Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Practice What You Teach

I am constantly talking to all teachers about the importance of establishing good classroom routines.  It's not just because it's 2c in the Danielson Framework - but without those routines - good learning becomes impossible.  Students who want to learn get frustrated by the teacher allowing the students who are not behaving according to expectations.

But expectations are not what you say - it's what you allow to happen.

Meet Mr. Hester - you can start the video at 0:44 but watch what happens at 1:16.  



Giovanni wasn't meeting expectations - Mr. Hester quickly and efficiently re-taught the expectation and was able to return to the rest of his class.

So I know all of this and I talk about it all the time but what happens when it's my own class?

This year FHS is rolling out Bison Time - an academic resource period built into the school day.  I have been assigned 25 seniors.  On the first two days, I started with my CHAMPS slideshow clearly stating my expectations and telling them what they needed to know about me.  I thought I was like Mr. Hester.

Despite this great start - somehow by the end of Bison Time yesterday, 15 days after the first day of school, I found myself having said, "stop talking" no less than 15 times to the students.  I even had to hold back three students to talk about their lack of respect toward their fellow classmates.

How embarrassing!  How did this happen?

My Bison Time is made up of some great kids - but I forget that even seniors need to have a little direction and focus.  I said that I expected them to be quiet and to work but I allowed them to chatter and socialize.

But every setback is an opportunity for growth, right?

I need to re-teach but because my expectations were not reinforced by my actions.  Now my re-teaching cannot be as subtle as Mr. Hester's because I have let things go on so long.  Tomorrow the students will walk into this slideshow. I'll keep you posted how it goes.

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