Student Behavior

Being a teacher we make thousands of decisions within a day.  We have seconds to decide how we manage student behavior. We are inundated with different actions throughout each day by students. 

Our decision-making process determines the classroom culture.  Will our room be one of chaos or will it be one of calmness and active learning?  

How we approach student behavior will answer this question. 

Marzano (2007) explains that we need to incorporate positive and negative consequences in regards to student behavior. We need to do more than punishing a student for their misbehavior.  Catch them being good.  Catch them being on task.  Acknowledge the students when we witness self-direction and correction. 

Marzano (2007)

continues to describe to acknowledge adherence and lack of adherence to classroom rules, procedures, and expectations.  There are  action steps:

Strategies that acknowledge adherence:

Steps 1-3

1. Use Simple Verbal and Nonverbal Acknowledgment
• Can be used to a class as  whole or students individually
• "I see everyone working on their graphs"
• Great job getting to circle time quietly
• Johnny, great work on that science lab.  Well Done!
2. Use Tangible Recognition When Appropriate
• Token System
• point system
• stickers for younger students
3. Involve the Home in Recognition of Positive Student Behavior
• phone calls
• emails
• notes home 
• certificates of good behavior

Strategies that acknowledge the lack of adherence:

  

Step  4.  Be With-It "Withitness"

• be aware of potential problems
• be quick to attend to those situations

According to Marzano there are four general actions that define what it means to have withitness.

1. Be Proactive
• establish norms, rules, procedures, and expectations from the get go
• reteach, review expectations as needed throughout the year
• have cues for students when you witness low-level incidences;  a look, close proximity, finger to mouth as to say "SHHHH", gently tap on a shoulder..or simply by tapping on the test paper if student is off task.  
2. Occupy the Entire Room
• physically and/or visually
• move around the room
• be visually aware of what is going on with all students
3. Noticing Potential Problems
• Using a Series of Graduated Actions
• Looking at the suspected students.
• Moving in the direction of students.
• Stopping the class and confronting the behavior.
4. Using a Series of Graduated actions

Step 5.  Use Direct-Cost Consequences

• Direct cost involves explicit and concrete consequences for inappropriate behavior.
• applied once a negative behavior has progressed beyond a point where it can be addressed by withitness. 
• Time Out
• Overcorrection
•  employed when a student has done something to damage class property
• For example: cleaning all art tables not just the one the student dumped the paint on

Step 6.  Use Group Contingency 

• holding the class as a whole responsible for the behavior of any and all members of the class   

Step 7.  Use Home Contingency 

Step 8. Have a Strategy for High-Intensity Situations

• Recognize the student is out of control
• Step back and be calm (self control)
• Listen Actively to the Student and Plan Action
• When the Student Is Calm, Repeat Simple Verbal Request

Action Step 9. Design an Overall Plan for Disciplinary Problems

• Glasser’s (1986) suggested approach 
•  List your typical reactions to student misbehavior.
•  Analyze the list and determine which of your behaviors are effective and which are not.
• Make an attempt to improve your relationship with disruptive students.
•  Meet with students and point out the specific behaviors that need to be curtailed.
• Make sure students understand and can describe the offending behavior.
•  If the offending behavior continues, help the student develop an explicit plan to curtail it. 
• Keep refining the plan as needed.
• If the offending behavior still persists, isolate the student from class until a renewed commitment is made on the part of the student.
• If the previous steps do not work, in-school suspension is the next step.
• The student is continually invited to develop and execute a plan.
•  If the student remains out of control, parents are called, and the student goes home for the day.
•  Students who do not respond to the previous steps are removed from school and referred to another agency.

A comprehensive plan such as the one described above needs to be in place from proactive procedures to possible removal of a student from the school.  There other educators that have thrown their hat into the pool of classroom management practices and strategies.  

The one I follow and have found to be effective in my classroom management is the Time to Teach method (Dahlgren, 2007).  There are five core components that are critical to building a positive classroom culture spending less time on correcting behavior and more time teaching. 

1.  Self-Control Strategies
2.  Classroom Design Techniques
3.  Teaching to Appropriate Behaviors
4.  Accurate and Timely Consequences
5.  Student Teacher Relationships

Self-Control Strategies:

• Learning calm is contagious and silence is powerful strategies
• Dealing with challenges on student time
• Personal space awareness
• Avoiding power struggles
• Diffusing challenges

Classroom Design Techniques

• Desk arrangements
• Ecological revisions
• Use of
  • color
  • scent
  • lighting
  • music

Teaching to Appropriate Behaviors

• Teaching to classroom rules
• Teaching to classroom routines
• Teaching to common or shared area expectations
• Teaching behaviors using the I do-we do-you do method

Accurate and Timely Consequences

• Refocus™ ~ eliminating 90% of classroom challenges
• Avoiding multiple warnings and repeated requests
• Using start-up and shut-down prompts

Student Teacher Relationships

• Connecting with kids
• Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
• Turning challenging students into allies

The component of Accurate and Timely Consequences is key to avoiding low-level incidences turning in high-level incidences.  The technique of REFOCUS eliminates warnings and repeated requests.  There is a decision-making process to warrant REFOCUS or not and the decision tree looks like this: 

Here is an example of our decision making process: If a student has a habit of tapping his pencil on the desk during the time to complete work quietly.  We have to decide if we are going to ignore, acknowledge, or correct this behavior.  We have to ask ourselves three questions in regards to this low-level incident:  Can I still teach?  Can he still learn?  Can the other still learn?  If I can answer YES to all these questions.  I ignore and continue teaching.  If anyone of these answers is a NO, I give a prompt.  If the student corrects himself I acknowledge the correction and continue teaching.  If the student does not correct himself, Steps of Refocus takes place.  

The following decision-making tree is an example of implementing both Marzano and Dahlgren's techniques in how to manage student behavior: 

References

Dahlgren, R., & Lattimer, M. (2007). Time to teach: classroom expectations. Hyden Lake, ID: The Center for Teacher Effectiveness.

Glasser, W. (1986). Control theory in the classroom. New York: Harper & Row.

Marzano, R. J. (n.d.). The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for EffectiveInstruction.

Analysis of three Teaching-Learning Situations

 Academic expectations

Project/Problem Based Learning (PBL): Roller Coaster Physics Scenario

• The teacher in this scenario absolutely held high performance expectations for her students.  PBL in general holds students to high performance expectations. All students play an important role in inquiry that clearly led to critical thinking.  Students were held accountable for their own learning and were expected to explain their thought process in the design of the roller coaster. 

Third Grade Chinese Math Scenario

• In this scenario the high performance expectation is earning a high grade/score on the assessments.  I have a problem with fully stating that the teacher held the students  to a high level of performance.  The students were repeating and chanting what was expected, however to me high performance expectations would be full engagement in the learning process not just repeating and chanting the information.  Real world application is not evident in the practice of teaching math in this traditional manner.

Whole Brain Teaching Scenario

• Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) is based on the premise that by tapping into both hemispheres of the  brain leads to and emphasizes active learning. (Funderstanding, 2011)  In this scenario the teacher did hold the students to high expectations of performance by not allowing anyone opting out from the activity.  The teacher in this scenario did quick observations and assessments if the students were understanding the content being taught by their performance during the repeat phase of the lesson.  

It is important to note that with each practice we must ask ourselves what are we defining as high performance expectation? If measured against the deepest level of understanding and critical thinking throughout the lessons, PBL, in my opinion, has the highest performance expectations for the students.   


Behavior expectations

• Behavior expectations are high in all scenarios.  Each one demonstrated the high expectation for all students to be on task.  Each scenario displayed that each practice is a great tool for classroom management.   I viewed one student in the 3rd grade Chinese math class not performing the 'chants' along with his peers.   He was not causing a distraction to anyone else, however it leads to the question was he learning anything in that moment?

 Norms and Procedures 

 Roller Coaster Physics 

 Within the PBL practice the norm is that every student participates and plays an important role in the problem solving procedure.  It is also the norm that all students are capable of a deeper learning and critical thinking.  The procedures to ensure that the students are in compliance with the norms is the release of the responsibility of learning.  The teacher presents the content information, the 'problem' the students need to create a solution for.  The teacher gives the perimeters that the students have to work within.  For example, for the roller coaster scenario, they had limited materials, and there were procedural steps each student had to take when asking for materials. Other procedures included each group member were assigned a job and were expected to carry out the tasks of that job. 

 The students also followed procedural practice of testing the design, writing observations on post its, and adjusting the design accordingly. The students in the roller coaster example work and collaborate in small group using concepts that they have learned about in lessons during class. They are expected to have a firm understanding of the concepts of motion and physics in order to contribute to the creation of a successful roller coaster design. The students have to come together to design one roller coaster per group. Each student has to create and explain why his or her individual design would work best using the terminology and principles of physics learned in class. The students are expected to be organized and detailed in their presentations so they can accurately articulate their plans to their group. Each group is given a budget for their supplies. The theory behind this is to add constraints to see how the students handle boundaries and allow them to exercise problem solving skills.

  Each student has to contribute to their group in order for the project to be successful.  The norm has been set the the students must be respectful when listening to the ideas of the other students. The students have a constructive dialogue to share ideas and challenges.  A chime method was used to share their findings.  The behavior expectation and norm is that students can have an open discussion without interruption or disrespectful feedback. 

 3rd Grade Chinese Math Class: 

In this scenario there is a lot of repetition to get students comfortable with basic math facts, concepts, and principles.  According to the article The Explainer:  What Makes Chinese Math Lessons so Good? states that math lessons are accounted for 15 hours a week.  The norm and expectation is that students will know mathematical acts and be able to interpret mathematical language.   The norm is that there is a expectation of high  test scores.

In order to accomplish high test scores procedures in place is repetition and reciting number sequences.  Call and response attention grabbers are used with the students.  The students are conditioned to use that as their cue to engage and participate in the class problem solving.  The class is teacher driven and the students are expected to pay attention focus on the lesson. 

Whole Brain Teaching: 

Whole brain teaching uses body mind and energy to drive the learning in the classroom. The teacher presents a  quick idea and concept.  The students ten mirror the teacher saying and doing exactly what has they have seen. The expectation is that the students are present and paying attention because they will miss the quick lesson if they are not focused. They reiterate the concept as a class and then they turn to their partners and do the same thing. All the while the class is moving very fast so that the focus stays present. The teacher must also stay on pace with the class. A lot of information can be covered this way. The understanding of the lesson is not the main focus. This method is used to introduce concepts and get students successfully comfortable with the idea of new concepts.

Everyone in this lesson was attentive and focused on the teacher. The forward motion of the class kept students engage and active and the behavior reflected the classroom dynamic. The short burst of intense instruction followed by student interaction doesn’t allow for students to lose focus in class. This limits the amount of disruptive behavior. It is clear from the video that the students are aware of the behavior expectations before they come into class. 

Summary  

Setting high performance expectations among my own students I will continue to implement my current classroom management and teaching style.  However, I find great value in PBL.  I plan to use that practice to increase student accountability for their learning.  I love the way PBL uses real world problems enmeshed with group projects to have students work collaboratively and reach a level of critical thinking that other teaching practices do not.  

I will not use the Chinese Math method of teaching.  I have a problem with teaching for the purpose of getting high test scores.  I can see me using the WBT method as well to get my students to use both sides of their brains.  I believe movement and differentiating lessons in order for students to learn and remember content is a fun way to learn and teach. WBT is a great way to enhance the benefits of muscle memory.  What a fun and effective way to not only teach the content but to have great classroom management. 

There is more to learning then remembering the content.  Real world application needs to be a part of my lessons.  I want to see my students engaged in all areas o their learning.  IN order to take ownership of their academic success, they need to buy into my teaching style.  

I work with high school students who have learning differences and PBL will be a great tool to empower my students  to know they are capable and become more confident in their learning.

References 

3rd grade Chinese--math class.avi. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7LseF6Db5g

(2017). Retrieved 22 July 2017, from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.469.2805&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Explainer: what makes Chinese maths lessons so good?. (2017). The Conversation. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380

Roller Coaster Physics: STEM in Action. (2017). Teaching Channel. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching-stem-strategies

Whole Brain Teaching – The fastest growing education reform movement in the world!. (2017). Wholebrainteaching.com. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from http://wholebrainteaching.com/

Whole Brain Teaching | Curriculum | Funderstanding: Education, Curriculum and Learning Resources. (2017). Funderstanding.com. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from http://www.funderstanding.com/curriculum/whole-brain-teaching/

Whole Brain Teaching Richwood High - The Basics. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iXTtR7lfWU&feature=youtu.be

Why PBL? | Project Based Learning | BIE. (2017). Bie.org. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from http://www.bie.org/about/why_pbl

    

Chester Bennington xo

Why we grieve the loss of an artist that we don’t know personally.  Music is a universal method of communication.  It hits us to our core.  Our souls feel at a level that otherwise we are not allowed to reach.  Those of us who feel deeply, music is our therapy.  An artist uses their emotions be it pain or joy and everything in between, it resonates within us.  It’s like our spirits are rejoicing that someone gets it, gets us.  They have felt this same pain.  Different experience, but same pain.

Music is cheaper than a psychotherapist.  We don’t need or want to be analyzed, we want to be heard and understood.  MUSIC!  It is music and the poetry of our favorite artists crying souls that reaches us on a level that nobody could ever imagine. 

Those of us who feel deeply cannot just dismiss our empathic spirits.  Creative gentle souls are suffering in this day of evil.  This day of hypocrisy.  We are mocked, ridiculed, and shunned by those who approach life on more cerebral level.  Creativity in any form is a window into our darkest areas as well as the areas we let ourselves to shine.

We carry the weight of others hurting.  If not careful, it weighs on our souls that we struggle to climb our way out of a darkness that we did not create.

 A young man of 25 has so much self-loathing, because he craves unconditional acceptance from his father.  He uses the evil of the world to set the standards for who he should be.  To be told by others to “man up” after he attempted suicide.  The pain is so palpable that to not wake up is the only solution. 

A woman whose purpose in life was to be a wife and mother to be abused and abandoned by her husband to the evil and lustfulness of the world and his own selfish desires of a perverted heart and mind.  To be mocked and shunned by those who deem her at fault for not satisfying her man.  The pain is so real that all she can do is find her reprieve at the bottom of a bottle.

A child neglected or worse abused to be allowed to grow in fear that turns to anger.  A child now an adult who doesn’t know how to let go of the shame and guilt of being unworthy of love. 

Music reaches these hurting souls.  Music has the healing power that we so desperately need.  We believe the person who wrote the poetry perfectly orchestrated with the melody understands the pain, the darkness.  There is a kinship with the creator of this music.  There is an admiration for them facing their demons even if they fail at conquering them. 

Music is our solace.  When a member of this kinship dies at their own hands because they just couldn’t face the pain another day, clashes with our hopes of defeating our own torments.  ‘

We grieve oh so much more than their life gone too soon. 

POSITIVE CLASSROOM CLIMATE

To create a positive classroom climate of caring, concern, and sincerity I never forget what Madeline Hunter said: "Kids don't care how much you know until they know how much you care".  Students need to feel known, liked, and respect before they can accept instruction.  A learning environment that is warm and inviting will allow students to feel welcome and take risks that will lead to new discoveries.

Discoveries?  Yes, discoveries of new academic content and success.  Also, discoveries about their classmates, their teacher, and themselves. Self-discovery can be a scary endeavor not only for students but for teachers as well.  We need to be willing to explore the uncomfortable territory of our own biases, prejudgments, and mindsets that may stand in the way of fully creating a positive and warm climate in our classroom.

By modeling our own willingness to acknowledge, assess, and reflect upon our experiences and belief systems that may lead to blocking an environment for acceptance of diversity will prove to be vital in directing our students to do the same. 

There are five components I follow to ensure a positive classroom climate:

1      . Self-Control Strategies: We need to check ourselves in every situation.  If we implement proactive strategies rather than reactive strategies to address undesirable behavior, we will avoid stress and possible burn out.  Proactive strategies would include setting clear expectations (make sure students have a say in the expectations and classroom rules) and consistency with follow through.

•       SMARTR: Student Mood Assessment and Rapid Teacher Response

•       Keeping Cool

•       Verbal communication

•       Calm is Contagious

•       Silence is Powerful

•       Tone-Volume-Cadence

•       Nonverbal communication

•       Be aware of Personal Space-1 ½ to 3 feet

•       Body Language

•       Punishment does not change behavior

•       Conflict is inevitable and essential.  Combat is optional!

•       Students will test the boundaries.  It is up to us to not escalate the situation into a battle of wills.  I have my proactive strategies in place to avoid the combat.

2.       Classroom Design Techniques

·         Desk arrangements

·         Ecological revisions: Use of

·   color

·   scent

·   lighting

·   music

3.       Teach to Appropriate Behaviors

·         Classroom Management: Two Essential Elements

·   Teaching classroom expectations (TLC)

·   Looking for performance on expectations (monitoring)

·   Consequent behavior – both positive and negative

·         Identifying classroom expectations

·   Student Voice (students need to participate in setting classroom expectations to feel a part of and have a sense of belonging to the community/class)

·         TEACH TOs

·   Determine what the TEACH TOs in your classroom/building (i.e. how to answer a question, how to transition between activities, how to turn in homework

·   New teachers may need to ask the veterans what the key rules should be.

·   Just posting rules in the classroom is not enough.

·   Front load, spend as much time as needed in the beginning to teach these.

·         Spend the first two or more weeks of school addressing the TEACH TOs.  Front loading the expectations will set up all my students for success.  Saves me time throughout the year on discipline and creates more teaching time of the content.

·         Direct Instruction Model

o   Model

o   Lead

o   Test

§  I do, We do, You do:  I explain and show the expectation and the teach To to my students, then I lead them in doing the teach to with me, then I ask them to show me what the exception looks like.  For example, I have a "Teach To" on how my students enter the classroom.  They are to enter the room shake my hand, say hello, get their writing journal, sit down and immediately start writing in the journal with a writing prompt I provide on the board.  The first two weeks of school, I write lesson plans on various TEACH TOs.  Therefore, there are no surprises of what is expected of the students throughout the school year.

4.       Accurate and Timely Consequences

·         I implement a patented method called REFOCUS.  It eliminates reminders and de-escalates a disciplinary situation.  A TEACH TO will, of course, be implemented so each student recognizes the Refocus method.  Here is the flow chart explaining REFOCUS:

5.       Student-Teacher Relationships

·         This is the foundation that needs to be established before anything else can take place successfully.

When students enter my room, they will see a room with inspirational quotes, images of diverse figures of history, and pictures of my family.  I found that having pictures of my children initiates a conversation with my students in the beginning of the year.  It opens communication between us as we learn more about one another.  

Sharing a bit of my history seems to soften the mood as they learn that I grew up in the same neighborhood they live in now.  I worked in a school in the city of Buffalo.  Our city has the unsavory statistic of being in the top 5 most segregated cities in America.  This awareness has led to many insightful conversations in my classroom.  Once my students realized I grew up in their neighborhood and encountered some biased and prejudice coming from an immigrant family really led to some uncomfortable yet enlightening conversations.

I  learned so much from my students and their perspective and I earned some credibility having grown up in their neighborhood.  We shared stories of isolation, prejudice, and unfair treatment for us individually and then for certain groups as a whole.

  We established expectations for our conversations, put downs and stereotypical slurs were not allowed.  We discussed topics of eugenics and how we can see evidence in our modern day. 

I don’t believe we could have had such invigorating conversations if we did not feel safe, respected, and trusted to share in such meaningful ways.  My room was known as the “safe” room for all students in the school.  The culture of the school was one of chaos and hostility.  I did my best to create a nook in the corner of my hallway of a haven for all students.  It was an environment that was warm, welcoming, and set up for active learning.
Bullying was a regular thing in our school.  There was no set policy in place.  If there was a policy, staff and administration were not consistent in implementing it.  Although school-wide bullying was not dealt with effectively or appropriately, My students and I established a "NO BULLYING" zone.  Our room was the safe place.  Rules were set in place and students held themselves and one another accountable.  Disrespectful words or tones were not tolerated in order to keep the bullying at bay.

At the onset of each school year, we would discuss what bullying looks like and how any given individual would or could feel as a result of bullying.  We would explore reasons why certain individuals may bully others.  In order to have "buy in" from all students for or NO BULLYING zone, they had to gain an understanding of the effects of bullying.  Many if not all of my students have been bullied at one point in their lives in and out of school.

I would have lesson plans that followed an anti-bullying curriculum from the National Education Association (NEA).  However, I had to make it real and relatable to my students.  The more I understood their personal experience with bullying, the easier it was to tailor the curriculum to their needs.

We established our room to be safe for students (all students not just my students) to 'escape' to my room if they felt threatened and the social worker was busy.  There was a triage of sorts of each situation.  Some incidents just required allowing the student to vent.  Some required a call to Social Worker and/or guidance counselor.  Some required getting the vice principal involved.  The most severe level would be contacting all support staff and the police.

This was not originally a school-wide practice, this is what my students and I developed and the other teachers seemed to welcome this Resource Room made policy.  By the third month into the school year, it was the unwritten protocol to follow for bullying in our school. I did return to the school the following school year.  Unfortunately, I do not know if administration updated their written anti-bullying policy.  I would hope they did.

In retrospect, I could have easily been the white older teacher from the suburbs to my students of color.  Instead, we created an environment that I was their best cheerleader who grew up on the same streets they live.  I was more than their teacher.   I was a mentor.  We created a haven for them to be, to learn, to share.

Dahlgren, R., & Hyatt, J. (2007). Time to teach: encouragement, empowerment, and excellence in     every classroom. Hayden Lake, ID: Center for Teacher Effectiveness (CTE).

Dahlgren, R., & Lattimer, M. (2012). Teach-tos: 100 behavior lesson plans and essential advice to encourage high expectations and winning classroom behavior! Hayden Lake, ID: Center for Teacher Effectiveness.

Kivel, K. (n.d.). Teaching Tolerance. Retrieved July 01, 2017, from https://www.facebook.com/TeachingTolerance.org

Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer. (n.d.).  Teaching Students to Prevent Bullying.  Retrieved July 02, 2017, from http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/teaching-students-to-prevent-bullying.html