Monthly Archives: November 2015

Students Can Drive Change

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I am beyond proud of my Leadership students. Probably more proud of them then they are of themselves. I have the honor of serving as my school’s PBIS (Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports) Coordinator. During the 2nd and 4th quarters we have PBIS Celebrations to acknowledge students for displaying P.R.I.D.E. (Punctuality. Respect. Integrity. Determination. Excellence.) consistently throughout the school year. At the end of last school year we received a lot of feedback from students and staff that quite frankly the celebrations had become stale, boring, and not really much of a reward. I honestly can’t blame the students because I was tired of them too. My school leadership allowed us to change the celebration, so developing a new PBIS celebration was the first project for my leadership classes.

I broke each class up into teams of 4-5 and they reviewed our previous celebrations, came up with ideas for new activities, developed and conducted a survey for their peers, administered the survey, analyzed the data from their results and developed their “perfect” celebration.  We spent two weeks on the project and students presented their results to the class.  I was very impressed by their creativity.  Some of their suggestions were a little more than what we could do (a bounce house for seniors only), but I liked their approaches to the process.  That was one part of the activity that I like, the fact that in any project that you undertake there are limits and constraints that you have to work under.  A bounce house costs money.  Where do we get that money?  What would we do if someone got hurt?  Overall, the students wanted competitions (students v. staff), they wanted the ability to travel from activity to activity, they wanted to use their phones, and they wanted a longer (all day if possible) celebration.

I took those suggestions to the administration, they approved them, and we executed.  Initially we planned for activities to be both outside (flag football and walking on the track) and inside the school building (movies in the cafeteria and auditorium, boardgames and ping-pong in the atrium, study halls and computer games in various classrooms, and quiet reading in the media center), but the weather forced us to have everyone inside.  I’ll spare all the details, but the celebration went pretty well.  I got a lot of positive feedback from my students, and the school staff as well.  My leadership students were happy as well to see that when given the opportunity, they can positively change their school experience.

“I don’t think it’s possible to use your whole brain.”

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I’m always looking for PD opportunities and at the last minute (one week before) I found out that Edcamp Baltimore was happening on September 26.  I was added to the wait-list, then a couple days before I found out that I was a “go”.  I was excited for another chance to learn a few new strategies and tech tools from fellow educators from around the area.

The intro to Edcamp is always fun, but I was ready to dig in to the sessions.  Edcamp Baltimore was my 5th Edcamp, so I consider myself a veteran and as a veteran I used the “law of two feet” liberally this time because there were so many really good session, but one session in particular really stood out to me. This was the session on PBIS. Being the PBIS Coordinator this sounded like the session for me to share my experiences and learn from others as well. There were some great insights by many of the teachers who are at PBIS schools and some great questions from those who are not. At one point a teacher mentioned whole brain teaching as a great classroom management strategy. I had never heard of it before, but several other teachers mentioned their success with the strategy as well. So after the sessions I asked a few follow up questions about it. I was told to check out some of the videos on YouTube.
Well, I got home and checked out one video and was amazed. The teacher was using a “call and response” system with kids that included hand gestures, students responding to cues, and reviewing what they learned with a partner. It was amazing! After a couple seconds of instruction students were teaching their classmates what they learned. I was so intrigued that I spent the entire next day reading and watching videos about whole brain teaching. I learned about the engagement of different parts of the brain as students listen, mimic motions, and repeat what they hear. I saw it working in kindergarten classrooms all the way to college lecture halls.
I had to try it the next day and I did. I shaped it as a competition class vs. teacher. If they follow directions quickly they get a point. If they don’t teacher gets a point. When I explained the rules there was some hesitation, but once we got going they were in to it. I did the hand motions for a sentence, students followed along, then taught Rachel other. We worked on the foundations of a topic sentence and 28 students were fully engaged, learning with each other, teaching each other, and having fun with each other.
I reflected on that classroom experience with some of my department members at lunch that day, and someone said, “I don’t think it’s possible to use your whole brain! Well, we may or may not have used our whole brain, but we used enough to make that lesson stick!

Look for the Teachable Moments

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I love being a husband, father, and teacher because there are always random events that occur in life that are outstanding “teachable moments” or opportunities to learn valuable lessons from current situations. Often in class a student will make a remark that will spark an important discussion. Two such moments happened on Friday.
In my US history class we are talking about World War I. Our lesson focused on the government limiting civil liberties to protect the country. The warm-up focused on the First Amendment, so students would realize that the government cannot limit our right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and so on.  Right before we discussed answers as a class one of my students yelled out, “If the First Amendment says the government can’t take my right to free speech away, then why do people (teachers) keep telling me that I can’t say whatever I want.  Technically, I can bully someone according to the First Amendment, right?”  That gave me the opportunity to discuss the fact that schools are a special circumstance, and students’ First Amendment rights are limited because, “Certain types of speech and behavior are considered so disruptive that they may be prohibited outright, as specified in The Annotated Code of Maryland, Education Article, §26-101.”  Each and every student deserves a safe and supportive learning environment and that cannot happen if students can express themselves in any way that they choose at any time that they choose.

My second teachable moment came after I picked up my son from school and we were driving home.  One of my new favorite talk radio shows was on, The Karen Hunter Show on Sirius/XM Urban View, and Ms. Hunter made the comment that, “If you’re in charge and the people around you aren’t getting better, then you s*ck!”  My 6-year-old looked over at me immediately, because we don’t use that adjective in our house and he was waiting for my reaction.  Usually, I turn the station and ignore the language, but this time I decided to turn the radio down and discuss what was said because there was an important opportunity there.  I told my son, “I don’t agree with the word she used, but Ms. Hunter was making a very important point.  Son, it is our job to help the people around us get better.  It’s your mom and I’s job to make you the best that you can be, think about how much time we spend on math homework, and it’s your job to help your younger brother and sister get better as well.  You know your brother isn’t very good about cleaning up, and instead of yelling at him or making fun of him because he doesn’t do a good job we should help show him how to get better.”  After pondering my statement, with a quizzical look on his face he said, “Oh, I get it.  We have to show people how to be the best.”  “That’s right son, we have to try our best to help others be their best.”  I don’t know if that lesson will stick with him, but I’m going to work my tail off to model the lesson for him everyday.  The teachable moments, look for them, take advantage of them, and teach!