Over the years, I’ve heard so many teachers complain about their students who are getting failing grades, because the student is too lazy or because their skills are too low or because the students just don’t care.

They put the blame on the student for not succeeding in class. 

I don’t believe this.

It makes me a little angry, actually.

These college-educated professionals are blaming the poor grades on a 13-year-old or a 15-year-0ld or a 10-year-old. What do they get paid for? To teach.

Do I sound upset?

This post actually came out of a conversation I had recently with a teacher who was complaining about some of the students in his class. “They’re just lazy and don’t listen. I can’t help them if they don’t want my  help. They get the grade they deserve.”

I encouraged the teacher to not give up on the kids, and that there has to be some way to reach them. I don’t think he liked my suggestion.

Unfortunately, every school has a few of these blame-the-kids teachers.

If you’re a new teacher, please stay clear of them and their influence.

My belief has always been that every student can learn; all it takes is a teacher willing to find a way to teach him/her.

I have had to give failing grades to some students over the years – many students actually.

I can honestly say, however, that I never blamed the student. I always saw it as a personal failing on my part. I didn’t do enough to find a way to reach that student.

Every student can learn.

Every student can be reached.

How do you teach those students who can’t or won’t learn?

The answer is not what many teachers want to hear,

because it takes work; it takes time, and it takes patience.

Most of all, it takes a teacher who is sincerely concerned about the success of each of his/her students.

How do you reach those students ?

1. You find out what that student is interested in?

What music does he/she like? Sports? Movies? Hobbies? What gets the student’s attention?

This takes communicating with the student, spending time, showing interest.

Once you find out what motivates the student, incorporate it into your lesson plan.

Does this mean that last year’s lesson plan might have to be modified or even thrown out?

Yes.

2. Communicate with  other teachers who have or have had the student.

What worked for them? What can you learn from their experience with the student.

Does that mean that you’ll have to collaborate with other teachers, even teachers at a different school site?

Yes.

3. Communicate with the parents.

Parents can tell you a lot about the student that the student won’t or can’t tell you. What can the parents contribute to your mission to reach the student? Often times, we contact parents only to complain about the student’s poor work or lack of interest in his/her education. What if we try contacting parents with the only objective being to gather more information about the student to better teach him/her?

Does that mean that you’ll have to use some of your prep time to call parents?

Yes.

Sometimes, you just run out of year.

Your efforts may not result in a passing grade for the student, but they will leave your class with one important thing – the knowledge that one teacher believed that he/she could learn.

I have had so many students come back and tell me, “Mr. Rangel, I failed your class, but you were my favorite teacher.”

I know that the reason for my “favorite” status was because of the value I placed on the student in a time of their lives when they didn’t see value in themselves or their future .

Quick tip:

When giving assignments, offer several options for completing the work. Have options that connect with the various learning styles and that offer more creative ways to demonstrate their knowledge of the topic.

I had a student who was not doing homework at all in my class until I had one of the options include a drawing element. The student, as it turned out, was a great artist. Once I realized this, I had all my homework assignment include an option to use illustrations. It worked. He began to get his work done and find success which is in itself a great motivator.

So, don’t be one of those teachers who blames the students for their poor effort in your classes.

Find a way to reach them.

It won’t be easy, but definitely rewarding.

I welcome your comments (or complaints).

If you find these posts helpful, I would appreciate it if you would share it with your followers or your friends.

Don’t forget to download my free e-book 101 Practical Tips for New Teachers.

Until next time,

Here’s to your Success in the Classroom!

Thanks,

Sam

Some teachers refuse to accept late work, because it’s not fair to those students who were responsible enough to turn in work on time, and it doesn’t teach students the valuable lesson of responsibility.

Other teachers feel that accepting late work is OK, because it doesn’t matter when the work is turned in, as along as they learn the information.

I always accepted late work. I never gave full credit, but I always accepted it. I outlined my reasons in this blog post. Feel free to read it if you’re interested in knowing why I allowed students to turn in their work late.

What I’ve heard from a few teachers was that if they were to allow students to turn in work late, then it would force them to take the time to grade work that is already past due.

Time is valuable, I know, so I wanted to share what I did when a student turned in an assignment late that didn’t take up too much time at all.

Let’s say that I gave an assignment to write a report on a particular topic. It was worth 100 points, and it was a large part of the student’s grade.

Let’s say that one particular student just didn’t do it. He/she chose to put it off until the last minute, and realized that there was little time before the due date, that he/she just didn’t turn it in. Three weeks later, he/she receives a progress report that shows he/she is getting a D, mainly because of the missing assignment. The student then spends the weekend working on that missing assignment, and he/she turns it in on Monday.

It’s three weeks late, but he/she comes to me and hands it to me.

I don’t want to read the project, because the time I budgeted for grading the assignment is over.

How do I grade the assignment?

Here’s what I did:

1. The most the student can earn is a C, since it’s so late. It wouldn’t be fair to the other students to give full credit after so much time has elapsed, so I look at the project and quickly scan the information.

2. If the project looks like the student worked hard on it, and produced quality information, then I would give it a C.

3. If the work is mediocre, it’s a D.

4. If it appears that the student just threw something together to get it finished, then I gave it an F.

I tell my students that an F is better than a 0, because with an F, they are still earning some points.

Doing this kept me from spending the time grading that I did with the other projects that were turned in on time.

Again, I could easily say, “Forget it. I won’t accept late work, especially three weeks late,” but as I said in my other post, the positive effect of getting a passing grade in a class will do more to make that student successful than will a tough lesson on responsibility.

Time is valuable, and any kind of time-saving technique I can employ will leave me more time to do what I enjoy doing most of all – Teach.

So there’s a quick tip that I’m sharing to hopefully save you a little time grading – especially late work.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and receive my e-book 101 Tips for New Teachers free. Click here to sign up.

Until next week,

Here’s to great Success in the Classroom!

Thanks,

Sam

It’s called Prezi.

I’ve used it to make presentations to the staff, and they were pretty amazed.

It’s free to educators, and with a little practice, you can make a really cool show.

Here’s a presentation I made for my Homework Blog Strategy. The post for that particular strategy is here.

Let me know what you think.

I was delivering a report to a teacher – we’ll call her Jackie, and I decided to wait until the bell rang, so I wouldn’t have to interrupt her class.

The bell rang, and I stepped aside to avoid getting run over by all the students rushing out of class.

To my surprise, the door didn’t open for about 30 seconds. The students started filing out slowly. I took the opportunity between some exiting students to enter the classroom.

That’s when I saw it, and it was amazing!

There was a line of students waiting to exit, but before they left the room, the teacher was giving each student a hug and giving them a word of encouragement.

I was shocked.

In the 23 years of teaching, I’ve seen teachers give the occasional hug here and there, but I have never seen a line of middle school students getting their hug on the way out of a classroom.

The students were actually waiting for their turn to get a hug.

Wow.

Not any teacher can do this.

You need be a teacher who is sincere in your love and concern for your students – all your students.

Anybody can love the lovable.

It’s the students who are unlovable that need the most attention, and those teachers who can see beyond the defiance and attitude of the unlovable student will make the most difference in their lives.

Each student in this teacher’s class left that room feeling valued, if only by one person.

You never know what a student is going through, but giving every student a moment of value can be just what he/she needs to face the rest of the day.

As a male teacher, I would never be able to pull this off. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.

I do remember doing everything I could however, to make my students feel important as often as I could, but I know it wasn’t as consistent as it could have been.

I would encourage any new teacher out there to make it a point to have that HUG LINE as your students leave your class – maybe not an actual line like the teacher I observed today, but at least a symbolic one where you take some specific action to let your students feel that moment of value before they leave your class.

Today I witnessed an amazingly refreshing teaching moment.  I wish I had a teacher like this when I was in middle school. I wish my son’s teachers were like this teacher. We all need these moments of value.

Way to go Jackie!

1. How to Let Parents Know What’s for Homework

This is a great way to keep students from fooling their parents about what they should be doing that evening. The best part about it is that you don’t have to do any work once it’s set up. Parents love it. Kids not so much. Click here.

2. What Principal’s Look for in a Prospective Teacher

I had a principal call me about a student teacher of mine, and I thought I’d share some of the questions I was asked. Click here.

3. How to Get  Hired as a Full Time Teacher

My student teacher was hired as soon as she left my class. With so few positions open, find out why she got the job. Click here.

4. 5 Ways to Get the Class Quiet Without Raising Your Voice

Teachers should never have to yell or scream at a class. Here are some strategies that I learned over the years. Click here.

6. How to Write a Class Rap

This will work once, maybe twice in middle school. It’s a fun way to review a lesson. Click here.

7. Why Every Teacher Should Have Their Own Website – At Least Two

Learn why you can make an impact not only on your students, but on the teaching world. Click here.

8. 10 Ways To Make Your Classroom Better Than Home

Too many students have home lives that can break your heart. Learn some quick and easy ways to provide that safe caring place away from home. Click here.

9. What To Do When The Student is Being Defiant

You’ll have those students who do not take the hint after three warnings. It’s time to take back control of your classroom. Here’s how. Click here.

10. Top Ten Classroom Management Tips

Just another post where I share some quick and easy strategies that I’ve learned over the years to keep my students learning. Click here.

Thank you.

Feel free to comment, criticize, question, and/or share.

Sam

One of the best ways to take a boring topic and make it interesting to your students is to connect the lesson with the students’ personal lives.

Before I entered administration, I taught history for over 20 years.  Many times, I had to present a lesson on a particular subject that I know was boring for 8^th graders.

My experience with 8^th grade history was not a good one. My history classes growing up were boring. It was a lot of names and dates and events that happened a long time ago.

When I became a history teacher, I made a promise to myself to make sure that my classes were not going to be boring. I was committed to doing whatever I needed to do to make history class my students’ favorite class.

I learned early on that keeping this promise was not that easy. The subject matter was just not interesting enough to 8th graders. I could talk about the Constitution or the Branches of Government or the War of 1812 with all of the enthusiasm I could muster, but the kids just didn’t get into the lesson.

I would use pictures on a PowerPoint slide, movies about the event, first-person narratives, but the students just didn’t get into it.

Then I figured it out.

History was boring, because the students had no connection to it.

That’s when I started making some changes in how I delivered my lessons.

I began connecting the lesson to the lives of my students.

 I would ask questions of the students that had to do with what the lesson was about.

“How many here have ever had your parents make a new rule for you without even asking you about it?”

“You ask them why, and they say, ‘because I said so.’”

I’d get the kids to share an example or two. Then I’d compare that with how the colonists felt when England was treating them unfairly with some of the laws they were imposing on them.

All of a sudden, the kids could connect with the lesson, and when it came time for the test, they remembered the information, because they had something in their own lives that connected with it.

The lesson I learned was that the more you connect the lesson with the lives of the students, the more engaged they will be, and that will result in less-boring class.

Here are some points to remember when connecting kids with the lesson:

1. Ask questions like: How many have ever…? Ask for a show of hands first or you’ll have a lot of redirecting to do. Students like to share their experiences.

2. Tell a personal story. Kids love stories. We all love stories. Connect that story with the concept you’re trying to get across. It’s OK to add a little elaboration. They’re not going to check.

3. Ask students to tell a story. Be careful with this one. Too many kid stories will eat up your time and often lead to other non-related stories.

The main point is that any topic can be made more interesting by using current events or experiences to connect the lives of the students with the lesson.

It takes a little work and preparation, but if you want your class to be the one that students want to come to, your first priority has to be to make your lessons revolve around the lives of your students.

Good luck.

Sam

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/salz/

I must admit, the view from this side of education is a lot different.

One of the conversations that I’m now privy to is the one about teacher ability. I’m quickly learning which teachers are seen in a positive light and which teachers are not. I’ve already had parents calling me to request I change their child’s teacher, because of one thing or another.

Administrators have to evaluate teachers, and although my position doesn’t require me to do this, I am around when the evaluations of teachers is being discussed.

Among the teachers who are being evaluated are those new teachers who are not yet tenured.

Tenure, for those who don’t know what this is, is when you are basically un-fireable. I made that word up. Although you still may be evaluated, the administration will have a harder time firing your for poor performance.

In my district, a teacher becomes tenured after a probation period of two years.

It’s the evaluating administrator who has to determine within those two years if the probationary teacher is qualified to become tenured. Once that second year is over, the administrator knows that it will be very difficult to remove that teacher should it become evident that the teacher isn’t qualified.

Some administrators have a hard time telling a probationary teacher that he/she will not be asked to return for his/her third year, and they end up having to deal with that decision for years to come with a poor performing teacher.

I have my own opinion about tenure and its relevance, but that’s for another post.

I thought it would be a good idea to offer some advice to those probationary teachers who are looking for ways to make it to tenure.

I call it:

Ten Tips to Tenure

Here they are:

Engage your students - One of the main reasons why teachers get a bad reputation is because they don’t know how to control their class. Poor classroom management will prevent a teacher from teaching and student from learning. When students are engaged, classroom management takes care of itself. You want your students to be paying attention and participating in the lesson when the administrator comes in for the evaluation. I believe the primary focus of any new teacher is learning how to keep students engaged. Be open to new strategies. Ask veteran teachers for ideas on keeping students’ attention in class. Learn to keep your students engaged, and you’ll be teaching for as long as you want to.

Start a club – Administrators like to say to parents that there are after-school clubs that their students take advantage of. If you’re the teacher who is giving of your time to help students, the administrator will think twice before letting you go. Create a club about something that you’re passionate about. Just make sure that it has something that benefits kids.

Don’t send a lot of students to the office – I’ve learned that one of the statistics that some administrators compile is the number of times a teacher refers a student to the office for discipline. There are times when students need to be sent to the office, but as a new teacher, you have to do your best to handle as many problems in the classroom.

Communicate with parents - Get the parents on your side. I know it sounds political, but parents can be your biggest fans or your greatest threat. Parents talk to administrators. What do parents talk to administrators about? Yup. They talk about teachers. You want them to say good things about you, instead of complaining about you.

Dress professionally – This is an easy one. No administrator wants his/her staff looking like slobs.

Volunteer for committees - Get involved. Administrators don’t like to beg teachers to be part of committies. If you’re one that they can count on, it will go a long way to increase your worth. You will also be around other teachers who can offer valuable information to new teachers.

Use technology - Technology is becoming more and more a part of education. Become the technology expert at your school. Be that go-to tech guy/gal that can show the older teachers how to do stuff with the computer.

Connect with mentors - Get yourself involved in a Professional Learning Network (PLN). With the advent of the Internet, teachers can connect with other teachers all around the world. Reading this blog post demonstrated that you are already doing this. I wish I had the Internet when I started teaching.

Stay away from negative teachers – I’ve seen new teachers get their youthful save-the-world enthusiasm quenched by negative teachers, and it makes me mad. Unfortunately, there are teachers out there who are burned out, and who are looking for new reasons to complain about the administration, the district, the parents, kids, etc. Stay away from them. Find a happy teacher. Be their best friend. Adminstrators can’t get rid of the veteran complainer, but getting rid of the probationary teacher who complains will make the administrator happy.

Keep learning - Read books about teaching strategies. Subscribe to blogs about teaching. Ask questions of successful veteran teachers. Ask administrators for advice. They like this. Trust me. No administrator wants a know-it-all on their staff, especially a probationary know-it-all.

I need to clarify that you can’t just do one of these tips and expect to be safe when tenure time comes around. I also would hope that after you attain tenure, that you wouldn’t abandon these strategies just because you’re safe.

Am I missing anything?

Is there anything else that tenured teachers would like to add to this list?

Good luck!

Thanks,
Sam

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/maeghen17/

I recently had a conversation with a teacher from another school who was telling me about the biggest obstacle to their school’s success – lack of collaboration among teachers.

According to her, there are many teachers at her school who just don’t want to work together.

Instead of sharing ideas on how to improve student learning, they are satisfied just staying in their classroom doing their own thing, regardless of how their students do.

It’s unfortunate, because their school is currently under a program quality review for poor test results.

I’ve learned that the best way to improve student learning is to improve teacher learning.

To do this, teachers have to make the decision to swallow their pride and learn from each other.

I know this isn’t easy. Having taught for 23 years, I believed I was a great teacher. My students were learning and their test results showed it.

What I had to admit to myself, however, was that to become that great teacher, it took me 23 years!

For all those years, teacher collaboration was not a focus of the schools I worked in. It wasn’t my focus either.

We had our monthly meetings where we shared best practices, but it wasn’t a systematic process initiated by the administration to allow teachers to increase their learning.

Had such a process been in place or had I taken the time to learn from other teachers, I could have been a great teacher a lot sooner, and more of my students would have benefitted from that greatness.

Unfortunately, so many of my students suffered through my trial and error learning process.

Sorry kids.

I know I’m preaching to the choir.

The fact that you are reading this blog post demonstrates that you are actively looking for new ways to improve your teaching abilities.

The choir, however, serves a very important role.

At my church, I’m the music director, so I know what I’m talking about.

The choir prepares the atmosphere in the church service. A good choir has a positive effect on the rest of the service.

That’s why you, as the choir of your school, have to take the lead in creating a positive atmosphere where teachers can feel comfortable asking for help and learning from each other for the benefit of the students. You have to start singing.

How can I do that, Sam? You don’t know my teachers. They don’t want to learn. They’re selfish and mean, and they think they’re perfect.

You’re right. I don’t know your teachers, but I know what they think. I thought I was perfect. I had a hard time considering the idea that I needed help in certain areas. I wish I knew then what I know now.

What I do know is that collaboration starts with you. Waiting for negative teachers to change or waiting until the administration creates a collaborative system is the wrong way to go.

Take the initative and get the collaboration started. Ask other teachers how they teach a particular standard or lesson. Send an email to all the teachers in your subject area, asking for ideas on how to teach a lesson. You’ll be surprised how many teachers want to share their expertise. Teachers like to teach. It’s what we do. We enjoy sharing our knowledge with others.

Get the collaboration ball rolling at your school by being the first to learn.

Be the choir and create that atmosphere of collaboration.

In my new role as administrator, one of my goals is to help create this atmosphere at my school. I want my teachers to feel comfortable sharing new ideas and best practices. It’s up to me to provide them with time and specific guidelines as to how to get this done.

I’m convinced that the only way students will learn more is by making sure teachers are learning more. With the budget crunch, it is no longer possible to send teachers to conferences and inservices to help them learn new techniques and strategies. What most school administrators haven’t realized, however, is that there are experts in the very same building who, if given the opportunity, can spread their expertise with other teachers at the school to improve the abilities of all.

Not only does the school gain better teachers, but more students learn. Isn’t this the focus of every school - student learning?

No one teacher is an expert in every area, but there are teachers who are experts in some areas. Let’s share our expertise, so the students get the best education possible.

I’m a big proponent of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) in schools. The biggest component of PLC’s is collaboration. I believe it’s the future of education, but it takes the active participation of teachers and administrators to make it work. You can read more about PLC’s at my administrator blog www.SchoolAdministrationMastery.com.

What do you think?

Can we collaborate better? Is it possible at your school?  Should we wait until the administration catches on to the idea?

I’d like to know what your thoughts are.

Thanks for reading,

Sam

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cseeman/

Again, I’ve been reading a book that my new principal gave me. His goal is to have the entire staff embrace the ideas found in it. Although I’m no longer a teacher, I thought it would be good to pull out some of the best ideas in the book and share them on SITC.

Here’s a technique that I wish I would have used more often when I was teaching. It’s called Cold Call.

Key Idea: In order to make engaged participation the expectation, call on students regardless of whether they have raised their hands.

According to the author of the book, it’s the single most powerful technique found in it.

I am inclined to agree.

The idea is to conduct your lesson cold calling on students to answer questions.

I used to do this a lot, but mainly as a disciplinary action. I would notice that a student wasn’t paying attention or talking to a neighbor, and I would ask, “Johnny, what do you think about what I just said?”

Normally, however, I would ask for volunteers to answer, calling on those students who raised their hands.

I didn’t want to call on those students who didn’t raise their hands, because I didn’t want to embarrass them if they didn’t know the answer.

After reading this chapter, I wanted to have a re-do.

So, for all you new teachers who are looking for a way to better engage your students, I would encourage you to begin using the technique: Cold Call.

There are several benefits to using this technique.

The Benefits of Cold Calling

1. It allows you to check for understanding. Some students won’t get it the first time. Asking them directly takes the guess work out of it.

2. It increases the speed of your lesson. I wonder how many instructional minutes were wasted waiting for students to volunteer an answer. This way, you are in control of the time.

3. It sends a message to the students that you are interested in their opinion. Many students may have great ideas or insights, but won’t offer them unless you push them to contribute.

4. It establishes the idea that the room belongs to you, and that you are keeping the students accountable.

Cold Calling can be a powerful tool, and the book offers some guidelines to follow:

1. Cold Call is predictable. This has to be a normal part of your lessons.  It can’t happen occasionally or when you have some free time. Students need to know that it’s not a “special” activity. It’s a normal every day activity. “It’s an engagement strategy, not a discipline strategy.”

2. Cold Call is systematic. There is no evidence that it’s a teacher’s goal to call out specific students. It’s emotionless and in no way seen as a punishment. “It’s how we do business here.” The questions are for all students, not just for the ones who are off-task or in the back of the room. “…it is a student’s chance…to shine.”

3. Cold Call is positive. This is not a “gotcha” activity. Cold Call is to show that you respect the student’s intelligence. For this reason, you have to make sure your questions are substantive and created with the goal for the student to get the answer right. Questions like, “What did I just say?” are not substantive. You also don’t want the student to learn by getting the answer wrong. An idea offered in the book is to  have the questions already prepared in advance.  They will feel more successful if they get the answer right. Again, this is not a disciplinary technique.

4. Cold Call is scaffolded. The first question should lead to a second and third question which may be a bit more difficult or require higher level thinking skills. I liked the idea of Cold Calling for the first few questions in the sequence, then asking for volunteers for the last questions, which should be the most difficult. It offers students to be rewarded by knowing the tough question.

Another element to Cold Calling that I thought was insightful was Timing the Name. According to the book, the questions should be framed with the name of the student at the end.

“What is 3 times 9? (pause) James?”

This makes sure that all students are waiting to answer the question. They are using the pause to search their brains for the answer.

According to the book, if you put the name in the front, then 24 of the 25 students in the class have turned their brains off. (Who has 25 students in a class? My last class had 42 students. Oh well.)

You get the point, however.

Putting the name at the end keeps more students engaged longer.

Good idea.

I used to be concerned with adding stress to my students, so I didn’t use this strategy as often as I now know I should have.

If given the opportunity again, I would include this technique as a regular part of my daily lessons more often.

What do you think? Is this a strategy that you have used? Are there any concerns you have about it?

I’d like to know you opinion.

Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks again,

Sam

This was one of those techniques that I remember using when I taught Language Arts, but had abandoned when I went back to teaching my History classes.

When I was teaching Language Arts, I was a stickler for having my students answer in complete sentences and with proper grammar.

If a student just answered the question with a one-word answer, I would say, “Nope,” and move on.

Other students would offer their responses which were really wrong, and I would continue calling students until finally someone would give the correct answer in a complete sentence, and I would say, “Right!”

The original student, along with most of the class, would argue that he had already said the right answer. (I used to give out rewards for right answers.)

That’s when I would explain that I needed the answer in a complete sentence.

Technique #4 – Format Matters – asks the teacher to “prepare your students to succeed by requiring complete sentences and proficient grammar every chance you get.”

The book offers two ways to correct errors in language:

1. Identify the error – Repeat the statement in a question: “We was walking down the street?”
2. Begin the correction – Repeat the answer with the correction: “We were…”

I also like the idea that the book gives to make this process something that students will remember by using a catch phrase: “Say it like a scholar.”

Key Idea: “It’s not just what students say that matters but how they communicate it. To succeed, students must take their knowledge and express it in the language of opportunity.”

Why did I stop requiring complete sentences when I taught history? I suppose it was because the objective was to get the student to give me the correct date or person or cause. I was happy when a student gave me the right answer. Having to do it again, however, I would have kept up my high standards when it came to student responses.

I think it’s a good idea to require students to answer in complete sentences and correct grammar – in every class.

I’ve been told that it’s important not to discourage or devalue the informal language of the student. It’s often part of their culture or home life. I agree. Certain cultures have different ways of expressing  themselves which to some of us may seem incorrect or non-grammatical. We can’t make the way their parents talk at home of lesser value.

Tell the students that there are times when it is OK to use informal language, but when in an academic setting or when applying for a job, it’s important to use formal language.

What do you think?

Do you require students to answer in complete sentences? Is it an effective strategy?

Thanks again,

Sam