I am honored to send my tips of the trade to you! You are an inspiration to us all in education. I appreciate your deep sense of passion and love for teaching and learning. I have been in education for a long time and still have so much to learn. I am encouraged every time I read your words of wisdom!
Blessings to you and all your readers!
Margie Pearse
(Lead Author of Learning that Never Ends and Teaching Numercy)
Five Insider Tips of the Trade!
1. Why NOT reinvent the wheel!
The one advice I would tell new teachers not to listen to is “why reinvent the wheel.” It’s almost funny when you think of it; what if all professions lived by this credo? Progress takes a visionary and teaching is no different. It is important to stay current.
Here’s just a few ways I try to keep my finger on the pulse of what is new in education:
· Every summer, even after 25 years of teaching, I challenge myself to read eight highly rated, current books on teaching. I ask my fellow colleagues what their reading, look on Rowman & Littlefield Education, Stenhouse, and ASCD for titles that interest me, or find my last year’s favorites and find similar books on Amazon. Now, I know that eight books is a crazy amount, but even one new book per summer would have definitely given me enough ideas for reinventing.
· I let my students in on what I am trying. I tell them that I would like to try a few new ideas and would love to know what they think. We reflect together, I write their advice on a post-it and attach it to whatever we tried, and I adapt it to better meet their needs the next time. Your students will appreciate your transparency and willingness to put in the extra effort for them.
· At the end of the day, I sit quietly for just a few moments and reflect over the learning that day. I have my lessons in front of me and I imagine what I might do differently next time to push my students’ thinking. I start to free-write on a large post-it and stick it right on the lesson so I remember next time. That really helps!
2. Teach your students HOW to think, not just WHAT to think!
The nuns used to call this “spray and pray.” When I started teaching in 1983, it was common practice to stand in front of the class, “spray” out all your knowledge and pray that someone got it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Learning is not passive.
We need to provide opportunities for students to make meaning for themselves. That takes setting the stage for it to happen. Yes, they will come across things they don’t know, but what would they do if they did know? Model how you wrestle through the difficult. It is a relief for students to know that you don’t know everything. Sharing how you push through the struggle is a powerful moment for your students to witness.
Let’s take standardized test for instance. Will they know everything on the test – certainly not! But what would they do if they did know? Let me share a recent example of what I mean:
My pre-service teachers are in the midst of taking certification tests. One of the questions asks something like this, “In Singapore Math, the idea of compensation is very important, blablabla…” Several of my students immediately shut down saying, “I can’t do this one. I don’t know WHAT to think.” My challenge to them was, “What would you do if you did know? What about this question can you think through?” I modeled HOW to think. We tore apart the word compensation and they decided it would mean “making up for, doing something to make things easier.” They nailed it! This is thinking!
It is funny, I am still tempted at times to just tell my student what to think and begin my “spraying” all over again. I have to stop and remember the responsibility to learn is on the learner. Otherwise, I am just fooling myself and my students.
3. Instill a love for learning!
Yes, I can get frustrated by the clock watchers and dozers in my class. How do I get through?
Here are just a few easy tips:
1. Get excited every day! Whether you feel the excitement or not. You may need to fake it once in a while, but the excitement will come back.
2. Notice your students’ efforts and successes!
3. Instill a growth mindset – our intelligence is not fixed. We are all a work in progress and effort trumps genetics every time! We can actually become smarter!
4. Promote a classroom that is open to feedback. Provide feedback that is timely and meaningful in the learning, not always just after the learning. I use the idea of “stars and stairs.” I always share the positive and also always offer what I might do next to make something even better.
5. I try not to offer points or prizes for work. We are all working for the sake of accomplishment and self-worth.
6. Be passionate about your subject! Again, that may mean faking it at times. It is hard to get excited about graphing systems, but it is pretty cool to push through to completion and understanding.
7. Make learning fun and active!
8. Get outrageous! Dress in costume! Sing! Dance! Play the role of mysterious classroom guest. Throwing your students off is fun.
9. Eat! Students never forget the day we eat our fractions with Hershey bars.
10. Provide choice. It ramps up the motivation to learn every time!
2. Notice your students’ efforts and successes!
3. Instill a growth mindset – our intelligence is not fixed. We are all a work in progress and effort trumps genetics every time! We can actually become smarter!
4. Promote a classroom that is open to feedback. Provide feedback that is timely and meaningful in the learning, not always just after the learning. I use the idea of “stars and stairs.” I always share the positive and also always offer what I might do next to make something even better.
5. I try not to offer points or prizes for work. We are all working for the sake of accomplishment and self-worth.
6. Be passionate about your subject! Again, that may mean faking it at times. It is hard to get excited about graphing systems, but it is pretty cool to push through to completion and understanding.
7. Make learning fun and active!
8. Get outrageous! Dress in costume! Sing! Dance! Play the role of mysterious classroom guest. Throwing your students off is fun.
9. Eat! Students never forget the day we eat our fractions with Hershey bars.
10. Provide choice. It ramps up the motivation to learn every time!
4. Build tenacity in your students!
Tenacity, grit, and gumption – whatever you want to call it – students need to have it to succeed in life! And guess what, it can be taught! Here are two ideas for teaching tenacity in your students:
· Shrink the change! One way to promote tenacity is to make students feel closer to the finish line than they might have thought.
According to research, people find it more motivating to be partly finished with a longer journey than to be at the starting gate of a shorter one. Shrinking the change is a significant approach to help students make an initial commitment.
HOW TO SHRINK THE CHANGE
1. Pre-teach a challenging lesson with a study group
2. Frontload concepts & vocabulary – there are so many ways to frontload concepts. (Quotation mingle, greet and go, give one – get many, etc. - see book for more examples).
3. Hold an impromptu study session during class immediately before a test.
4. Chunk projects into doable parts and provide growth feedback so each student can succeed before moving on
5. Give one or two questions from a test to do in a small group, then give out the rest to do independently
2. Frontload concepts & vocabulary – there are so many ways to frontload concepts. (Quotation mingle, greet and go, give one – get many, etc. - see book for more examples).
3. Hold an impromptu study session during class immediately before a test.
4. Chunk projects into doable parts and provide growth feedback so each student can succeed before moving on
5. Give one or two questions from a test to do in a small group, then give out the rest to do independently
· Accountability/Coaching Partners – Coaching partners are a way to encourage accountability. They are long-term partnerships. You form the partners by matching students who are compatible, but range in ability. They can be utilized at any given point during the lesson and may meet to simply touch base or can meet longer on a weekly basis. It depends upon your purpose.
For younger students, coaching partners can be used in the following ways:
· Retelling, summarizing, making connections
· Brainstorming
· Echo reading – or reading in two voices
· Generating and answering questions
· Using manipulatives in discovery moments
· Problem-solving
· Experimenting
· Working in stations
· Discovering nature
· Partner reading
· Listening to books on tape
· Listening to each other
For younger students, coaching partners can be used in the following ways:
· Retelling, summarizing, making connections
· Brainstorming
· Echo reading – or reading in two voices
· Generating and answering questions
· Using manipulatives in discovery moments
· Problem-solving
· Experimenting
· Working in stations
· Discovering nature
· Partner reading
· Listening to books on tape
· Listening to each other
For the older student, a coaching partner can be an excellent resource when a specific project is being assigned. Here are just a few:
· Discussing ways to meet a deadline.
· Reviewing and summarizing learning
· Creating working goals
· Problem-solving
· Generating a formula
· Designing a working plan
· Reflecting on the progress of working goals
· Clarifying evaluation criteria on a rubric
· Reviewing each other’s progress on a project
· Answering questions about a project
· Revising
· Doing peer reviews
· Brainstorming ideas
· Coming to a consensus
· Providing emotional support
· Prioritizing plans to complete something
· Listening
· Celebrating each other’s successes
· Discussing ways to meet a deadline.
· Reviewing and summarizing learning
· Creating working goals
· Problem-solving
· Generating a formula
· Designing a working plan
· Reflecting on the progress of working goals
· Clarifying evaluation criteria on a rubric
· Reviewing each other’s progress on a project
· Answering questions about a project
· Revising
· Doing peer reviews
· Brainstorming ideas
· Coming to a consensus
· Providing emotional support
· Prioritizing plans to complete something
· Listening
· Celebrating each other’s successes
5. Cultivate self-efficacy in your students!
Self-efficacy is an optimistic evaluation of one’s capacity to cope with a given situation. It is a sense of personal power. People with high self-efficacy believe they have control of their own lives; that their own actions and decisions have an effect on what they do and who they become. They are more willing to participate in life’s experiences because they feel they have some influence on the outcome. On the other hand, people with low self-efficacy see their lives as out of their hands. They avoid challenging tasks altogether for fear of failure.
As teachers, we can foster self-efficacy in our students by utilizing any of the following ideas:
· “Really, what’s the worst that could happen?” This one question challenges students to realize the potential in taking academic risks. Perhaps a student wants to write the President about an issue he/she is passionate about. Really, what’s the worst that could happen? He doesn’t write back? Wow! That’s nothing compared to the benefits in knowing he/she had the courage to write and send that letter. Don’t we live by that motto every time we send a resume or ask someone out on a date?
· Transformative Thinking – Students need to know from day one what matters most is that they give their strongest effort consistently. The ball is in their court. The road to success begins with a personal decision to invest. There are no shortcuts. We cannot pretend we don’t know that people without diplomas end up in low paying jobs. We all must gain the skills of engaging in self-directed learning if we want to succeed in life. We are playing for keeps – taking school seriously from day one opens doors. The ramifications of ignorance pertain to everyone. Let students in on this. Be transparent about the connection between valuing education, effort, and the payoff from it.
· Find inspiration in other self-efficacious thinkers – Study the lives of great achievers you admire. You will discover they were possibility thinkers. How about John F. Kennedy for example? He gave a passionate testimonial in seeing life’s possibilities when he shared, “Some men see things as they are and ask, why? I dream of things that never were and ask, why not?”
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