), I also contemplate and research ways to turn around schools that are not as successful as my own.  What do we do to turn those schools around?

In this powerful TED talk, Linda Cliatt-Wayman, a principal in Philadelphia, discusses how she addressed these questions at Strawberry Mansion High School.  On her first day as principal, a student interrupts her assembly speech to ask her why she keeps calling Strawberry Mansion as school.  "This is not a school."  I can only imagine what she felt at that moment.  Having taught in a high-poverty, low-performing school, I could understand why a young woman might feel that way.  I often felt that the school was more concerned with disciplining the students and keeping them in line than with educating them.  I remember that it took me three weeks to even discover texts were available for me to teach to my students; most were texts that were below grade level for high school students.  I finally received a curriculum guide from a fellow teacher that was last revised 24 years earlier after being there for approximately a month.  Until then, I did grammar worksheets and projects with my students that did not (ultimately) result in any learning.

So I listened to this presentation to find out how someone faced with similar circumstances turned everything around for her students.  Mrs. Cliatt-Wayman provides advice and wisdom that may help us to better ensure that every school becomes a school.

TED Talk--Linda Cliatt-Wayman

End of the Year Reflection

We did it.  We made it to the end of another school year. As we breathe a sigh of relief that little Johnny managed to pass with the grade that he wanted, Susie received all of the credits she needed to graduate, Bobby is now a discipline problem for his English 2 teacher, and Laurie received the scholarships for which you wrote rec letters, we all probably manage to take a little time to reflect on our year and ask a few questions.

From my own school year experience, I am left with the following questions:

1.  What do I feel I did well?
2.  What would my students say I did well?
3.  What lessons/units were the most successful in terms of student learning and meeting lesson objectives?
4.  What do I feel did not go as well?
5.  What changes would I make next year in terms of the following: classroom management, content selection, learning objectives/enduring understandings, classroom procedures and policies, and lesson and unit design?
6.  What learning/research should I do over the summer to improve student achievement?
7.  On what aspects can I collaborate with my colleagues over the summer in order to improve student achievement?
 8.  How do I apply a social justice to all of my thinking so that the decisions I make create an equitable environment for all students?

Honestly, these eight questions will stay with me all summer as I begin planning for next year.  As humans, we have a tendency to focus on the negative, but I have found that it is equally important to think about what we do well.  We can learn just as much from the good as the bad.  So, for every negative item you may have to list, be sure to find two or more positives.  Rest assured that if you are taking time to think critically about your teaching's impact on your students' achievement, then you are definitely doing your career "right."

Talking to Pre-Service Teachers: Truman State University

This past Thursday, I was blessed with the opportunity to speak with pre-service teachers at my alma mater Truman State University about how my college and teaching experiences prepared me for educating students in the St. Louis area during and after the events of Ferguson.  This speech was given alongside one of my closest friends, Allison Cundiff, with our other close friend Julie McMullen there to take pictures and offer support.

Prior to this talk, our host, Dr. Monica Barron, asked us to write in response to questions that she thought would be relevant to the topic.  Below, I am posting some of my responses because I believe that they are relevant to the social justice theme of this blog.  I hope you can find something that will help you as you examine your story and the impact that you can make because of what you learned from your experiences.

Part 1:     How does race/ethnicity exert shaping power over student experience? How do differences in literary interests shape one’s BA-English experience?  Describe your experiences. What had the highest impact? How intentional were you about what you were doing?

I came to Truman State University (Northeast Missouri State at the time) simply because I received a full Presidential Scholarship that covered my room, board and tuition.  While a senior at St. Charles West High School in St. Charles, MO, I met with the college recruiter at the suggestion of the school counselor.  The recruiter encouraged me to complete an application while he was still in the building, which he then carried back to the admissions office.  Several weeks later, I received my acceptance and award letters.

When I stepped onto the campus for the first time, it was the first day of freshmen week and my education began immediately.  It did not take me long to realize that I had lived a very sheltered life pre-college, and that I lacked a true understanding of cultural and social mores, as well as an awareness of who I was as an individual.

In W. E. B. DuBois’ book The Souls of Black Folk, he states “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.  One ever feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”   These beautiful words are probably the most accurate way to describe my undergraduate experience.  I was brought to a keen awareness of my two-ness as I realized that my life at Truman would be split between 2 worlds: one African-American and the other white.  The difficult part was that each world had different rules; my background had somewhat prepared me for the white world, but not for the African-American world.  My desire for erudition became secondary to my real education: a new sense of self-awareness and an examination of this idea of double-consciousness.  It operated in everything I did.  I had 2 peer groups, one black and one white; each weekend, I would choose which friend group I was going to be with and therefore, which world I would exist within from night to night.

Classes were mostly part of my white world.  I had wonderful professors who were very passionate about the subjects they taught. I read Dickens and Shakespeare, Achebe and Avi.  I read Beowulf in old English and The Canterbury Tales “Prologue” in middle English.  I did labs, essays, analyses, and countless personal reflections; yet none is as memorable as the education I received outside of the classroom.  From the three white people in a pickup truck who tried to hit me as I crossed the street to my dorm, yelling “n*gger” and “black b*tch” as they missed me, I learned that my race shapes others’ perceptions more than any other aspect of me.  From my good friend who hanged himself despite all he seemed to have going for him, I learned to not make assumptions about others’ happiness.  When I became pregnant with my son, I learned that strength comes from learning to navigate through moments of weakness.  

Whenever I think about the woman I became at Truman, two experiences define it.  The first was directly connected with a class.  In Exploring Religions, we read from several religious texts and related materials.  One of these pieces was a novel titled Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris.  Through this memoir/reflection, Norris learns the importance of listening to the voice of God that we each have within ourselves.  It takes us through her process of learning how to quiet the noise around her so that she can feel the divinity and light within herself.  No matter one’s religion or belief system, we each need to take this lesson and use it to make ourselves more comfortable with our inner selves.  In this way, we can become more comfortable showing this inner part of ourselves to the world and developing the vulnerability necessary to connect with others.

The second experience happened as I walked across campus with my white friend group which included my best friend Barb.  We encountered a group of my black friends, and I briefly spoke to them.  As we walked away, Barb asked a question that has continued to resonate with me: “Why do you sound different when you talk to your black friends?”  Mother Maya Angelou discussed this phenomena in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings when she talked about the fact that she could move so fluidly from one to the next that she would be unaware that she was doing it.  As years went on, I discovered that this was called code-switching, but at that moment, when Barb presented the question, I had no answer for her because I was unaware that I was doing this.  This moment helped to bring a subconscious awareness of my “two-ness” to the forefront and further fueled my need for self-discovery.   

So literature, classes, and professors did not shape my journey as much as my burgeoning awareness of race, culture, and class did.  I got through classes; I wrote lots of papers; I read (or skimmed) a multitude of books; and I learned how to operate within the norms of the white world of Truman.  However, I simultaneously became more aware of who I was as an African-American, a woman, and an intellectual (although this learning continues to this day).

Part 2: Why can we not agree on what constitutes “best practices” in teacher training? When we try to actualize these “best practices” in the context of the past year in Ferguson, are they adequate? Is adequate enough?"

Teaching is actually my second career.  While at Truman, my major was English with minors in social justice and psychology.  However, once I had my son, I felt the need to graduate and begin working as soon as possible.  I took one semester off after his birth and then returned to Truman when he was six months old. Thanks to social service programs such as day care reimbursement, food stamps, and subsidized housing, I was able to take Jordan back to school with me while I finished my last 3 semesters.  I graduated in May 1998 and landed a job with the Division of Personnel in Jefferson City, MO.  I lived there for 6 months before getting a job in St. Louis at the Division of Child Support Enforcement so that I could be closer to my mother, father, and future husband.  In August of 2000, I found out that the employees of the state of Missouri would not receive a raise, so I decided to try to make more money by moving over on the pay scale through education.  I took two courses: an online social studies course and an Intro to Education course.  Through observations, study, and discussion, I found my calling.  Crazy that I would do so after leaving one of the best schools for education in the entire state.

It took me 4 years of going to school part time at University of Missouri--St. Louis to get my teacher certification.  Throughout this time frame, I worked for the Department of Social Services,  Division of Child Support Enforcement as an enforcement technician and eventually a supervisor.  During my time with DCSE, I learned about people, including the variety of obstacles that prevent some people from being successful, as well as the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ideals that motivate people.  We are a complicated species, and very few people fit the societal molds assigned to them.  

Throughout my training, I learned to discuss and analyze and write lesson plans and diagram sentences. Some of my education prepared me for teaching, but much of it did not.  I think the classes that best prepared me to be a good teacher were those that taught me about the “other” from a social justice lens.  Sometimes, that “other” included me and my people.  It’s very difficult to know what exactly should be taught in teacher education courses because the thought processes differ.  Some feel that the focus should be upon the pedagogy.   We should teach only the latest educational movements like RTI and UbD.  However, I come from the other school of training that believes that education goes beyond the process into the practice.  My day-to-day decisions include more than what I will do for my lesson.   I need to know how to sensitively handle the student that is cutting, the young man who is failing because of family trauma, the young lady who is homeless.  I spend countless hours learning new technologies, signs of drug usage, how to teach students with autism, and what new rules are in place for IEP students.  If we are to give education students a thorough education, we must also focus upon these aspects of being a teacher, and support our students development in these areas.  

The bigger problem is the political aspect of all of this.  Some do not support including social justice training because it goes against their political and religious leanings.  The sad part is that in not exposing students to these alternative viewpoints and experiences, we not only damage our teaching candidates, but also the generations of students of “other” experience that they will teach throughout their career.  

Part 3:        Now we will focus on how they would have described their pedagogical challenges pre-Ferguson and post-Ferguson.

Before Ferguson, I understood the plight of the African-American student in a predominantly white school district because of my own time in St. Charles Public Schools.  So, I had already begun the process of supporting African-American students by co-sponsoring Sister 2 Sister and Boys 2 Men, organizations for our A-A students that give them a voice and safe space for addressing issues relevant to minority students.  I had also participated in social justice training for administrators (because not enough minorities were in admin positions to make it viable).  Upon returning from this training, I had organized a teacher social justice cohort so that educators could work together to examine social justice issues.  I was also working to address minority student concerns with specific teachers in order to mend classroom relationships.

The summer before Ferguson, the entire staff underwent social justice training.  I was resentful because I had already been through this training twice, and I knew that my presence was needed only to educate my white colleagues.  Yet, I still showed up and exposed my inner self to the colleagues present during my session.  We were scheduled for 4 follow-up sessions throughout the school year, the first being held in September.  When Michael Brown was killed and Ferguson erupted, I experienced a range of emotions that were personalized: this could have been my son or one of my beloved students.   I understood what happened from the perspective of my personal experiences with police officers, those who had disrespected me and told me that they were “not my buddy or friend” (actual quote).  I had to attempt to understand why others did not accept that my experience and those of my loved ones and peers were real and relevant.  Through some very painful occurrences, I learned that proximity did not equate to empathy.  Some colleagues who had worked with me for 10 years or worked with students of colors for any number of years did not necessarily empathize with our experience as people of color at all.  In fact, some didn’t even want to hear our stories, or discounted them as irrelevant.  I cannot tell you how many tears I’ve shed over that realization.    

Ferguson taught me that I needed to not just share my personal experiences, but to also try to understand the other side.  Why do some white people have the visceral, often negative, reaction to events such as this?  Why does the conversation often turn to white people’s feeling about these events instead of the victims of the event? Why do I have to work so hard to legitimize my daily experience?  What are my students experiencing and how does this impact their ability to learn?  Since Michael Brown’s death, teaching has become a bit more complicated because of awareness (I think Dr. Angelou has quote about that, too).  When the verdict came down, I took the time to process with my students, and I discovered the cultural and economic divide that makes conversations so difficult.  Students that I had one perception of showed me a different side when they voiced their opinions of the situations.  I was forced to teach students that lacked the cultural and historic understanding to value children who looked like mine while professionally being asked to remain neutral.  How does one do that successfully?  I’ll admit that sometimes, I was unable to hide my tears and grief from my students.

So, from a pedagogical perspective, the challenge became how to determine what information was important to impart to students and in what way?  Based upon the research that I completed for my social justice work, I knew about Robin D’Angelo’s “White Fragility” paper and theory, as well as the work on shame, blame and empathy from Brene’ Brown.  I also knew of Claude M. Steele’s work on stereotype threat and our own district’s achievement gap information.  I now had new lenses from which to examine every aspect of my teaching: curriculum and content, lesson planning, methodology, techniques, skills, etc. When I viewed what I’d done in the past from these new lenses, some material made the cut, while others were deleted...IMMEDIATELY.  I’m still in the process of finding new material to add that gives a more complete vision of literary genres and perspectives.  Our canon is filled with mostly Caucasian authors; our history is filled with a plethora of individuals of different races, religions, and backgrounds.  

I think the true challenge of all educators is how to fit it all within the specified time frame that we have available to us while meeting the expectations of the stakeholders, state, and students.  We also have to do this while not promoting a personal agenda.  As an African-American educator, this becomes very difficult in a top district because often my expectations don’t necessarily match those of the stakeholders.  I come from a culture whose history is often separated from the majority’s (although they are so intricately intertwined that one has to negate one in order to examine the other).   My school is progressive with a one-semester class titled African-American History and Literature.  My co-teacher (a white Social Studies teacher) and I proposed to have this class expanded to a full year, and since then, teachers in other school schools have become interested in picking it up, giving students across the district the opportunity to learn more about their history/the history of African-American classmates.  Yet, the reality is that all students need to learn all of our history if we are to dismantle white supremacy; however, not everyone is interested in this goal.  Teaching becomes as political as it does educational.  We each need to remember that the purpose of education (as originally created) is to guarantee the viability of the republic, not to create equality within our society.  For those teaching for the counter-purpose, education provides a number of obstacles and frustrations.  However, I believe that education can do both, and that teachers have a responsibility to remember that our republic will only become MORE viable when our educational system shows us how to value ALL of its members,

Incorporating Character Ed Into Daily Lessons--Character Education, Part 3

Hello again, fellow educators and parents!

There is a long-standing Latin principle, docendo discimus, which means "by teaching, we learn."  This semester, I have been fortunate to again experience the truthfulness of this statement by way of my student teacher.  Let me begin by saying that I am truly blessed to be able to work with and support such a passionate, funny, talented young woman who comes to work every day excited to learn and teach.  In having to articulate my practices and rationales to her, I'm learning so much more about myself as an educator.


As I described in my last post, my students recently presented me with the opportunity to stretch my understanding and use of norms and expectations in my classroom.  This inevitably led me to revisit the idea of addressing character regularly with my students.  How do I proactively allow my students the opportunity to consider their reactions to situations that test their character, instead of just reacting to misbehavior?

In the midst of examining these questions, I began transitioning the class to my student teacher.  This allowed me to take the role of both participant and observer as I reflected on ways to use character education to reinforce the norms we had established together as a class, as well as a behavior management tool to decrease distractions in the classroom.  As I researched and reflected, I first discovered the importance and necessity of regularly reinforcing those classroom norms as part of the learning process as opposed to using them a response to bad behavior.   I won't belabor the point by going into my process.  Instead, I'll just list some of the tools I found interesting for the middle and high school levels.

• Journaling:  Given hypothetical situations to address, ask students how they would handle these situations IF they were acting according to the norms and values we set at the beginning of the year.  
• Discussion:  I like to pair journaling with discussion for the sake of allowing students time to think before they speak, but you can also use the Socratic method to help students think through the decisions they would make in response to the hypothetical situation.
• Short Articles/Stories:  As an English teacher, I also like the idea of pairing my students' thinking about character with improving literacy skills.  However, I believe that this strategy does not have to be used on in English classes; any content area can find articles related to the subject they are teaching and use a variety of methods to critically think about and discuss that topic.
• For example, one of my favorite methods is Reading for Meaning strategy that asks students to find evidence that both refutes and supports specific statements.  So, perhaps for a science course, I would pull an article about cloning or using stem cells for medical purposes.  I would then hand them a supplementary worksheet with a grid that looks as follows:

For	Statement	Against
	The use of stem cells in medicine is unethical.

Not labor-intensive on the teacher's part, but requires the student to use critical-thinking skills to look at both sides of the argument.  From a character education standpoint, this is a gold mine as the students work to define unethical and discover where their viewpoints on the subject derive (family, religion, media, etc.)

•  Videos:  Whether it is a short news clip, a documentary, a TED talk or some other video, these are great ways to start students thinking about character.  Based upon the videos, students can do a variety of activities to process it, from creating posters to hang around the room or school with information about the subject addressed in the video to creating their own videos about a similar subject.
• Character Quote Exit Slips:  You can end each class with short surveys or responses that both link the skill students were practicing that day and your agreed-upon character norms.  If a survey, you could use the data from it to begin the following class, providing a natural segue between the two separate periods.  

One aspect of all this that I want to stress is that we must allow students the opportunity to discuss these ideas from their own perspectives and explore from where these practices/beliefs are derived.  If we make just one way the standard way, we stand in danger of "otherizing" the minority viewpoints in our classes and creating an unsafe space.

To give you an example from my own experience, I often have to explain my use of the words "ma'am" and "sir" to people I meet.  Where I'm from in Tennessee, one said "ma'am" and "sir" to show respect; however, some people question whether I'm trying to call them old, and am being disrespectful.  So if I were having a conversation with my students about ways that we show respect to people we meet, I might start this discussion by saying: "There are many ways that people may use to show someone that they respect them as a person.  In my family, we do so by responding to people using the words 'ma'am' or 'sir.'  Are there any specific ways that your family or friends may use to show respect for others?"   By changing our phrasing a bit, we can invite open discussion and cultural understanding, fueling connection with others, instead of silencing the voice of a few leading them to disconnect from the remainder of their classmates.  

This brings me to the concept of culturally-responsive teaching--but I think that's a conversation best saved for another post.  Talk to you again soon, my partners in education!

Resources:
GoodCharacter.com by Live Wire Media--an excellent resource specifically created for educators. http://goodcharacter.com

Character.org--a variety of lesson plans for educators to use in the classroom. http://character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/

Talking With Trees--stories and worksheets that teach characters. MAINLY ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL.  http://talkingtreebooks.com/character-education-worksheets.html

There are many more websites, but these are my go-tos.

Managing the Classroom Through Norms and Expectations--Character Education, Part 2

So, Murphy's Law states that everything that can go wrong will.  The educational equivalent of this seems to be that everything students can do to test the validity of a lesson plan or educational philosophy, they will.  Some teachers might write it off as just a bad crop of students; however, the empathetic teachers use this opportunity to discover more about themselves and their students.  Truth of the matter is that depending on the circumstances, we can find both teachers within the same person.  Perhaps it just takes a minute for one to lament the number of "challenging students" the counselors placed in one classroom before he or she can move into remembering that all students are entitled to a teacher who advocates for them.

Want an example?  In my last post, I shared a lesson plan with you that guided you through how to establish norms in your classrooms that allow students to have a sense of ownership in the climate of the classroom environment.  I, myself, completed this lesson with all of my classes at the beginning of the new semester.  However, the hopes I stated for the lesson were quickly tested as I was forced to take a personal day the very next week.  My son left for the US Navy's basic training, and I took the day off to spend with him.  Upon my return, I received a substitute report that made me question whether my freshmen had perhaps gone feral in my absence.  Needless to say, all of those lovely norms that we worked to create together were broken in a single block.

Traditionally, I would have thought about handling this situation from a punitive standpoint.  What can I do to scare them so badly that they would never DARE to act out like this again?  However, whenever I've dealt with a situation using this guiding question, I've found that it negatively impacted the safe environment I hoped to establish in my classroom.  It eroded the students' ability to see me as someone who has their best interests at heart because the punishment came from a place of anger instead of love and support.

So I knew that I did not want to address their behavior from that perspective, but instead from a disciplinary one.  To me, the essential difference between the two is the idea of training.  Punishment is simply retribution for an offense; discipline provides training for what to do instead.  This is the whole principle behind restorative discipline.

I decided to change my guiding questions for this situation.  Instead of thinking what I could do to scare them, I tried to answer this question: what can I do to train students in a way that enhances, not harms, the relationship I am striving to build with and among them?  Thinking from this perspective, I created a lesson plan which allowed for students to reflect on their behavior, and discuss what should be done instead.

Here's what I did the very next class period.

1.  I let the students know that the feedback from the substitute had not been very positive, and that I was disappointed that they had not followed the norms that they set for themselves.

2.  I passed out the students' signed norms and reviewed the expectations with them again.

3.  I gave them the following writing prompt:  What did I do last class to positively contribute to the safe environment we are trying to build in this class?  What actions negatively impacted this safe environment?  They were given 5 minutes to reflect and write.

4.  Afterward, we discussed their responses, but kept it in terms of "we."  First I asked students what we did well last class.  After processing and reinforcing the positive behaviors, I asked students what we could have done better.  This discussion lasted for some time as students made their observations.

5.  I ended the discussion by reinforcing my expectation that each student brings his or her best self to our classroom and helps to create a safe environment for all, including substitutes. I also added a small punitive aspect by removing the privilege of sitting in the seat of their choice and instead in a permanent seating chart (not the temporary one we might use for cooperative learning activities).

The outcome of this approach has been the continued building of relationship with my students and among my students, as well as a more positive classroom climate.  As we now enter week five of this semester, I am beginning to enjoy the classes that I previously struggled with from a management perspective.  Students are feeling safe enough to reveal aspects of their personal and educational identities that they might not have previously.  Such a great outcome, a much better one than I've had in previous years.

So, here's my take-away:  when I encounter challenges in the classroom, I can't always go with my knee-jerk reaction.  Sometimes, that leads to my beginning with the wrong guiding question which produces an unintended and uninspired outcome.  Also, as a reflective educator, I must continually question whether my practice is matching up with my principles.  When it doesn't, I must have the courage to admit this, and humbleness to search for solutions that do.

My Diverse Lights deserve no less than that.

Beginning Anew: Setting Norms For a New Classroom--Character Education, Part 1

Happy, happy new year, colleagues and parents!

While many of you began with the same students you have had since the beginning of the school year, some of us started anew with either new classes or new students.  For instance, I now have 3 preps instead of 2, and several new students.  I also have a student teacher (who's fantastic, by the way).

As I began to reflect upon which parts of last semester I would want to bring forward to this semester, I considered one aspect that had gone particularly well, and had helped create the type of atmosphere I felt was most conducive to learning.  In keeping with my commitment to character education, I decided to allow students to set their own norms for the classroom.  In previous years, I had come in with my own set of rules that I prescribed to my students.  This came from a philosophy that viewed the classroom as my personal space within which my students learned.  As I shifted my thinking to the idea that the classroom was ours (mine AND the students) and that it was a place of learning for all of us, I determined that we should be collaborators in determining what norms we would follow in order to make that environment what we wanted it to be.

In order to arrive at our norms, I followed the below steps to gain my students' input.

Video Introduction:

1. Do Now (or Bell Ringer):  I provided students with a journal that allowed them to start thinking about bullying and the idea of character.  For example: 
 žDo Now Journal

• You and your best friend have fallen out, and now he/she is organizing your other friends to bully and isolate you. 
• What would you do to deal with the situation?
• What would you do if you were one of the friends?

2.  Once we discussed their answers to the questions, I showed them "To This Day" by Shane Koyczan.  Afterwards, I asked students to write a timed free-write response to the video.  I gave them 5 minutes and asked them to write the entire time.  I allowed those who wanted to share to do so, then asked all students to share a one-word response during a class whip-around.

3. I then asked students to think about the following questions: What norms should we all follow in order to make sure that no one feels the way that Shane reveals in the video?  What do we need to do to make sure that everyone feels emotionally and physically safe?  Students were given 3-5 minutes to think about and write down the norms they thought were most important.  

4.  Students them paired up, and we used a cooperative learning activity called Rally Robin and List to share the norms.  

5.  The pairs were then asked to decide upon 5 norms they wanted to present to the whole class.  They wrote these rules down on a piece of poster paper (we use butcher block paper) and hung them on the wall for others to view.

6.  I then asked students to go around and view each pairs' norms.  Once they did, I provided them with four stickers each so that they could vote on the ones that they thought were most essential to establishing a safe environment.

7. Overnight, I compiled the list into an agreement document that allowed for both students and teachers to sign and then presented it to students during the following class.  Some norms that I thought were extremely important, I added, but italicized for the sake of honesty. 


The agreements that my senior English students came to this fall are listed below:

Agreements and Expectations

English IV

H. Fleming

Group-Determined Expectations:  Per our group feedback, the following characteristics are important to maintaining a safe, comfortable learning environment.  These characteristics are followed by the agreements we created in order to display these characteristics in the classroom. (Those expectations that I have added are italicized.)

1.   Integrity

a.    We will do what is right, even if no one is watching.

b.    We will be “good noodles.”

c.    We will not plagiarize other people’s work, whether online or a friend’s.

2.   Honesty

a.    We will always tell the truth to one another.

3.   Determination

a.    We will focus on the tasks before us, and keep working until we achieve our goals.

b.    We will help others to understand, and provide them with encouragement.

4.   Humility

a.    We will not make fun of others when they do not understand what we understand.

b.    We will accept and understand that struggle is part of the learning process.

5.   Respectfulness

a.    We will listen to others and honor their voices.

b.    We will be conscious that others in the classroom may be of a different ethnicity, gender, religion, etc., but that differences should be observed and respected.

c.    We will not use any derogatory language to refer to one another or others.

d.    We will provide feedback, both positive and constructive, in a respectful manner for the purpose of helping each of us to be the best we can be.

6.   Responsibility

a.    We will work hard and play hard, when each is appropriate to what we need to accomplish in the classroom.

b.    We will complete all of our work on time.

c.    We will arrive to class on time.

d.    We will bring all the materials that we need to each class.

e.    We will use technology when it is appropriate for learning.

f.      When absent, we will use the teacher’s website, friends, and time during academic lab in order to make sure that each student remains current with his/her learning.

One aspect that I stress throughout the process is that the rules must be applicable to everyone in the classroom. That included me, and excluded rules like, "we will listen to the teacher."  I feel that this gave all of my students a sense of ownership in the learning community and cemented the idea that this was our classroom.  It also gave me a greater sense of accountability for demonstrating the values of our classroom in the ways that I interacted with students.  

These agreed-upon norms help tremendously when dealing with disciplinary problems while maintaining relationship and a sense of community.  To give you an example, I had to be absent last week because my son was entering the Navy, and I wanted to see him off.  While I was out, a couple of my class were less than cooperative.  Instead of the usual admonishment and disciplinary action that I would use to to deal with these behavioral concerns, I was able to use the agreements to handle it.

First, I let students know that the report from the sub had not been positive.  Next, I passed the expectations back out to students and reminded them that these were the norms they created and agreed to follow. Then I asked them to write a journal reflecting upon their behavior from the previous class  and consider what they did to contribute to the environment of the class.  What did they do that positively contributed to the environment and what did they that negatively impacted the learning environment?  Next, we had a class discussion over what went well and what didn't.  I thought that it was extremely important for students to understand that their behaviors have an impact on what we're able to accomplish together.  Finally, we talked about what we would do differently next time I had to bring in a sub.

We talked about all of this prior to discussing consequences.  The result is that students were able to discuss how to maintain  high expectations, and I was able to discipline and not punish. 

 It made all of the difference.