I’ve heard audiences at teacher conferences erupt in applause when speakers discuss the long-lasting difference that a teacher can make in a student’s life, but this video – at a comedy night club with a random sample of the population in the audience – was a pleasure to watch.
Posts Tagged ‘positivity’
What Teachers Make …
Sunday, August 9th, 2009Dealing with Cell Phones and iPods in the Classroom
Saturday, August 1st, 2009I allow cell phones and iPods in class. It’s never been an issue for me because I don’t make it about trust or control. That’s why the school from the image below and this micromanaging principal have both had so many problems. Instead I make it an issue of respect and personal productivity. I became an educator to teach, foster growth, and have fun. Not to police.
School Problems with Bad Cell Phone Policy
So here’s how I deal with cell phones and iPods. It’s fun, it embraces 21st century technology, it teaches students to be respectful, and it teaches them how to manage their time and attention productively.
Rule #1. Absolutely no one can use phones or iPods when someone has the floor.
This means whenever a classmate is speaking, I’m speaking, or something else comes up that is “floor worthy” – which means that it deserves undivided attention and respect – cell phones and iPods are off limits.
I explain that this isn’t just a school thing; it’s real world etiquette (often I have to explain what etiquette means too). You wouldn’t show up to a business meeting with head-phones in your ears. You wouldn’t dare stop your foreman from explaining his instructions in order to reply to a text. And you’d be ticked off if someone ignored something important you were saying to check their phone or iPod. It’s about respect.
Rule #2. You can use phones or iPods when it’s individual work time.
I like the message of autonomy that this sends out to my students; however, I include this caveat:
“Listen, when it comes to work and school you can be doing one of two things: getting ahead or getting behind. So think about that when you scroll through your music to build the best playlist ever, or text your friend about whatever so and so said.”
Then, when I see them really wasting time in class with their iPod or cell phone, I’ll just shout out and say, “Hey, Julie, are you getting ahead or getting behind?”
And the answer is almost always a mumbling, “Behind.”
And I reply with, “And what do you think you should really be doing?”
“Getting ahead.”
“Then you know what to do.” And nine times out of ten they put their phone/iPod down and get back to work.
I like this because it makes the issue positive and keeps it in their control. It’s fun, constructively embarrassing for some, and a good, experiential way to remind them that they’re not being productive. I remind them that they – and only they – are in control of themselves. They can do whatever they want, but a lot of what they do is counter-productive to their own goals and desires and dreams.
Rule #3: If you violate rule #1, the class stops to support your addiction.
Because, at the end of the day, that’s what it is: an addiction. Sneaking a peak (at the phone/music-player) instead of respectfully paying attention can be explained really well as a compulsion – a bad habit that hijacks the person. I explain this way of looking at cell phones and iPods to my students in advance. I explain that a great way of overcoming addictions is with a support group. And, with a big knowing smile on my face, I explain what happens when someone violates Rule #1 (i.e. uses their phone/iPod when someone has the floor). Here’s the procedure:
- Whatever was happening in class stops.
- The violator comes to the front of the class with his or her phone/iPod.
- The violator faces the class, holding his or her phone/iPod in the air, and repeats the following sentences after me:
- “Hello, my name is Johnny (for example).”
- I get the class to say, “Hi Johnny.”
- Violator says, “I’m up here because I have a cell phone and/or iPod addiction.”
- Class says, “We’re here for you Johnny.”
- I usually say (again, in good spirit), “It’s OK Johnny, there’s lots of addicts out there. Don’t feel like you’re all alone.”
- Then the “addict” leaves his or her phone/iPod either on my front table or back desk (wherever I can keep an eye on it in case of theft).
And sometimes, if the student is a good sport and I catch them gazing at their phone/iPod afterwards, I’ll tease them a bit with something like,
“It’s tough isn’t it? Has this been the longest you’ve gone without it for a while? Remember, we’re here for you.”
This gets the class laughing but also reminds the other ‘would-be-addicts’ to think twice before whipping their phones/iPods out when they shouldn’t.
Again, this method is fun, it embraces 21st century technology, it teaches students to be respectful, and it teaches them how to manage their time and attention productively … something so important in this information age with its endless distractions.
Please feel free to leave comments and/or ask questions!
Talk To Your Students, Not At Them
Monday, June 15th, 2009One of the best tips I received early on in my teaching career was to talk to my students as if they were adults, not at them as if they belonged to a different human sub-species. Here are some reasons why you should consider talking to your students instead of at them as well:
1. The most obvious reason: You talk to your friends, colleagues, and adult strangers. You don’t talk at them. Why would it be any different with your students? Are they members of a different human sub-species?
2. You reduce the chance of being viewed as a hypocrite. If how you talk to people depends on their station in life relative to your own (i.e. inferior, equal, superior), how can you ever hope to become an “integrated” person? On the other hand, if you talk to everyone the same – whether they are friends, students, and/or colleagues – you increase your integrity (from “integrated”) and reduce the risk of being perceived as a hypocrite (from Greek hypokritēs which means actor).
3. When you talk to someone you’re indicating respect. When you talk at someone you’re broadcasting your own arrogance. Respectful people are liked. Arrogant people are not. In fact, I’m willing to bet most of those teachers who say, “My students just don’t respect me,” talk at their students.
4. You reduce the occupational hazards that come with teaching (e.g. bossyness, complusive social planning & ogranizing in social situations, not admitting to not knowing something, etc.). Put another way, when you talk to your friends, you don’t boss them around, you admit you don’t know things, and you don’t organize their lives for them. But when you talk at someone (even your friends), it’s easier to do all these things.
5. You’ll develop confidence as a leader amongst your friends and peers. When you talk at someone you view them as inferior, but when you talk to someone you view them as an equal. Teaching requires one to give orders, determine worth, enforce consequences, and manage people. Most people in life do not have to do such things. These are leadership tasks. Teachers who view their students as equals learn how to do all these things in a fair, respectable, and positive way. Teachers who view their students as inferiors don’t. Teachers who talk to their students learn how to become positive and well-liked leaders. Teachers who talk at their students don’t. It all starts with how you talk.
Conclusion ~ When you talk to your students, they’ll know that they’re working with “the real you.” As a result, they’ll respect you more, they’ll listen more when you do have to talk to them seriously, you will develop enviable leadership skills, and life will become easier because you’ll be able to be the real you.
TIP: Ask yourself on a regular basis, “Would I say it this way to a friend, to a colleague, or I’m standingbeside in a movie theater line-up?” You’ll be amazed at the results … both in the classroom and in your personal life.
Slug Students and Positive Shock and Awe
Monday, April 6th, 2009For some students, absolutely nothing their teachers teach them will ‘get through’ because their self-talk is resistant to learning. I am NOT talking about troubled, abused, incapable students; I’m talking about those ‘slug students’ who just sit there and resist learning because what they say to themselves on a minute-by-minute, second-by-second basis repels it. Their self-talk, for whatever reason, repels new information, new ideas, and new skills … like water off a ducks back. It’s stupid, lame, retarded, boring, who cares, this sucks, whatever, when does class end?
Example
I was in a classroom last week and overheard four female students converse during a work period. Here are some snippets:
“Mr. _____ is so lame. He thinks his subject is so important. It’s so stupid.”
“I have like no idea what they’re talking about in that class. Like I care … (friend says something) … Yeah, all I want is a pass.”
“______ (classmate) thinks he’s so smart. All he does is do homework. I think he’s the only one.”
“I can’t wait to watch ________ (reference to a reality TV show). All they do is fight with each other. It’s hilarious.”
“Are you working this weekend? Oh god, I hate my job. It’s like the lamest job ever … I don’t even do anything.” (friend replies with envious whine-like tone in her voice) “You’re sooo luckeeey you don’t have to do anything.”
How to Deal with Slug Students
When I walked over to this group of girls to see how their work was coming along, their bodies bristled, they stopped talking, and they waited for “teacher” to talk … in the same way we wait in fearful anticipation before a nurse gives us a needle. I spoke. They froze. They numbly nodded their heads when I asked if things were going well. They mumbled a couple of lame excuses as to why they couldn’t show me any of their finished work. They sat their like slugs, complaining about everything, liking nothing, and uninspired to do much of anything.
How do You Deal with Slug Students (or Workers)?
I’ve worked with many students like these ones over the years and, to be honest, they can be the most difficult (if you approach them the wrong way) because on a minute-by-minute basis they are telling themselves over-and-over that everything’s lame and everything sucks. Why would anyone work hard at something if they viewed the world that way? And if that’s the case, what could any teacher do to get them to do anything at all?
It’s easy to get frustrated with these students. It’s easy to write them off as lazy. As slugs. As wet noodles that aren’t worth pushing. Sadly, however, I’ve found that that’s how most people in their lives treat them and they’ve simply learned to respond in kind. But what I’ve found over the years is that what these slug students need – like what they’re really, really craving at a deep psychological level – is for someone to validate them. To put it another way, slug students are often hopeless students.
Positive Shock and Awe
What I’ve found works best is to give slug students a dose of positive shock and awe. They need someone to rattle their self-talk cages. They need someone to pull them aside and say how much potential they see in them. What outstanding qualities they possess. How frustrating it is to sit back and listen to them verbally beat themselves up – and the world – all class long. How their body language (have a look because I guarantee you that your slug students are really, really slouching) sends a message to everyone in their world that they don’t care about much of anything, especially themselves. They need to hear how happy you would be if you saw them taking pride in themselves. How happy you’d be if they found something they liked doing and poured their heart into it … regardless if it had anything to do with your course or not.
Basically, slug students need someone to come along and say, “I care about you, and I hate seeing you not care about you. In fact, in this class, I will not be able to stand by and watch you not care about you.” Slug students need their ongoing self-talk to be disrupted by something and someone totally unexpected.
Let me end with a story.
Seven years ago I was teaching a slug student who struggled with things, and her oral reading was awful. At the start of the course I let her pain through reading three sentences aloud to her classmates before respectfully moving on to the next student. After observing her repel everything we were learning in class and listening to her abuse herself over and over with her own self-talk, I finally pulled her aside and did the above (i.e. positive shock and awe), and encouraged her to read anything … just anything … for 30 minutes at night before going to bed. “Just read something! Steamy romance even,” I pleaded and then said quite seriously, “And I won’t tolerate you beating yourself up in my class any more. No more whatevers, yeah buts, or I’m stupids. Seriously.”
Three months passed and she would tell me from time to time she was finishing books. I continued to encourage her, but I remember being frustrated with her ongoing sluggish behavior in my class … but I didn’t want to be too hard on her either. With two weeks left in class we were reading a passage aloud and I asked her to read for the first time in 4 months. I was absolutely floored with how much she had improved. It was still tough to listen to, but it dawned on me that this slug student really had been reading. She really was trying. Her improvement was huge!
So I stopped her mid-sentence. She flinched. I said to her in front of all the students, “Get on up and stand on top of your desk chair.” I knew she was thinking the worst, but she obliged nonetheless. I explained to the class of students (hamming it up … in kind of an angry tone) that I had NEVER seen a student do what she did. And finally, I asked the class to give her a standing ovation for improving so much in her oral reading. They were a great group of students, we clapped and cheered for 3-5 seconds, and that was the end of it. When it was all said and done, I had maybe invested 20 minutes of time that semester working on that individual student.
Last year I met up with a few students from that class for dinner at the restaurant across the street from my house. She was there, and she was looking great. At a certain point during our two hours of reminiscing, she pulled me aside and said, “You were the only one Mr. Ross. You were the only one who believed in me. Everyone else thought I was stupid. My family, my friends, my boyfriends. You were it. The only one. It changed everything. I don’t know how I can thank you.”
20 minutes of positive shock and awe. Don’t write your slug students off. Validate them. Let them know you care.
