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Sandy
Techniques Magazine Article
Teaching Smarter
by
Sandy LaBelle
Would you like a classroom where students are more motivated to take
pride in their work? A place where students take more responsibility for
their choices and decisions? Would you like a classroom where there are
very few behavior problems and disrupters are not supported by their peers?
Would you like to begin every class period relaxed and well planned? Would
you like to handle less paperwork while maintaining or increasing the
quality of your lessons? How about spending less time per day on school,
and having no school work on the weekend?
What if someone could design a program that could do all this AND show
you how to teach to higher level thinking skills - with less paperwork
than you now have?
Not so long ago, I dreamed of this situation, but I didn’t know
how to achieve it. I looked for someone to help me. However, no one was
telling me exactly HOW, and everything I thought of just put more work
on my already-full plate. I kept working harder and harder, until my health
began to suffer. Some of you may be experiencing the same things: headaches,
frequent colds, body aches or waking up in the middle of the night going
“What can I do, What can I do?” Finally, I came to a difficult
decision, manage my school day better or leave teaching.
I did not want to leave teaching so I decided to step out of the teaching
world and research business management techniques. After all, I thought,
teachers manage people, we make presentations every day, we need to know
how to handle difficult people, we have multiple projects, and we need
to meet deadlines. Maybe some ideas from the business sector could be
modified to create more efficient and more effective use of my time at
work!
I combined my B.A. my M.Ed. and more than 100 additional college credits
with my 29 years of experience in both elementary and secondary classrooms
along with the business world research to develop new ways of effectively
and efficiently managing the classroom.
I have developed a model to provide specific techniques addressing the
questions presented at the start of this article. My ideas are not specific
lesson plans, but rather management techniques one can use EVERY DAY to
reduce stress and fatigue, while producing more responsible students who
are creating higher quality work.
A phrase I learned from one of the business management courses kept ringing
in my ears - “DO THE BEST JOB YOU CAN IN THE TIME THAT YOU HAVE.”
It has been my experience that teachers do not have a problem with the
first part of this sentence. We are doing the best job we can! The place
we have trouble with is the second part, “in the time that you have.”
If we are not satisfied with our quality, we rob from our sleep time and
come in early, then we rob from our private time and stay late. Sometimes
that’s not enough, so we take work home during the week. Next thing
we know, the work is coming home on the weekend too. I want to share with
you, we can do a quality job without coming in early, staying late and
sacrificing our private time. A quality job can be done by changing the
way we “do business” in our classroom. Classroom management
skills are very teachable, but seldom taught in a specific take-back-to-your-classroom
and use tomorrow form.
For this article, I have chosen some of the quick and easy tips contained
in my book, “Teaching Smarter”,
and explained in seminars. Please be aware, there are over 180 pages in
my book. Teaching Smarter information
is taught in seminars over a period of several days in order to cover
most of the techniques. Just keep in mind, there is much much more than
what I can share with you today! In fact, some of the best ideas take
more time to explain than we have today. So, I will “do the best
job I can in the time we have.”
First hint: There’s a radio station everyone likes
to listen to. Its call letters are WIIFM. WIIFM stands for What’s
In It For Me? I’ve found many teachers play station WIIFM exclusively
in mono, thinking about only what’s good for kids. The obvious answer
to that question frequently involves more work for the teacher. I will
show you a few of the ways to play WIIFM in stereo (What’s good
for kids and teachers?). It takes a shift in the way we think about instruction,
and an increased focus on the purpose of our lessons. However, I guarantee
you will feel less stress, and there will be an improvement in the quality
of student work. It’s OK to think of yourself, as well as the students,
because where there is less stress, creativity can flourish, and that’s
good for kids!
Second hint: Set the stage for class to start on time.
Play music before class starts. Find some calming music you enjoy, and
play it during between-class breaks. The purpose of the music is to help
the students transcend from the hub-bub of the hallways to the environment
for learning. The students like this idea. I even had one student come
in and say, “Mrs. LaBelle, coming into your classroom is like coming
into a nice restaurant!” Now, I don’t know about your classroom,
but it takes a lot of visual imagination to think of my classroom as a
nice restaurant! But the music is that powerful in setting the scene for
learning.
One more suggestion about the music idea, buy as big a boom box as you
can afford—because big radios do not fit in book bags!
Third hint: Start class on time. If we want the students
to value the start time, WE must value the start time. The students know
that no matter what we may SAY, it is what we spend time on that we really
value. I have a big clock at the front of my room. It has a red pointer
that sweeps around to show the seconds. I purchased it at a local store
for about $15. When it is one minute before class starts, I make a big
show of looking at the clock and saying, “Class begins in one minute.”
I have explained during the first day how this class-start count-down
is a service to students so they know they have one minute to finish their
conversation and be ready to begin a lesson. I want to respect their conversation,
so I want them to know exactly when class starts. At 30 seconds, I announce,
“Class begins in 30 seconds.” I make the same type of announcement
at 20, 10, 5 seconds. At 10 seconds, I turn off the radio, to provide
an auditory clue. When the second hand reaches 12, I announce “class
is starting.” Then, the overhead is switched on. On the overhead
is a piece of plastic showing the date, an early work question and the
schedule for the day. These auditory and visual clues help all students
know when class has started - it keeps me focused too! Soon, all students
know, if they walk in my class, and the radio is off with the overhead
on -they are tardy. This eliminates the loud, “Am I tardy?”
question that can interrupt a class.
Fourth hint: Help, but do not enable. I want you to consider
responsibility-moving-overmanship. Engineer the classroom to help the
student to be responsible. For example, a student comes to class without
a pencil. The first person turned to is the teacher. If we are not careful,
we give the student a pencil, then forget to get it back, the next class
or two later - guess what - the same student comes to class without a
pencil. Responsibility-moving-over-manship involves helping the student
get a pencil, but not from you. Tell the student you do not loan pencils,
but you will facilitate getting a pencil. I explain to my students that
if one were working as a mechanic and forgot to bring the tools to work,
the LAST person the mechanic would ask for tools is the manager. At work,
one asks their peers to help out. After all, it is never to one’s
advantage to let the manager know they came to work unprepared. Then I
ask the class if anyone can loan a pencil. Believe me, the same student
who has no problem asking you for a pencil several times a semester, really
does not like asking fellow classmates. We want to help students become
independent, we do not want to enable their dependence on us. The way
to tell if we are helping or enabling is to ask our selves, are my actions
helping the student become more independent in the long run or simply
continuing their dependency on me?
Fifth hint: Here’s another responsibility-moving-over-manship
idea. Go to the thrift store and buy a small, brightly-colored plastic
bowl. Put the bowl at the front of the room. When students have an admit
slip, or any other paper that needs your signature, they put the paper
in the bowl at the start of class. After you sign the slip, put it back
in the bowl. That way, you are not searching for that admit slip, buried
under other papers - and the student also knows where to look after the
class ends. Remember, if you take the paper, who’s responsible?
If the bowl takes the paper, first, it does not disappear on your desk,
and second, if the student forgets to get their slip, you do not have
to stop the next class lesson to search on your desk for the paper. The
student quietly comes in, gets what they need from the bowl and leaves.
Part of reducing our stress is engineering our classrooms so students
are more responsible, and that frees up more time for us to do the teacher
business at school and not take it home!
Sixth hint: Buy a Rubbermaid wash tub. They come in many
colors, and the bottom measures about 9x12 (just the right size for papers
to fit). Place the tub near the front of the room and make it the turn-in
box. All papers go in the turn-in box. Responsibility-moving-over-manship,
if you collect the papers and a paper is not picked up, who’s responsible?
If the papers are to be turned into a box, and it is not turned in, who’s
responsible? Keep the box in the same place all year long. Remember, the
students have several other teachers, each with their own method of collecting
papers. A consistent turn-in spot will eliminate the requirement of always
having to instruct students where or how to turn in papers. One more thing,
I put a teddy bear next to the turn in box. Yup, a teddy bear. It seems
that students sometimes do not hear, “Put your papers in the green
tub” but they always hear “Put your papers in the green tub
by the teddy bear” I don’t know exactly why but it works!
Seventh hint: Share the daily schedule with students.
It is amazing how many students think we just wing it each day. They think
we can walk into a classroom and go “Oh, Today I think I’ll
doooo….” If we share with students what the expectations are
for the day, they know we have a certain number of activities to do during
that class period. Of course, I always schedule a little more than I suspect
we can cover. That way we never have too much time, and I get a jump start
on the next day’s lesson! During staff meetings, isn’t it
nice to see an agenda? It is the same for our students. It lets them know
there is a plan and purpose for our classroom meeting. If you are not
already doing this, I HIGHLY recommend the daily schedule!
We are coming to the end of our time together. My book, “Teaching
Smarter,” is written in two parts. In part one I share 28
ideas similar to the suggestions I’ve just shared with you. Part
one of the book begins with this statement, “Before we can expect
teachers to embrace systemic change, we need to offer specific techniques
to help reduce their stress and fatigue. Part two of “Teaching
Smarter” offers 26 specific techniques for involving students
in meaningful decision-making and creating activities for encouraging
higher level thinking skills - with less paper work for teachers. By using
“Teaching Smarter” techniques,
teachers have reported to me that:
* Students understand the structure of the class
* very little time is wasted,
* class begins on time,
* students are actively and cooperatively involved in a learning task
within one minute of the start time,
* class is dismissed by the teacher on time
* the room is left at least as neat as when class started
* because the class and teacher are working cooperatively and governed
by a student-generated behavior contract, there are very few behavior
problems.
I would like to leave you with a statement that helped change the way
I think about teaching. “The student is not the product.
The learning is the product, and the teacher and the students should work
together to produce the best quality product they can.”
This quote changes the focus away from improving the student, to working
together to improve the learning. Let’s face it NOBODY like to be
worked on, but everyone likes to be worked with, respected for their input
and valued for what they can contribute.
Remember - STEREO WIIFM
Sandy LaBelle lives in a suburb of Seattle, Washington. She has been teaching workshops and seminars for the last several years. Recently, she was a presenter at the ACTE national convention in Orlando, and the National Principals’ convention in San Antonio. Both presentations were made to rooms packed to capacity - and more! Sandy published a book, “Teaching Smarter” in December of 1999. Sandy can be reached by calling 253-630-2907, by e-mail at sandra_labelle@hotmail.com or at her web site teachingsmarter.net. Sandy is available as a presenter at school and district inservices, or as a keynote speaker at conventions.