Valuing the Individual

photo credit: J_O_I_D

Differentiating Instruction happens in a myriad of ways! It offers countless opportunities to celebrate our students’ strengths. Often there is more than one right answer in how we teach and in how our students show what they know. We say that “One size does fit all” but putting that into daily practice is complicated. What does it take to make it all work? Successful differentiated classrooms are made up of learning communities that share three critical keys to success:

• Each individual is valued and respected
• Each individual assumes personal responsibility for learning and managing tasks
• Celebrating success motivates and energizes every learner

Let me share a practical classroom strategy that supports  these keys.

Valuing the Individual

The Photo Bulletin Board is one way to truly see each individual! Let me explain. During a high school classroom visit, I noticed that students rushed in and gathered around a bulletin board. They were laughing, talking and seemed very excited. The teacher explained that he had just changed his photo display. He frequently took candid pictures of his students in a variety of situations such as working in groups, talking, entering or leaving class or just being kids.

The teacher invited me to take a look at his own desk. Like many teachers, he displayed photographs of his wife and two small children, a trip they can taken to Mount Rushmore and even a great picture of good ol’ Riley, the golden retriever. He loved surrounding himself with not only his personal photos but also with pictures of his students. The message to each student was simple: You are important. In fact, he explained to his students that they were his family, too!

“When I am sitting at my desk before or after school, I like nothing better than to look up and see your faces! You are why I am here!”

The sense of community in that classroom was palpable!

Celebrating the Individual in the Classroom by Linda Tilton

Location! Location! Location! Creature Comforts for Staff Development

Content that is meaningful, research-based and relevant are critical components of effective staff development. But there is another factor that makes a difference and is often overlooked: Location. If it is decided that professional development training will begin with a large group session followed later by small group facilitation and classroom implementation, determining where to hold that large group session is going to be held is also extremely important.

After being involved in professional development facilitation and follow up training for over 30 years, I speak from experience on the importance of the initial large group meeting and its location. The location room that you choose to use has an atmosphere of its own and will have a tremendous impact on the presentation before the session even begins. In fact, one of the most important decisions in planning for professional development is the choice of location.

“We always meet in fill ( in the blank)..gym, cafeteria, auditorium, media center, music room…” Most often staff development is held on site. Think about moving it off campus. Off-site meeting spaces offer enormous advantages. An off-site location will reduce distractions and minimize interruptions. Announcements over the PA, messages from the office, parents or students stopping in, trips to the classroom, office or locker room are eliminated. Participants enjoy meeting off-site and are better able to focus on the content.

Check with a local hotel for prices of a conference rooms. Some are very willing to work with schools at reasonable rates. If this option is prohibitively expensive, consider a wide range of options in addition to hotels that may meet your staff development site needs at minimum or no cost:

• Local public library meeting rooms
• Nature centers
• Community colleges
• VFW halls and other community meeting spaces
• Churches and Synagogues
• Local camps
• Environmental learning centers
• Country clubs and golf clubs off season
• Supper clubs and restaurants

Most of the spaces listed will allow participants to be seated at tables to encourage discussion and engagement in a comfortable setting. After all of the hard work involved in planning effective professional development, ensure its success in a learner-friendly environment. Location, location location!

This is part 1 of Creature Comforts for Staff Development

Photo Credit: Coffee by Alan Light

Student to Student Respect

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

I have always had two class room rules:

1. No Put Downs

2. No sarcasm

Put downs diminish self-worth, discourage participation and build resentment. Put downs quell growth, learning and curiosity. Sarcasm is equally destructive in the classroom. Sarcasm stings. It is a personal attack that ridicules personal traits, qualities or choices. It is never funny for the recipient, no matter how much that person may laugh or seem to enjoy the attention. Joining in the laughter is often seen as the best way to bring to minimize the embarrassment and end the negative attention.

Everyone deserves to be treated with respect. Every day. Every classroom. Every school. Everywhere. Treating each other with respect creates a classroom climate where students feel safe taking risks, expressing opinions, doing something that is different from what other classmates may be doing.

There are many ways to build student to student respect. Of course the first and most important way for the teacher and all adults in the school to model respect toward each other as well as toward students. When students do not know each other well, mistrust and fear can sometimes be a cause of disrespect. The more we know our neighbors, colleagues and classmates, the more likely it is that we will see our similarities and find qualities that we like in another person. An enjoyable way for students to find out some interesting things about classmates is to use Mystery Student from The Teacher’s Toolbox for Differentiating Instruction – 700 Strategies, Tips, Tools and Techniques.  These pieces of information can become the basis for finding commonalities and opening the door to conversation and friendship.

Mystery Student takes less than a minute and is a quick way to help students get to know each other. On a note card, each student lists three statements such as hobbies, interests, sports, or other information. For primary students, the card is sent home for a parent to fill in. Older students select two fun facts and one fib to write on the card.

All of the cards are dropped into the Mystery Student Bag. Periodically or as a transition between activities, a Mystery Student card is drawn and read but no name is provided. Classmates guess the identity of the student and guess the fib. Students of all grade levels will ask, “Do we have time for Mystery Student?”

Co-teachers can include themselves in the mix and create Mystery Student cards themselves as a way for students to get to know them better. Learning about each other others builds camaraderie and acceptance. Abraham Lincoln said it so well, “I don’t like that fellow. Maybe I ought to get to know him better.”

Try this same strategy at the beginning of a faculty meeting but instead of putting cards in a bag, have each person write three facts and one additional statement that is not true in any order. Ask everyone to tape the note cards to their shoulders and walk around inviting colleagues to guess which “fact” is the fib. Expect laughter and exclamations as people discover that they the person who has taught next door for five years grew up twenty miles from their home town, had a hobby no on knew about or a colleague lists a new pregnancy as a “fact” and it’s true! The camaraderie continues log after the faculty meeting ends.