Monthly Archives: February 2021

The Why of “WHY?”

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Having very clear learning intentions for our students is hard work, but it may be one of the most important teacher moves in our classrooms. NO MATTER WHETHER YOU HAVE BEEN TEACHING FOR ONE YEAR OR TWENTY, STUDENT AWARENESS OF THE “WHY” IS CRITICAL.

Students must know why they are learning and how they will apply this learning in future contexts. We have all been that student who says, “When am I going to use this?” By getting ahead of the question, our learning intentions make future application transparent. Clear learning intentions is a critical part of a high-leverage classroom strategies: such teacher clarity done well can double the rate of student learning.

THE ‘WHY’ IS WHAT MAKES BACKWARD DESIGN ESSENTIAL. It is important to be clear about your learning intention before you plan the day’s/week’s/uniit’s activities. The academic tasks that a student engages in should serve to illuminate the learning intention. Students need to be able to see the clear link between where they are going and how you are getting them there.

It is critical to base our learning intentions on the standards, described skills, knowledge and habits of mind that student need to internalize. However, for many years there has been a push to “post the standards” in the classroom. While this is a great start, without explaining to students how to learn the standard or when to use the standard, it is just more adult writing on the board. This would be like your tax accountant posting the tax code you are supposed to follow without the explanation of how to use it in your return.

By being explicit about the learning intention student attention and engagement increases. If a student does not know the what and why of a lesson, they are far more likely to tune out. STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE THE SAME UNDERSTANDING OF WHERE THEY ARE HEADED IN A LESSON THAT THE TEACHER DOES.

Here are a few examples of clear learning objectives:

  • Today I am going to teach you how to identify and articulate important character traits in some major figures in the Battle of Gettysburg. This will help you understand how leaders in history motivate people to get their agenda done.
  • At the conclusion of this lesson, you will be able to explain to a partner a definition of covalent bonds. We will use the your knowledge in our experiment later in the week.
  • I want you to understand and apply scale factor at the end of today’s lesson. This is important because scale factor is an important concept in fractions, that you will use over and over again, in problem after problem, math class after math class.

Big or small, covering one lesson or one month of lessons, STUDENTS MUST KNOW THE WHY. They simply will not learn as much or as well without it.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

  1. Here is an extremely quirky video from a Scottish high school teacher arguing for the important of learning intention. No fancy production values here, but a sincere – if strangely humorous – delivery and some solid thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdDndXDABQw
  2. Edutopia’s article sums it up and takes it one step further – arguing that the best teachers will spend a substantial portion of their planning time developing clear learning intentions and determining how best to embed them in the lesson. https://www.edutopia.org/article/framework-lesson-planning

WebEx Wednesday: A Model for Efficiency and Effectiveness

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Isn’t it great to see kids back in class? Everything else aside, isn’t it great to see them?

With Wednesdays being WebEx-only days, we wanted to take this week’s blog to think through ideas for breakout rooms.

It can be nerve-wracking to release students to work independently without supervision. However, with structure and an efficient plan, WebEx breakout rooms can be a great way for students from across both cohorts to connect with each other and share their thinking or practice what has been taught in person.

Here are a few ideas about how to make the most out of your WebEx breakout rooms:

  • 1. Keep them short. Keep the break out rooms times between 2 and 3 minutes, no longer than 5 unless there is substantial work being completed.
    • It is better to use breakout rooms multiple times in a class session, rather than give them one breakout room for too long. NOT giving them enough time to have a complete conversation is best practice for virtual engagement. Too much time is unpleasant and awkward.
  • 2. Give the students one task to complete rather than several. Give them one question to discuss, rather than several. Provide Sentence stems. If students are unlikely to know how to begin, a sentence stem or two can provide a clear first step in how to start.
    • This link provides some prompts for students to engage in academic conversations:
  • 3. Provide a shared document. Create a Google document or a Jamboard (each group gets their own board) with a task or question that is to be completed during the time in the breakout room.
  • 4. Assign jobs. In order to help students, stay on task when working together in a break out room a specific role will guide their next steps.
    • a. Leader. Makes sure that everyone is participating, that people are unmuted and that cameras are on when possible.
    • b. Time keeper. Makes sure that the task will be completed before the breakout room is over
    • c. Scribe. Write the answers in the shared document. Alternatively, all students could be a scribe and write their answers in a different color.
    • d. Technician. Share screen in the breakout room so all can see what is being worked on.
    • e. Presenter. Share the group work at the end of the breakout room.Jobs can be assigned by alphabet, next birthday, tallest or other random affiliation.

After the breakout room is done, it is great information to ask students how the process went in their group. A scale of 1-5 in a personal chat will give you feedback on how the breakout rooms went when you were not able to be there.

In a nutshell, less is more. Less time, fewer tasks, little open-endedness. Keep them focused. Keep them efficient. Your students will be breakout room rockstars.

First Thing’s First: We Need you to Take Good Care of Yourself.

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In our professional lives, Covid is a difficult and unwieldy gift that won’t stop giving. We’ve lost track of how many problems it has caused, how many challenges we’ve cleared, just to have five more populate our horizons.

It’s just really, REALLY hard.

However, we are starting to feel some hope: there is reason to believe we may be approaching one of the final landmark obstacle courses for this school year: the one of successfully welcoming students back into our classrooms. And we all know that, despite the simplicity of the stated task, what we encounter will be anything but simple.

To manage this challenge successfully, it is imperative that we take good care of ourselves by acknowledging our own fears and stressors, and put ourselves in the best place possible to acknowledge and support out students. None of us want to add to the trauma our students have already encountered, but we best avoid that by allowing our own histories to be valid. We MUST recognize and allow our own needs.

In different ways, we are all suffering from Covid Fatigue. UC Davis recommends the following four strategies as the ones that can make the biggest difference in our daily work lives:

  • Exercise: “It’s the No. 1 best thing we can do for coping,” she said. “Any exercise – even a simple walk – helps. It releases endorphins, gets some of the adrenaline out when the frustration builds up. Just getting out and moving can be really helpful for people.”
  • Talking: “This really helps, too. Just saying it out loud is important,” Hermanson said. “Find the right places and times, but do it. Ignoring feelings doesn’t make them go away. It’s like trying to hold a beachball underwater – eventually you lose control and it pops out. You can’t control where it goes or who it hits.”
  • Constructive thinking: “We may think it is the situation that causes our feelings, but actually, our feelings come from our thoughts about the situation,” she said. “We can’t change the situation, but we can adjust our thinking. Be compassionate with yourself and others. Remind yourself, ‘I’m doing the best I can.’”
  • Mindfulness and gratitude: “The more you do this, the easier it gets,” she said. “Try being in the moment. You’re right here, in this chair, breathing and looking around. We put ourselves through a lot of unnecessary misery projecting into the future or ruminating about the past. For now, just take life day by day.”

The strategies are simple, it’s true. But in situations as complicated as ours, the small differences made by simple actions are helpful. Think of standing up and taking a walk around your building as throwing yourself a lifeline. Think of checking in on a colleague as a worthy support for them and you.

As we move into this new phase of education during Covid, let the simple and the easy routines of basic self-care have a place in our days.

Here are some additional articles you may find interesting:

Forbes provides a brief, well-stated overview of teacher feelings, needs, and impossible choices. It does not so much provide solutions, rather a helpful statement of situation. You have to close three aggravating pop-up ads (which are bad for mental health!), but I was glad I stuck with it: Forbes – “The Mental Health Resources Teachers Need”

In a similar vein, science writer Tara Haelles authors this blog post: “Your Surge Capacity is Depleted – It’s Why You Feel Awful” Halles uses her own work/life situation to frame research about what is happening to us physiologically. It’s helpful to understand the bigger picture of our bodies during these events, and what it all means for the minds living in them.

You may find this one most helpful of all: Association of Supervision, Curriculum, and Development published Educational Leadership. January’s issue was on the emotional and mental health needs of school personnel that are arising so significantly during Covid. Here is the editorial, which contains some strong perspective and a variety of links to the other articles in the issues: “There’s Always More to the Story” – December 2020/January 2021

And, finally, Mental Health America gives us this blog post of suggestions and reminders to maintain healthy perspectives and habits as we continue to navigate during Covid: “Teachers: Protecting your Mental Health”