A College Culture Encourages Students to Continue Their Education

Researchers Nicole Holland, Ph.D., and Raquel L. Farmer-Hinton, Ph.D., looked into the question of whether school size encourages a college culture. They found that smaller schools, or smaller learning communities within larger schools, were more successful in creating a college culture than big schools.

In the budget battles, their findings that smaller learning communities prepare students for higher education should give student advocates powerful arguments to keep schools small.

For we teachers, the biggest take-away from Holland and Farmer-Hilton’s research is how we can encourage this college culture in our own classrooms.

Teacher Working Conditions Affect Student Performance

My first year of teaching fifteen years ago was in a poor school in a poor school district. The only supplies in my closet were paper clips and ditto masters. My supply budget was $20. The student lockers were dented, some window panes were broken or missing, and my classroom ceiling leaked when it rained.

I don’t have to tell you that teachers didn’t stay long in that building. Everyone was looking for a school that had plenty of books for the students and a pleasant working environment with outlets that functioned and a photocopier with toner.

Music as a Tool in the Secondary Classroom

Popular music and student’s preoccupation with it can be scourges of the secondary classroom. However, a savvy teacher can harness students’ interests in music and turn preoccupation into classroom community, commitment and comfort. Here are a few suggestions that have worked in my science, art and teaching methodology classrooms.

Acronym Overload

A few weeks ago, I had to stay after school for a SILT meeting. SILT was established because of our school district’s commitment to VPAT, with hopes of increasing NCLB and CATS indexes (from the KCCT) in an effort to meet AYP. Of course, SILT needs to remember to report to DILT, a strong instructional arm of SCPS. A focus on CC 4.1 and close examination of PCs should help, I am told. Same with a recommitment to teaching and modeling TRIBE.

Starting with Style: Activities Create a Positive Learning Environment

Introductory activities create a positive environment, enhance performance, and set the tone for the rest of the lessons. Taking time up front for the group to get comfortable and learn names will pay off later. The more I work with groups, I realize how powerful some of the simpler things we do as educators can be. An engaging opening activity designed to get the group interacting and sharing names, backgrounds, and goals in an intriguing way can really maximize the outcome of group process.

Resolving Teacher Workplace Conflict

Last October, CPP, Inc., the company who produces the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, announced the results of a study about workplace conflict. Researchers found that U.S. employers spend more than 2.8 hours per week, or about $359 billion in paid hours, resolving conflict among workers.

Jesse Reschke, the Executive Assistant for Labor Relations with MTI, Madison Teachers, Inc., said that with recent school district budget cuts, teachers are becoming overloaded, which causes conflict.

Call Parents Sooner Rather Than Later

Brad was a pill in fourth period. You talked with him, you moved his seat, and you kept him after the bell rang. That was yesterday. And today. It was last week, too. Brad’s behavior is disrupting learning in your classroom and you need to call home. Now.

No one wants this phone call, not you and Brad’s mom. The longer you wait, the worse the situation becomes, though, so don’t postpone parent contact.

Student Social Development and the Importance of Creating a Classroom Community

I’ve been writing a lot about creating a classroom community and a classroom environment. In my interviews, I’ve learned from experiential learning expert Jen Stanchfield, author of Tips & Tools: The Art of Experiential Group Facilitation, that the time you spend fostering a classroom community actually makes the rest of the learning go faster.

Five Documentation Strategies that Work Part One: the Good, the Bad, and the Phone Calls

I think I might have missed the day that my college professor talked about the importance of documentation in the classroom.

But, like all teachers who have survived at least one year as a teacher, I quickly learned the importance of documentation in the classroom. I’m going to pass on some of my favorite strategies for documentation; feel free to leave comments that include your favorites as well.