by Denise Lee, DMS Collaborative Teacher According to the November 2016 issue of Time, anxiety and depression are on the rise with high school students. If we take a look at the other side of education 15% of teachers leave the profession every year (Psychology Today, 2014). Burnout with teachers is a problem even when they remain on the job. (Neufeldnov, 2014). Needless to say, when I found myself having a few difficult years I began to look for ways to cope and reassess what my profession is all about.
Last month I had the opportunity to participate in an online “Mindful Education Summit.” The summit was five days of research, techniques and inspiration. The five daily topics included: Day 1. Calm, Day 2. Attention, Day 3. Resilience, Day 4. Compassion and Day 5. Cultural Transformation For those who know me well, I’m a list person. So here are my short and sweet take-aways for teachers and students from the mindful summit.
If you are asking yourself, “Where does someone begin?” there are many options. For me, the journey began with a group of coworkers. We started by reading the book Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfulness by Debra Schoeberlein. We had the opportunity to work through the materials and speak with experts in our community. This in turn gave us the support and knowledge to begin a practice ourselves. I created two web page resources from this experience, a book study web page and a “Mindfulness: Using it with Students” resource page. Another way is to continue your exploration by trying out this December calendar that I created. It has links that take you to activities and information. Click on the square and then click on the blue link that appears. After teaching for many years, I think struggling through mindfulness practices and creating my own practice woke me up. Before I was locked into a rhythm of to do lists, and not noticing life around me. When I am feeling stressed and overwhelmed I have found that those deep breaths have made those situations more manageable. This in turn has made a difference in the relationships with my students and peers. With student/adult mental health and teacher burnout situations I appreciated the opportunities to hear a reminder of awareness and self care that we as busy teachers often put to the side. So teachers take a deep breath in…...exhale all those emotions that are distracting you…...breath in all the kind thoughts and favorite spots that you love….exhale all the stresses that bog you down…..and be aware of the kindnesses you see and share every day with our students. Is there any mindful experience or activity that has helped you or your students? Neufeldnov, S. (2014, November 10). Can a teacher be too dedicated? The Atlantic. Retrieved from http://m.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/11/can-a-teacher-be-too-dedicated/382563/?single_page=true Rankin, J (2016, November 22, 2016 The Teacher Burnout Epidemic Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/much-more-common-core/201611/the-teacher-burnout-epidemic-part-1-2
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How to be that "One Caring Adult": Part 1By Shanna Putnam-Dibble, Learner Advocate Building positive relationships with students is crucial, but how do we do that? Where do we start and how do we begin to repair relationships with students that are already strained? It is important to first understand that positive relationships, especially with students who are not quick to trust or who have challenging behaviors, take time and an abundance of positive interactions. Research from the Search Institute found that relationships share five critical aspects that help students thrive:
Try these Quick Tips for Building Positive Relationships:
Do you have a student that you are still struggling to connect with? Try the “2 by 10 Strategy” Spend 2 minutes each day having a positive conversation with a student (1:1) for ten days in a row. Let the student take the lead and talk about things he/she is interested in. Children and adolescents have a primary need for connections. See what connections you can build in just two minutes a day. By Shanna Putnam Dibble
Elementary Learner Advocate by Cheryl Huebner, John Cline Elementary Title I Reading Teacher I recently read By Different Paths To Common Outcomes: Literacy Learning and Teaching by Marie Clay. She believed that all children come to school with oral language reflective of their home, family and culture, and it is on that foundational language that children build reading, writing, thinking, and all future learning. The book led me to ponder how I can create language opportunities for my students to help them become increasingly successful in all academic areas. I wondered what can I do in my Reading Recovery classroom and throughout the day to help my students improve their oral language? I began to make some changes to my lesson for my children who scored the lowest on the Record of Oral Language. (This included English Language Learners.) Here are some of the adjustments I have made:
We also read Blocks (another Pioneer Valley text by Michele DuFresne). She was successful at reading this book, except for vocabulary such as “castle” and “tower” which were new words for her. After the reading, I did not just ask her what Maria, the main character, built, but rather asked if she had blocks at home, and what she made with the blocks. Then I echoed and expanded her thoughts with statements like, “You built a huge tower, just like Maria!” I could again observe her vocabulary expand throughout the week as we read and reread the text and had conversations around the book. The use of open-ended questions led us to more authentic and rich language.
My journey is far from over, and I will continue to work on providing authentic language opportunities in my classroom. However, it will take more than my efforts alone to support our children’s language development. I leave you with a few more questions and look forward to hearing your ideas:
Sources:
The phrase “How are you doing?” is so common in our daily conversation that we often don’t hesitate to answer “good” or “fine”. However, tapping into how you really feel is an important emotional skill to have, and it’s not as easy as one thinks. When you are emotionally aware and can acknowledge your feelings, you can more easily regulate these emotions allowing you to move through tough emotions quickly. It also helps you recognize the feelings of others, which in turn, helps build relationships.
Jenn DeLaRosa and Jackie Panos have incorporated a daily “How Am I Feeling?” survey into their day to help their students recognize their feelings. The two minute video shows Jenn in action, providing instruction about the survey, as well as one of her students explaining why they do the survey.
At their earliest convenience, Mrs. DeLaRosa and Mrs. Panos take a look at the survey results each day. If there are students who have requested to speak with them about how they are feeling that day, Mrs. DeLaRosa and Mrs. Panos pull them aside briefly to check in with them and let the students know their feelings are valued.
“I find the mental health check-in to be very valuable to me as a teacher. How a student is feeling each day definitely impacts his/her learning; therefore, it is important for me to at least have a heads up that someone is feeling down, hurt, angry, etc. While I don't need to know WHY they are feeling this way, it's also nice for students to have the option to share that with me by selecting that they'd like to talk. Some of the students that have asked to talk via the survey would have never approached me in person about how they were feeling. Because of this daily survey, students feel like their feelings are valued and they are able to be heard, which makes the survey all the more meaningful!” -- Jackie Panos Here’s what some students have to say about doing the survey:
By Liz Fox and Stephanie Steines This July Stephanie Steines and I participated in the Standard Setting process for generating cut scores for the new Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP). Here’s what that looked like from my perspective: Key stakeholders in Iowa education from all corners of the state met for a general session to begin our work. After an overview of the process, we split into our groups ready to dive in. I was assigned to the ELA Grade 9 panel, made up of teachers, administrators, instructional coaches, and others in education–all of us familiar with the Iowa Core Standards and with the students taking the assessment. Our first task was taking the assessment on our computers as the students did. Then we deconstructed the performance level descriptors to be certain we understood what was expected of proficient (adequate competency) and advanced (thorough competency) students. (Link to these descriptors here: http://iowa.pearsonaccessnext.com/performance-levels/) Then we considered what a minimally proficient or minimally advanced student would be able to achieve, writing borderline descriptions of these “bubble” students. (See diagram below). We used those borderline descriptors to help us judge each question on the 9th grade ELA ISASP. We practiced these judgments as a group, discussing test items thoroughly, each panel member sharing insights of their particular student demographic (from special education to extended learning, smaller rural districts to larger urban ones). Our goal was to create a well-defined, standardized, defensible process for the standard setting judgment.
The next day we applied the judgments in three rounds of the process:
I left Cedar Rapids with the following impressions:
Here is the process from Stephanie’s perspective: The vertical articulation team was made up of representatives from each of the grade level teams. My job was to represent the Grade 11 panel, to provide a voice for the work and discussions we had in the previous two days. The vertical team discussions began with an analysis of the performance level descriptors for the grades just below and just above the grade level in which we had worked. We were encouraged to note how certain skills and concepts were developed through the grade levels. The goal, at that point, was to gain an understanding of the growth and progress students would need to show to maintain Proficient or Advanced status from one grade level to the next. We were then provided the cut scores generated by each grade level panel from the work of the previous two days. In addition, we were given data on the proportion of Iowa students who took the ISASP last spring who would be classified as Proficient or Advanced based on those cut scores. At this point there was significant discussion about whether or not these results “made sense” when talking about the progression of student work through the grades. Slight adjustments were made to cut scores within certain grade levels in order to develop a reasonable picture for grades 3-11. However, the adjustments made had to remain true to the discussions held within each grade level panel. Over the course of the day, we came to some consensus on where those cut scores ought to lie and were able to make a final recommendation. I would echo much of what Liz has said about this experience. The dedication shown by each and every teacher I encountered was incredible. Everyone was wholly invested in making good decisions that would do right by not only our own students, but also students across the state. At times, discussions could get a little heated as we debated various opinions regarding proficiency and advanced status. But, these debates were always respectful and always focused on meeting the needs of kids. I am so glad I had the opportunity to participate in this process; it was illuminating in many ways. |
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