This chapter introduces the core of Jensen's second book and the focus of our study, student engagement. As chapters progress, we will dive deeper into engagement strategies for positive climate, cognitive capacity, motivation, understanding, and focus. These five rules of engagement will lay the foundation for strategies studied later in this book.
Reflect on the five rules and solutions offered for each. Is there a solution you have tried that succeeded? Any you have tried that failed?
Share a consistent challenge you have in your classroom. Select one solution offered in this chapter and make it a goal to try this year. State your intentions in this blog as your commitment to that goal.
(Next week: Read Chapter 3-Engage for Positive Climate)
Note- We will have a break in the book study during the week of August 3-9th to allow everyone to focus on the first week back to school.
Rule #1 Upgrade Your Attitude - This is a good reminder that the attitude we choose each day when we walk into our classroom has a profound effect on our students. I try to greet my students at the door with a smile and a positive attitude no matter what may be going on in my life. I am also human. I make mistakes. I try to create a culture that celebrates mistakes a learning opportunities.
ReplyDeleteRule #2 Build Relationships and Respect - Relationships are essential. One of the first TED Talks I ever watched was Rita Pierson's "Every Kid Needs a Champion" where she challenges teachers to build relationships with students, no matter how tough it may be. She says, "Kids don't learn from people they don't like".
Rule #3 Get Buy-In - I love the idea of the "bigger kid" challenge. They always sit up a little taller when they think they are doing what the "big kids" do :)
Rule #4 Embrace Clarity - I am definitely guilty of over complicating things, but have learned the importance of keeping it simple. I would like to focus more on using fewer words and speaking with intention.
Rule #5 Passion - This one is easy! No matter what I am doing, I try to find the joy in it. I love learning and I love sharing what I have learned with others. Excitement is contagious!
Since I will be at a new school this year, my goal will be building relationships and respect. Looking forward to a positive year!
Hether I agree that building relationships are essential. Students need to know you care and many will tune out and not learn from someone they do not like.
DeleteI like the act of greeting students daily at the door with a smile to start their day off right. I have to admit, when I was stressed or busy myself, I overtime let that act of kindness slide. I will do better this year.
DeleteI am so glad we went to the conference and are doing this book study. It is such a great way to start the year. These are great reminders of what our kiddos need!
DeleteI agree that Rule #3 can definitely work for students! I think it works to motivate many of them! Most like a challenge that's "sold" correctly. ;)
DeleteGreeting students daily at the door is a wonderful thing to do, and I try to do it all the time. There is one caveat: you must be sincere, or they will know if you aren't! Greeting the kids is a great way to monitor their feelings as they enter the room, and head off potential disasters before they fester.
DeleteAs a teacher who sees classes in short times of 25 or 50 minutes for PE and STEM Embracing Clarity is an area I would like to focus. I found especially when I was teaching in the STEM classroom I would get too wordy. I plan to focus on essential words and demonstrations more to set the stage for student learning.
ReplyDeletePassion for me is one area I fully embrace. I know our students look to us and can read our energy. I love teaching and am willing to jump in with the students so they can feel me embracing their joy in learning.
They can read our energy just as we can read theirs! Important-yes!
DeleteSo true. When you show students how you connect with what you are teaching and what you find interesting and exciting about it, they will want to engage also.
ReplyDeleteRule #1-Upgrade Your Attitude: I do try to use small engagers to keep them attentive and motivated! Videos, stories, social interaction, voting....try to change it up! I liked the idea of affirming them for even showing up on time. I'd like to do that at least occasionally. Even just being there, for them, can be more of a challenge than I may be giving them credit for.
ReplyDeleteRule #2-Building Relationships: Loved the phrase: "affirm the good in them". :)
Rule #3-Get Buy-In: I want to continue to work on selling students on the content and learning process to prevent them from disconnecting, which definitely is a challenge.
Rule #4-Embrace Clarity: One solution was to say what you do want from students, not what you don't want. This made me think of the PBIS system we are continuing to build on and expand at Bon Air.
Rule #5-Show Your Passion: Great reminder that feelings ARE contagious!
I was also thinking of our PBIS strategy when reading this book. Look for the positives, encourage them, build relationships!
DeleteI really liked the idea of affirmation too. I need to affirm even the small stuff because some of the students get a lot of praise due to their reoccurring successes, while others rarely hear it.
DeleteI also like the idea of saying what we want from students rather than what we don't want. It does come more natural to express the negative rather than the positive. I have to work on that.
I feel the same way about having a harder time expressing the positive rather than negative. I consciously tried to work on it last year but I have a ways to go before it is automatic!
DeleteElizabeth, I really want to improve on giving my students small engagers. I try to do this, but I'll admit I sometimes forget! I would love to hear some of your ideas for doing this!
DeleteOh my goodness, this is my fourth time typing up my response. Every time I hit publish, I lose it all. Ugh!!! This will be short because I'm grouchy now.
ReplyDeleteOne of the solutions mentioned was to really spend time getting to know each other by sharing personal stories back and forth. This past year an expectation was to hold morning meeting to kick off each day. I really buy into this time, and saw how much the kids depended on it and loved it. The social activities and the stories shared were truly a bonding time that brought us all closer and helped us gain a deeper respect for one another.
As far as developing relationships with our children, this past year two of my boys had the reputation of being difficult. As the year progressed and I really spent a lot of time trying to divide and conquer, I grew fond of each one for different reasons. One of the boys branched out and became close with several of the other boys, while the other sat back and grew more and more jealous. We had many good talks about what friendship looks like and why one was making friends and the other wasn't. I learned that this particular boy wasn't tough at all, but very insecure and softhearted. He spent a lot of time pouting, even crying, over this situation. I feel like we all learned a lot from this experience.
I like that you used your morning meeting time for building relationships. I am going to work on that more.
DeleteTammy, I am finding that happens in another book study I am in for the IDOE. It has happened to me before as well. I now just copy my post before I hit publish. I am going to send an email to support.
DeleteI really like the idea of a morning meeting. I'll definitely have to see if i can mix some things up and get to doing that. It might be easier for me to do an afternoon meeting. I guess it doesn't really matter when it is, it's the building the relationships that counts.
DeleteI would love to know more about how you structured your morning meeting!
DeleteI love your story about the little boys in your room. Sometimes I am surprised by how emotional my male students can be. It's really a compliment that he felt comfortable coming to you to talk about tough subjects. They must really love and cherish the relationships you offer!
DeleteRule # 2: Build Relationships and Respect. This is one of the more difficult things for me, with 5th graders and their complex emotions that change daily, if not every hour! I spend time to make connections with my life by sharing stories of my childhood, which was also in poverty. I try to integrate their academic work to real-world needs in order to demonstrate a real-life connection to what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important things to do in building a relationship and respect is to use a calm voice and demeanor, as well as use my manners, such as please and thank you whenever possible. If a particular child is having an issue, I try to take it to the hall for a more private talk, while still keeping tabs on the rest of the children.
For rule # 3, "Get Buy-In", I use quite a few incentives. The kids love small pieces of candy or pretzels, I have mini ink stamps to put on their hand or paper, and they also love free computer time passes or free homework passes.
As for a commitment to try for this next school year, I plan to work on my clarity, rule #4. More specifically, I need to use clear, concise words to express what it is that I want from my students, and use a clear, calm tone of voice in a positive manner.
I love that you do a private talk with your student who is having the issue. I’ve found that is so much more powerful for the student. So, many of our kids have so many other problems playing into that behavior issue we have to get to the real problem or it will just keep happening.
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ReplyDeleteRule # 2 has been something I have worked very hard on the last 2 years. I understand that knowing your students is one of the most valuable things you can do. It makes perfect since, we respect our friends and those are the people we know the most about and we care for. We do not want students to become our friends but we do want that natural respect and most of all trust. The solution from this section that I have tried is the sharing something about yourself everyday. I shared little bits about myself and my family. I just did it for writing or morning share time. I didn't realize it impacted the students until we were talking about something that related and they brought up my story. It shocked me. I couldn't believe they remembered my story and it became back ground knowledge for something.
ReplyDeleteThe one rule I want to make my goal this year is, rule #4 embrace clarity. I give directions that make since to me. I over explain and sometimes I am bad about modeling. (Especially when we are in a hurry to get it done) I want to try his solution of using fewer words. I over explain and start to confuse so I need to cut it back then, answer questions. I also as a side goal want to work on rule # 5 show your passion. I do that but sometimes I think I let the hustle and bustle of school get in the way and I do not let the students see the passion I have for teaching and them learning.
Rule #1 Upgrade Your Attitude: I really feel like I try to do this daily in my classroom. We do small engaging activities that keep the class moving! We do brain breaks, stretches, quick games of simon says.
ReplyDeleteRule #2 Build Relationships and Respect: I really like the solution of share a bit of yourself every day. We started morning meeting back this year and we had a share stick. Where everyone had the chance to share something each day. I think this really helped our classroom culture. Respecting your students is critical in the classroom. I liked the quote, “But first, students need to believe that you’re on their side, not an adversary.”
Rule #3 Get Buy In: “One of the most critical skills teachers can learn is never taught to them. This skill is salesmanship.” This is so true. We have to hook our students to keep pulling them to the next step. I will offer incentives by saying I’m going to look for the student who is working the hardest all through workstation time and they will get to choose what brain break we are going to do. This was a great incentive that didn’t cost me anything and helped the kids because they got to move.
Rule #4 Embrace Clarity: I liked the quote, “Before using an engagement strategy, you should know its purpose, the content or skills it will cover, and its parameters.” Really be strategic in my lesson planning. I would like to check out the 10-Minue lesson plan website. “Say what you do want form students, not what you don’t want.” Part of the whole principle of PBIS. In my classroom I’ve had to remind myself to do that. Instead of “Don’t run to your seat” “Walk to your seat” And that does not come naturally.
Rule#5 Show Your Passion: “Research suggests that feelings are contagious” Love that! So interesting if I’m having a bad day it seems like my class is too but if I’m having a great day and purposefully being positive my class sways that way:)
Since I will be starting a new position this year I will be working on getting buy-in from those that I’m working with. If the teachers don’t find the content relevant they will disconnect. This rule is closely connected to building relationships and respect. So those two rules will be something I’m going to be working on this year.
In my classroom, we have a brief "Morning Meeting" each morning to start our day. I have a bucket filled with strips of papers with various "get-to-know-you" type questions. A students reaches into the bucket and reads aloud the random question to the class. We all sit in a circle and pass around a "talking-stick." The student love this activity. I love getting to know them each day. It helps build community with the classmates and it helps build rapport between the students and me.
DeleteI love PBIS! Embrace clarity is a hard rule of engagement. Sometimes I just spew words out and don't really think. That rule made me realize what I'm saying is not always okay or even understood. I love your "meetings" and "share stick" gonna have to steal that one!
DeleteI like the idea Diana of strips of paper with the get to know you questions, definitely important I'm sure to have the talking stick as well, to try and encourage all to participate. I'm interested in learning more ideas about things to do during morning meeting.
DeleteRule #2 is very powerful inside classroom settings also in the administrative office. When administrator build viable relationship with students, they have the tendency to trust our judgment in regard to educational attainment and our philosophy of having atmosphere conducive to learning.
ReplyDelete#1 Upgrade Your Attitude: I truly love teaching kindergarten and I think that really shows in my classroom. I do love the idea suggested of using affirmations for myself and for my students. That reminded me of the quote I saw in the last chapter that I loved and how I wanted to put it somewhere in my classroom where I would see it all the time. Also we definitely do A LOT of small engagers in my class and there have definitely been times where we have just moved on because things didn’t go as planned.
ReplyDelete#2 Build Relationships and Respect: I have found that my students are really interested in my life and on occasion I have been hesitant to share things. I have always wanted the students to share more about themselves rather than listening to details about me. I am realizing that maybe I should share more about myself on a regular basis.
#3 Get Buy-In: I loved the “bigger kid” challenge that the book talked about. I do this all the time I guess I just never looked at it as promoting buy in. My kids love it when someone complements them saying they look like they could be in an older grade because of the way they are acting or because of the activity that they are doing.
#4 Embrace Clarity: Use fewer words and give clear simple directions are so necessary in kindergarten. I loved that it pointed out the strategy for giving one direction at a time because that is where we typically start the year and then the goal is to be able to give more than one direction at a time and almost build stamina of following directions. After reading this I am realizing that maybe it should not always be about seeing how many directions students can follow at once and maybe sometimes short and sweet is necessary.
#5 Show Your Passion: This will be my goal for the year. I know that I am passionate about what I do and what we are learning but I really think I can improve on showing that to my students. I spend a lot of time in class making sure they are learning about things they are passionate about and I think that I should also take a little time to show them specific things that I am passionate about. This also kind of goes along with what I was saying about sharing more details about me and my life with my students in order to build better relationships.
Even at third grade, I think sometimes directions that are short and sweet are helpful to them, especially while doing hands-on activities. If we give too many directions at once, the environment can become chaotic! :)
Delete#3 Get Buy-In: This strategy is so important. The students are so much more engaged when you "sell" the lesson. I find the that topics I am very familiar with teaching, I can naturally "sell" it. The topics I am unfamiliar with, I research the topic and find teaching strategies to accompany the lesson so I will be able to "sell" it. I use the "bigger kid" challenge often. It's amazing how excited they get if i say "The 4th graders are learning this, but I know we can do this!"
ReplyDelete#4 Embrace Clarity: I really enjoyed reading this strategy. The solution of "say what you want them to do, not what you don't want" will be my goal this year. It is almost second nature for me to phrase things like "Don't do this..." or "I need you to..." I really think students will respond better if I phrase it like "Focus on this..." or "Watch this carefully." It is much more positive and pleasant for the student.
#2 Building Relationships and Respect
ReplyDeleteI struggle with building relationships not only with parents but with some of the students as well. I remember last year a fellow teacher came to me and said, "Did Bobby tell you that he and his brother are living with grandma now because dad is in jail?" I was like, "No! Wait! What?! Are you serious?" I didn't have a good set relationship with Bobby as the other teacher did with Bobby's brother. It made me think. And be like this year I'm going to fix this. I want the students to come and talk to me. I would like to know them and their parents and just anything about their life in general. So, I'm hoping to share more about me with my students and maybe they'll feel more inclined to share with me.
I agree that I want to work on sharing more,too!!
Delete1. Attitude: I think there is always room for improvement here. I love that the book tells use to use affirmations for ourselves and our students. I believe I have done pretty well with this. During ISTEP week and other various times throughout the semester, I hand wrote individual notes to each of my students. I would tell them what I loved about them and give words of encouragement. I could tell this meant so much to many of my students. I often heard them sharing with each other and saying they wanted to keep them forever.
ReplyDelete2. Relationships & Respect: I think we all understand the importance of relationships in teaching. Students have to know you care. Once again, I think I have worked hard at this strategy but there is always room for improvement. I love that Jensen recommends sharing a bit about yourself every day. I would often share personal stories with my kiddos and they loved to learn about me. I also really liked having special visitors see the kids. My students were able to meet my boyfriend, sister, brother, and best friend throughout the semester. They loved to learn about me as a person, not just a teacher.
3. Buy-in: The only solution I used in this section was the incentive piece. I would often motivate my students by giving them something- free time at the end of the day, or time to play on computers if I were really impressed (which they knew RARELY happened!). I really would like to try to do more activities where I issue the "bigger kid" challenge and start a competition. I did a few of these little strategies and they seem to really work!
4. Clarity: I really like the re-phrased sentences Jensen gives as examples! I remember learning in college that when we make our classroom rules, they should never say "no." When you state things positively, students know what they SHOULD be doing. Also, I think many teachers need to read this quote: "Avoid public, status-costing (for the student) power struggles, and do not exert your authority over a minor instance of misbehavior." I think a lot of disrespect from students happens when they think the teacher overreacts. Many re-directions can be without belittling a students self-esteem.
5. Passion: This was my FAVORITE to read! I highlighted entire paragraphs! As I read this section, it got me all excited to begin school again and make a difference in students' lives. I have had a passion for learning and teaching since I was young. Reading about passion for education makes me feel so lucky to be a teacher. We have the greatest job in the world! "Passion is a very powerful classroom motivator"! It was easy to see that on days where I was all fired up for teaching and LOVED the activities we were doing, my kids did too! I know I need to work on showing students that I love all activities, even the more "boring" ones, so they can share my passion.
I want to set a challenge to affirm myself every day. Just like the book recommends, I plan to write down "I choose to engage every student, every day of the week" somewhere in my room as a reminder. Sometimes I can get wrapped into my personal experiences and forget that my engagement affects my students. I want to challenge myself to engage every student, every day, and every lesson.