For me, this has meant:

• My county adopted a new scripted curriculum with new standardized assessments.
• I have more teacher professional development that’s required.
• We have a new screener for literacy. If students show increased risk on the screener, we develop reading plans for students which are visible to parents. These students require 2.5 hours/week of intervention which includes biweekly progress monitoring.

As you can imagine, this is an increase in workload for everyone, but it weighs more heavily on some than others. For instance, there are significant differences in the number of students who require this intensive intervention across grade levels.

I have already completed LETRS, a common professional development program related to the science of reading, so I got a few hours cut off of my professional development required for this year. My reading specialist is handling most of my data entry for progress monitoring since she has the availability in her schedule to support me, but I know other reading specialists at other schools, especially Title I schools, that could not possibly monitor all the students.

I know I am not the only educator dealing with my particular changes. Different schools and districts across states all had different starting points. There are so many pieces that are affecting different states, districts, schools, classrooms, and teachers differently. These multiple factors could make changes more or less exciting, nerve wracking, anxiety producing, and so on.

I know for my situation personally, the biggest change this year was a new language arts curriculum. Next year, there will be a new math curriculum, too! These shifts happen on cycles all around the country, but I’m sharing some of these strategies with the knowledge that these may be bigger shifts than ever due to changes in legislation and more parental input on what we should or should not be teaching.

I am not going to delve into the pros and cons of particular curriculums or my personal understanding of the science of reading. My hope is that some of these ideas help you regardless of your frustrations, belief systems, or situation. Most of the country is undergoing some kind of curriculum upheaval, so we need to cope with these changes moving forward.

4 strategies I’m using to adjust to the curriculum changes I’ve faced this year

1. Focus on radical acceptance

Angela Watson has talked frequently on the idea of radical acceptance. Notably, she shares in episode 176 of Truth for Teachers how radical acceptance is tied into her book, Awakened: Change Your Mindset to Transform Your Teaching.

She also shared recently how radical acceptance and the phrase “we’ll see” can help us move forward into 2025 in episode 316 of Truth for Teachers.

When faced with these massive (and honestly, every change I’ve encountered even when it’s small has a cascading effect that feels massive) changes, the first reaction is likely not radical acceptance. The first reaction might be disbelief and wonder if it’s actually happening!

Then, we might think about what’s actually changing vs. what is not. We might be given vastly different information at different times. School leadership may be in the dark about certain changes and what’s actually coming, so there is only so much to know.

The reaction of radical acceptance is not going to come naturally. It is going to require our intentional focus. A few phrases I’ve told myself throughout the process include the following. Many are questions because I’ve needed to allow myself to ask questions in order to stay open to possibilities.

For example, I ask myself, “Why am I upset right now? What’s the real issue here?” When we looked at the first unit assessment, I was so annoyed by so many things, but it helped to dive deeper into what was bothering me the MOST. What could I ask for that would make me feel better vs. just saying this sucks?

Other helpful framings:

• I have the background knowledge to tackle this new curriculum.
• I will look for the positive and focus on the parts I like.
• I will allow myself to try the parts I don’t like so I know for sure what I need to change/advocate for.
• I can do hard things.
• I will make the time for fun even when it looks like I can’t.
• What CAN I do? (vs. What am I being told I CAN’T?).
• What will be the most similar to what I’ve already been doing?
• How does this align with my belief systems? (It was very easy to know what didn’t align!)
• Things might change. (and they have! We cut entire units and were given more buffer days, they added audio for student assessments, etc.)
• This is happening. It’s here.

2. Find the flexibility

The biggest shift for me personally has been moving from creating a lot of my own writing projects, selecting books to read aloud, creating my own book clubs, and having quite a bit of autonomy in my classroom, to having these projects and books all dictated for me. I am told which day I’m teaching what in this program. Everyone on a grade-level team is expected to be very tightly in sync.

It could not be more opposite from my first year of teaching. When I started, I had standards which were printed out in a binder, and I created everything myself. I designed entire units around standards. I was the only one who taught my particular content area, so I designed it, taught it, and assessed it all myself. I loved it! I loved the creative aspect of teaching. I love lesson planning – or even better, unit and project planning.

At my training for this curriculum, I was told I would not do lesson planning; I would only ever do lesson prep. This made me cringe! I felt my whole body shift because I was thinking, “You are going to destroy my creative spirit!” I believe the intention was to help teachers feel like they would have less to do and less to think about, but I didn’t want to be a mindless teacher!

This year, the manual told me to pick one read-aloud book on ONE day in the opening unit. I managed to pick a few more over the first several weeks of school, such as Halloween read-alouds and picture books about classroom community and kindness. It wasn’t easy to fit these into my day.

My curriculum started on day 1, as in the very first day of school. Absolutely nothing can interrupt my language arts block now. For example, speech IEP hours happen during math, and social emotional learning has to happen during science and social studies. I had to decide what parts of my lesson could be shortened or condensed in order to make time for these read alouds that I personally felt would add to my classroom community.

My teammate and I ended up searching for crossover between projects we loved doing before and projects that were part of this new curriculum. For instance, in the past, we had students research an animal and create a nonfiction book on a program called Wixie. This year, our first unit was all about habitats. Students were supposed to research one animal in one type of habitat. We opened up the requirements a little bit, shortened our list of expectations to align to the timeline of the unit, and still had students complete the project on Wixie.

The manual was expecting students to just write an essay on paper. We found more engagement and excitement for the writing project by having one paragraph per page in their online book. They were also able to add photos and images of the animal on the computer. We used the rubric from the manual to assess students, and we covered the same standards.

The overlap completely made sense. We as teachers were happy because it felt familiar to what we had done in years past. Students were happy because it gave them more creative freedom, and their finished projects looked fun and professional. No one criticized this choice because we met all the requirements of the curriculum.

This alignment between what we were doing before and what was required now really helped us. In future units, there might not have been an overlap, but we considered: what would make this feel like a final product? How might they illustrate this? How can we make it feel more fun? We found the flexibility where we could.

3. Search for engaging moments

Every morning, my first 1.5 hours are all whole-group language arts instruction. This is a long time to keep my 2nd graders engaged.

When I look at a lesson, one lens I put on is to specifically search for engaging moments. I want to look for the moments of turn and talk (some days more are built in than others) and consider when I might want to have students talk more.

• Instead of merely turn and talk, could I have them get up and find a quick partner? WIll there be a series of mini-conversations so they could find different partners and be up out of their seats?
• If they are writing several spelling words in a row, could I make it a game where they stand back to back with a partner and show one another their word to see if they spelled it the same way?
• Is there a manipulative we could use to mix it up?
• Could we stand for this activity?
• Could we move around the classroom to read with a buddy?

These are minor tweaks that do not require me to change the lesson plan or the standards taught or anything like that. I am just adding an element or swapping out a teaching tool or method.

When I am able to search for these engaging moments and adjust, students are so much happier! When I’ve tweaked a lesson to add more movement or turned something into a game, we have all had a better day for it. It has allowed me to find joy in lessons that otherwise could have been a source of anxiety or disappointment.

One concern that I and many other teachers I know had was that the anxiety of this new curriculum, the intense schedules, and the scripted structure would all get in the way of relationship building with students. At the start of the year, I (and others I know) felt that our classroom management suffered because we were so focused on figuring this all out that we couldn’t be as present in the room. These moments of fun engagement are what helped me feel present in the classroom.

4. Prioritize your time and set limits

Whenever there is a big shift in curriculum, pacing guides, standards, and so on, we as teachers want to become experts in it. The teachers I’ve seen struggle the most with this curriculum shift at my school were not new teachers but veteran teachers. Some of the most experienced teachers have had difficulty changing.

I do not believe this is because they are resistant to change. That would be an easy blame game. It’s not because they don’t want to do what’s best for students; it is the exact opposite. They are competent and caring and want to maintain excellent standards of their own instruction.

No one is going to give you the endless time you could spend perfecting the craft of this new curriculum. If you are a veteran teacher, take advantage of the fact that you have a lot of experience. You can jump in and probably do fine. It will not be up to your standards. It will not be the “best” you could do.

I have shared before about the trap of doing your best. Angela expounded on this in episode 271 of the Truth for Teacher podcast, “What could be possible if you aimed for B+ work?” I heard a speaker once say, “C’s get degrees” in response to the intensity surrounding academia. C’s are passing. When we are starting something new, we will not be A students, especially not right away. If we are protecting our sanity and our planning time, we will have to figure out how to do what’s necessary and be willing to learn from our mistakes.

When we first started with this curriculum, it seemed as if there was no possible way to teach a day’s worth of lessons in the time we had (and we had more time dedicated to language arts in our schedules!). Let go of the anxiety of being “behind” by skimming manuals/lessons/pacing guides for what’s important and prioritizing how to condense lessons.

One thing that was important in our understanding at my school was checking which skills were expected to be mastered within a unit, which skills were assessed, and which were only introduced. Look for connections between lessons and try to merge what you can to save time. Set limits around your planning so that you are prepared enough to move forward. It is not about doing the best you possibly can; it is about doing what you can.

One of my favorite sayings from the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek is “Relax your expectations to a level no one will notice but you.” When there is a curriculum overhaul, take heart that no one knows exactly what a “great job” is going to look like! Everyone is just trying. Set your standards to a level that shows you are personally making progress. It’s about moving forward and learning.

Finally, on a personal note, this whole school year I’ve been pregnant with twins. I have been trying to do a great job with this new curriculum. I do love to excel at my job. I enjoy mastering the art of teaching. I am also especially passionate about language arts. I have not been able to do everything to my standards.

When someone offered to help, I tried to think about what I could have them do. This new curriculum required a ton of copies, so twice I had a middle schooler who needed service hours make my copies for the next 3 weeks. It took them almost 1 1/2 hours, and I was able to just sit there in the workroom and do other things. I was just there if the copier broke or they needed help.

Sometimes things that seem like more work end up helping you (such as coordinating schedules for volunteers). I had a college student come observe me for a couple of weeks right before the holidays. It was a crazy time of year, but she helped me by pulling a few students to support them, organizing some papers, and just physically walking around to monitor when that was getting hard for me. She got a great experience out of it, and I benefited from the support.

These opportunities might have felt like more work initially, but I was so happy that I embraced them and made it work for me.

Months into the school year, I felt like I was finally adjusting. I have found that the teachers who were able to handle these changes and adapt the best have accepted the reality of the change the fastest. The aspects that I handled the best were the aspects that I accepted more readily. Being able to problem solve and adapt first requires a level of acceptance, and then we can move forward.

When I’m able to try new things and take a little time to reflect on what’s working and what’s still frustrating, that at least allows me to go to school and district leadership with solutions and ideas, and a better attitude.

This is a transitional time for teaching reading, and we can make powerful changes for students. I understand the frustration of change — especially when you were seeing success in your own teaching practices before — but if you want to last through the changes and feel joy in your classroom, it’s not too late. You can adjust. You can learn. You can do hard things.

The post 4 strategies for adjusting to new curriculum and assessment methods appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

But as we continue to see schoolwide attendance and other disruptions in 2025, how can we make our teaching more resilient in the current climate?

I first heard about resilient pedagogy from Angela Watson in the summer of 2020. The idea immediately resonated with me, not just for what it could do in the current context for the 70 ELA teachers I led as their curriculum coordinator, but as something that I had been reaching for as a teacher all along.

Even now that I am back in the classroom full-time, I think of resilient pedagogy often and plan with it in mind. This is my updated thinking on that original article.

What is resilient teaching or resilient pedagogy?

Dr. Rebecca Quintana from the University of Michigan defines it this way:

Resilient teaching is the ability to facilitate learning experiences that are designed to be adaptable to fluctuating conditions and disruptions. This teaching ability can be seen as an outcome of a design approach that attends to the relationship between learning goals and activities and the environments they are situated in.

Resilient teaching approaches take into account how a dynamic learning context may require new forms of interaction between teachers and students, content and tools. Additionally, they necessitate the capacity to rethink the design of a learning experience based on a nuanced understanding of context.

I would argue that there have always been “fluctuating conditions and disruptions,” especially on a student-by-student level as they navigate their own crises and traumas. Since the pandemic, we continue to see this through significant K-12 attendance issues. With this comes fluctuating behavior and academic performances. Finally, depending on what state you’re in, you may be subject to ever-constricting legislation.

While we cannot control everything, resilient pedagogy offers us three principles to follow.

1. Extensibility

Plan for what’s known in the start-up world as the “minimum viable product.” In our context, that means:

Plan for the priority standards. 

This is easy to forget in the rush “back to normal.” Instead of biting off more than you can chew, slow down. Take your time. Focus on the essentials. If your school or team has already selected priority standards, that’s great. Hold each other to them if you feel the need for speed.

If you don’t have these set, I suggest finding a highly reliable source to follow. You don’t need to select the priority standards from scratch. That is not a minimum-viable-product. You just need a short, thoughtful list. Check with your discipline’s professional organization to see their recommendations.

Choose a small set of instructional routines.

We can lose a lot of time planning up one-off lessons. Plug your content into a consistent set of approaches. This may seem boring, but things are often less consistent to students than they seem to us. They have multiple teachers, even in elementary school, and if they are frequently absent, then things may seem even more inconsistent to them (even if it happened every day they were gone). This is also supported by cognitive load theory, as it lessons students’ extraneous loads.

Make a minimum-viable list.

Start with your assessment and make a list of the absolute prerequisite tasks. When a student is gone a lot, only chase them through this small list–forget the rest. I post a list on my Canvas page at the beginning of each unit. It has helped me make peace with student absences that are beyond my control and help me focus on what really matters, which makes me a better teacher.

Wait for favorable conditions.

Add standards or change routines only when conditions are favorable. If you feel tempted to sit down and create a grandiose Kahoot or escape room, ask yourself if conditions are favorable. Do you have the time and emotional bandwidth to do that? Have your students demonstrated that they can accept a change in routine in stride?

[INSERT IMAGE FROM THE AUTHOR]

If you feel tempted to speed up to cover the curriculum or add one more focus to a unit, ask yourself if conditions are favorable. Do you have the time and resources to create more content? Have your students demonstrated a capacity that they are ready for more?

2. Flexibility

I have a rotating cast of students gone every day and multiple that I haven’t seen in weeks. It is really hard to keep straight who was here for what, and I don’t have the ability to sit with students gone for extended periods of time and catch them all the way up. If that’s you too, then flexibility will be important.

[INSERT IMAGE FROM AUTHOR]

Flexibility is the ability to make it so almost all students can access the content, regardless of time. Part of this is anticipating that not everyone will be there the day of the lesson. Here’s how to be flexible and extensible.

Post videos of lessons.

There are several ways to simplify this:

• Find good enough ones through a website like Khan Academy.
• If you teach with a team, you could divide up the videos to be made for lessons you teach every year.
• Make learning through video a key routine and teach all students to do it that way.

Read shorter texts.

In general, my classes read stories, poems, essays, and articles. When we read something longer, I have key scenes available so that students who have been gone can get caught up quickly. These also become the parts they can draw evidence from if they need to write about the text.

Break up paper writing.

In my last drama unit, students needed to write an analysis essay. They wrote a paragraph about each act after we read each act. At the end, they put these together with an introduction and conclusion to make a full paper. This strategy increased the likelihood that they missed less reading and less writing. For more tips on ending late papers for good, check out my article:

6 practices that ended late work in my ELA classroom and finally got students writing

3. Redundancy

Even with an extensible, flexible plan, the chosen methods will not work for every student. This principle ensures that there are multiple ways for students to access the curriculum. These multiple ways should be set, however, so that they are still extensible. They should be the simplest options for you to regularly provide.

Give students various ways to do the reading (e.g. online, print, audio, or translations).

Many online text sources, like CommonLit, provide these options for you.

Give students a few set ways to participate.

For example, they can write their answer, share it aloud, or express it nonverbally. Whatever ways you choose, include them in any lesson plan. If you teach the lesson live, also provide a video or notes resource for students to review. This is really covered by the flexibility principle.

Cover the same content over multiple days and watch for evidence of understanding.

Providing multiple opportunities for students to show what they know about the same thing deepens their understanding and helps include absent students.

Where to start?

You choose! Start with what you need right now to build your resilient teaching.

Maybe you know you’re “doing too much” as the kids say, and you need to scale back to essentials. Start with extensibility.

Maybe every absent student throws you off-course and you don’t have an elegant plan to get them (or yourself) back on track. Go for flexibility.

Maybe there’s a core group of students that isn’t getting it and you want to layer in another modality to deepen their understanding. Redundancy would be good to use for that.

No matter what, I wish you resilience all year long.

The post Resilient teaching, revisited: what it means post-COVID appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

I am an elementary school teacher of about 6-ish years. I’ve worked in various towns and school settings throughout a few different roles as a long-term substitute, SPED paraprofessional/teacher assistant, and K-5 classroom teacher. I also have experience counseling and supervising children and staff in after-school enrichment programs and teaching STEAM education through coding, engineering, and robotics. I have a B.S.Ed in Elementary Education with a focus on Geography and a master’s degree in Curriculum & Instruction, with a concentration of Trauma & Resilience in Education. Apart from teaching, I enjoy exploring nature, cooking, and spending time with my husband/highschool sweetheart, our son, and kitty Puma.

I began as an eager new teacher and started burning myself out from the very beginning, coming into work as the custodians were opening the school up around 6:30 am and leaving as the last person in the parking lot around 6:30, sometimes 7 pm, when it was well past dark, most of the time! The entire day was also stressful with severe behavior issues and lack of classroom management.

Not only that, but I would come home after about an hour-long commute only to lesson plan, ponder, and critically study my next day’s plans step-by-step to the point where I was rehearsing my entire day. My monkey mind would continue before I was able to get a few hours of sleep in which felt like a millisecond before I was back at it again.

That all was extremely exhausting and toxic as it took a toll on my well-being, relationships, and made me sick with chronic migraines, anxiety, and much more… until I found Angela’s website, books, completed her 40 Hour Workweek program and made some life-changing tweaks.

I am very passionate about teaching and am always listening to podcasts, reading teacher books, or completing webinars about education. I know… I’m such a “nerd” for teaching! I’m currently at home taking care of my baby boy and somehow I already miss teaching, always looking for new opportunities (hence this blog post!) My favorite topics include classroom management and social-emotional learning, so I am extremely eager to share my ideas with you below and look forward to connecting!!

If you’re reading this post, I think it’s safe to assume that you yearn for a trusting and positive classroom environment, regardless of your role and point in your teaching path. Focusing on intentional communication with students and responding to behaviors will help students be successful, while helping reduce teacher and peer stress.

Staying regulated and maintaining a calm, safe classroom environment

Have you ever found yourself “flipping your lid” while teaching… or “managing”? I know this has been the case for myself and many other educators.

When I began teaching, I found myself realizing just how difficult and complex it all really was (and is… while only getting more challenging in my opinion!) With diverse student backgrounds, cultures, and personal learning styles, it is important to consider the variety in communication styles that students need to succeed. Students dealing with trauma and special needs are additionally vulnerable to specific language in the classroom.

Children today, more than ever before, are exposed to a myriad of societal expectations and are dealing with various anxiety or self-esteem issues leading to low confidence in the classroom and contributing to behavioral struggles. Students rely on us as adults and educators to care for them and keep them safe.

We, as educators and caregivers, hold high expectations for students, expecting them to “behave”, or be respectful, kind, engaged, and so forth. However, what about the adults?

We must earn students’ trust and desire for all of those quality traits. We cannot simply expect them to be a certain way and do specific things just because we said so.

Sure, it may work for some kiddos, but most likely will fail at times and fail all the time for some students. By proving to students that we care for them and only want the best for them, we can then set a foundation for a caring community that’s built on mutual respect and trust. Just as we expect students to show us through actions, we must also show them through our behavior in modeling appropriate, kind, and respectful language.

Additionally, it’s invaluable to consider that students all come from different and unique backgrounds, cultures, and households. This means that their relationships and customs may vary significantly based on generational trauma, family or cultural norms, religious practices, or simply depending on how their parents and/or grandparents were raised and choose to raise them currently. These all can make an impact on how students perceive the way you communicate with them, different behaviors, and interactions with peers as well.

Research has shown us that there are different cultural communication norms for people around the world. This includes body language, voice tone, emotions, expression, etiquette, word choice, and more.

For example, students may not understand their emotions and/or managing or discussing them if it is not something that is acceptable or expected as “normal” at home. Some cultures favor eye contact, while others may specifically avoid in their perception of respect.

Creating a promise to students that establishes your role in the classroom community

In my experience, creating a promise for students will help set the tone for a positive class environment and demonstrate teamwork, which will be a valuable topic all throughout the school year. It also opens up opportunities for students to ask questions or share emotions that they may be anxious or worried about.

Peers can also create new connections with one another as they realize their classmates are just as human and curious as them. Creating a classroom promise WITH and FOR students can help set the tone for a great partnership all year long. Here’s the “teacher promise” that I created the first week of school:

This was created alongside our whole-class team “promise”, which served as guidelines or rules for students to follow all year long. Students took ownership in collaborating on ideas they felt were important for creating a successful community in order to have a great year and signed it as a sort of “contract”. Feel free to utilize my wording or build your own unique classroom promise through inspiration!

Tips for intentional language that creates classroom community

1. Be cognizant of the tone you want to portray when speaking to students.

Try to use a neutral tone of voice. Nobody likes to be yelled at. I typically tell my students to imagine what it’d look and sound like if adults were walking around yelling at each other and shouting demands or calling each other names. They usually laugh and realize how silly and ridiculous it would be, allowing themselves to change their own behavior. Why would it be okay for us to raise our voices at students? Of course, they are not our colleagues or friends. However, they deserve respect and guidance, which should not entail making them feel embarrassed, belittled, or scolded. Sure, focusing on different tones depending on the situation and student can be helpful as well.

For example, if you know that a particular student needs quick directions in a strict manner in order to be successful, a gentle voice may not be exactly what they need. On the other hand, some students may prove they have an extra difficult time if spoken to in a demanding type of manner. Trying to frame it in a more encouraging, gentle tone may actually help in their situation. Obviously, you know your students the best, so do what you think is best for them. Sometimes, it takes a few trials and errors in different strategies to really learn what works best and is most supportive of their needs. When in doubt, going with a neutral tone is your best bet. Being transparent with students and their families usually helps, too, as you remind them you’re all on the same team!

2. State what you are observing, rather than labeling students.

Instead of thinking of them as disrespectful, unkind, or unengaged, think about how you’re expressing what you are seeing or feeling. Taking a moment to observe will help you respond rather than react to the situation. Students are not setting out each day to make your life miserable, so try not to take their actions personally. Instead, think about what the behavior itself is contributing to. Is a student disrupting the work of others because of xyz? Are their choices wasting time that they can be using to complete work? Did they say or do something that upset someone? Try expressing this so students realize how their choices impact themselves and others around them. It’s often not obvious to children as empathy and logic is something that develops overtime, with age and experience.

3. Consider the underlying functions of the behavior.

Are the students’ needs met? Are they trying to get out of work because maybe it’s too hard, or something else is bothering them? Are they trying to achieve something like access to a tangible item or seeking attention? Think about the main behavioral functions: attention, escape, access, and sensory need,s and ask yourself how you can empathize with the student and which words you want to select to validate the student’s feelings, while attempting to guide them towards a successful outcome. Whether it’s getting their work done, joining the class, or following a different direction, the language you choose here can make or break the situation. Also, remember that it’s not always black and white. The student may be struggling with multiple functions and may not always be consistent in their choices.

4. State the consequence.

Tell the student what will happen due to their behavior. For example, explain what the outcome will be if they choose to continue a behavior and/or what a better, more positive choice may entail. Think about the logical consequences here. If a student does not do their work in class, it must be made up during another time, such as homework or Fun Friday. If the student chooses to join the class as they’re lining up for lunch, they will get to eat lunch and play at recess. Try to avoid empty threats. If you know that you are just trying to scare the student into obeying and are not intending to follow through with the consequence, don’t say it. If you fully intend to call home to discuss a student’s behavior and it is a reasonable consequence, then by all means, it may be something worth expressing to your student and can give them the boost they need.

5. Explain why.

Try to explain your statement, direction, or idea to the student. Scolding a student, demanding a behavior or direction, and then shutting down their responses with “because I said so!” can make them feel even less encouraged to follow your advice. Validating their feelings or thoughts will show students that you are actually listening, which we know is an important aspect of effective communication. Explaining to students the logical reason of why/what/how their choices impact themselves and others can help enforce a positive, trusting relationship between you and your students. It can also show students what appropriate communication looks like and encourage problem-solving in the situations and conflicts that your students encounter with peers. Helping students see the cause/effect relationship between their choices and consequences can help build their emotional intelligence and social-emotional skills as well. For example, you may choose to say something like your choice to _____ caused _____, and now that means ______. You can now choose to _____ or _____. This can cause students to experience big feelings as they realize what their choices caused, but it is necessary and can help guide students’ development.

Now, you don’t have to allow a lengthy conversation or go down a rabbit hole of discussing feelings or experiences, comparing parents or teacher, or even negotiating with a student to try to get them to do as you say. Instead, simply offering a reasonable response can help the “oh, that makes sense… I guess I really should…” pop into students’ minds. Of course, this may never be the case with some children, especially depending on their age, maturity, and thought process. However, it can help remind students that you are there because you care and love them, and what you are saying has its purpose in helping support them, not because you’re out to get them.

Replacing knee-jerk reactions with thoughtful, intentional language

The following phrases may not seem “bad” per se. However, they come across as vague and therefore, give students some wiggle room in interpreting their meaning in their own perception and putting them into action in a way that may not be successful or even relate to what you meant.

You’ve probably heard the term “positive reinforcement” somewhere along your teaching journey. As with behavior and classroom management, your language can focus on this sort of strategy as well.

You may not realize how your word choice may come across to a student, especially if it’s something you have a habit of saying or are simply used to as your “go-to” phrases. For example, you may say something like “STOP ______!”

Rather than demanding something of students, which may trigger their defense mechanisms and possibly a power struggle, try to describe the desired behavior in a more positive framework. This will sound less like you are trying to control or boss them around, which can be an issue for many students, depending on their experiences and personalities, etc.

Instead of…

• Get in line right now!
• Do your work right away!
• Get it moving.
• If I have to say it one more time!!
• Stop talking/doing ___!
• Don’t do that!
• You lose recess.
• You’re being disrespectful/disruptive/rude, etc…
• That’s it! I’ve had enough.
• Don’t you dare… ______

Possibly try…

• I notice that… ________
• We are working independently on ____ right now.
• I expect you to ____ (e.g. work on ____ or complete ___ problems.)
• We’re all in line ready to head to_____. You are also part of the team and need to be in line.
• This is not your best behavior. I know you can do better. It’s up to you to make a better choice. I’m here to help, but cannot do it for you.
• Your tone of voice is disrupting the other team. The expectation is to ________ remain using table talk voices.
• Are you having a tough time?
• It seems like you’re struggling.
• How can I help you?
• This behavior (name it) is not an acceptable/safe/kind choice. You can choose to ____ or _____.
• This ___ is not an option. I expect you to _____.
• _____ is not okay.. Because…
• The Calm Corner is available to you/for you to… (make a better choice, handle your emotions, calm down before joining us, etc…)

Although these examples are not absolutely perfect for every situation ever, you can customize, combine, and choose bits and pieces that work for you and your students. They are meant to help you brainstorm and encourage you to be the best teacher you can be in order to help students be their best and successful, which they have the potential for.

 

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Modeling intentional language throughout the instructional day

In addition, intentional language and communication are certainly not only effective for managing the classroom or handling behaviors in isolation. When we think of social-emotional learning or life skills, we hope to instill these values in our students all day every day, right? We don’t only teach it in isolation for a set number of minutes and just call it a day. Same goes with how we choose to communicate and shift our thinking.

Throughout our day, regardless of our educational role with students, we are constantly enforcing and encouraging positive behaviors and guiding students to develop socially and emotionally. Here is where I find the most opportunity for intentional language and interactions.

For example, when we encounter a challenge or mistake during instruction or peer conflicts, I take this moment to say something like “mistakes help us…” where students would respond with “LEARN!” because it’s something we’ve consistently integrated in our classroom culture.

It’s helpful for students to see you modeling appropriate social-emotional skills and language as they are still learning this process. For example, rather than reacting to a behavior or stressful situation and raising your voice or handling it in a way you may later regret or was simply ineffective, try pausing.

Show students that you are human and maybe say something like “I’m feeling frustrated because _____. I don’t want to ‘flip my lid’, so I’m going to take a couple of deep breaths to help us get back on track. Let’s do it together.” *IN & OUT* as a class.

This also can help reinforce the concepts of “flipping your lid” that I taught students during the first week of school about their “upstairs vs downstairs brain,” along with growth mindset topics. This can be modified to your own flow in your classroom!

We can definitely incorporate more intentional language during instruction, as well. For example, let’s say we really want students to be engaged or to memorize certain vocabulary terms. Trying to incorporate chants or fun ways students can repeat or respond to this during instruction can help.

Also, responding to students’ interactions with one another or efforts in applying their skills is another great opportunity for intentional language. For instance, maybe you choose to praise a student with “good job” or “excellent”, which is great.

However, naming a more specific compliment may give students feedback for what exactly is expected and also make the praise feel more genuine to the student. Maybe choose something like “You worked really hard I that. I can tell you put a lot of effort in because…” or “I notice how you…”

Instead of telling a student he or she is incorrect or off track, try something like “Does anyone have another idea to add onto ____’s thinking?” or maybe guiding the students with a question relating to your topic that will help.

The more cognizant you become of your communication with students, the more your mind will select and create intentional and careful language that will help support and strengthen your relationships with students. In turn, this positive partnership will automatically improve your classroom management skills, student engagement, social-emotional and academic growth, and much more.

We know that today, more than ever, students struggle with more special needs, trauma, and the desire for constant gratification (hello, technology). Therefore, we’re up against a lot of competing for your students’ attention. Showing students that you are here to work with them and not against them will make their lives and yours much more enjoyable and rewarding and let’s face it, teaching is extremely hard!

Although you can’t expect to make a significant shift in your thinking and communication overnight, small steps will certainly guide you in the right direction to making a big difference over time.

10 things I no longer say to my students

This is one of my favorite quotes that I chose to print out and post right by my desk. I hope it resonates with you as much as it did with me.

The post Say it with care: How to use intentional language to build classroom community appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Why? Sometimes the barriers are real, such as not having access to green space near your school.

However, a lot of times the barriers are in our heads, it’s because we don’t think we are “outdoorsy” enough or know enough about nature to take kids outside.

I’m here to challenge you, even if you don’t consider yourself to be an outdoorsy teacher, to get outside with your students. You don’t need to wear the latest gear from outdoor retailers, like bugs, or know the name of every plant in the schoolyard to get outside. You just need a tiny push to stretch your own boundaries and start thinking about learning outside of the walls of your classroom. The more you get outside, the more you will learn and the more comfortable you will be with it.

Now, you might be asking why you should go through all of the extra efforts of taking learning outside when you’re perfectly happy inside the four walls of your classroom.

The reason is simple: the benefits of outdoor learning are amazing and will not only benefit your students, but you as a teacher as well. It’s time to take learning outside and start reaping the many benefits.

How nature nurtures the whole child (and adult)

When thinking about the benefits of outdoor learning, I like to break things into 3 broad categories… physical benefits, mental health benefits, and social/emotional benefits. The benefits you see will depend on how you approach outdoor learning. You will also see more benefits as your students become more comfortable with learning outside and increase their time outdoors. You can read more about the benefits of outdoor learning here.

Building bodies: The physical benefits of outdoor learning are what likely come to mind first when people think about taking students outside. In the outdoor setting, your students are moving more and are moving in a way that feels natural to them. As they move about outside they are building their gross motor skills as well as their stamina. Students are also able to release the pent-up energy from being indoors in the classroom when they have more freedom to move outdoors. The uneven ground challenges students’ balance and coordination, especially if you can take your students to a naturalized area, such as a wooded area of a park. Students are also able to build fine motor skills by picking up tiny objects, such as rocks, sticks, or insects.

Calming brains: Not only do our bodies benefit from being outdoors, but our brains do as well. Being outdoors provides a mental break from the over-stimulating classroom. Nature has a way of providing the “just-right” amount of stimulus for our brains to feel content and relaxed. Time in nature has also been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. You may even find that your students are able to focus better on academic tasks once you take learning back indoors.

Fostering relationships: Additionally, our students benefit socially and emotionally through outdoor learning. During time outdoors, students are often more easily engaged in cooperative activities. Students naturally have to work together to overcome challenges or complete tasks. Additionally, students’ communication skills are enhanced by spending time outdoors as they describe really cool discoveries or give instructions or directions to others. While outdoors, students are often completing tasks that are difficult which improves their resilience, and self-confidence.

Changing the future: One final bonus benefit of taking learning outside is the relationship that students will begin to build with nature and the Earth. Students are only able to build a relationship with the Earth if they have opportunities to spend some time getting to know her. The best way to allow your students to get to know and love nature is by spending time in nature. So many of our students don’t have opportunities to get outside, so we can take a step towards fostering these relationships by getting outside the classroom. By providing our students with the opportunities to build a relationship with the Earth, we are influencing the future by creating students who care about the Earth and want to protect it.

10 easy, low-prep outdoor activities to do with students

Outdoor learning doesn’t need to be something that is time-consuming or hard. In fact, starting out simply is probably the best way to go. As you gain confidence and comfort in your own ability to take learning outside, you can start to build your practice into something bigger and longer.

As you start your journey into outdoor learning, you will need to remember that outdoor learning is something that is new for your students as well. Your students may not be accustomed to learning outside. (They may not even be accustomed to going outside, let alone learning outside.) Give yourself grace as you try new things and stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone.

Remember, you don’t need to be an expert on nature (or even anything related to being outdoors) to take your students outside. You simply need to have a willingness to try something new. In fact, not being an expert shows your students that they don’t need to be experts either to enjoy being outdoors. They can simply get outside and experience nature and build relationships with nature in their own way.

1. Do your morning routine, sharing circle, morning meeting, or team-building activities outside.

I know a lot of teachers who began their outdoor teaching practice by simply starting their morning routine outside. This removed the barrier of having a tricky transition for the students and allowed them to start out the day peacefully and without a morning rush. Simply taking the morning routine activities, your sharing circle, or your morning meeting outside is a quick and easy way to build in some outdoor time into your day. You can then begin to build on this and extend your time outside as your students become more comfortable with this routine.

2. Take a read-aloud outside

Whether it’s a picture book or a novel, taking your read-aloud story outside and allowing your students to find a comfy spot is a great introductory activity to getting outside. I like taking read-alouds or stories outside as there is very little equipment or preparation required. Bringing some blankets outside for students to sit on adds a layer of comfort but also provides a visible boundary for where you want students to be.

3. Take your independent reading outside

For older students, taking a novel study or their independent reading outside is another great low prep and minimal equipment activity. Simply provide some boundaries for your students, set the expectations for their reading time, and set them free.

4. Try doing nature journals or a nature-based writing activity

Nature journals can take many forms, from pre-made guided journals (like you might purchase and print out) to an open-ended notebook. At first, your students may need some guidance and prompts. However, as time goes on and your students get the feel for journal writing, you might be able to allow more freedom. Additionally, if you have specific writing intentions for your students (such as descriptive writing), you can either create or purchase outdoor-themed writing activities.

5. Take a learning game outside

I love inventing games. Active games are a great way to check for understanding of curriculum content while also engaging students through movement. Often the games that I create are simple (and sometimes even made up on the spot.) For example, in a game I call, “agree or disagree” I will assign 1 tree as the “agree tree” and another as the “disagree tree.” I will then give a statement and students will have to run to whichever tree they feel best suits their own understanding. Sometimes I even have students invent their own games to demonstrate a concept.

6. Take an art activity outside

Let nature inspire your art. So many artists have been inspired by nature, so why not let nature inspire your own budding artists? Taking simple, nature-inspired art activities outside can help students build their observation skills and connection to nature. Try to find activities that don’t involve a lot of materials, such as sketching or watercolor painting.

7. Invite local experts to help facilitate activities

If you feel like taking learning outside is too far outside of your comfort zone, why not seek out the help of an expert? Your community may have experts who offer programs that allow you to take your students outside with support. Local conservation centers, outdoor learning centers, or even environmental programs may have field trip opportunities or visiting guests that can support you in taking learning outside.

8. Take science outside

What better way to learn about ecosystems, weather, or tons of other scientific phenomena than by experiencing them firsthand? There are so many ways that you can take your science curriculum outdoors in ways that are both meaningful and more impactful than any textbook could provide. Your science curriculum or textbooks may even have some great activities for you to try.

9. Explore your community

Learning does not just take place in our schoolyard but can take place in our community as well. You can theme your community walks to whatever best meets your curriculum. It can be as simple as looking for letters or numbers for the “littles,” discovering the services and businesses that are in your community for your older students, to more in-depth community analysis for high school students. Getting to explore the community helps students to feel like they are a part of it and helps them get to know their “neighbours” better.

10. Just play!

Play is an essential part of learning and growing. If you teach younger students, simply finding time for students to play outside in a natural setting (not on a playground) is a fabulous way to integrate outdoor learning. A few props, such as stuffed animals, can help students really get into their outdoor play.

Bring back joy by teaching outdoors: A how-to guide

How to take your first steps toward outdoor learning

The idea of taking learning outside can be daunting. You may have even tried to take things outside in the past only to say, never again. However, outdoor learning is a journey. Nothing goes perfectly the first time and you may encounter challenges that you never thought about before. Here are a few tips to help you get out the door.

1. Start small

Outdoor learning is something new for both you and your students. In the past, students may have only ever played outside and don’t know what it looks like or feels like to learn outside. Your students will need time to get the idea that outdoor time can be learning time too. Try short, easy activities first then build on from there. Also, keep your boundaries small at first. As your students get more comfortable and you build trust, you can expand your boundaries.

2. Set boundaries and expectations ahead of time

Speaking of boundaries, set your outdoor learning boundaries and expectations ahead of time. Don’t wait until your students are outside and running around to let them know what you expect from them. Instead, take some time in the classroom (or in a controlled space outside) to set expectations and explain where you will be going.

3. Be patient

Trying something new is always a bit scary. Be patient with yourself and give yourself grace. I still have lessons that didn’t go according to plan. Take the information you learn from that and use it to grow. Don’t give up, just keep on learning!

4. Be prepared

Have what you need for both safety and your lesson ready ahead of time. Additionally, have a plan in case the weather doesn’t cooperate with you. There are so many times when I have had lessons go sideways simply because I forgot something. Additionally, check you outdoor site ahead of time to ensure that it is safe for your students. Check out this free outdoor learning tool kit for templates and tools to help you prepare for outdoor learning.

5. Ask for help: there are people who would love to get outside with you!

You may feel like you are the only one taking your students outside. I’ve felt that way so many times. Remember, there are people out there to connect with who can help you overcome your barriers or problem solve specific challenges. If costs are a barrier, look for local grants or sponsors to help you purchase equipment.

6. Practice building respect and relationship with the Earth

No matter how you choose to approach outdoor learning, make building relationships with the Earth a priority. Set a good example of what respecting nature looks like. Additionally, build in time to talk about how nature helps us in so many ways. Remember, you can help build a generation of citizens who want to help the Earth, simply by getting outside.

How you can teach outdoors (even in the winter!)

Now it’s time to get outside…

It’s time to start taking those first steps towards getting outside with your students. Remember, you don’t need to consider yourself to be outdoorsy to take your students outdoors. You don’t need to know the names of every bird species or plant in your school yard or be an ecosystem expert. Once you start getting outside with your students you will begin to notice the benefits for both yourself and your students.

By getting outside with your students, not only will you be helping them to develop in a more wholistic way, but you will also be building citizens of the future who care about the Earth and have a desire to protect it. Be curious and adventurous and take the first steps towards changing the world and getting outside with your students.

The post 10 easy ideas for taking your students’ learning outdoors appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

However, I knew I wanted to understand the education landscape from various perspectives. I decided to become an instructional coach, which led me to starting my side hustle in career coaching and then to my full time job as a talent development specialist. There are many things I learned along the way and this article contains a framework for transitioning to non-classroom positions!

Step One: Clarify Why You Are Leaving the Classroom

Nail down what is prompting you to transition out of the classroom. Is it the schedule, the workload, the school location, your current family dynamics, your interests in other skills and fields, any previous negative experiences as a teacher? All are valid. Pinpoint it, be honest about it and be realistic about what’s next for you.

Decide how big of a shift you want to make. Maybe you’ll realize you still want to teach in the classroom. You can switch the subject, grade or school at which you teach. You could even teach abroad! Perhaps you want to explore opportunities while you continue to teach. You could become a school leader, start a side hustle, become an organizer or an elected official, complete a summer fellowship, or  present at education conferences.

If you are ready to leave the classroom, you have many options. It’s normal to switch jobs and careers now more than ever. In fact, millennials have been nicknamed the “job-hopping generation,” and– as a result of the “Great Resignation”– more American workers across generations and fields are seeking new employment. Many employers are happy to hire current or former teachers. Some examples of such industries are government agencies, publishing companies, education services, nonprofit organizations, marketing, the legal field and human resources.

Step Two: Determine What’s Next

Ikigai is the Japanese concept that refers to what gives a person a sense of purpose — a reason for living. What’s your ikigai? Take time to identify your passions and interests. Then, highlight your transferable technical and people skills. Several of the most popular transferable skills teachers possess are:

Also consider the education and experiences you have. What qualifications do you possess? Think about your undergraduate and graduate degrees, and any certifications you earned.

Step Three: Start the Job Search

Once you’ve decided it’s time to leave the classroom and you’ve taken stock of your current skills and experiences, it’s time to begin the job search!

As you do, consider what I call the Career Five Ws: Why, Who, Where, When and What.

Why are you invested in certain fields and positions?

• Identify your motivation. Articulate your mission, purpose, values, and goals. Know the rewards and benefits you seek to reap in your new job.

Who are you now and want to continue to be?  Who do you want to be next?

• Think about who you are currently by identifying your innate talents and gifts; your temperaments and personality; and the role(s) you tend to assume in the workplace. Then consider who you want to become by pinpointing the skills, perspectives and experiences you’ll need to cultivate.

Where and when will you work?

• This is the big question that people tend to start with — though answering the other questions will make answering this one easier.  Consider the workplace environment, structure, and schedule that most aligns with your needs and wants. Are you looking for a position that is fully in-person, fully remote, or a hybrid of the two? Are you interested in being based at an office, a school, or in traveling from place-to-place as needed? Also consider who you want to work with. Your colleagues make up the organizational culture and the culture influences how you and your colleagues will interact. This can be a great conversation point to bring up during an informational interview!

What do you want to do? What do you not want to do?

• For ideas and a place to start, check out job boards (Edweek has a great one!) and social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Scour various job descriptions for alignment to your Why, Who, Where, and When questions. Perhaps there are aspects of being a teacher you want to continue. For example, if you love teaching, you could become a corporate trainer. If you enjoy supporting and developing people, you can go into human resources. If you’re interested in writing, fundraising and social justice, you can become a grant writer at a nonprofit. The possibilities and intersections are endless!

Step Four: Get Out There

Conduct research about your fields of interest. Schedule informational interviews with people and companies you are interested in; this helps you to learn more about them as potential employers and for them to learn more about you as a potential employee!

Through intentional networking, you can make meaningful connections to people in your  fields of interest. You can start with warm connections (people in your circle or network) and then reach out to cold contacts (people you don’t already have a relationship with but with whom you’d like to build one).

Be sure to brand yourself for the types of positions you want (demonstrate this in your personal website, your LinkedIn profile, your resume or CV, and your cover letters). Remember: branding at its core is a matching game. Therefore, you need to match your skills, experiences, and strengths to the skills, experiences, and strengths that your future employers are looking for! To gain a competitive advantage, know what the industry or organization is looking for, speak their language, and show them why you’re the right fit!

Suggestion: Get Coached

Finding a position outside of the classroom can be overwhelming — especially if it’s been years since you’ve been on the job hunt. If you need further support, seek out a career coach. You could hire one who has great reviews and results from past clients. You can also contact your alma mater’s career center. Colleges and universities typically offer career coaching for alums. Furthermore, associations, organizations and memberships of which you are a part may offer free or low cost career coaching as well!

Embrace Nonlinear Paths

Buddha is thought to have said, “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” Whether he said that is up for debate — but the sentiment is tried and true! No matter what you decide to do, do it fully and do it to the best of your abilities. Remember you can also go back to the classroom. Great teachers will always be needed!

How to transition out of teaching and into your next career

Is teaching still the right career for you?

The post How to transition into a non-classroom-based position as an educator appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Here’s what I mean.

In my 4th grade classroom, a focus of my Math curriculum each year is the standard algorithm for double-digit multiplication and long division.

I enjoy these instructional days because as a Type-A teacher, I like to solve multiplication and division equations with the standard algorithm.

Standard means the way most people do things, or the common way. Algorithms are the step-by-step problem-solving method for completing the given task. Therefore, a standard algorithm is a stepwise practice for solving a problem. I have a standard algorithm to start each day in my classroom. I have a stepwise practice for setting up my day for success.

Taking ownership of your morning flow

I have a practice of entering my room the same way each day. I have chosen each step in this entrance. I turn on one of the overhead lights and head to my desk. I turn on my desk lamp and place my lunch box under my desk. Next, I switch on the library lamp, and then the smartboard. I pick up the smartboard’s keyboard and mouse after switching the reading group tag that hangs on the keyboard’s shelf. I deposit the keyboard and mouse along with my backpack at the standing desk and log into my computer. While the computer is loading, I move to the nearby schedule to switch the schedule cards for the day of the week and special area class. Finally, I complete the full circle around my classroom by turning on the back counter lamp and hanging my coat in my closet.

You get to set the practice of this in your own room. Take ownership over the space and how you flow into it. Choose menial tasks that are both necessary and helpful. These are the first things I check off my mental checklist to feel success each day.

Tech shortcuts for efficient mornings

To prepare for teaching that day, I return to my smartboard and start opening all the programs I need. To batch this task, I have put all of my daily needed websites into one folder titled Morning: Pandora, GoNoodle, Google Classroom, Google Drive, Planbook. With a click on the folder, then selecting open all, I have all the websites open in two clicks! Not only did I choose the resources to group together, I have purposefully chosen this order. I want Pandora always open on the far left to easily access play/pause all day by both myself and my students.

Since making the decision to get rid of my PC for more space on my desk this year, I had to adjust my Morning bookmark folder. I use my smartboard for both instruction and my non-instructional tasks during my planning period as well as before and afterschool. So students would not see confidential information, I have a bookmarks folder for instructional items and another for my school email, Google Drive, and Class Dojo. I have two Google Chrome windows open and click “Morning Smartboard” to get all the instructional materials set and then click “Morning Teacher” to have my needed resources in another window.

To create a folder, I simply clicked on the bookmarks bar and selected “add folder”. I then decided which websites would be used daily and dragged and dropped them into this folder. (An alternative way to complete the same procedure would be having your needed websites open upon startup, found in the settings for Google.) I have made folders for not only my daily morning needs but also each subject area. When I am using a slideshow or resource for instruction for several days or weeks, I move that into my Morning bookmarks folder as well.

Your practice of opening each site separately can be streamlined. Choose which websites you need and even the order in which they are placed in the folder or startup list. This small change, using technology shortcuts, will save minutes and create another moment of success as you lay out your day.

My slideshow strategy for efficient morning meetings

Another resource I have in my Morning bookmarks folder is my Morning Meeting slideshow. I have three slides for each day in my Morning Meeting slideshow:

• 1 – Welcome with morning routine and morning work directions
• 2 – Morning Meeting with greeting, sharing, and activity
• 3 – Morning message

Having the daily check-in directions displayed helps students to build independence, as I refer them to the slideshow as I spend time greeting students by the door.

I am so thankful for the duplicate option! I was able to duplicate these three slides to create an entire month, then duplicate the entire month to create each month of the school year! Although I have to adjust the dates or rearrange the activities, for the most part, these slides are ready for the entire school year after creating them in one year. The September Morning Meeting presentation always makes me thankful for my past productivity! Having all my extra introductions, procedural lessons, and classroom rules with my morning meeting procedures helps me to streamline planning during the dizzying rush of the beginning of the school year.

I look over my Morning Meeting slides when planning the upcoming week, update the dates, tweak the minor changes needed, and I am ready for the week. I can fill in the morning work ahead of time or each morning. I will rotate this slideshow in my Morning bookmarks folder on a monthly basis.

Your productivity can be increased with simple copy and paste. Take time to make a resource you can benefit from both now and later. Success sometimes means reusing and adjusting.

Achieving a “Tidy Inbox”

With my tabs all lined up and ready, I first go to my school email. From my backpack, I take my agenda, a combination of the list-making system from 40 Hour Teacher Workweek, and monthly calendars. I read emails with my agenda so I can immediately add to my calendar or to-do list then reply, file, or delete each email. I find “zero inbox” to be a lofty goal, so rather I shoot for “tidy inbox.” In order to do this, I do not look at email until I can give it my full attention with my calendar and to-do list present. Otherwise, emails get lost, requests get lost, dates get forgotten.

After getting the Morning Meeting slides on the one needed for the day, I move on to Planbook. I review my plans for the day. I adjust the schedule and write the lesson objectives on the board.

Strategic resource organization: Subject area copy bins

I gather the necessary resources from my subject area copy bins. I have spent planning time in previous days or weeks copying the upcoming items so I can be more prepared. If a copy needs to be made, I can do that right away if time allows or put it on my to-do list for my planning period. With my agenda still out, I can also see what tasks I have delegated to this morning or work ahead on tasks I have slotted in for the following day. The power of the one-stop agenda has allowed me to dump many of my worries into the weeks ahead and pressing to-do items into today, tonight, or tomorrow.

On some mornings, I arrive one hour prior to school and my morning process takes that whole time. On other mornings, I choose to leave home earlier to get more time in the morning for planning and preparation for the days and weeks ahead. Some afternoons, I leave right at contract time after just a quick clean up. Other afternoons, I spend time preparing for the day ahead, checking off some prep for the next day prior to leaving. The choice of the time to arrive or leave the classroom may be an area of reflection for morning success too.

Achieving productivity through thoughtful, intentional morning routines

Wikipedia states that “Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill.”The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the noun practice as “the condition of being proficient through systematic exercise.”

My morning practices lead to productivity, both in the morning and throughout the day with my students. I have chosen repeated, systematic behaviors that are both necessary and efficient. My productive morning helps me feel in control of my classroom environment.

On a daily basis, teachers make so many decisions: countless adjustments to instruction, assessing and logging behaviors, responding to interruptions to the schedule… and teachers do not have control of many of these decisions. So every morning is your time to choose personal proficiency. Define the practices you need. Choose the practices that will make you successful from the start of your day. Repeat these practices until they are routine. Monitor and adjust your practices until they help you achieve mastery of your morning.

The post Productive morning routines: How one teacher creates intentional practices for daily success appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

This article will not have an admin option. It will address a group I left out last time instead: librarians. Guiding students in book choices is not an administrator’s role, as I understand it; we trust the mentors directly speaking into students’ lives for that.

This article is about book choice as well, but it’s about the choice to say no (how to say no, how to tell when you should say no, what are the ramifications of saying no, what to do when you maybe should have said no but said yes instead, and how to turn a no into a consenting yes). I hope to offer you, teachers, tools for discussions about abstaining from certain books and tools for guiding students to choose books for themselves; I hope to offer you, students, with tools for discernment as well as tools for defense of your right to read. I will structure this post similarly to the aforementioned article with suggestions for action and research embedded for each group so that you could, feasibly, only read the section referring to you and be enabled to face your context. I also repeat certain parts of research across multiple sections but not every source is copied to other sections.

I want to preface again that my context is different from many of the writers of teacher blogs because I work at a private Christian international school with an American curriculum in Asia. The problems we are facing look different from those faced by public school teachers in Arkansas or Charter school teachers in Illinois. I’m also limited by my experience as a secondary teacher; these conversations have less controversy in lower elementary, though discussions about appropriateness do surface more commonly in the upper elementary/middle school transition. May you take what you need and may it be useful to you.

By this point, you teachers, students, parents, and librarians have entered the room of this conversation and taken your seats somewhere in the audience. Maybe you’re ready to verbally spar because of genuine concerns you have about the content being pushed to young children in the wide range of media accessible to them. Maybe you’re angry about book bans. Maybe you’re fed up with trigger warnings or content warnings. Maybe you think removing upsetting books from school libraries is the best thing for your child.

Regardless, I hope that you can take a step back and examine certain questions that have been previously unaddressed in certain contexts surrounding this conversation.

Teachers: curate, investigate/communicate, equip, compromise, and do not ban.

Curate.

Your classroom libraries, core texts, optional reading, and on-the-fly suggestions have great power in developing your students’ love of reading, leading them to new understanding, and nurturing their empathy. That is encouraging but it also carries some weight. For your classroom libraries and your optional reading list, there should be more flexibility for challenging or more mature books. I have my own system of leveling and genre sorting that works for my students and I with some flexibility, and I have yet to have a parent or student protest my choices (fingers crossed).

As I mentioned in my book choice article, I served on our school’s taskforce last year for choosing the English curriculum for the next 6 years. Our book choices were based on three bits of accountability:

1. At least two taskforce members had to read the book proposed.
2. They both had to agree that the book worked for the grade in which it was being proposed.
3. The book couldn’t be used in another grade.

These are straightforward considerations, but when we discussed the grade level matching for certain books, inevitably, conversations of “appropriateness” came up. Is 8th grade too young to look at police brutality? Is 12th grade too young to see certain swear words or innuendos in print (I say “certain” because many longstanding classics for secondary have slurs, innuendo, and swear words- see To Kill a Mockingbird, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and any Shakespearean play, to name a few)? Now, these conversations are in seemingly every school district in the US and many make it into the news.

In a perfect world, teachers would be able to make choices for their students in perfect harmony, but I recognize that is not the case in every school or even most schools. Nevertheless, let’s assume that you have some measure of guidance over what your students read both for fun from your resources and for your class. Under that assumption, our teacher profession has a spectrum of options about what a student should read and when. Whether you are in the “all the books for all the students” camp or “reading inappropriate content is harmful for minors” camp or somewhere in between, you should know that the research is mixed for a few reasons:

1. Studies on the effects of media on adolescents’ social, emotional, moral, or sexual behaviors often don’t examine books, and there are more variables to measure when examining books’ effects.

They sometimes specify only graphic novels under books rather than all books. They sometimes only focus on social media or TV. The Collaborative Trust for Research and Training in Youth Health & Development released a report in 2019 for the Broadcast Standards Authority of New Zealand. It mentioned books only in the context of media in China being more likely to be controlled by the government. Even though it uses the term “media” throughout the study, it specifies “traditional media” including books and only in the aforementioned passage.

A more famous example would be a study conducted in 2019 with the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. It found that watching the controversial Netflix show Thirteen Reasons Why caused in uptick in suicide for teens in the US (more on that in the next section). However, it excluded purposefully “focus on other exposures (e.g., having read the book on which [Thirteen Reasons Why] is based)” (Inclusion And Exclusion Criteria).

Most of the research on suicidal behavior after consuming certain types of media are looking at two trends: the “Werther effect” (“i.e. that media coverage of suicide can trigger actual suicidal behavior in vulnerable individuals in the audiences”) or the “papageno effect” (“whether media recommendations on responsible reporting suicide cases have a protective influence”). According to researchers with the British Journal of Psychiatry, that protective influence had only been previously discussed on a theoretical basis but was confirmed empirically by the study.

“Books and films may act as sources of social support or mental health literacy and thus reduce the suicide risk constituted by low sense of belonging” according to that NHI study, but they conclude that, because “motivations for the students to engage in reading” could change the outcome (“was the motivator a form of avoidance/escape, or a desire to ‘belong’”?), more research must be done to “specify the target of belonging.”

2. Some studies about media and behavior find mixed results (or correlation rather than causation).

The NCAC noted that some evidence has been presented for “harm for minors” in consuming certain content but with mostly correlational studies (see subpoint 14). The aforementioned NHI-sponsored study on Netflix’s Thirteen Reasons Why TV show needed to be revisited.

Even though the results claimed to have “[accounted] for seasonal effects and an underlying increasing trend in monthly suicide rates,” Data Curator Daniel Romer, with the Annenberg Public Policy Center at UPenn, recognized a potential need for data reaggregation. He found in a 2020 study that there was a natural (though this word seems callous to use here) uptick in suicide rates worldwide because of the many external factors about which we hopefully are all aware. The study recognized that where they saw causation before, they should have seen it as correlation with even possible benefits for students who are contemplating suicide, such as this study found:

“Unexpectedly, current students who watched the entire second season reported declines in suicide ideation and self-harm relative to those who did not watch the show at all (ps < .01). Moreover, those who watched the entire second season were also more likely to express interest in helping a suicidal person, especially compared to those who stopped watching.”

This isn’t about the book, but it is about a narrative that came from the book, and that might make a difference in how the show was arranged. The book had staying power on bestseller lists for years after its release for a reason: it spoke to the ones who needed it. “Reading books… may compensate for lacking social support if, for instance, the reader can in some way identify with the narrative, situational factors or protagonists in the stories.” (NHI)

When studies do examine books with content that could cause a behavior change– the overall fear behind reading controversial or mature books from certain parents, according to a featured article with the International Literacy Association –  they find that the “forbidden fruit” isn’t the focus for students. There’s not an obsession with the behavior.

Here’s the research:

“This finding supports what other research has shown in relation to young adult literature: Adults focus on potential controversy, whereas students see literary elements and draw connections to social themes (Freedman & Johnson, 2000). What it also illustrates, however, is that the stance from which the actual reading of a book occurs is key to understanding these clashes [emphasis added]. Adults might benefit from consciously attempting to read and understand from the perspective of youths so they can better empathize with adolescent populations and entertain discussions related to tough topics.”

3. Using the term “harm for minors” has more to do with parent perception and cultural norms than it has to do with psychological, emotional, or sexual consequences.

There is a broader spectrum than you may think for what is perceived as “harmful” behavior for adolescents. A study conducted in 1998 interviewed men and women and found that even their gender altered their perceptions for certain sexual behaviors in adolescents compared to judgments of the facilitators such as sex abuse experts, therapists, etc. Marjory Heinz with the NCAC said this of using the term:

“… ‘harm to minors’ is at bottom not a scientific, but a moral and ideological concept.”

The Broadcasting Standards Authority of NZ report noted the following:

“The empirical literature is divided as to whether exposure to [sexualised] media content leads to harmful impacts for children and young people. Some studies found no causal link between exposure to [sexualised] media content and risky sexual behaviours in children and young people. Other variables, such as the influence of peers and parents, rather than media, had more impact on the sexual attitudes and beliefs of adolescents.”

Another article from researcher Yuval Gozansky discussing the exposure of puberty on children’s television explained this:

“The contradiction between the moralistic ‘protective discourse’ promoted largely by adults, and children’s rights to sexuality education and information, raises the question of children’s television’s ability to address the subject of puberty without being accused of immorality or inappropriateness for children.”

In other words, the cultural piece of expectations from parents is both more effective on child behavior and more “wronged” by a violation of the sexual attitudes and beliefs of a person being outside of their expected level. Cultural and parental expectations can complicate efforts to offer healthy discourse or exploration of ideas. There’s no need to drop the evidence for this point because of not discussing books because the conversation still stands.

Consider how fiction changes your perceptions positively. Another potential benefit of reading fiction is also “perspective taking,” a development of understanding from someone else’s experience. What possibilities open up when empathy can develop in tandem with open discussions about hard topics?

Many of you may know teachers who were fired for merely the presence of a book with certain themes, characters, words, or scenes depicted. That must have given many of you pause the next time you were in a bookstore holding a potential classroom library purchase. It can also feel unfair considering how widely books get rated in “appropriateness” for age level or grade based on what metric or leveling system you use. For example, Edutopia notes that the popular Twilight books are rated differently across 3 main leveling scales: Fountas and Pinnell (for high school students), Accelerated Reader (for fifth-grade readers), and Lexile (for early elementary readers).

The history of book bans and censorship spans millennia with the Comstock Act of 1873 (later creating a noun similar to “crusader”) and the Obscenity trials. Supreme Court Case such as Roth v. United States (1957) propelled the conversation on defining obscenity which has still not been fully defined today, though questions about prurient interests, intent of consumption, and the dominance of specific themes appealing to those prurient interests continue.The Court ruled in Miller v. California (1973) that the [first amendment] should not protect “obscene” works “which, taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), it was ruled that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” a conclusion which should be freeing to you as educators. When choosing what books should go into your library, remember that you are defended in your choices on the grounds of the first amendment to the Constitution and “literary merit” from Pope v. Illinois (1987).

Yet, this only applies if you’re in a US public school; private schools are not protected by the first amendment and thus need to make choices based on “ethical principles”, says the ALA. There are some holes in your defense if you teach in this context and you can equip your students to face censorship. Nevertheless, the NCAC says “students in private schools should be accorded the same intellectual freedoms and civil liberties as their peers in public schools. Free speech is not just a legal imperative; it is a core educational principle.”

If you can defend the book’s cultural or literary value, it should hold up against scrutiny.

Investigate/Communicate.

If a parent raises concern about a particular book in your library, you should already have a procedure in place that is approved by your administrator for your classroom library. Check your school policy on classroom libraries, choice reading, and parent approval for book lists. Build your policy based on what your school has in place already, but formally challenge portions of the policy if they do not offer accountability or review processes that include voices of the school staff outside of the administration.

Your policies might include…

• Sending home a letter to parents before beginning a core text with the proviso that they have to sign and return the form to opt out of their child reading the book.
• Putting a policy about book choice into your school syllabus
• Emailing parents before giving students access to your classroom library with your sorting options (ex. If a middle schooler wants to read books you have marked as “HS Only”, parents can write you back with permission for them to have access for the year)

If you are at a school where there is little-to-no freedom of choice in what goes into your students’ reading lists, work with what you can to ensure that your students have some choice baked into your class. We know that choice helps engage students and if your particular combination of student body needs and locked-in canon doesn’t afford that on its own, you’ll need more support to get their buy-in. The other way to get student buy-in without alienating parents is to…

Equip.

I currently teach 8th-12th students with many language backgrounds and cultural experiences having access to my classroom library. For the sake of clarity, I’ll focus on my 8th grade practices;I teach my 8th graders to choose books that they might enjoy, to recommend books they like to friends, and to try to challenge themselves in their reading level.

My bare minimum rule is this: “open to the first page, and if there’s at least one word that you’re not entirely sure you know what it means by the end of the first page, it’s a good challenge for you.” This rule is dangerously close to the more outdated practice of leveling, but I’ll get to how I help that later.

These encouragements and suggestions don’t address when a student doesn’t like what they’re reading, though. I use a version of book reviews (thanks to Kelly Gallagher’s “Book of the Month” resources) as one way for my 8th graders to tell me when a book has made them uncomfortable or helped them grow (and often it is with the exact same aspect of the book).

In the book reviews, I ask, “What are some things that made this book a good choice?” and “What are some things that made this book a not-so-good choice?” Even though these questions aren’t directly asking about maturity level or “appropriateness”, they often give me a window into any opinions or concerns students may have about content that might not match what they are thinking about. They also get honest about the vocabulary level being too easy for them while telling me that there was a scene or character that made them uncomfortable. We have a conversation about how they can read books that aren’t challenging in vocabulary on their own but not for their book reviews, and I follow up about the scene or character with them.

If they have content concerns, I ask them, “Do you think other 8th graders should be able to read this book?” No matter their answer, I ask for their reasons why. If they say yes even though they were uncomfortable, how they answer shows their understanding that books don’t have to be everyone’s favorite in order for everyone to have a chance with them.

I use the word “everyone” loosely here, though, as “common sense” is still a voiced expectation from some anti-censorship voices. Even the NCAC (“We believe in freedom of choice for all people but we also believe in common sense, and common sense will tell you that it is extremely unusual for a young child to check out adult material.”) suggested that there is a “common sense” line to draw.

Giving students permission to exercise their common sense shows them that they are people, too. The whole point of my classroom library is to give them choice in what they read so that there’s buy-in for exercising their reading muscles. If they can’t choose to walk away from a book, their choice is more limited. They are less likely to make riskier reading choices such as trying a long nonfiction book when they usually read shorter fantasy novels. On the subject of trying new genres, note also that students can find a book challenging even if it’s not challenging in the same way they’d find a classic novel challenging. I ask my students to try at least 1 new genre per quarter because new genres afford new vocabulary. It also helps them get variety in their “training” away from basic leveling, as literacy expert Tim Shanahan notes:

“Top runners don’t train at one level: They take long runs, fast but shorter runs, and also can lift weights to build specific muscles… Kids should read a wide range of texts, and libraries can help. They should read easy books to things that kick their butts. The variation of difficulty does matter.”

That difficulty can be found both in the usual areas of syntax and vocabulary as well as content and theme. However, I also ask for student trust by encouraging them to finish a book if I know it can be growing for them even with some challenging content. For example, you secondary teachers know that Orwell’s 1984 is a staple for classic dystopian lit in secondary (usually high school). There’s a wealth of personal growth possible in those pages. It does have more mature relational content toward the end. However, it has a mature dialogue throughout with its government policing the thoughts and actions of its people, its philosophical points about security versus freedom, and its warnings about surveillance. It’s a book that forces you to think through hard topics. That is its goal, anyway. If a student gets over halfway with 1984 on their own and starts to grow weary, I would encourage them to finish it.

I equip students to dig through my classroom library by teaching them the following:

1. “Read books that are challenging for you. How you can tell is by reading the first page. If there’s just one word you’re not entirely sure you know, it’s the right level of challenge.
2. “Ask yourself, ‘What are some things that made this book a good choice?’ and ‘What are some things that made this book a not so good choice?’”
3. “Do you think this book should be ready by others in your grade or not? Why did you answer that way?”
4. You should try to finish a book that you know is going to be good for you, but you do not have to finish every book you start.

Compromise.

You might be all too familiar with this idea already when it comes to your classroom library. I hope that your school has protected your ability to offer choice reading that is relatable to your students. If you face backlash for a book in your curriculum, library, or optional reading list (even after following your school’s guidelines for curriculum choices or free reading, especially in secondary), the course of action could go something like this:

1. Schedule a meeting with the parties involved.
2. Before you meet with the involved parties, meet with your librarian, administrator, learning specialist, etc. to discuss options for the conversation and for possible alternatives. Ask for their support at the other meeting, if possible.
3. Meet with the involved parties. Remember that you could note precedent with classics having much of the same controversy in their wake while still carrying literary merit.
4. If the involved parties do not consent even by the end of the meeting, compromise with a book that meets similar learning goals as best you can.

I recognize that some school policies do not allow for this kind of dialogue, especially in 2023 as more districts are subject to state scrutiny of their school libraries. Remember that the goal at the end of the day is for your students to learn. That learning is going to be defined differently in the minds of everyone involved in these kinds of decisions. You as the teacher have a clearer path for those end targets, but the “how” does have to involve some level of consent along the way.

I am not suggesting that you get parental approval for every poem, short story, novel, worksheet, or activity in your course plan; I am suggesting that you continue letting your “common sense” go in tandem with transparency with the people who have the most to gain or lose with your students’ growth: their parents. The National Council of Teachers of English’s Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship of Instructional Materials says similarly:

“In considering the role of teachers and the possibilities of young people, it is clear that decisions as to the aesthetic and pedagogical value and developmental appropriateness of instructional materials must be entrusted [emphasis added] to teachers and librarians, working in concert with school administrators, school boards, and parents. In all cases, the primary concerns must be fostering student growth and understanding while protecting intellectual freedom in our schools.”

You shouldn’t have to hide what your students study, and you shouldn’t have to hide the world from them, either.

Do not ban. Practice discernment instead.

Consider yourselves bastions of civilization, teachers. You are ensuring that your students have a safe environment to wrestle with tough conversations, philosophical dilemmas, and more mature ideas as they navigate becoming adults. Should murder be punishable by death? Shakespeare tiptoes to this question’s answer in Hamlet. What happens when society’s norms fall away in the wake of desperation and survival? Read Lord of the Flies. How can we develop empathy in middle schoolers? Refugee by Alan Gratz might be a good start. All of these stories have been banned in some form or other in the United States. Teachers, if any of you think that all books that include political messages (Refugee), sexual content (Hamlet), or violence (Lord of the Flies), note that you will have to ban a text that holds greater weight for many in the US: the Bible.

Note that there are different forms of censorship that you might already be using. Trigger warnings, age-leveling for content, and cutting books from your classroom library are all forms of soft censorship or indirect censorship (though calling trigger warnings soft censorship is still up for debate). I wonder if changing my “HS Only” section to say “HS Only (Ask)” would be more fitting with the research and my concerns about the validity of age cut-offs for secondary school-level content. If I have a 19-year-old senior, should they be allowed to read books that I might have only recommended for college students? If my school’s policy allows 8th graders in Quarter 4 to read “HS Only” books, where’s the actual age-leveling line? Changing my labels also ensures that if there’s a student who is not in HS and is interested in checking out one of my books, I can have a conversation with that student about why they are interested and follow up with parental permission.

Trigger warnings have been found to not work, anyway (or, at least, to help in the ways that they could help); trigger warnings have been found to modestly increase anxiety in readers rather than decrease it, put a particular trauma at the center of a person’s life if they have experienced it, and “[increase] in the severity of one’s Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms” if one has the condition, according to Richard McNally, Psychology Professor and Director of Clinical Training at Harvard.

Banning books for all in a certain population limits them from the discourse surrounding that book, inhibits their training for the real world, and removes an opportunity for students to understand harder topics in one of the safest places in the world: the written word. Justin Azevedo, the youth materials selector at the Sacramento Public Library and co-chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee, says it this way: “Reading is a safe place to experience things ­secondhand,” and, I hope, reading as a safe place also includes your classroom space).

Teachers, remember your burdens. As often as we want to forget them, we have a duty to our students that is complex and ever-evolving. Here’s what the NCTE says about our duty:

“Regardless of setting and cultural context, classroom instruction will require teachers to introduce potentially controversial materials into classroom discussion. These are complex challenges that require recognizing the needs of students, the responsibilities that educators hold in day-to-day contexts, and the considerations of power and positionality of adults working with historically marginalized students of diverse cultures and creeds. Despite these challenges, the ability to resist both direct and indirect forms of censorship is a necessary aspect of teachers’ practices if they are to support the civic agency of young people. Consequently, educators must ensure that all instructional materials and resources are available for classroom study and discussion and that these materials are equally accessible to students of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.”

Protect books as best as you can.

Students: learn, discern, and don’t hide.

Learn.

Students, you are the ones at stake in book censorship conversations. I’m sorry if you have been limited by your school’s book bans from accessing text that might have helped you grow. I trust that you are still trying to access books in any way that you can because reading can change the world. Now that I’ve gotten my proselytizing bit out of the way, let’s talk about your brain and what reading certain stories can do to it.

If you are a student who has grown to believe no one in your school community should have access to a book you find uncomfortable, you should know “risk” to students has little evidence as long as you can choose your own books and “reject ones [you find] problematic”.

More “mature” books often offer “different perspectives” than your own precisely because they are working with a different context than your possible day-to-day life. On the other hand, some more “mature” books deal with conversations that are very much a part of your day-to-day life, such as anorexia. Concerns about Laura Halse Anderson’s book Wintergirls point to the book’s seeming “handbook for anorexia”. The NCAC points this out about the book:

“… [The] critics of Wintergirls may in some ways be right: some people who read the book will also develop anorexia. Readers at risk may well do so even without reading the book. The most significant variable is not the literature someone reads, but the human factor: the medical history (physical and mental) and life experience of the reader.

…The objections to Wintergirls also fail to deal with the reality of eating disorders as both psychological and physical diseases. Whether or not you think the book serves as an instructional manual for readers at risk for developing anorexia, banning the book from school libraries or otherwise keeping it from teens in many ways ignores a problem young people are struggling with. It makes the subject taboo, and it demonstrates the lack of trust we often have in young adults to think critically about what they read.”

In other words, if you don’t want to read things because you are worried about the effect they may have on you, remember that reading is the safest place for you to honestly think through and consider difficult topics. We as adults have to trust you more to make those decisions for yourself, whether it’s a book we want you to read or a book we don’t want you to read. You would be well within your normative bounds to fight back against book bans as well. If you’re currently fighting against book bans in your school, look at resources with the Kids Right to Read Project through the NCAC. On the subject of choosing to read or avoid a book…

Discern.

Recognize the difference between being stretched by what you’re reading and being offended or even traumatized by what you’re reading. Are you uncomfortable with a trauma-filled novel because it depicts a scene of abuse or violence that you have experienced? If so, try not to walk away from it.

“It can be really hard to feel difficult emotions,” says Torres-Mackie, psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and head of research at the Mental Health Coalition. “But if you can experience them through somebody else, like a character in one of these books, it allows you to feel your own dark feelings.” (Times)

The Times also interviewed San Francisco psychologist Juli Fraga. She had this to say about those who might have experienced abuse who read books like Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us:

“They’re looking for themselves in the story…Hearing that somebody’s experiences were similar to yours, or even worse than yours, can help you feel less alone—even if it’s merely in a book of fiction.”

There’s potential healing in those more mature books. Consider giving them a try, but remember that you should be able to walk away from any book you chose! Give yourself permission not to finish books, but if you’re just uncomfortable with a harder book, try to hang on. It could have something particularly helpful for you to read. Torres-Mackie suggests using this question to guide your decision, especially if you’re having nightmares or starting to feel unsafe in your usual routine:

“Does it fill you up, or does it deplete you?”

If you’re being asked to read something in class that makes you too uncomfortable to face it head-on and you do not think you have a choice in reading it, consider talking to your teacher directly, especially if you prefer not to read certain kinds of content such as mentions of bulimia, anorexia, suicide, sexual abuse, etc. They might have a suggestion for skipping certain pages (i.e. paperclipping those pages) or reading a summary for a particular scene rather than reading it directly.

Director of Communications at the National Coalition Against Censorship Nora Pelizzari notes that kids can and do self-censor which often results in “bring[ing] the book to their parents.”

It is harmful when “personal discomfort turns into an attempt to censor what others have access to read, view and think,” she notes. For you, you can choose to simply put the book down like other students do…

… But don’t hide (from hard topics, from hard books, from your parents, or from trusted mentors).

You can’t hide from hard topics in the real world (and nor should you). Andrea Burns, a recently retired teacher who taught 4th grade for the last 8 years in Kansas City, Kansas, was interviewed by Good Morning America about the 6 books she used in her classroom to talk about more mature topics that 4th graders alive today absolutely have to face, from grief to hard feelings. One children’s book published by the National Center for Youth Issues is about School Shootings: I’m Not Scared… I’m Prepared! A Picture Book to Help Kids Navigate School Safety Threats. It would be laughable to say that you won’t face shooting scares, know someone affected by shootings, or see them in the news, and schools are a safer place to have conversations about them.

Books that push you to consider other viewpoints aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Know that you are better preparing yourself to face situations in the real world by seeing a book that has a difficult passage, and you will not necessarily be affected negatively in your values by reading it. “Simple exposure to sexual content in the media will not make teens deny or ignore values and information they have absorbed from families, school, religious teachings, and other respected adults.” (NHI)

Bring your parents into the conversations from your books. It might seem scary or painfully awkward to involve them, but it might just show you that they are people who lived through similar life stages as you and care about who you are growing to be.

Parents: discuss/engage, trust, and don’t block for others.

Discuss/engage with your child and their learning.

Parents, it may seem that you have become major players in school curriculum and library choices across the country in recent years, but that negates your own parenting. You have been involved in your own child’s education since before they said their first word. What we’re seeing now is a greater focus on what other students read, sometimes ignited by what your child is reading. Let’s back up to the relationship that matters most to you in all the parties involved with you and your child’s education: your relationship with your child.

By the end of one lower elementary year, I had fallen behind in reading speed and stamina. My mom took immediate action. She took me to my local library all summer long and we both participated in a summer reading challenge. She read to my sister and I before bed every night, books that included death (I remember sobbing at that part in Where the Red Fern Grows) and conversations about good and evil (The Chronicles of Narnia).

At the end of the summer, we had read enough that I had earned a water bottle and a drawstring bag. I now realize that my mom was intervening to ensure my growth as a reader. She engaged with my learning, held me accountable, and spent time talking with me about the books I was reading, partially because she often was reading them to me.

Your direct involvement in your child’s learning shouldn’t start with a book you hear has swear words in it. It should start with an involved relationship with your child’s all-around reading.

Curator of the University of Minnesota’s Literature Research Collections Lisa Von Drasek, says that “although there are no flashing signs of maturity to watch out for, simply paying attention to our kids may be enough.” (Washington Post) “Think about who your child is in the world before you think about the books you don’t want to hand them. Knowing the child is way more important than knowing the book,” she says.

“Knowing [your] child is way more important than knowing the book.”- Lisa Von Drasek, University of Minnesota’s Literature Research Collections Curator.

Here’s what it could look like to be involved in your child’s all-around reading:

• Going to the library with your child to see what kinds of books they check out
• Taking your child to the bookstore and looking at books with them
• Giving your child money for the school book fair with the proviso that they must use the money to purchase books
• Asking them about what they’re reading when you drive them home or while having dinner
• Have a family book that you read a chapter of each day together after dinner or that you listen to in the car when all of you are present
• Having a book that is just for you and one child to read or listen to together
• Enforcing a daily or weekly reading time/place for your household (i.e. no tech before bed, only books allowed in bedrooms, a “reading chair”, etc.) that you yourself follow.

You should also know that reading the book in question is eye-opening, not because of the content inherently but because of your probable reaction to it. Take, for example, an article I mentioned in the Teachers section about student and parent perceptions of the novel Thirteen Reasons Why which deals with suicide, bullying, and rape:

“The conflicts that we documented and analyzed in the dialogue and the rejection of student perspectives are also unique. Students and preservice teachers asserted the reality of the issues presented, such as bullying and suicide, and affirmed the capacity of youths to brainstorm solutions. Yet, in the conversation, the adults seemed to ignore the ability of teenagers to know what sorts of education or resources might best address the topics that parents feel are important from their perspective, even though the students shared the ineffectiveness of the types of programming they received thus far.”

Your denial of access to a book could be seen as a denial of the experience of your children which could disconnect you from them. The researchers suggest that,

“Adults might benefit from consciously attempting to read and understand from the perspective of youths so they can better empathize with adolescent populations and entertain discussions related to tough topics.”

It is possible that trust between you and your child can grow with discussions around books. Those discussions must be handled carefully and with authentic engagement/ accountability on your part. If they are there, you will learn about what makes your child uncomfortable in books and how you can be apart of their wrestling with hard topics. Gary Ivey and Peter Johnston explain what happens when students read disturbing-yet-engaging books in “Emerging Adolescence in Engaged Reading Communities”:

“We have documented countless instances of students recruiting others to their reading (Ivey & Johnston, 2013) because they wanted friends, teachers, and parents to work through points of confusion with them, to offer their perspectives, or just to share the intensity of the experience… Within a trusting community, intermediate and middle grades readers do not have to negotiate on their own unsettling information they encounter, and in our experience, they are not inclined to do so. This should make us less nervous about children who are choosing to read more mature subject matter and, frankly, more realistic, because rest assured, others will be talking with them about what they read.”

Students involve their community in their processing of the stories. There isn’t solo processing happening. They will work through what information is presented to them with the people that they trust which I hope includes you. You can help guide them in how to know when to walk away from a book; you can reexamine your own boundaries with reading to think of what constitutes a good reason.

Can a book have even a “closed door” sex scene for your child while still carrying literary value?

Can it have violence? Torture?

Can it have religious themes?

Can it include swearing?

Can it include relationship violence?

Can it include sexual abuse?

Speaking of sexual content (which is a terrible way to start a new thought but it’s the best I can do), parents of younger children, you should know that it is normal behavior for a 5-9-year-old to ask you questions about what sex is, how babies are made, same-sex relationships, and where babies come from (Government of Canada, 2012; NCTSN, 2009; Stop It Now, 2007; Stop It Now, 2020; Virtual Lab School, 2021). That is different from what the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (a UK non-profit) says is unhealthy behavior for a 5-9-year-old: to “have adult-like sexual interactions [or] discuss specific sexual acts”. What is healthy for each stage of development might be a good filter for you if you are trying to find a line that works for your parental judgment.

As I explained in the Teacher section, the research is unclear about any negative effects of reading mature stories due to “the long-term nature of reading” (Washington Post) and the nuanced influence of media; “Our research found that reading certain things does influence behavior,” says Brigham Young University researcher Sarah Coyne who studied swearing in adolescent literature but “you bring your personality to the situation… if you’re already a hostile or violent kid, the short-term effect may be to act out later.”

Worries about a book making your average child swear all the time should be assuaged. Stetson University psychologist Christopher Ferguson notes that “People’s fear of fictional media is greater than the actual threat, and parents often worry that kids will read and imitate, but I don’t think there is any good evidence for that.” Ferguson notes one exception in a small study he conducted in Texas: adolescents who have been struggling already. He “advises… parents to check in with their teens to determine whether they’re depressed or anxious and to ask why they’re drawn to the books they’re reading. In such cases, he says it’s likely that ‘the problem is not the book, but something preexisting.’”

Note the pattern: you connecting with your child has way more importance than you protecting them from books with “age-inappropriate” content.

Note the pattern: you connecting with your child has way more importance than you protecting them from books with “age-inappropriate” content. 

Author and parent Melissa Scholes Young offered her perspective; she reads books with her children, researches them ahead of time, and attempts to be present with her children’s reading. She also offers this: “I’ve never censored [my children’s] reading. I’d rather watch them stumble on their own reading discoveries than limit their exposure… the safest place for them to stretch their experiences is on the page.”

Don’t block.

Making the choice for your own child is a very different conversation than banning a book from an entire community. A June 2023 Edweek article interviewing librarians puts it this way:

“Librarians largely want to work with parents to accommodate their concerns and requests about what books their child should have access to…

The part that stresses out librarians is when a community member or parent asks for a book to be entirely removed from schools, as opposed to just restricting access for their child…”

Even partial censorship for a whole-school body isn’t the answer to keep content “away” from your child.

I posit that your level of comfort in having hard conversations about book topics should rise to normalcy before you suggest school-wide, grade-wide, or district-wide book bans. More than likely, parts of books you are concerned about are often not what a student will grow from or remember in a more mature book, according to researchers Ivey and Johnston: … students who chose to read disturbing texts were drawn to the moral complexities of the narratives more than any graphic detail.”

You should also know that certain things confound our ability to decide what is “appropriate” for all students who are the age of your student, the first being that “appropriateness” isn’t an agreed-upon standard. It appears that cultural norms, parental expectations, peer expectations and moral principles are what gets the most concern for “harm” rather than the actual effect of students reading “mature” content (see Teacher section).

In fact, rather than the more mature books showing a harm for students in their morals or their psychological health, Ivey and Johnston found that “The books reduced [students’] self-absorption, diminishing personal concerns that might otherwise overwhelm them. Bad words and disturbing scenes simply fed bigger conversations about life and relationships.” The very things that most parents probably want in their child’s growth (empathy for others and deeper conversations about what matters) came from reading books with “inappropriate” elements.

In their 2014 article “The Social Side of Engaged Reading for Young Adolescents,” Ivey and Johnston explain other findings:

“Reading engaging narratives about characters with complicated lives, they reported, helped them become more empathetic, less judgmental, more likely to seek multiple viewpoints, morally stronger, and happier. Yes, happier. They reported improved self-control, and building more and stronger friendships and family relationships…

Central to these changes, they explained, were conversations about the books with peers, teachers, or family members—whoever they could recruit for different perspectives on provocative or confusing parts. They pestered others, including parents, to read the books.”

If you are genuinely uncomfortable with your child reading a certain book, your first step is to talk to your child. If you are still uncomfortable after talking with your child (or attempting to read it yourself), consider contacting the teacher or librarian involved. If the book came from a classroom library, suggest to your child that they simply return it. If it’s a core novel that each student needs to read, consider the following:

• Read the book alongside your child (or, if they’re young enough, read the book to them!). You might find that a review you read about the book pulled a sentence out of context and isn’t as jarring or memorable as you suspected.
• Even if you read the book a long time ago, consider rereading it.
• Ask the teacher for suggestions on how to navigate the story. As I mentioned in the Students section, teachers might have a suggestion for skipping certain pages (i.e. paperclipping those pages) or reading a summary for a particular scene rather than reading it directly, both forms of chosen self-censorship or soft censorship.
• Talk to your student about the story as you go. Working through discomfort affords great opportunities for deep conversations that might otherwise have not happened.
• If you try all of the above and still think a student should stop reading the story, contact the teacher about potential alternatives (preferably in person). Setting up a meeting with the teacher to explain your concerns would not be ideal if you had not read the book yourself, though.

However, you should consider that self-censorship is a choice you might be asking your child to make rather than one you are making for yourself. Any choice of action you take should recognize that a) while you are their parent, b) you might be choosing to remove your student’s ability to grow and engage with a hard topic in a safe context they might not have again in school. Again, do not limit access to a book for everyone in your child’s age bracket or community.

HB 900, or the READER Act, passed in Texas in 2023. It mandates every book vendor label any book with sexual content being sold to schools with either “sexually relevant” or “sexually explicit,” blacklisting any vendor that does not comply under Sec.35.0003.c. (or doesn’t meet the deadline for labeling all of their books, which has since passed). One parent in a Texas school reacted this way: “I am tired of people saying ‘parent choice’ and not giving me a choice as a parent. You can’t choose for all the students.”

Instead, trust (your librarians, your teachers, and your children).

If you have a healthy relationship with your school-aged child, you’ll know at least some of what they are facing, but if you have a reading relationship with your child, you’ll see how they’re growing in exploration of ideas in real time.

Your school staff have systems built in place to help them make wise choices concerning curriculum and free choice. If you’re involved, there will be no break between you being a part of their learning and you finding out about a hard topic in a book.

The Ivey and Johnston’s 2018 research published in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy noted this:

“Parents reported welcoming opportunities for conversations, conveniently through book characters, about drugs, sex, relationships, and depression. The image of young people reading “dangerous” books alone, in secret, and in distress, was neither what we observed nor what the students described…The image of young people reading “dangerous” books alone, in secret, and in distress, was neither what we observed nor what the students described.”

Again, if you push for a book challenge that removes the book from your school’s curriculum, there are other implications. The NCAC’s open letter to Common Sense Media in 2010 explained it this way:

Unlike requests for alternative assignments, which most schools offer to parents who object to a particular reading assignment, most book challenges seek to have a book removed from the curriculum, library, or reading list, limiting access by all students. When they succeed, these challenges impose one set of views and values on everyone, including parents who don’t want to have the book removed. More importantly, the students are deprived of the opportunity to read important literature under the guidance of a teacher.

Isn’t it better to think of your child reading mature books knowing that they can process what they’ve ready with you?

Librarians: provide, know, and don’t be afraid or self-censor.

We already know that librarians across the US are tending towards not putting books in displays that have controversial topics. This is a dangerously slippery slope because it can lead to books being hidden from the readers that might enjoy them or even need them. Even something as innocuous as content ratings (on sites such as Common Sense Media) can have potential censorship implications. The National Coalition Against Censorship partnered with other non-profits and published a letter to Common Sense Media in 2010 detailing concerns in 3 main areas against content ratings:

1) the implication that certain kinds of content are inherently problematic,

2) the negative attitude towards books, and

3) the potential that the ratings will be used to remove valuable literature from schools and libraries.”

They also decry that by reducing a book to “a few emoticons that focus on only a small part of the content of the book, the ratings take material out of context and deny the message, intent, and value of the book as a whole.” It removes the ability for parents to make an informed decision about the book relative to the relationship they have with their child, let alone the self-censorship potential for a child. The letter goes on to say that “[parents] can make better and more informed decisions if they have information about the age appeal of a book, its literary merit, topical interest, thought-provoking potential, and entertainment value.” At least a few of those points are what you can speak to by virtue of your training as a librarian. Speak to their concerns rather than letting only rating services speak for you.

Provide.

Do what you do! Keep looking for books that are well-received by critics and other patrons, have literary awards, and/or are relatable to students.

We know that books representing the experience of our students are important, and censoring out books purely for a character having a particular experience can be negative; Azevedo says “I want every kid to see themselves in a book, and by taking a reductive view of a certain story, you are diminishing their lived experience.” Consider using the American Library Association’s Toolkit for choosing books “appropriate” for age level. However, you should not rely on one metric for checking book “appropriateness”, as slippery of a term as that is, for a few reasons:

1. Appropriateness isn’t an agreed-upon standard.

The National Coalition Against Censorship explains it this way in The Free Expression Educators Handbook:

“Some school officials conflate their duty to provide a safe learning environment with an obligation to suppress any material deemed “inappropriate.” The problem with using subjective standards such as “appropriateness” to evaluate learning materials is that they may conceal underlying ideological biases.”

When librarians have to decide what is inappropriate, they have to start by defining inappropriate; the American Library Association has guidelines for what variables should be a part of that equation, but it’s not a cut-and-dry answer. If the equation has only a “parent complaint” variable, each community’s “appropriateness” would be defined by the school’s demographics and biases.

The Free Expression Education Handbook, created in conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English, also explains that red-flagging or labeling content as “inappropriate… encourages complaints and often leads to censorship”.

The Davis School District near Salt Lake City, Utah, banned the Bible from its elementary and middle school libraries after a parent filed a complaint in December of 2022. The outcry since shows that the intended target was not every book that had the objectionable topics.

2. Marking books as inappropriate for certain readers often slides to action rather than honest review.

PEN America released a Banned Books Week statement in 2016 explaining the situation another way:

In most cases, the complaint is reviewed by a school board or a special committee to determine the book’s future availability. In other cases, books are immediately removed from shelves or reading lists by teachers, librarians, or school administrators eager to avoid complaints and criticism. Even if a particular book challenge fails, teachers and librarians fearful for their jobs can sometimes avoid increased scrutiny by simply not assigning potentially controversial books or keeping them out of circulation or off displays. [Emphasis added]

PEN points out that book challenges are often aimed at works that “address race and sexual orientation, or that portray diverse characters;” that limits the availability to students to read about the “ full range of human experience.”

In 2016, a children’s book called A Birthday Cake for George Washington was stopped from further distribution because of public outcry against the portrayals of “happy slaves” (the author’s statement quoted elsewhere has since been removed). PEN America and the National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a joint statement recognizing the problematic portrayal while decrying its removal:

“There are books that can—and should—generate controversy. But those who value free speech as an essential human right and a necessary precondition for social change should be alarmed whenever books are removed from circulation because they are controversial.”

Know your books, your patrons, and your system.

Consider a system of “ask a librarian” rather than “MS or HS Only” because it can inform students if they could access books that might be cut off to them by school policy as long as they have parental permission and/or have a check-in with a librarian. Librarians, ask students if they have experience with particular topics, if they’re willing to talk about their experiences, and why they want to read the book if you’re concerned. Talking about it doesn’t increase their likelihood of doing the thing or a negative step in their health journey; sometimes, it’s exactly what they need to do (Suicidal Ideation or eating disorders, for example).

This isn’t a perfect solution and is still a form of soft censorship; I am aware. We don’t live in a perfect world, and this seems to help with that conundrum.

Don’t simply buy a book to stock your shelves because you’ve heard it’s good; this could reinforce your purchaser bias, according to researchers at the Cato Institute, an American Libertarian think tank. Use your 5 variables from the American Library Association to determine literary merit:

1. Authenticity
2. Public demand
3. General interest
4. Content
5. Circumstances of use.

The ALA also suggests “Be appropriate for the subject area and for the age, emotional development, ability level, learning styles, and social, emotional, and intellectual development of the students for whom the materials are selected.” (I know there is wide room for professional judgment here, but that’s hopefully the point). Here are some other guidelines from the NCAC’s “Adopt and Follow Book Selection Procedures” section of the Educator Handbook:

“School officials, including teachers and librarians, generally have broad discretion to select and review materials. However, this discretion is balanced by a professional responsibility to prioritize educational objectives and a legal and professional responsibility to maintain a viewpoint-neutral stance. Without clear objective criteria for the selection and review of instructional materials, schools are more likely to suppress educationally rich content in response to complaints. In schools, such pressure can come from parents, students, staff or members of the broader community.

Remember:

1. All decisions concerning instructional materials should be based on

sound educational criteria.

2. Decisions that are motivated by hostility to controversial ideas or by the

desire to conform to a particular ideological, political or religious viewpoint

violate the First Amendment.

By adopting and following clear policies for material selection and review, schools can make the resolution of challenges easier.”

If you’re being asked to swap out books, try to replace them with books that are still intellectually matched. There are some authors who are beloved because their novel templates are familiar, not because they encourage growth or engagement. I once tutored an ESL student who would only read Roald Dahl books because they could figure out what was going on partially from Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations. Strive not to lower the level of the library overall if you are being required to swap out certain more mature texts.

The American Library Association presents another aspect that makes this work more important: sexuality and young adult patrons.

“For this age range, a greater range of sexuality is both more marketable and more widely accepted than ever before. Teens are faced with both family and community expectations for their sexual orientation and activities, yet they can and should reflect on their own feelings in the matter, as well as their peers’ activities and expectations. What can young adult librarians do to better serve this population? Know your community, know your collection, and aim to provide truthful and accurately written materials on your shelves in order to promote healthy sexuality in young adult patrons and a healthy environment for our young adult patrons to learn more about themselves.” [Emphasis added]

You should already understand your school’s policy for challenging books; if you need resources for that, the ALA has a guide for challenge support. Above all, look to help your patrons grow.

Don’t self-censor.

Librarians have already been asked to block books with soft censorship systems. Practices such as “leveling” books and reviewing books for “age-appropriateness” are already normal practice libraries. Some librarians have, as PEN America mentioned, stopped displaying books with certain themes, character experiences, etc.

If you are afraid of losing your job, I understand how you would adjust your expectations for yourself and the library space. I cannot judge the choice of librarians worried about being fired, especially knowing that many have been fired for far less. However, about ⅔ of school librarians in the US say that no book should be fully banned from a school library, according to a survey conducted by the Edweek Research Center in April 2023. You are backed by precedent to say that books belong in libraries, but context is key. It’s important for you to already know your school’s system for external parties challenging library books. It has been happening around the US from political groups who do not necessarily represent all parents in a particular district (or do not even have children in that district’s school system).

In Conclusion…

Regardless of whether you love book bans or hate them, I suggest to you that we should each practice book discernment rather than book banning. We should each make choices for what to read for ourselves and our own families but not for the families of others. We should each work to better understand what actually happens when students read challenging books. Here’s what Amande Mellili, head of the University of Nevada Las Vegas’s Teacher Development and Resource Library, has to say:

• Books help students “feel less alone, to help us make sense of a confusing world, and to help us understand the lived experiences of others.”
• “[Diverse] stories… feed our complex imaginations and allow us to develop empathy for people who are different from us, and this ultimately leads to communities built on foundations of decency.”
• “Not every book will appeal to every reader, but that doesn’t mean those stories shouldn’t exist or shouldn’t be made accessible. We would all love to live in a society where traumatic issues don’t exist, but ignoring the stories does not make the issues go away; it just makes people feel more isolated.”

Parents, at the end of the day, we teachers have to trust you to make the choices that are right for your child and your child alone. The NCAC says that “Ultimately, we believe parents know what’s best for their children, and each parent is responsible for supervising his or her child.”

At the end of the day, we all want to grow to be better people. Hopefully, we all see the value and power of reading as a gift, a weapon to tear down walls, a foundation on which to lay knowledge, a skill protected by book-curating educators everywhere, the last stronghold of civilization.

Privately, discern books. Publicly, protect books.

May they be read widely.

If you’d like more resources, visit the links below:

The History and Present of Banning Books in America (lithub)

United Against Book Bans

Sign ALA’s “Freedom to Read” Statement

Elementary Teachers, this blog post has some thoughts for how to guide student book choice.

Illinois Passes a Ban on Book Bans

Guidelines for Dealing with Censorship from the NCTE

The post What role should a teacher play in choosing books kids read? appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

Sandra comes into the classroom before you can step outside to greet her, and she immediately starts telling you all about her weekend as she hangs up her backpack. Jordan, who you wish would talk to you a little, walks in sullenly and sulks at their desk with their backpack still on. You try to finish listening to Sandra but are relieved when Meg comes in and can continue the conversation. You walk over to Jordan to ask, “How’s your day going? Do you want to talk about anything?” You hear, rather than see, Dan and Jack come into the room literally bounding on all fours and neighing like horses.

Instead of getting to the root problem of Jordan’s morning, you take Dan and Jack outside to be able to discuss the appropriate way to enter a classroom and let them try again. Brody says something rude to his brother before entering the room and immediately sinks into the bean bag, and you have no idea what transpired between them in the morning. You are torn between greeting students at the door (like you’re supposed to because greeting kids can reduce behaviors throughout the day) or helping Brody right now so that he doesn’t have an outburst later (which you’ve experienced and know is likely).

Many other students walk in nicely and chat with friends as they get ready, but you hardly notice as you try to solve emotional problems that started before your school day even began.

You manage to get everyone ready to learn and start the day with a good morning meeting. The next couple of hours pass by alright with typical, minor problems. When you pick students up from lunch, however, there are a whole host of other issues. Someone didn’t listen to the monitor and stood on their chair. Someone else threw the corn out of their salad and all over someone else’s lunch in their haste and disgust.

You convene the class to discuss, yet again, appropriate lunchroom behavior; everyone seems to understand and agree with you. You purposely take a brain break before the social studies lesson, but students are calling out before you can get to the main idea. Someone is blocking someone else on the carpet; someone else brought a pencil and is jabbing a classmate and calling it an accident.

By the end of the day, students are wired and wild and can’t listen to your read-aloud which you painstakingly chose to be interesting. You manage to share highlights of the day in a closing circle for the last five minutes before the bell. Then, students are trying to entertain themselves for another 15 minutes as you wait for the final buses to come since runs take so long due to bus driver shortages. You’re spent as they leave, but they literally run down the hallway as a patrol tells them to walk.

It seems like no matter how many strategies you implement, how much time you allow for brain breaks and meditation, how many fidgets you allow, how many times you email parents, how much you discuss in class meetings how to meet expectations, and how much energy you put into solutions … it’s never enough.

I hear you. The scenarios listed above are not imaginary. While I changed names and minor details, this is my teaching life as a 2nd-grade teacher. Some days, I am truly exhausted by students. It does seem at moments (or even for a week or two at a time) that nothing I’m doing is making a difference in student behavior.

In the grand scheme of a year, though, I do see improvements or changes in behavior. I can sense what helps me on my best days. My great days are not free of challenging behaviors; no day as a teacher has zero interruptions, zero need for redirection, zero conflict between students. I think teachers have been saying for years that students are more active, seem to have undiagnosed or diagnosed ADD/ADHD, have difficulty focusing, are emotionally dysregulated, and struggle to calm down and readjust. This is a problem that’s facing teachers as a whole, but here are the ideas that seem to be helping me the most.

I would encourage you to approach these solutions with the Swiss Cheese Model in mind that Angela discusses here. These solutions are not one-size-fits-all, one-and-done, checklist-type strategies. You will need more than one solution to a problem, and you’ll need to layer those solutions. It’s important to have multiple strategies for each problem so that you can move on to a new solution when one stops being as effective. Layering solutions allow you to swap out strategies throughout the year.

The Swiss Cheese Model: Letting go of “all or nothing” thinking

One thing I have noticed about students with increased frequencies of behaviors is that they need different things throughout the different seasons of the school year. Sometimes, just specific praise works. Other times, an intense behavior plan is needed. Then, when that behavior plan feels too stale, it’s time to shake things up with a different plan.

I’m listing multiple solutions to common struggles in the classroom with the idea that you can do more than one strategy when needed. If the behavior increases, add another strategy and/or double down on what you were doing a month ago but had lessened. This list can serve as a set of reminders of strategies you probably already know and therefore you can draw from this for ideas to implement when you get worn down by the ongoing issues in your classroom.

Try something different, and you’ll feel like you are taking action which is a powerful motivator in and of itself. You’re in control of the strategies you choose to use, and you can make a difference.

Here are the 10 issues I’m discussing in case you want to jump down to one that stands out to you.

1. Calling out
2. Fidgety bodies
3. Emotional regulation
4. Focused attention
5. Following directions and creating consistent habits
6. A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connections
7. Other students are frustrated
8. Need more space and activity
9. Impact is from home
10. You’re personally overburdened

1. Problem: Calling out

Strategies: Take a Break, Buddy Classroom Break, Reteach/Clarify Procedures, Repeat Procedure

• Reteach procedures: At the beginning of the year, you will teach procedures such as raising your hand. If you skipped explicitly telling students when they need to raise their hand vs. when they are allowed to call out, take the time to do that. One of the most confusing things for students is when you are (probably unintentionally) confusing in your expectations. If you’re validating responses when some students are calling out and then getting upset when other students call out, you are not clear in your expectations. Likewise, if you are sometimes encouraging students to shout out answers and just share openly without raising hands but then other times you are telling them they should always raise their hands, that’s frustrating. Take the time to get clear on when you want students to just call out. Is there a particular activity? Can you point to the class with open hands to show them it’s their turn? Can you explicitly say “you can call out ideas” for certain times you’ll accept those responses? Will you accept calling out in a small group only?
• Repeat procedure: When a student calls out, immediately respond, “What do you do when you have something to share?” or “Show me what it looks like when you want to share.” If expectations are clear, they will say “raise my hand” or they will actively raise their hand. You can tell them to “try again.” Then have them raise their hand, call on them, and then validate their response. In this way, you are re-training their body and mind to follow the procedure. If you keep this up, you should not have to repeat it frequently.
• Take a break is a Responsive Classroom practice. I have found Responsive Classroom to be extremely helpful. I send kids on Take a Break as a response to calling out or being disruptive. At the beginning of the year, I read aloud the book, “When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry” and explain how Sophie is able to calm down when she focuses on nature and gets away from the upsetting scene. While students can’t climb a tree and hide, they can find a comfy spot in the classroom (I have a bouncy ball and a child-size beach chair) and practice breathing techniques. I have other tools in my take-a-break spot: a whiteboard to write down their feelings and wipe away because feelings come and go, a stress ball, a glitter wand that can act as a timer. I explain how to use these tools. We also learn about the different parts of the brain. We can get upset and not be able to be as focused in the decision-making center of our brain at the front which is like being the driver of a car. You want to be the driver of your own car. I explain that when you’re making a choice that’s showing you’re distracted or you’re distracting others, you need to take a break to get back in the driver’s seat. Later in the year, I often just have to look at a kid and they tell me, “I’ll go take a break.” You can read more from Responsive Classroom about this system here.
• Buddy classroom break: Similar to taking a break in the classroom, students can also take a break in a buddy teacher’s room. If you have a teacher who’s next door whether they teach the same grade as you or not, try to build a system between you where if you need a break from a student, they can go take a break in the other teacher’s room. Similarly, you can be a safe space for a student who needs to take a break in your room. Often, students do not want to take a break in another classroom. I’ve had students really struggle with accepting the consequence of behavior to go to another room. I persist in this agreed-upon consequence and follow through, and it truly helps prevent repeat behaviors in the classroom. It also gives me a chance to clear my head while they are away so that I can appropriately discuss behavior with them later. If you have never tried this, I would highly recommend it. Here is an article about Buddy Teachers to learn more.

2. Problem: Fidgety bodies

Strategies: Chair Bands, Take a Break, Calm Strips or Velcro Dots, Weighted lap bands, Chair Push Up, Chair Pull Up, Wall Push Ups, Hallway Break, Brain Breaks, Classroom Jobs, Classroom Games

• Take a break: There are several logical consequences you choose in response to behavior, but taking a break is useful for many of the typical disruptions to “classroom management.” If a student is talking when they are not supposed to be, distracted and not focused, doing a preferred task over the expected activity, take a break is a great strategy. See problem #1 for more explanation.
• Classroom jobs: I love my classroom job system. I had always used a job system, but this was one thing the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Club helped me improve. I keep jobs for a month or two at a time and students apply for them, so it works really well to have an active job that a student is motivated to do. Some of my favorite jobs to assign my active students are:
  • Bouncer — student answers the phone for me, answers the door, closes the door as needed, turns on/off lights
  • Messenger — student is a buddy to go to the clinic, take something to the office, etc.
  • Paper Passer — passes out papers
  • Recycling/Trash — they walk around with a recycling bin whenever we cut things up
  • Manipulatives Manager/Supplies Manager — passes out calculators, math manipulatives such as counters or base ten blocks, individual whiteboards, etc.
• Chair bands: These are like exercise bands that get wrapped around the front two legs of a chair. Students can push on the band. They can break eventually, but they last a long time.
• Calm strips/velcro: Calm Strips are a brand name tool that is a piece of tape with texture so it has some resistance as you rub it. I have found strips of velcro to be very effective stuck to desks. They are cheaper and even tend to last longer.
• Weighted lap bands or weighted stuffed animals: This can be used in conjunction with a take-a-break spot. For some students, this can be an effective tool to have a weighted item to calm their body and give them a sensory outlet.
• Chair push-up: You can teach students how to get out some excess energy by pushing their hands down on either side of their legs and lifting up their body.
• Chair pull-up: Students push themselves down as the sit at the same time as they pull up on the sides of their chair. I find this one better for frustration than the push-up. Students can alternate push-ups and pull-ups on their chairs with deep breaths.
• Hallway break: I will allow a student to take a break in the hallway if they need an alternative spot to take-a-break spot in the classroom and don’t need the consequence of a buddy classroom break. This can be helpful for stretching out legs or pacing. We used to have an area at my school that a counselor set up that had a little walking exercise for students to do. They had to type their name on a fake keyboard, follow the winding tape in circles, then jump, then do wall push-ups, then hop like a frog, etc. This really helped a few students I’ve had who needed to go take a break elsewhere. I could call the office to have someone take the student over for 5 minutes then return. This would need to be something that the school collectively prepares, but it could be a good solution to offer to administration.
• Wall push-up or wall sit: If a student is taking a hallway break, a good strategy is a wall push-up or wall sit. A wall push-up is where you lean against the wall and just do a standing push-up. A wall sit is where you start standing then slide your back down along the wall and put your feet out so that eventually your legs are at about a 90-degree angle or a little higher. This can help a student focus on their body and use up some energy — good if they have a tendency to want to punch or kick.

• Brain break: Consider building in more brain breaks throughout the day. I like to have one calm quiet independent brain break (I call this quiet time) and one active brain break where we are doing an exercise or dance. I think having these two types of brain breaks are helpful. Throughout COVID, I heavily relied on how-to drawing videos for brain breaks which were fun.
• Academic Games: Consider using classroom games to make learning more active. Here is an article I wrote for 24 classroom games that can make learning fun. These help break up longer class periods and long days with movement.

3. Problem: Emotional regulation

Strategies: Zones of Regulation, Yoga, Mindfulness, Special Place Boxes, Trauma-Informed Practices

• Zones of regulation: This is something that the counselor and social worker use at my school to help students choose strategies appropriate to their feelings. This framework can be helpful in talking through options with students and building their own self-awareness. I like to use this as a check-in for students about their feelings and readiness for learning. You can read more about this framework here: https://zonesofregulation.com/ Below is a short encapsulation of what I’ve found helpful.

• CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning or CASEL has a lot of information on schoolwide implementation of SEL resources: https://casel.org/ They also offer a playbook to support morning meetings and other resources.
• Mindful schools: Many educators love using Mindful Schools and those resources. Here is their site: https://www.mindfulschools.org/ While their official trainings cost money, they have mindful moment videos for free as well as monthly community practices for free.

• Yoga4Classrooms: Here is their website: https://yoga4classrooms.com/ While they recommend their official training which costs money, one easy-to-use resource they offer are yoga activity cards which are specifically designed for use in a classroom setting. It’s only $29 for one set and you can use them right away with limited yoga experience. If you’re looking for a set of mindfulness and yoga activities that can be used in a classroom, these are a great option that I’ve used with lower and upper elementary.

• Special place boxes: When I taught 6th grade, I had students make special place boxes out of used Altoid tins. I collected a bunch of random craft supplies, pebbles, shells, thread, beads, different textured papers, and all sorts of tiny objects. I also printed some mindfulness strategies on cardstock that fit inside the box. Then, I let students decorate the outside with paper and hot glue objects onto it. I let them fit whatever tiny objects they wanted inside. I got this idea from a trauma-informed teaching seminar I went to as part of my professional development. Everyone in my class loved making these boxes and then they were a traveling calming corner for them. I told them to think about it as their special place and try to put things inside that would make them feel safe and loved. They carried them around in their pencil pouches and could use them anytime in any classroom. One student told me later that she used it a lot during online learning throughout COVID and it really helped her focus and feel better. That was over a year after I gave her the box!
• Trauma-informed practice: Often, students have difficulty regulating their emotions or understanding what an appropriate response would be to a situation or feeling because of trauma. Here is one article on the Truth for Teachers site that has more ideas specific to trauma-informed teaching.

4 trauma-informed approaches that help kids with ACEs (and benefit your entire class!)

4. Problem: Focused attention

Strategies: Timers, Stations, Small Group Teaching, Teach student habits

• Stations and small group teaching: I try to cut down on my whole group teaching as much as possible. The days I try to do more lessons and activities as a whole class are always my most exhausting days because I’m working to maintain the attention of the group as long as possible. As a goal, I keep mini-lessons to 10 minutes. I recommend a workshop model of teaching where you have students listening to a minilesson and spending the majority of a class period writing, reading, doing a science lab, practicing math skills, etc. I know it can feel like more work to plan different stations and activities for students to do, but keep in mind that you can repeat stations. Since the students are doing different activities on a daily basis, they can repeat those activities often. I have found it so much more efficient to teach in small groups than whole group because I’m able to adjust my pace in the moment with students.
• Independent work habits: It’s imperative that students have independent work habits in place so that they can reserve energy and teach in small groups and use station models in the classroom. Set goals with your class to be on a website without interruptions for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then 20 minutes depending on the age of your students. Then, practice doing worksheets as a whole class or everyone reading independently for 10 minutes without needing an interruption. Work towards the goal with small increments and let students know that you can introduce more free choice stations and games as they prove to you that they can handle independent work.

• Timers: It can help students focus if they know how long they need to focus. If you can clarify that everyone is going to be writing quietly for the next 15 minutes then they know how much they can get done in 15 minutes. You also can teach students your expectations for that amount of time (1 page of ______ or _____sentences or ______problems). You can project a timer on the board or you can use individual timers for students at desks with only those who most need the reminder.

5. Problem: Following directions and consistent habits

Strategies: Teacher Language, Redo Procedures, Echo Instructions, Write Down Instructions

• Teacher language: Another Responsive Classroom practice is using teacher language. This article has multiple specifics on different types of teacher language, and I’ve found it helpful. Teacher Language helps me know what to say when. When I want to reinforce a behavior, I say “I notice…” and give specific feedback. This ideally is 70% of your feedback to students throughout the day — noticing the positive. Personally, that’s a goal for me that I don’t think I’ll ever reach but it’s good to try! I use reminding language often; having go-to language such as “How do we..?” or “Show me how…” helps me stay calm and not say something I’ll regret out of frustration. I just remind the student of the expectations we have. Redirecting language is when you need to stop something. It helped me to distinguish between reminding language and redirecting language since I’m only redirecting when I need to immediately stop unsafe behavior. Now that these are part of my typical language, I think it makes me a much better teacher because students know what I will say in response to behavior which means my consistency is high which is so important with behavior management.
• Redo procedures: One of the most effective strategies I’ve found in my classroom is just the phrase “Try again.” If a student ran to get in line, I respond, “We walk in the classroom. Go back and try again.” If the whole class is too loud coming to the carpet for a read-aloud, I’ll say, “That was not an appropriate noise level. Everyone go back to their desks.” I’ll select a few students to model if needed, then I can even ask, “What did everyone notice?” and we can discuss the few things I’m looking for. Then, I ask everyone, “Let’s try again. Show me how to come to the carpet.” The more you do this and take the time to repeat procedures and try again, the fewer times you’ll have to do it. I have also found that trying again prevents some arguments or disagreements with me over unfair treatment (someone did the same thing yesterday and you didn’t say anything!) because my expectations are very clear even if I miss something every once in a while.
• Echo back instructions: While students should be listening to you, we know they do not always do that. It can help to have students echo back a specific direction such as where this paper gets placed, where to put something away, when it’s due, or what page they should be on. This way students who were not listening as intently will hear it loud and clear. Even if they ask you, you can ask them to think about what the class said out loud.
• Write down essential instructions: I have a section of my board at the front of the classroom where I write a summary of directions. This helps students know where to look. While it takes those students who struggle to know what to do several weeks to get into the habit of looking there, it does eventually help a lot. I finally start seeing all students look at the board when they get confused by the end of the first quarter, and I notice that I am answering far fewer questions about what to do next, what their options are, and so on. If you teach early readers, consider using visuals with the numbers 1 and 2 next to it so they know first I do this, then I do this.

6. Problem: A few students pull your attention away or are constantly seeking connection

Strategies: Positive Behavior Plan, Lunch Bunch, Mentor, Buddy Readers/Helpers

• Positive behavior plan for individuals: An individual behavior plan is good if you have 1-2 students that really require a ton of energy from you. The idea behind this is that you will set up an agreement between you and the student that if they meet ______ expectations then you will give them ____ reward. A couple of tips would be to ensure that the student knows exactly what you’re looking for and you have clear goals (not perfect student goals but manageable goals within the reach of this student), to have a motivating reward, and to start small. You can and should increase the goal as the student is meeting goals. The best ways I’ve found to track behavior plans are beads on a pipe cleaner or stickers on a chart. A special education teacher at your school may be able to help you create a plan or another classroom teacher who has used one successfully. I write more about how to create an individual behavior plan on my personal blog here if you are interested.
• Whole class behavior plan: If a decent handful of students are creating daily disruptions for you, then you can set a goal as a class with rewards built in. I’ve used beads on a pipe cleaner with the whole class before if there were just too many kids who needed constant attention and reminders from me. They get a bead each time I catch them doing something well. Then, whenever they get to 30 beads they can choose a prize (fancy sticker, fidget, bag of chips, whatever). Checklists on desks can be helpful to implement whole class. I used to see it as a bit of a failure when I tried one thing and it stopped working, but now I don’t. I just readjust and introduce a new strategy to the class. It helps to try a few different small things. The past few years I’ve used the game Kerplunk at the end of the year. Each time the class does great we pull a stick and when all the marbles fall, we draw a reward from a pile such as a virtual field trip or outdoor game or extra indoor recess. It is not something I’m interested in doing throughout the whole year, but for particularly busy seasons where it’s hard to focus, this type of motivation can be helpful.
• Lunch bunch: Often students really are seeking connection and attention. Having a lunch bunch can help. Let them invite a couple of friends and spend time with you in the classroom. I used to avoid this because I’m naturally introverted and need recharging time to myself, but I found that this was a good strategy even for me. It helped me have a positive relationship with a student outside of an academic setting and gave me energy instead of draining it.
• Mentor: If your school or community has a mentorship program, see if you can have parents, community members, and other teachers be mentors to students who need someone to talk to and require more interaction. There is only so much attention you can give an individual student, so see if there’s a structure set up where someone can come in. High school students might be a great option as mentors for elementary students.
• Buddy readers/helpers: I have had groups of students where I felt they needed interaction with others to develop certain skills. When older students buddy read with younger students, it actually is proven to help the older student even more than the younger student. The act of teaching how to read to a younger student can build confidence, fluency, and increase motivation and skills. I’ve had a buddy classroom a few times where we connected with another grade level. Older students would read with younger students in purposeful partnerships that I created with the other teacher. Both classes loved having a buddy. It also built excellent community school-wide because students recognized each other and students were able to interact with another teacher in a meaningful way. I’ve had a small group of students be reading buddies before. You might think it’s best to choose stronger older readers to support the younger students, but it really helps the older students, so choosing readers who actually need to work on their reading skills can be the best fit. One year with a difficult class I had them take turns supporting in a special education classroom with one teacher who knew those students. These 12-year-olds ended up practicing a lot of kindness and humility in that other space. They became more compassionate and loved helping in another classroom. It taught them skills that I could not just by talking to them about behavior.

7. Problem: Other students are frustrated

Strategies: Sharing Emotions, Quiet Times, Calm Classroom

• Empower students to share how it affects them: I let other students share how they feel when someone/a group of someone’s is not meeting expectations. I might share honestly that I feel frustrated right now when I can’t finish the lesson. Then, I might ask anyone if they would like to share an I feel … statement. I did not use to do this because it felt like I would just be blaming a student or shaming them,  but I think it was helpful for some students to understand the impact of their behavior on others. Try to model the “I feel…” statement in a calm voice for students to set the expectation that this is a productive sharing time and not a complaining time. “I feel [emotion ] when [description of action occurring]. While some particular students may wish that others made no noise at all or never touched them on accident, that’s unrealistic. There is, however, a range of control each child has, and they can work within their own range of control. I talk to kids 1-1 about that in behavior conferences, too.
• Quiet time: I have a 10-minute quiet time in my classroom every day. This is often midday after lunch or recess or specials classes depending on my schedule that year. Students can read, draw, play with play dough. It might double as a snack time or time to catch up on unfinished work depending on the time of day. It’s a choice time and if students can handle the freedom, then I allow them to move in the classroom to read in the library or sit somewhere else. This time is essential for me, too. It gives me a chance to check in with a student if needed, solve a peer conflict, input a couple grades, sort some papers, or check my email. I love this 10 minutes and have gotten so used to having it. Students also understand the idea of “quiet time” and can do it if I suddenly get called out of the classroom for a moment or my meeting goes long and the sub needed an extra activity.
• Calm classroom: There are many ways to create a Calm Classroom. Here is one article with some ideas you might find helpful. One of my favorite ways to infuse calm is by playing quiet music or using the site Noisli which plays different sounds such as fireplace or ocean waves.

8. Problem: Need more space and activity

Strategies: Get Outside, Brain Breaks, Flexible Seating/Standing

• Get outside: If there is a space on your school grounds to get outdoors, this is a great way for students to burn energy, express themselves, and learn about their world without you having to put as much energy towards anything. You will need to set up parameters, boundaries, and expectations, but once students are out, often the activity will be far more exciting and engaging than if it had been indoors. Some activities might include writing outdoors, monitoring plants, doing a mindful search for something (ex. living vs nonliving things), measuring objects, taking notes on the weather, growing plants, reading outside, observing forces such as push/pull, and so much more. Here is a Truth for Teachers article that talks more about teaching outdoors.
• Brain breaks: My second graders love YouTube videos that are indoor obstacle course runs. Coach Corey Martin is a favorite in my classroom, but there are tons of other videos. Go Noodle is a popular site with many dances. With older students, a 5-minute free choice time to just talk might be what they desire most. I like to share drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub which can be applicable to a wider range of ages. I previously mentioned the Yoga4Classrooms cards. I have found older students to be more engaged with the visualization exercises from that deck.
• Flexible seating/standing: Even in tight classrooms, there’s often some space available for students to sit in a different location (on a floor, bean bag, stool, fuzzy bathroom rug, etc.) or stand at a tall table. Flexible seating doesn’t have to be fancy; just having a different option other than a desk can be quite liberating for many students and offer movement.

9. Problem: Impact from home

Strategies: Communicating Needs to Parents

• Talking points: One point of frustration and difficulty can be communicating with parents. I have found the site Talking Points to be enormously helpful for students with home languages other than English. Here is their site https://talkingpts.org/ where you can create a free teacher account. This is a translation service that translates to 150+ languages. While not perfect, I’ve found it to be a pretty good translation. Families can communicate with the teacher by using a text feature on a phone or using the app. Sometimes we as educators don’t want to overburden parents who might already have a lot on their plate or aren’t sure how to communicate misbehavior in a way that builds rapport. This service can make it really easy to stay in communication with parents in a way that’s at their fingertips. It can truly help that family-school partnership stay strong.
• Sleep: Sometimes students are just tired even if they appear hyper. Ask students casually about when they go to sleep and when they get up. You can discuss their schedules and with older students you can even problem-solve together. Some parents may not be aware that their child isn’t getting the sleep they really need due to work schedules. Instead of jumping to criticism, start with curiosity. You might be able to educate parents on the importance of sleep and let them know that their child is tired and not doing well because of it.
• Screen time: While we as educators can’t dictate to parents what to do in their homes, we can provide resources to them and educate parents on the negative impact of screen time and the developing brain. Parents love their kids and want to make the best choices for them. As a teacher, I have used their digital citizenship curriculum to teach students about how to be a good digital citizen; these are age-appropriate lessons that are ready to use and can give students the strategies they need to set their own boundaries. They also have a parent toolkit for early childhood (ages 0-8) and a wealth of articles for all ages across topics such as screen time, cell phones, and social media. We do have some influence, and we can use that to support healthy habits.
• Social workers and other professionals: I know that different schools have varying amounts of access to counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists. The wellness team, as they call themselves at my school, can be an excellent support system for you and can help communicate. They might be able to have a lunch bunch with students, do a 6-week-long intervention and give you strategies to implement, come discuss some ideas with your whole class, or just be a listening ear and sounding board.

10. Problem: You’re personally overburdened

Strategies: Seek Support and Advocate for Yourself, Mindfulness, Give Yourself Credit, Positive Closing Meetings

• Get support: Advocate for yourself. If that means asking a counselor 5 times to talk to the same kid until they finally clear their schedule and make it happen, do that. If it means going to your administrator and asking them to observe something, come to a parent conference, or pay for a resource you really need, be ready to propose your solution to them and ask for what you need. If you still don’t get support where you are after asking directly and being solution-oriented, maybe it’s time to find other administrative support in a different school or district.
• Embrace resources provided/free resources: While I’ve listed several resources throughout this article, I recommend focusing on one framework vs. pulling from a million places. It can be overwhelming to go in too many different directions or get too many resources. Start with one website or framework that appeals to you and go from there. That one resource will likely give you a ton to work with. It may not make sense for you to try a particular program or resource because it requires training that you don’t have and can’t pay for or it requires more time than you can offer. Almost every paid program out there has some free resources associated with it. Use what you can and if you end up wanting the resources or professional development that requires more funding, you can look into scholarships and grants and ways to make that happen. If your school has already picked one particular program, lean into that and try to make it work. The resources are there for you and hopefully a support system of other people who are also trying it out.
• Positive closing meetings: I had been doing closing meetings intermittently in my classroom for years. I often liked to have a reflection question to discuss or a “highlight of the day.” My teammate did “peaks and pits” at closing meetings. A peak is something that went well and a pit is something you wish was better. I have also used “rose, thorn, and bud” where a rose is a positive thing that happened, a thorn is something that wasn’t good, and a bud is something you’re looking forward to. I used to do “thank you’s” in my class where I put one popcorn kernel in a jar for each example that someone could give for being helpful or kind or supportive that day. They could also notice a kind act that someone else did for another person. They could also point out that the whole class did well with an activity or transition throughout the day and I would put one popcorn kernel for each person in the class (ex. 27). These closing meetings are such a nice way to end the day as an elementary teacher. If I taught middle school, I might do them at the end of the week only. I am often surprised by students when they say they “have no pit” or “My peak is that we had a good day as a class.” My first reaction might be to think, “But you were so cranky this morning” or “The class was so loud in math!” Their interpretation is that the day was great and they literally can’t think of anything to complain about. Why can’t I take that interpretation to heart as well?! I can embrace that mindset. Even if I feel tired or a little annoyed about one part of our day, if everyone in the class is listing how positive their day was, I should take some credit for that. I helped our class function and flow. It’s important for us to end on a positive note; it personally gives me fuel for another day.
• Mindfulness: I mentioned mindful strategies for students, but you can also use mindfulness for yourself. In Angela’s new daily encouragement podcast she offers weekly mindful moments. There are lots of meditation and mindful moments online for free through YouTube. There are podcasts dedicated to this practice. Headspace and Calm are both apps that offer mindfulness and meditation strategies.

Finally, give yourself credit

I see posts on Facebook about how teachers are stressed out with the expectation for students to make a year’s growth in reading and math and how impossible that feels, yet these teachers who are saying they’re not doing enough are also saying in the same breath that most of their class DID make a year’s growth. So are you truly not doing enough? You are honestly succeeding. That is what success looks like.

Trying different strategies and adapting to student needs is a success. You made it through another year or another day with a group of students with hugely diverse needs, and you taught them so well that despite their challenges they learned a whole year’s worth of material. If you’re thinking that you wish you could have done more or you wish you could have done better at this one thing or many things. You are right. Of course, hypothetically you could have done more or done better at something, but in reality, it wasn’t possible.

You did what you could do. Look at what you DID. You are amazing. You have done enough, and you are enough.

The post 10 common problems and layered strategies for supporting dysregulated students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

It was December of 2022, and I walked into a staff room to talk to a colleague, Kate, about an assignment. What I found instead were my colleagues Kate and James playing with magic: ChatGPT, an AI playground in its first stages.

Kate showed James this otherworldly site, and James tested how the AI was answering questions with intriguing bias depending on the type of question (“What’s the best way to stop terrorists?” vs. “How to bring peace to the Middle East”). Kate started explaining to me with startling calm how you could write an entire essay on ChatGPT with sources. She showed me. I curled into a ball on the staff room couch in an existential crisis.

She had a day ahead of me in thinking this through, and she attempted to assuage my fears. All I could see in my head was the play-by-play of every dystopian novel and movie I knew. You might still be there.

I hope that, by the end of this article, you will be less afraid of the apocalyptic implications (which I will still attempt to address). Instead, I hope that you will feel more prepared with how to address AI in your classroom. I also hope that you will have a healthy awareness of its presence in your students’ lives already rather than turning a blind eye.

Reasons not to ban GPT in the classroom

#1 AI is everywhere already

Arguably, as of early 2023 (which might be too broad considering how quickly things are changing), the most prominent version of artificial intelligence that our students have heard about is Tesla’s self-driving car tech (which has been in the news for both ethical considerations and car wrecks). The most prominent AI program used by students might be ChatGPT, but also might be SnapChat’s “My AI” chatbot (embedded into the app), Chat AI (advertised as an AI Chatbot and Essay Writer Bot), or Wonder (an AI Art Generator competing with the popular WOMBO Dream AI Art Generator app).

These are just the top apps in the Apple App Store. This doesn’t include Google Chrome independent extensions like Quillbot, described in its overview as a “Grammar Checker, Paraphrasing Tool & Summarizer.” The more popular Grammarly announced the launch of GrammarlyGo, an “on-demand, contextually aware assistant powered by generative AI,” in March of 2023.

#2 The positive potential is staggering

Initially, I reacted to ChatGPT with trepidation. My students don’t need to know how to write now. Writing and research standards need to get rewritten overnight. The entire white-collar workforce is in jeopardy. English teachers may as well quit. *insert dramatics here* 

However, after talking with Kate, reading about AI, and considering the implications with my staff and our English Task Force for 2023, I’m leaning on the side of hope, landing somewhere in the zone of curiosity.

The potential of AI is staggering. Several staff members at my school have likened it to the introduction of the internet as a research tool for high school students in the 90s. Initially, teachers entrenched in traditional teaching were outraged at the prospect of students skipping library day in favor of a few searches on a computer; journalists predicted that computers would never replace aspects of the traditional classroom (such as this Newsweek article from 1995). It appears that computers are not only alive and well; they are also, seemingly, alive.

However, AI has tremendous potential to reflect the darkness in humanity much like the internet. Microsoft’s Tay was taken down after only a day on Twitter as other Twitter users taught it to be racist and xenophobic in March of 2016.

AI can do a bit more than simply find your sources, though; it can search for them, filter them by any number of considerations (without paywalls), and write a full essay using all the sources with MLA in-text citations. That may sound terrifying, but it’s only as terrifying as our lack of guidance for our students. If they see AI as not only a tool with transparency but as a source, it changes how AI fits into school. I’ll explain more on this later but for now…

#3 You can “protect” your classroom (kind of…)

If you’re still in the camp of “No AI in my class” (whether by choice or by your school’s policy for the next school year), you can somewhat do that.

First, you will have to define AI and explain your AI policy in your class syllabi and in the first weeks of school. Have documentation of your policy but also announce flexibility in your policy based on AI developments.

Our English task force drafted a statement that supported a) teacher’s right to decide AI use in their classroom, b) seeing AI as a tool, c) using certain standards under Common Core to support expectations of students using their own writing only if we are assessing it traditionally, and d) using the process-of-writing standard in CC to support students learning how to use AI (i.e. ChatGPT) well. We also noted that, at the time of writing it, ChatGPT was only available legally for ages 18 and up (it was lowered to 13 on March 14 2023), so at the time, we couldn’t use it as a classroom tool. Now, we can (with parent permission), but this is a fast-evolving situation that requires vigilance.

Second, you can try to clean up on the assessment end if you’re still concerned that AI-generated content is in your students’ papers (which might be clear simply because of our usual teacher check-ins, drafting, etc.). Your usual teacher extensions that have helped you see plagiarism or cheating on Google docs are still helpful pieces to the puzzle (like the Docs extension Draftback or checking a document’s edit history). Certain tools have been created specifically to help people identify AI-generated content. The plagiarism checker Turnitin has developed a filter in its similarity report that notes the percentage of AI-generated phrases with 99% accuracy. Another colleague, P, recommended Copyleaks which doesn’t require a login like Turnitin.

However, there are limitations to using AI detectors. Google Translated material, for example, flags as AI-generated content. A student at my school once submitted a paper they initially wrote in another language for another class; the teacher’s AI checker flagged it as 100% AI-generated because of the translation.

This should be a larger theme of AI use but also tech in general: take it as a tool in conjunction with your judgment, not as gospel. Human bias is interwoven into AI with our coding, word processing, and even search results.

Another option is to switch your writing back to paper as well as changing your assessment parameters, but I caution you to consider the following:

• Does switching back to paper remove a layer of potential learning or skill display that you were previously assessing? Consider your learning goals, standards, etc.
• What are you teaching your students about how to navigate the world by removing the option for “safe” interaction with a new tool under a teacher’s supervision? (This might sound pointed but unintentionally so.)

The International Baccalaureate (IB) program released a statement on AI that was later published in The NY Times. Dr Matthew Glanville, Head of Assessment Principles and Practice at IB, explains that IB would not be banning AI because “that is the wrong way to deal with innovation.” He also explains that “Like spell-checkers, translation software, and calculators, we must accept that it is going to become part of our everyday lives, and so we must adapt and transform education so students can use these new AI tools ethically and effectively.”

#4 You can teach your students to use it and to use it well

If you are open to using AI in your classroom but don’t know where to start, Glanville has some pointers. He turns his attention to the kinds of learning we should be teaching our students these three things in regard to AI:

Teach how to ask the right questions and refine requests

We should be reinforcing what we teach with internet searches (like using Boolean operators, for example) but with a focus on mode (AI format of requests that can build on each other in full sentences) and learning from data that doesn’t match the request.

Teach how to identify and respond to bias in writing

As previously mentioned, AI is programmed using human input, from human coding to the internet (note that some AI programs don’t use the internet past a certain time, ChatGPT being an example- it stops around 2021 in its accuracy, according to the home page). Our students should be taught how to learn about material and text well enough that they can catch when authorial bias (or even downright false data) gets included.

For example, a colleague and I tested ChatGPT’s ability to find nuance in its explanations by asking it about our school’s history. Our school has multiple campuses, and ChatGPT combined the facts of each campus’s founding into one contradictory paragraph. It was easy to see that we would have to refine the request in a few more steps to get it to note the difference.

Teach how to “think around” problems with creativity and critical thinking

Figuring out how to get ChatGPT to note the differences between each campus’s founding in my request from the previous paragraph might be tricky, but it’s very similar to what teachers already do with Boolean phrases in internet searches as well as sources in general. Get your students to consider the following:

• What is wrong about this answer?
• What is this answer not including?
• What perspective is missing in this text?
• How can I widen or narrow my inquiry to include what I am missing?

One school policy key from Dr. Glanville’s statement is this: the IB program is considering AI a source as well as a tool. If a Math teacher has a calculator section and a “no calculator” section on their test, they are assessing how students do when other tools are enabling deeper or faster work. We can do the same with AI; we can have assessments where students can draft with AI (an “Open-to-AI” assignment rather than a “No-AI” one). We can have students create outlines for research papers using AI but require different parts of the critical thinking work without it, suggests my colleague Kate. Teachers are already aware that assessments don’t always invite learning but rather can skip over some of the critical thinking process. Brett Vogelsinger, a member of The National Council of Teachers of English, posed a few questions teachers should consider in teaching their students how to use AI in his article ”Inviting Artificial Intelligence with Curiosity”:

• What is valuable about human writing–both for the reader and the writer–that AI cannot replicate? How will I express and demonstrate this to students?
• How might AI be used as an insightful, knowledgeable, and blazingly efficient conference partner or tutor?
• When is it important for a first draft to be exclusively human-created, and when is it valuable to jumpstart a draft with AI assistance?
• How can this technology help students acquire more practice in the interesting, difficult, and meaningful work of revision by streamlining first drafts?

You should also consider adopting your own AI citing method (there is not a standardized version yet). Some teachers have suggested highlighting AI-generated phrases or going with MLA citation of AI-generated material as a source; however, the Modern Language Association says not to treat AI as an author and to simply note the use of AI with how you use it in a template structure. Keep updated on whether or not the MLA creates a different set if you choose that route.

Teach students how to use artificial intelligence responsibly

#5 It can save you time as a teacher

Remember Teachers Pay Teachers? It’s a wonderful resource for detailed unit plans, cool explanatory posters, and detailed lessons with hyperlinks and sources to boot. However, AI is your best friend if you’re just looking for some discussion starters for your US History Vietnam War unit (guilty as charged).

Schools don’t seem to be banning AI-generated lesson plans because that’s not where bad teaching comes from. Education is a notoriously open-to-sharing-what-works community, and TPT rightfully offers teachers who create detailed work a platform to sell that work if they so choose. We can ask AI to generate parent emails, write report card comments with our comment banks, even create abridged reading schedules for that one classic novel that we know has slow parts (I’m looking at you, Frankenstein…).

Material for the purpose of education does have some freedom with it as opposed to commercial material, and we should see that freedom as a gift ready to use.

Here are a few more examples for how you can use AI in your classroom:

• Draft fake examples of student work to have students practice identifying concepts and research flaws
• Write fake mentor texts for students to proofread (which, Dr. Glanville notes, removes some of the ethical issues with using actual student work examples).
• Create draft test questions (with caution…)
• Create activities for reviewing concepts
• Practice asking AI programs questions together to show thought processes in refining requests
• Have students use AI to reteach themselves concepts in class before you have time to reteach (which could be a game-changer for students who prefer asking questions to learn material)
• Use AI-powered search engines such as Semantic Scholar in research. Semantic Scholar was created by the Allen Institute which is named after the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen.
• People drafted horror stories using Shelley, “the world’s first collaborative AI Horror Writer” in 2016 which has since gone defunct. In the same way, consider using AI to help your students draft other genres of stories and have them practice identifying parts of each story’s arc.

#6: GPT provides an opportunity to learn alongside your students and model how to approach new technology

One more thing: when you use AI, strongly consider telling your students that you’re using it. It will help reinforce transparency around AI rather than secrecy. Modeling works!

I wrote this article while coming back from a vacation with my family, and we discussed AI as I researched. My brother is studying to become a graphic designer, and the prospect of AI invading my brother’s future job feels all too familiar to my mom’s story. My mom’s illustration-based graphic design degree was impractical the day she graduated because her university wasn’t teaching students how to use computer-based design, an already prominent trend. While I don’t argue that students who aren’t taught AI skills will have defunct high school degrees, I do want to prepare my students for an uncertain future to the best of my knowledge. I do not want to shy away from innovation.

Brett Vogelsinger puts it beautifully: “Encountering a new technology alongside our students puts us in a beautiful position to learn beside them. We can leverage our maturity and insight to guide them on using AI ethically, even as we strive to find our own way through the woods.”

There’s one more side to this that I haven’t addressed: the radical, near-utopian help for students with learning needs that AI can bring. For students who already have learning plans, students who know they need resources without the ability to test for learning needs, and for those who don’t even know that have learning needs, imagine the possibilities. Imagine teaching a student who would have needed a push-in aide to guide them through creating an essay outline for your very specific thesis question. Imagine that they can do that work on their own and get to the more difficult pieces with their push-in aide in half the time. That does not sound dystopian to me. That’s possible right now.

As for the apocalyptic fears of AI taking over the world, I think that every generation has had some piece of technology that radically changed their lives.  The Gutenberg Press provided knowledge to masses previously locked out from learning. Electricity provided light in the darkness. Yes, Mein Kampf was published and electricity powered the production of atomic bombs, but all technology is simply a tool. AI is the first tool that can almost look back at us, but for now, let’s teach our students how to open a book, bring light to darkness, and walk into an unknown future with curiosity and hope.

Additional resources

The AI Index: It “tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data relating to artificial intelligence” and is sponsored by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

The American Library Association’s page on AI: You can find it under Center for the Future of Libraries —> Trends. They list links and sources for almost every sentence. The implications’ focus is on how AI might affect library goals but it is a valuable resource for anyone interested.

The Urban Libraries Council’s Press Release on AI: this notes the potential inequities with privacy and data protection for at-risk communities.

Want a done-for-you resource to help you teach students about responsible AI use?

The post Why teachers don’t need to ban ChatGPT or AI tools in the classroom (and what to do instead) appeared first on Truth For Teachers.

This is partly because of my own professional development around different classroom management philosophies, partly from my own mental adjustment in response to student misbehavior, and also partly from listening to the way other teachers and myself talk to students. I feel enormously blessed to work at the school I do, and I think teachers in general have the best interest of students at heart. There are phrases, however, that I’ve heard both uttered from myself and other teachers that have made me wince. It’s not that any of these phrases below are inherently bad, rude, or would only be said by a teacher who is out of touch. These are just phrases that have left me questioning after I’ve heard or said them.

As I turn these phrases over in my mind, I want to think about the impact of our language as teachers. There is a lot of gray area when it comes to things like jokes and sarcasm, but more and more, I think about how something might be misinterpreted or remembered in a way that doesn’t put me in a positive light. I don’t want that to be my legacy in a student’s mind. I want to leave behind a positive, professional impression. I also don’t know what my off-handed comment might lead a student to think, either positively — in that they never saw themselves as a writer or good at math — or negatively — in that now they think I don’t believe they are capable or happy.

For these reasons, the phrases below are ones I try to actively avoid. Below I will also offer the replacement phrases that I have tried to use in my interactions with students. I believe that this is a work in progress, not just professionally but personally for me. Our language should be flexible and mindful. One of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done is record myself teaching and watch it back, but it really helps me reflect on what I’m doing and what I’m saying. This is the power of reflection, and I hope that this article, even if you don’t agree with everything I say, helps you reflect on your own teacher language.

#1 You must say yes if someone asks you to play.

Replacement: Is it possible to include them? What is your choice: play the game with ____ or play a different game? Is there a reason you don’t want them to play (talk to the student off to the side)?

As an elementary school teacher, this phrase is actually an expectation within my school that has been stated by the assistant principal and counselor, and it has bugged me for a long time. The intention behind it is that no student is purposely excluded from a game or bullied. The way this is often phrased to students is: “What do you say when someone asks you to play?” “Yes!” I think it is important to make space for students in a game, teach them to compromise, and work out our differences; however, I have found that when students don’t want to play with someone, it might be for a reason that’s more complicated. This is a chance for problem solving which requires nuance and not merely a command: you must play. Here are some problems I’ve come across:

• They just spent 10 minutes sorting out groups and don’t want to renegotiate teams
• That person was mean to them the last time they joined
• The group is getting too big for the game to work effectively
• That person tends to cheat, and they are tired of dealing with it

In these instances, saying “yes” and letting the person join in does not solve the problem. Instead, maybe consider these solutions to talk through with students:

• Let’s discuss what’s important and not important. Since this is just a game at recess, anyone can join in anywhere, and it’s okay if the teams are not perfectly balanced.
• Share your feelings with an “I statement.” I feel worried that you will be mean to me when you play this game. Can you be nice? If you are not nice to us, I will not want to play with you and will leave the game.
• Can we split the group into 2 separate games? Is there another game we can play instead that’s better suited to a large group?
• If you don’t want to play with them, you can leave and play a different game.

I personally think it’s helpful to teach students that if they are mean, if they cheat, if they are physically rough, others will not want to play with you. That is a logical consequence. As an adult, I love to play board games, but if I pitch a fit over rules, try to cheat, or brag about winning, others will not want to play with me. As a result, I will not be invited to play at other people’s houses. Perhaps we should be more open with that information with one another. If my behavior is inappropriate, I should not expect others to just include me because I want to play.

This whole scenario of being forced to say yes just because someone else asks is also an issue of consent. There is mutual consent going on when people are playing together. I do not think that consent is something that can only be taught as students get older. In fact, the earlier we can teach the idea of consent, the easier it can be applied to situations where it is more harmful if not followed. If someone asks you to do something, do we want to teach students that you have to say yes? Is that the message we want to send?

I think I have been taught that I have to say yes to someone’s request if someone asks me nicely, but I now believe that I can say no, even when someone asks nicely. I think there is a difference between bullying and targeting someone, telling them no repeatedly, and just being able to tell someone no in an isolated instance. So many teachers (women) were trained as children (girls) to say yes and be helpful and include someone regardless of how it made them feel. I think forcing a “yes” out of someone is a consent issue, and it’s one we can address better.

#2 “Friends”, “Boys/Girls,” “Gentlemen/Ladies” for students

Replacement: Scholars, Writers, Mathematicians, Scientists, Readers, Students, [4th…] Graders, Everyone, Caring/Kind/etc Students

There are many names we use for “students” and “class.” I personally have always told students that they were not my friends. A friend is a dynamic where the two participants are equal. They do not have to be the same age, but a teacher/student dynamic is not equal. As a teacher, even when I feel powerless in the school system at large, I have power in my classroom and authority over students. I determine many things about our space and time together. Therefore, I do not call students “friend” or “buddy”.

While this is arguably more important when teaching older students, younger students also need that professional line to be drawn. I have noticed that teachers or adults who use “friends” to address students tend to be more personally affected by misbehavior and students and they tend to experience a lot of disrespect from students in small ways (calling out, talking back, etc.)

One trend that is fading out is naming student genders (boys/girls, gentlemen/ladies). This approach varies widely where some teachers feel it is respectful, some teachers feel it is harmful to our LGBTQ+ students, some parents are upset when it is said, some parents are upset when it is not said. When I moved grade levels to teach younger students, I often felt that they were more obsessed with gender and more vocal about it than older students. They see things in black and white and want to know if an ambiguous character or video persona is a boy or girl.

I do not think we need to reiterate gender separation with constant reminders that this is who you are – a boy or a girl. With our language, we can give students an identity. If a student is unsure of their gender identity, then I am reminding them of that all day long if I use gentlemen/ladies. If a student easily identifies as a girl but feels like they are different from other girls, we might be reminding them of that feeling all day long without knowing it. Instead of making students feel respected and included, we are likely alienating certain students.

However you feel about pronouns, one small shift you can make is to not use gender-specific naming for your whole class. According to the Trevor Project, “having at least one accepting adult can reduce the risk of a suicide attempt among LGBTQ young people by 40 percent.” We as teachers are constantly informing the identity of students and their role socially. I believe this gender-neutral language is important at all levels of education. You can read more about LGBTQ-Inclusive and Supportive Teaching Practices here. 

#3 Sit down. Be quiet. 

Replacement: Show me how we listen to our classmates. How can you show respect to your classmates? What are the options for sitting on the carpet? Think about what you need to start class. Show me how to sit at your desk. What are the expectations for ____?

When we redirect behavior, we do not want to get into a power struggle or debate over our choices as educators. Since we do not want to linger and have to explain a myriad of reasons why a student should just be following the rules, we can clip our language to statements such as “sit down” or “be quiet.” I have heard these words come out of my own mouth when I was frustrated, but I did not like the way it made me feel even if everyone started behaving afterwards.

I’ve been trained in Responsive Classroom which is a classroom management philosophy. The teacher language I’ve learned through that course and their books has revolutionized my practice, and it’s something I continually try to improve. There are 3 types of teacher language: Reinforcing, Reminding, and Redirecting. Reinforcing language is positive, and I’ll talk about that next. Reminding language is a chance for you to help students adjust their own behavior. This is the difference between telling a student what to do and helping them recall a procedure they’ve already been taught.

Phrases such as “Show me…”, “What did we…”, “How can we…”, and “Think about…” are great sentence starters. I will force myself to just say “Show me…” and try to finish the sentence with an expectation so that I’m training myself to not just tell students what to do but help them be more successful in the long term by thinking about the consequences of their actions and how to participate in the classroom more fully. If you’d like to learn more, The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton and The Power of Our Words for Middle School are great resources.

#4 I like how….is doing it

Replacement: I notice…Did you notice…I see…You _____

Something I heard stated over and over again in classrooms when I was first in practicums by other pre-service teachers and younger teachers whom I felt I wanted to emulate was “I like how the class is getting started. I like how John is starting his work. I like how Bella is working quietly.” I heard these affirmations and thought they sounded like cheap praise which felt a little gross, but it also seemed to work. I was confused by what I didn’t like exactly. I never picked up the practice because it just didn’t work for my personality, but I wanted to provide encouragement to students and let them know when they did something well.

The solution I needed but didn’t know I wanted was reinforcing language. As I mentioned above, Responsive Classroom names 3 types of teacher language. Reinforcing Language should be the majority of our language with students. As most teachers will quickly tell you, some students need a large amount of attention and positive language. It is often those students that we end up reminding about behaviors so often that also need the most positive language reinforcement. We need to balance all of that redirection and reminding with reinforcing language about when they are meeting expectations.

These are not shallow statements meant to just praise following rules; these should be statements that specifically identify a strength in what the student is doing in the moment:

• I noticed you picked up those pens that fell out of Aidan’s bag.
• I see that you have checked your work for capital letters and periods.
• Did you notice how everyone in the room was so focused during writing class today?
• You made sure everyone was included in the math game today.

Here are more examples. This takes more effort than just stating “Good job!” but it’s more helpful to students when you specifically state what they’re doing well. What we notice and name is what students will pay attention to, also. If I slip up and say a generic comment or I’m starting to just say something like, “Nice work!” I will just tag on an “I notice” statement afterwards. Again, these are sometimes patterns that are quite ingrained, so it takes time to develop new patterns of behavior in ourselves. I will force myself to just start with “I notice…” when I come up to a student and look for something nice to say.

#5 Wow! You did that so fast! You’re so smart! 

Replacement: That seemed to be easy for you since you did it quickly. What can we do to challenge you a little more? Was there a part that was more challenging for you so we can work on that? Wow! You worked hard on that. I see your brain growing while you’re working on this. That mistake is helping you learn. 

The initial comments of “You’re so smart!” and “Good job!” might feel like positive praise that a student needs to hear. Again, when we are thinking about reinforcing language, we do not want it to sound empty and vague. We want to be specific and praise students for sticking with a problem. Since learning and reading about growth mindset, I have strongly steered away from praising speed. I explain to students that fast reading does not necessarily mean it was good reading, and I discuss the different paces of reading. I talk with my slowest readers about how sometimes they are the deepest thinkers (which is true; students with dyslexia tend to make deeper connections and are more global thinkers even though their fluency is slow). I talk with students about how being able to come up with multiple strategies in math and being able to think flexibly is more important than getting the right answer quickly.

Now, my reinforcing language is often about recognizing when students are sticking with the same math worksheet and focused instead of getting frustrated about why they haven’t moved on. Or I’m glad they’re reaching for a difficult text and working through the words instead of giving up. Believing that students can achieve difficult things, trying to find appropriate challenges for them, and encouraging challenge is all part of having a growth mindset focus in your classroom. I have found this to be particularly important in math class where students, parents, and teachers all have held onto the belief that some people are capable of doing math or have a “math brain” and others don’t.

Here are some resources specifically around growth mindset in math from the fantastic website youcubed started by Jo Boaler. One resource that I have personally used in my classroom is her Week of Inspirational Math. You can select videos and resources to share with students that set up your classroom at the start of the year (or restart your math classroom midyear) with challenges. The lessons include such mindset shifts as “Brains Grow and Change,” “The Importance of Struggle,” and “Speed is not important.”

I have also worked to not get too excited when a student makes zero mistakes. I might instead point out to a student that they are ready for a more challenging page in their packet. When I select worksheets for students, I put together a variety of pages that have varying levels of difficulty. I can then direct students towards different pages and allow students to self-select their differentiation. If a student is choosing the easiest pages to complete and then is bored, I can have a conversation with them about their focus in class and how they should be persisting through a more difficult page instead of completing whatever they can the fastest. This also helps my conversations with parents because I can refer to their work in a way that shows if their child is on grade level and achieving or reaching for challenges or needing remediation.

Similarly, if a student is reading 3 books in their 15-minute independent reading station, I can have a conversation with them about “just right” books. It’s okay to read easy books, sometimes; we all enjoy a treat every once in a while, but it’s not helping you grow. I can point out to students that it seemed too easy for them because it was so fast, so they should try to slow down and read a more challenging book.

#6 You must write before you draw. 

Replacement: Do you need to draw before you write to get into a flow? Use a sentence frame to get started. Could you draw out the word problem first?

I don’t remember where I first heard this phrase, but I think even when I was supporting in classrooms doing pre-service hours I noticed that there was a push towards focusing on the finished product. I’ve become more open to the idea of a thinking classroom where I want students to explore ideas and use thinking routines. I am less focused on the “correct” answer or final product when we are learning a new concept or in the beginning or middle of a unit of study. I realized that student writing tended to be better after they took time to think and draw. I also realized that student work in math tended to be deeper when students took time to draw or use manipulatives first. The way I feel I was trained to think was that drawing was something you did afterwards to explain what you wrote, add on if you had time, and make your work “prettier.”

I have almost gone the opposite way and tell students they should typically draw to get going and thinking or they should use manipulatives first. I noticed that most students benefit from the freeform thinking first; however, I think it should still be the student’s choice. We can present both starting with writing in sentences or in math, starting with numbers, or starting with pictures or manipulatives as valid options. Our brains work in different ways and the more we can share with students how to work WITH their own strengths, the better off they are. I have loved hearing students over time, share with confidence how they approached a problem. I also loved hearing how students might change their strategy day to day. “Today I felt like writing first because I had a great idea…” or “I wasn’t sure what to do first so I started with counters.” I love that the different approaches help students feel more confident in their own learning choices. It is empowering.

#7 We don’t need to talk about that at school.

Replacement: What makes you say that?

When a kid says “That’s gay” or brings up a high-tension subject or mentions someone’s race, I think many educators worry about saying the wrong thing or getting in trouble with a parent or an administrator. While not everyone has the privilege that I do as a white woman in society, since so many teachers are white women, I think it’s important for teachers in particular to take on the challenge of addressing these topics in the classroom. If a student says something that might feel uncomfortable for you to address, instead of shutting it down with “We don’t talk about that at school” or “Talk about that at home, please”, maybe try asking, “What makes you say that?” Your genuine curiosity might help a student reflect on their own word choice. What did they mean when they made that comment?

Help them reflect on whether it was truly kind or whether it comes from a place of knowledge or ignorance. In certain cases, it may help to define a word for a child, The word, ______ means _____. Is that what you mean right now? Can you see how using ____ word does not match what is going on here? If a child is pointing out a race, you can address an assumption head-on on such as, “What makes you say they come from Mexico?” or “What makes you think they are poor?” I can explain to students where someone was born and offer another perspective they might not have considered.

Almost every year I’ve taught I’ve had a student come in as an English learner with little to no English. These students have often gone to school in a home country where it was a very different experience of schooling for them there as it is here. My 2nd graders are particularly excited for new students and love the prospect of teaching someone English, but the lack of English often means in their mind that someone is uneducated.

They will tell me something like, “Wow! ____ did the math game with us and he understood how to add the numbers together!” They were genuinely happy, so maybe my first instinct would not be to chastise them saying, “That’s not nice” which it could be if they were saying he couldn’t play the game at all. I can still approach this interaction with curiosity, though. “Why might he still be able to play the game?” If they can’t answer me, I can explain, “He went to school before and he understands math. Do you think you can help him make more connections to math even without fully understanding English?” This type of dialogue can help students see their classmates as fully human with rich, complex lives they might not always see or understand. These types of conversations also remind me as the teacher of the language I’m using and how I want to talk about students and our classroom community.

#8 Always do your best

Replacement: What is your best today? Is this the best you could do with the time you had? How much time did you work on this? How focused were you during that time? Is this meeting expectations? Let’s look at the rubric/checklist together.

I brought this idea of avoiding the phrase “always do your best” up in a podcast interview I did with Angela a couple of years ago, and she ended up doing a full podcast episode around this idea. As a child, I was extremely perfectionistic. I loved pleasing teachers and doing the right thing. I enjoyed doing work well (and I still do!). I truly appreciate something done to a high standard; however, this can also get me into trouble.

In middle school, I was shifted from all general education classes to “extended” classes (aka advanced/gifted classes). I was quite stressed out by the changes in courses I had; the whole environment of 6th grade was a lot for me as an introverted, fairly shy student. I got an ulcer that year from the anxiety and stress of my school day and had to take medicine for it for a while. In fact, even when I felt better, I remember being anxious about going off of the medication. I would not have let this show to my teachers. I kept it all inside, and there was no way they would have known because my grades were exceptional, and it appeared as if I did all of my work without issues.

Also, I liked challenges so there were times when I was bored of the work I was doing and it would not have looked like I was stressed out over it. The messages I received from teachers were to do my best no matter what, to always raise my standards, to do more than was expected. Considering I naturally have this tendency, I could kick it into hyperdrive if a teacher focused on “doing your best” which to me translated as “do it perfectly and be THE best.” Since I became a teacher, I knew I didn’t want students to have this mindset reinforced by me. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

Instead of asking students for a generic “best,” have them compare their work with the standard. The standard might be a rubric or checklist you have provided. One thing I like to do in class is have students assess mentor papers or projects. They can use the rubric to grade a piece of work I’ve saved from previous years or one I’ve created. Often, students are quite critical of this work so it can help to clarify for them how I graded it. Their views and my views need to be in alignment in order for those evaluative grades to make sense. I would have appreciated this as a student instead of just imagining what I thought the teacher might want.

Some teachers worry this will stifle creativity, but I have not found that to be true. It helps students know where they should focus their effort and energy. Similarly, if I was stuck on something and would not stop my work, I can’t tell you the relief I would have had if someone had talked to me and said, “This is great work for 30 minutes. If you have more time, maybe you could have done more, but I only gave you 30 minutes.” As a student, I was expecting my absolute best at every moment. I panicked over timed writing assessments and timed work in general. If we can remind students that time affects our quality, I think that would be helpful in training students to focus on what matters most in each assignment. This is not just helpful for the classroom but helpful for life. We need to know as adults where to put our time and energy, what to prioritize, and how much time we have to spend on something.

#9 Okay? Right?

Replacement: Make your directions into statements and drop the questions.

One thing I’ve heard teachers say is adding “okay” or “right” onto the end of their directions. For instance, they might say, “It’s time to get out your notebooks, okay?” “You’re going to put that aside, right?” “We need to be nice, okay?” “First, you’ll open up a new Google doc, okay?” I think there are a few reasons why this might be a tendency. Foremost, it might be because teachers are actually looking for affirmation that students are paying attention and following along. I think it projects to students, however, a level of insecurity. It sounds like teachers are always asking for permission. If you’re asking students questions, they actually can say no to you.

When you add okay or right to a command, you’ll lift your voice up in tone and pitch because natural English speakers know this is how you ask questions and show you’re interested in an answer. The problem is when you’re giving a direction, you are not actually that interested in hearing a response. Even if you’re seeking confirmation that students are listening, no is not an answer you want. If you’re not genuinely asking a question, make it a direction and drop your pitch. When giving directions, we want to use a falling intonation where our tone of voice descends towards the end. If you’re not sure what I mean by this, here’s an article with examples of falling intonation.

#10 Silence

Replacement: What makes you say that? Does anyone else see it differently? What else could I say about that? What else might be true? Do you think that’s what _____ thought about it? (Introduce a hidden perspective)

It happens to me fairly frequently that I will hear a student say something or notice a student doing something that truly surprises me or makes me take a second glance or wonder if I actually heard them correctly. It might be easier to just brush these weird instances aside or tell other students, “Don’t worry about it” or just ignore it with silence, but there might be some great moments for conversation in these statements. For example, I was sharing some images with my class this year of American Indian artifacts. One of the images was of a doll. A student called out in the moment, “That’s creepy!” I could have handled this in a variety of ways.

First, I could have reminded the student to not call out and to raise their hand. I could have nodded or made some complicit gesture that showed I understood what they meant. I could have stated, “That is not nice” or “That is a rude comment” which likely would have shut down the comment and conversation altogether. To be honest, with many of these types of comments, I want to jump in and say, “That is not kind.”

A very common solution, though, is to just be silent. If I don’t know what to say, I might just dismiss it. I was extremely tempted to do this, but I asked instead, “What makes you say that?” and then “Does anyone else see it differently?” In fact, several students DID see it differently. They shared connections that it reminded them of other dolls they’d seen, they shared how they made connections between this doll and their doll at home, they explained how it was more difficult to find materials to make those dolls so they thought it was really creative how the American Indians used natural materials to make toys. I didn’t have to have the solution. I didn’t have to defend the ideas I wanted to present; I could let my students speak and allow that discourse to happen. Was this a bit of a divergent topic from my original lesson? Yes. Was it meaningful? Absolutely! It was even something I came back to when we worked on creating our own dioramas of American Indian homes.

“What makes you say that?” has become one of my all-time favorite phrases. I first learned about it through Project Zero as a thinking routine. I use it all day long for responses to correct answers, incorrect answers, puzzling comments, and unkind phrases. I love that it gets students to pause and think. It’s not a command to explain their thinking or justify an answer; it comes from genuine curiosity. It helps me stay focused on the student and where their thinking is because that helps me be a better teacher.

I hope that this article has given you some food for thought and reflection in your teaching practice. I believe this type of reflection on our words is ongoing, and I hope that this is something I continue to practice in my own growth as an educator.

The post 10 things I no longer say to my students appeared first on Truth For Teachers.