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!

Come and see Linda Tilton at the Learning Disabilities International Conference in Chicago on February 23.

Do you have students who are struggling every day in your classroom? Students on IEPs? 504 plans? Students falling through the cracks? This highly practical session is filled with “take back and use” ideas especially for them! Activities in this fast-paced session will include demonstration of a wide variety of tools for reinforcing vocabulary, teaching note taking skills, improving reading comprehension as well as tools to help your students get organized and work independently. Please join us!

Think about learned dependency…

With the best of intentions, we sometimes for our kids what our kids could do on their own.

Learned dependency is the unfortunate result. I was thinking  about that as I was walking the beach every morning while I was on vacation in Florida. Every day I would see this bird and I am quite sure that it was the very same bird hanging around a local “fisherperson.” The fisherperson  changed daily but the bird remained the same. The routine never changed. Once the fishing pole began to jiggle, the bird would flap her wings and the fisherperson would throw her a fish.  One for you and one for me! The bird had learned that there was no reason for her to fish for herself. She was a happy camper! She was trained to be dependent on that fisherperson. Do you know a few kids who may have something in common with that bird. We need to be careful not to do too much…

photo credit: cletch

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The Teacher’s Toolbox for Differentiating Instruction
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700 Strategies, Tips, Tools and Techniques

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Proven Tools and Strategies for Schools and Classrooms

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We can assist you with almost any professional resource you need.

Content that is meaningful, research-based and relevant are critical components of effective professional 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: 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.

photo credit: Jolante

150 hours per year

That’s how much time is spent by the average person looking for papers and items.

Think about some of your students. Can you even imagine how many hours each school year some students devote to searching for assignments, books, notes, clothing and other items? Can you imagine how many of these searches are fruitless? It boggles the mind. If those 150 hours could be spent learning rather than looking, our students would be far ahead academically.

A critical component of school success lies in organizational skills. The late Erma Bombeck loved to accuse the washing machine of eating socks. At school, socks may not be a problem but how many of you have come into contact with homework-eating backpacks? Students’ lockers can be an even bigger culprit.

In working with students at all grade levels, I have used many, many different organizational approaches and techniques. Here are five of my favorite “tried and true” strategies that really work!

#1. Tame the Paper Monster

Many students have a paper problem. It’s all over the place- crumpled in the bottom of

the backpack, strewn in a locker, stuffed into books and falling out of folders. Loose

papers confuse, distract and overwhelm the student. The most important rule of paper

organization is: No Loose Papers!

One of the best ways that I have found to contain paper is the accordion file. Sturdy plastic expandable files are available at discount stores and come with a variety of divisions. Six pockets are handy. The concept is simple and easy to implement. Encourage students to label pockets in the same order as the student attends class during the day. Every paper has a “home.”  Think about math. Every math paper, worksheet, assignment list, review page, anything related to math goes into that math pocket. Retrieval is easy later when students know where to look.

Many accordion files have zipper pockets in front to hold supplies. It is important for students to go through the folder periodically. Many students need guidance in deciding what to keep, what to throw out, when and where to store papers that will be needed later.

One parent told me that her children, both of whom had significant learning disabilities, found this tool to be the single most effective organizational strategy all the way through high school. Both successfully managed their classes by always carrying their accordion files with them wherever they went.

An accordion file with twelve pockets is an excellent tool for parents to use in creating a school file for each child in the family. It becomes the designated place to save report cards, portfolio summaries, awards and standardized test scores. Everything is arranged by grade level from first through high school graduation. Parents may also want to file a photo of each child at each grade as well as include copies of birth certificates and other important papers.

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