Monthly Archives: March 2022

10 Tips For Getting To The Finish Line (When You Have Zero Left To Give)

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By Amy Yillik, EdD, Culture of Care Coach, HDESD

You don’t need to be a psychologist or someone that has experienced Burnout to see the writing on the wall in education right now: Educators are exhausted! And while some of you may or may not be in Burnout, our educational environment has been primed for educator enervation for some time: toss in a pandemic, hybrid learning, politics, & social discord, how could we not be debilitated and unmotivated? When experts discuss Burnout, the solution is generally in prevention. But here’s the thing: Educators are in Burnout right now!  We are past the point of prevention; We need intervention. So if you’re tapped out and not sure how you’re going to get to this school year’s finish line, I hope these suggestions are helpful!:

  1. Rest to Energize

If you are exhausted, then the first thing you need to do is rest. Give yourself permission to “do nothing.” While productivity can be a component of a meaningful life, our bodies need 6-8 hours of sleep a night under normal conditions. What you are experiencing in schools right now is not normal. So rest. This might require creativity and asking for help, but rest. And once you’ve rested, consider ways to replenish your energy: “What do I need to get my pilot light back to a functioning flame?” Did I forget to mention you should rest?

  1. Laugh

There’s tons of research out there to support the idea that laughter is the best medicine. So go ahead, tell a dad joke, follow Tony Baker on Instagram, Bored Teachers on TikTok, or watch America’s Funniest Home Videos on YouTube. Whatever makes you laugh, add a daily dose or two.

  1. Use the Ostrich Approach

Okay, this one might ruffle some feathers (see what I did there?), but we all could probably benefit from taking a break from the negative stimuli coming at us. Microdose (or eliminate) the news and social media you take in rather than ruminating on things we have little or no control over. 

  1. Get Outside

Here me out. I’m not asking you to go for a run when you’re too tired to put on your shoes. I am asking you to go outside. Sit on the curb. Find a bench. Lay on the grass. If you’re inspired to move afterwards, fine, but this is not what I’m encouraging you to do at this point. Just being in nature is shown to reduce the impact of stress and has tons of health benefits. So spend some time outside. It helps.

  1. Call the Doctor &/or Therapist

Don’t underestimate the power of medical practitioners on our mental wellness. If you are barely hanging on, you really should be talking with your medical provider and/or therapist (bonus tip: research shows doing both simultaneously is where we get the biggest bang for our buck). Medications and supplements such as magnesium, B-Vitamins, L-theanine, are clinically proven to boost mood, so talk with your doctor to see if any of these could be helpful for you. (Reminder: OEBB benefits include free counseling through the Employee Assistance Program)

  1. Express Yourself

What’s the saying? “A problem shared is halved; A joy shared is doubled.” The data indicates that talking about an issue with the purpose of processing our feelings improves our mood and functioning. Also, research shows it is just as beneficial to journal about our experience as it is to talk with someone. So let it out! Come to our Culture of Care Virtual Community Circles and talk with other educators or scream onto the paper. Either way, be brave and communicate your feelings.

  1. Revisit Your Why

Taking time to reflect on our meaning and purpose in regards to our work, works! Research shows that people who take time to reflect on their values have lower levels of that pesky stress hormone cortisol! So go ahead and reflect on your career in the current environment:  “Why did I choose education?” “Where do I add the greatest value?” “How do I measure success?” “What do I need to keep going?”

  1. Practice Maitri

Maitri is Sanskrit for “gentle loving kindness towards oneself.” We are wired to be negative. If we were perpetually positive, we’d probably be extinct. Still, somewhere along the way, this negative propensity has turned against us. Data suggests that negative thinking is directly tied to mood disorders and cognitive functioning. I am not telling you to “turn that frown upside down” (gross!) but instead, squash those ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts) with more helpful realistic statements. 

  1. Adjust Expectations & Postpone Big Decisions

Regardless of your situation, this is not what we signed up for. The entire world is struggling to adjust to the current state of affairs. I know this isn’t easy, but the expectations we held even at the beginning of this year do not fit the current situation, so we need to let it go. Along that same line, as you’re relinquishing your expectations, postpone making any big decisions until you are rested and regulated. It is absolutely okay to adjust course and change plans (sometimes it is imperative), but research indicates that we tend to be less satisfied with our choices when we make them under duress. 

  1. Plan the After Party

Planning a trip or something fun is important to our wellbeing. I know there have been years where all I wanted to do for summer break was nothing. But data indicates that planning a trip is as beneficial as actually taking one! It’s like the process of planning allows us to take a mini-vacation just by thinking about what we will be doing.  So even if you don’t end up taking a trip, mapping out an ideal vacation, whether it’s a trip to Tahiti or a hammock in your yard can help relieve your stress in the here and now. 

Resources

Student-Led Conferences Means Empowering Student Voice

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by Linda Adams and Colleen Behrens

“It’s not about us as teachers! The student is the center of the conference, so the student gets to be the one who facilitates the conference.”

Once our schools went to student-led conferences we were hooked.  Parents no longer had to wait in line to talk to the teacher, students were more involved and the responsibility for the conversation shifted from the teacher to the student and parents. Students had conversations that were targeted on their learning, challenges and successes.  Students were very honest and reflective and we were observers that answered questions and provided feedback when needed. 

One thing to note, setting up student-led conferences does take some time up front, however, the reward is worth it, and once students are conferencing with their families you can relax a bit. We found it far less tiring to conference this way than the traditional ways of having the teacher lead the conference. Every student conferences, either at school or at home if they don’t come in. Watch this 5 minute video about Student-Led Conference.

Student-led conferences can be set up a few different ways.  One option is a conference with the teacher, the student and the parents with the student taking the lead as the teacher observes. Another option is setting up your classroom 4 to 6 conference areas.  Direct families to sit at an available table when they enter the room. Give parents/guardians the option to have you sit with them and answer any questions. Many times parents/guardians are satisfied with the student conference alone but others really want to “talk with the teacher”. As much as possible let the student share their learning, struggles and goals with their families, it’s a lovely process to watch, even for the students that have not done as well as they might have as families can now set goals or intervene as necessary.

Prepare Ahead of Time

  1. Determine student work: Create a list of student work that shows student learning overtime or consider letting students choose the work they are most proud of or the learned the most from. In Canvas, students can refer back to assessments that were submitted in previous quarters. If you choose assessments with the same skills then you can show growth.  For example, graphing analysis and interpretation from an assessment in October and a different assessment in January.  
  2. Reflect on learning and growth: Complete a student self-reflection ahead of time and keep the hard copy in case a student forgets their iPad conferences. Self-reflections on learning are meaningful and open the door discussions about strengths, challenges and goal setting.
  3. Provide a script: Create a simple script for students to follow if they choose.  Make sure they know where to find their self-reflection and Canvas assessments.  It might be helpful for students to make a digital presentation for parents/guardians ahead of time. This can also be viewed at home if families can’t attend a conference.
  4. Practice: Model how to do a conference and then pair up students so they can practice ahead of time. Provide directions at the table and encourage students to get started. Pre-teach this to students before conferences occur.

The following resources contain another video example, this one at the high school level, as well as a link to another awesome Edutopia blog article, a student google slide templet and a student reflection script. Be sure to check them out!

Resources

Jigsaw Revisited and Revised

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Many of us have used the jigsaw method with students in our classroom, or during  professional development. If you are like me, you’ve wondered if the jigsaw method really works to increase student learning.  Here’s the good news.  John Hattie’s Visible Learning meta-analysis reveals that the Jigsaw Method has an astounding effect size of 1.20…if done right! Remember, the larger the effect size the stronger the impact on student learning. The average effect size of Hattie’s research is 0.40, or one year’s growth. This means that jigsaw can accelerate learning 3 times faster than average.

Jigsaw Refresher

In this 6 minute video, Jennifer Gonzalez from Cult of Pedagogy describes ways to organize your Jigsaw groups. Although the video does not include this last step discussed by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey in the article from ACSD.org  Show & Tell: A Video Column / Let’s Get Jigsaw Right, it give an excellent overview of how to set-up and troubleshoot a Jigsaw.

Adding the Final Step

Puzzle pieces on their own have no meaning.  Each piece can hint at a bigger picture but until the individual pieces fit together, we can only infer the meaning of the whole picture. The same is true of the Jigsaw Method. Students often miss the bigger picture without a step in the process that includes reflecting on how their piece contributes to understanding the whole text.

According to Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, one problem with using the Jigsaw strategy is the chance that a student might teach misinformation to the rest of the group. If the “expert” student has misunderstandings about their section of the text, then they inadvertently teach it wrong to the rest of their own group, thus compromising the full understanding of the text. Misconceptions can be difficult to remedy.

Some of the misunderstandings can be corrected if each group member meets with an” expert” group that reads the same section of text. With guiding questions, students are encouraged to work together to understand the text before returning to teach it to the rest of the group.  If the teacher visits the “expert “groups while they are working, then correction can be caught early. This second step results in a much deeper understanding of the section of the text the expert learned about. The problem is that the “expert” does not necessarily understand how the section of text they learned about fits with the whole text. Fisher and Frey advocate for a third step when expert groups come back together a second time to discuss the question:

How does our part fit with what we have learned about the rest of the topic?

“The real learning power of this strategy lies in the critical third step, when students reconsider their assigned passage in light of the whole text…Students think about their thinking (metacognition) and synthesize and analyze ideas contained within the complete text. This process requires that students listen carefully to their peers and analyze the ways in which each part contributes to the entire text.”

Fisher and Frey

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When students come back to their expert groups they must think about the connections, similarities and differences of their part to the newly learned content. As an example, each member of a home group receives a section of a data set about global temperature changes over time. Each member meets their expert group with the same data set for analysis and interpretation. When they return to their home group, each member shares their data set analysis with the group. The last step is for the group to determine the sequential order of all the data sets together through discussion with evidence and reasoning. Because of this last step, the student more deeply understands their own data set and whether their interpretation of a small set of data holds true when compared to the larger over-all picture.

Cooperative Learning Culture

The Jigsaw Method is a cooperative learning strategy created by Elliot Aronson in the early 1970’s as a way to break the racial tension in his classes after the desegregation of the schools in Texas. Aronson created a situation where the success of the group depended on the success of each student. Within a few weeks he saw a positive change in his class culture. The website Jigsaw Classroom.org has more about the history and success of cooperative learning as well as tips for implementation.

Suggestions for Success

  • Discuss expectations for behaviors and outcomes with each transition from group to expert to group.
  • Create a template or organizer for students to fill out while in the expert group. This ensures the same information is taken back to the group.
  • For emergent bilinguals, annotate academic and figurative language to make it more accessible.
  • Support discussions with guiding questions and sentence starters.
  • Assign specific jobs for each member during the small group work: Discussion leader, Timekeeper, Team Captain, Materials Manager
  • Add self-reflection time for students to monitor their contribution to the group and their understanding of the article content.
  • Tell students they will return to expert groups to think about what they have learned in relation to what they taught.

Resources

Rubrics for Feedback: Getting Students to Work Harder Than You

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By Linda Adams, Math Instructional Coach

Have you ever spent the weekend grading student work, writing all kinds of comments to help them understand their grade and ways the student can improve only to find that once they see the grade they “round file” the paper without even a glance at your carefully crafted responses?  I always wondered why it seemed that I was working harder than my students and that students did not seem to care about their learning, but just the grade.

Many teachers and administrators recognize the use of rubrics in terms of an equitable grading practice. Another advantage of using rubrics is to allow students to see the specific target and to self assess where they are in relation to that target and to get immediate feedback from the teacher to reflect on how specifically they can move their learning forward.

In essence rubrics can help students:

  • Understand expectations and components of a task/assessment.
  • Become more aware of their learning process and progress.
  • Improve work through timely and detailed feedback.

In addition rubrics can improve student learning by allowing students to peer-assess and self-assess learning. Through scoring guidelines, students can learn the value of giving and getting feedback and reflect more on the learning process rather than the grade. 

What makes an ‘effective’ rubric?

The most effective rubrics lay out three kinds of information for students: the key evaluative criteria, defined as concretely as possible, an evaluative range for each criterion so that students can see where they succeeded (or not) for each criterion, and weightings for each criterion. During the task, students use the rubric as a checklist to assess their product and track their progress. Rubrics are excellent tools to promote peer assessment, where students learn how to give and receive constructive feedback. 

Traditionally rubrics are described as either holistic or analytic. If you are new to rubrics check out this one page article by Andrew Miller in Edutopia “Tame the Beast: Tips for Designing and Using Rubrics”.

Maybe you’ve already used rubrics in your classroom but find them time consuming to create. There’s a third option that introduces some exciting and game-changing potential for teachers and students. Check out  Danah Hashem’s article also in Edutopia “6 Reasons to Try a Single-Point Rubric”.

Here is an example of what a single point rubric might look like:

To delve deeper into feedback and rubrics check out Jennifer Gonzales’ infamous blog Cult of Pedagogy article “Introducing the Hyper Rubric, a tool that takes learning to the next level”.

In addition to the possible solutions for giving constructive and timely feedback to students, rubrics can help teachers manage the amount of time they spend grading. I encourage you to check out the Cult of Pedagogy video (less than 4 minutes)