The Shift from Teaching to a Culture of Learning

As educators, we talk all the time about creating a culture of learning in our classrooms.  We want to inspire our students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, but we often fail to model those expectations for them nor do we provide the classroom climate to provide space for it.  Creating a culture of learning requires that we put intentional thought behind the environments we create for learners of all kinds.

It’s clear from the absence of blog posts in the last two years on this page that my mind has been occupied elsewhere.  I took a chance in the summer of 2019 for a new job at a new school in a new district and ended up exactly where I was meant to be.  If you know anything about my journey up to that point, you know that it was not easy.  I’d always had a knack for dreaming big and stepping outside of my comfort zone in the classroom.  Being innovative and thinking outside the box are kind of my jam.  And I am and always have been a champion for students.  I believe that they can, and will, make our world a better place.

More than anything, I love to learn about how to be a better teacher, how to better serve our students, and how to collaborate better with my fellow teachers by listening to a good podcast or reading a book that challenged my practices.  In the past when I went to share my learning with others, I was usually on an island.  Every once in a while I’d find a willing colleague who’d say, “Why not? Let’s do it.” In my last year as a classroom teacher (2018-2019), that support was non-existent.  I struggled with burnout, frustration, workplace bullies, anxiety, depression, and more.

YOUR PLACE IS WAITING

When I took the leap and stepped into my new role in the summer of 2019, I had no idea what to expect other than I’d get to work with students and teachers, which is something that I’d been looking to do for a while.  What I found were my place and my people.

In my current role, I have the perfect blend of a classroom teacher and instructional coach.  While I spend two hours of my day teaching community-centered courses (where I implement a project-based learning approach aimed at transforming community), I spend the rest of my day supporting teachers and staff in pursuit of a true student-centered vision for learning.  I work in a community that values the power of people and the gifts they bring to the table and is actively working to elevate those gifts for the good of others.  However, I think my absolute favorite part of my “new’ position and the team that I work with is that we embody a true culture of learning.

A CULTURE OF LEARNING

As educators, we talk all the time about creating a culture of learning in our classrooms.  We want to inspire our students to be intrinsically motivated to learn, but we often fail to model those expectations for them nor do we provide the classroom climate to provide space for it.  The same is true for those in teaching roles and those in support roles, such as instructional coaches, as well as school and district leadership.  If we want students to develop a lifelong passion for learning, we have to show them what happens when we have one.  A learning culture hinges on two main dispositions: reflection and inquiry.

REFLECTION IS KEY TO A CULTURE OF LEARNING

First, we must be constantly reflecting upon our priorities, practices, and progress.  In schools, it’s easy to roll out an initiative at the beginning of the year and not touch it again until May.  Learning requires that we continuously reflect upon what is and what is not working.  As a first-year teacher, I kept a journal to reflect.  These days, most of my reflection happens in collaborative teams where I can share my ideas with others and get feedback.

Reflective Questions for Small Groups:

1. What’s going well right now?
2. What tensions do we feel?
3. What’s one thing we can do tomorrow/next week/over the next month that will move us forward faster?
4. What has been most helpful?  Least helpful?

DEVELOPING SUSTAINED INQUIRY

Secondly, we have to acquire a sense of curiosity and inquiry.  If we are not asking questions, we’re not growing.  At the beginning of the year, I developed a driving question that has guided my work throughout the year.  This question, which is “What does it mean to be a community?” is on my classroom website so it can be viewed by students and colleagues alike.  I am not going to lie to you and say that everything I’ve read or listened to this year has directly tied back to that driving question.  However, it has helped me develop a lens through which I’m consuming content.  The professional books and podcasts I’ve dug into this year have helped to contribute positively to the work my team and I are doing.

Ways to Develop Sustained Inquiry:

1. Develop a driving question that guides your work.
2. Get good at asking questions.  Ask them for yourself and those around you.
3. Gather others to learn together.

THE CONNECTION

A missing piece between learning and reflecting is often creating.  We have to do something with what we learn so that we can reflect upon its impact in our classrooms and/or our lives.  Whether you are reading this as a fellow educator, an entrepreneur, or you just stumbled upon this post after a random sequence of events, you know of stagnant people.  There are those who, it seems no matter how hard they’re working, fail to make progress.  That’s because in between inquiry and reflection, there has to be a change or, what I call, creation.   When one of these three pieces is missing, it’s hard to make or see progression toward a goal.  This constant cycle of inquiry – creation – reflection – inquiry will ensure that we are committed to learning and growing as individuals, as organizations, and as a community as a whole.

I am so fortunate to be working in a place that really embraces a culture of learning from as small as the classroom environment to the broader community as a whole. My colleagues and I are actively working to create change and see an impact.  I’d love to hear more about your personal journey in being part of a culture of learning.  What made that environment powerful to you?  What are some other ways to build a culture of learning in our schools and organizations?

Curious about some of my older blog posts around classroom culture?  Check out this post about how I built classroom community or this one on my favorite hour of the week.

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Leading Your Classroom Community on Love

Here’s the truth about me:  I run a classroom on love.

Here’s another truth about me:  I am a terrible teacher.

No really, I am.  If you were to walk into my classroom at any given moment, I cannot promise that you won’t see students up walking around, talking to their neighbors, making jokes, laughing, and sometimes yelling (hey, passion is loud).  The floor is probably messy, there are papers hanging out of desks, books are scattered all over the carpet, and there are half-finished posters hanging on the wall.  If you were to pass by us in the hallways, you may see students smiling at each other, laughing, and, I promise, we are not standing in a straight line facing in one direction.  There are probably shirts untucked, belts missing, and a couple of my students may be wearing a jacket with a logo on it.

It drives people crazy.  I know it does.

What Other People Think about a Classroom Community of Love

I see the looks of disapproval in the hallway and the stress on their faces when they walk into my room.  I see that uncomfortable look on their faces and for a second, my stomach drops.  I get nervous that I am not doing something correctly.  I quickly think about the student who’s crawling across the floor looking for the pencil and I snap at them to get to their seat immediately.

“We have to look presentable when others walk in.”

It’s what I immediately think.  I apologize to whoever walks in and tell them they walked in during a transition and that it doesn’t always look this crazy, but deep down, I know the truth.

My students know the truth too.  The visitors probably know the truth too and I am naively assuming they think I “have it all together.”

I don’t have it all together.  But my students and I, we’ve got it all, together.

That’s cheesy.  I realize that.   But I wholeheartedly mean that.

What My Students Think about a Classroom Community of Love

I came back to school on a Friday after being out for a conference.  In my mailbox, there was a stack of letters from my students that they had written for me for Teacher Appreciation week.  They said things like:

“I like my teacher because she’s fun.”

“My favorite thing about my teacher is she is always herself.”

“My teacher’s superpower would be creativity.”

“My favorite thing about my teacher is she always makes boring stuff to halfway decent stuff.”

“She gives you chances.”

‘My favorite thing about my teacher is that she’s funny.”

“My teacher’s superpower would be nerd power.”

“My favorite thing about my teacher is she lets us get on the Chromebook almost every day.”

“One thing I want my teacher to know is that I love her.”

I know some of you reading this are thinking:  What is wrong with her? They never do any work.  They spend all day having fun, playing on the computer, and folding paper planes.

Actually, no. Not really.  We do work.  We do a lot of work.  We do a lot of hard work.  But my students don’t think of that when they’re asked to reflect on their relationship with their teacher.  They don’t think of their relationship with me tied to work or learning.  Why is that?  Is it that they haven’t learned anything all year?  Is it because they aren’t working daily on improving who they are as readers, writers, mathematicians, and critical thinkers?

No… it’s because while they’re working on all of those “school” things, they are also working on becoming better friends, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters.  They are working on becoming kind, compassionate, creative, strong-willed, independent, self-reliant, and loving human beings.

They won’t remember that six-page reading assignment aligned to the Common Core standards that took them an hour to do in 10, 20, or 30 years.  But when they look back on their time with me, they will remember…

• times during recess that they busted out laughing with their friends;
• the puzzles and projects they worked on together;
• the jokes that their teacher made to lighten the mood and wake them up in the morning; and
• the fact that their teacher loved them.

Proof that I am, in fact, a mess.

What I Think about a Classroom Community of Love

I’m going off on a tangent here, so let me get back to my point.  My point is that I am a terrible teacher.   Let be super clear with you here:  I am a terrible teacher in the sense that I can’t always get my students to stand in a straight line and I haven’t figured out the best way to remind them to put their names on their papers.  I don’t always remember where I laid down the papers I was about to hand out five seconds ago.  I trip over my words, I make mistakes when teaching math, I sometimes let my students work on busy work while I sit at my desk for a few minutes and take a breather.

However, those moments are rare because I hate pushing students to be compliant for the sake of being compliant.  So, to outsiders, it might look like my class is out of control and all over the place.  In fact, in talking to a parent the other day, my principal referred to my classroom management style as laissez-faire and I took it as a compliment (and I think that’s the way he meant it) until I looked up the actual definition.

LAISSEZ FAIRE:  a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering

In truth, if my classroom was run in a true laissez-faire manner, it would look the scene from Lord of the Flies where there is a pig’s head on a stake and blood all over the place.  The real truth is that my classroom environment is not the result of accidental neglect, but rather months and months of intentionality.

The Intention Behind a Classroom Community of Love

You see, every year, while I’m building classroom routines and expectations, signing classroom constitutions, and trying to review with my students how to subtract with regrouping, I’m also working on several little things that I didn’t even realize were a part of my classroom management plan until, well, this week, when I felt like someone brought them into question.  These things, I’ve realized recently, are what keep my classroom functioning through the chaos.  Even though we have a classroom set of rules designed by students that focus on responsibility, respect, and safety, I have two additional unspoken rules for myself that guide me through the year.

Love them first and always.

and

Make things fun.

Love Them First and Always

My first unspoken rule is to love them first and always.  On the first day of school, as my students are leaving the classroom, I tell them, individually: “I love you and I’ll see you tomorrow!”  Most of them are taken aback at first because they’ve never heard a teacher say I love you to their face.  And, truth be told, it feels a little forced on that first day for me too.  But it sets the tone.  It tells them that I love them, unconditionally, JUST BECAUSE they are in my class.  I love them, even though I don’t really know them, and that they don’t have to earn my love, they already have it.

Then, I say it every day after that and I show them that I love them through my actions by caring about their problems, working with them to find solutions, treating them with respect, and listening to them.  It sounds woo-woo, but it works.  When students realize that you love them, even when they act unpleasant, even when they forget their homework, even when they make a mistake, a strange and wonderful thing happens:  they develop a love for you too.

A lot of teachers will say that their classroom runs on respect, but I caution you to consider that respect will only get you so far.  You may respect your boss, but you’re not going over a bridge with them.  People will literally do anything for someone they love.  (Disclaimer:  I AM NOT ASKING MY STUDENTS GO OVER A BRIDGE WITH ME.) Those tough kids, they need your love most of all, and once they understand that you’re not going to take it away because you’re not “feeling it” today, they will work for you.  I promise.  I’ve seen it over and over and over again.

Make Things Fun

My second unspoken rule is to make things fun.  I literally cannot stand even the most mundane tasks (must be the Aries in me), but it is so much harder watching someone else do mundane tasks just for the sake of doing them.  Every day, I try to add a little something-something to the classroom to make it more fun.

Sometimes, it’s playing a game as part of a lesson or working with partners or sitting wherever they want for a half hour.  Sometimes, it’s cracking a joke in the middle of class or busting out a dance break.  Sometimes, it’s a fully-designed flipped lesson on the Chromebooks, which they love and takes most of the work off of me.  Whatever it is, I try to make sure that there is something joyful in every day so that they can remember that fun thing they did today with Mrs. Woods, even if it has nothing to do with the actual work they did.

I am a terrible teacher, in that my room is always a little messy and I may not return graded papers in a timely manner.  But, I am also a good teacher.  I love my students and we have fun together, all while working and learning and growing and being better versions of ourselves.  My classroom isn’t run in a laissez-faire manner, it’s run on LOVE and JOY and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Reader, as you’re reflecting on your own classroom management style and your interactions with your students, I challenge you to think about unspoken rules that you have in your classroom.  Are there underlying themes that help your classroom run?  What would they be?  Please share them in the comments below – I look forward to reading all about them!

GAFE for Classroom Data

Am I alone in saying that Google has been a God-send for teachers?  With the rise of the Google empire, we’ve been able to connect, collaborate, engage, and organize like never before.  For those of you that are familiar with Google Apps for Education (GAFE, for short), you know that they can be used to simplify a teacher’s life tremendously.  I use them pretty much exclusively for my classroom needs, including for lesson planning, data collection, data analysis, and collaborating.

This post is designed to give the Google beginner some tips and tricks for using Google in the classroom.  While there are a million ways to use Google with students, I also love utilizing it for my own personal organization and efficiency.  Today, I’m going to explain to you how to use GAFE to collect, analyze, and share student data.

Let’s face it, no one became a teacher because they like to look at data.  Or maybe they LOVED to grade papers as a kid, but quickly realized that the follow-up work as a teacher made it almost unbearable.  The reality is that our jobs are highly tied to data now and rightfully so.  Collection and analysis of data makes it easy for us to track where students are and make plans to accelerate their learning or intervene as necessary.

I personally love using the GAFE suite to collect and analyze data.  I originally started a data sheet on Microsoft Excel but quickly moved it to Google Sheets after realizing that I did not have to be tied to one device in order to access it.  I can pull up my data on my laptop,  a school desktop, a colleague’s computer, or any iPad.  (I will say that I’ve tried to access the GAFE suite on my Kindle Fire and it’s a little more complicated.  I’m not sure about other Android devices.)  I also love that I can share my spreadsheet with anyone. This is especially helpful when we are looking at classroom data in our professional learning community and is great to modify and share with parents.

1.  Collect student data.

I collect student data in a couple of ways.  First, I use it to keep track of the universal screener data we collect in the fall, winter, and spring of every year.  For example, we assess students using the Developmental Spelling Assessment, the Developmental Reading Assessment, and the Test of Word Reading Efficiency three times a year.  This data is all compiled in one Google Sheet.

Additionally, my data sheet has essentially taken the place of my grade book and I use it to keep track of weekly formative assessment data. My data sheet is set up very much like a standard grade book, with the name of the student going down the left side and the assessments going across the top.  The biggest difference is that each of the assessments are grouped by standard so that I can easily track progression within the standard.

2.  Analyze student data.

Once the data is collected, this sheet becomes my life.  It’s very simple to format the data so that it tells a story about each student, as well as your teaching.  Below are a few ways I format my data sheet to help tell the story of our classroom:

• Color coding – I use red for novice, yellow for apprentice, green for proficient, and blue or purple for distinguished.  This is my favorite part of the data analysis because I can easily see who is performing at grade level and who needs interventions after every assessment.  You can easily do this by selecting the data, choose Format at the top, and then select Conditional Formatting.  From there, you can set the formatting for each cell based on a simple “If.. Then” statement.
• Class averages – I can look at a glance to see how to entire class performed on the assessment.  This gives me a clue into my effectiveness of teaching.  When I have a bad week, the data shows.  You can calculate averages by selecting a row or column of data, then clicking the Functions (pointy E) button and selecting “SUM.
• Standard average – This is my way to evaluating student progress toward the standard.  While we don’t use standards based grading (yet), this is a great way for me to plan small groups and intervention.

3.  Share with others.

In the top right corner of every GAFE product, there is a “Share” button.  Use this button to share with your professionally learning community, administrators, and others.  For example, I keep all of our grade level data in one Google sheet and it is shared with my team mates, our instructional coach, the school interventionist, and our administrators.  If anyone has a question about a student’s progress, all they have to do is look at the data sheet that has been shared with them.  No need to call and ask.

We also have a Google sheet with the entire school’s universal screening data and every teacher in the building has access to it.  I love this because it creates a very transparent culture.  It also creates a sense of collaboration even though we might not be able to have common planning times.

It is also possible to utilize this data to share with parents.  Of course, be careful and don’t EVER share the entire document with them.  But you can highlight their student’s score, paste them in a word document or another Google sheet and share them that way.  Since scores automatically average once you’ve set the Sheet up, you can easily transfer the data to weekly or monthly progress reports.

So, that’s just one way that I utilize Google Apps for Education in my own classroom.  How are you using it to make your data management more manageable?  I’d love to hear!