Dodge phone calls and e-mails.

The situation: Look, I have seven classes with 25 kids in each one. With over 170 students, I don’t have time to use the restroom, let alone return a call. I get to my e-mail when I get to it. I have papers to grade, lessons to plan, and another class in 15 minutes. Maybe I’ll get to that phone call or e-mail after school. Tomorrow. No, wait. Friday.

The solution: This is a common problem among the busy. We’re juggling so many preps, so many kids, and so many papers that a parent phone call seems like too much. Carve out the first fifteen minutes of every prep period for parent phone calls. Make it a regular part of your routine and it won’t seem like a burden.

Never pick up the phone.

The situation: I’m a young teacher. My students’ parents intimidate me. Heck, my own parents still intimidate me. I worry that the parent might be frustrated or upset and I have no idea what to say to these people on the phone. Maybe it’s a bad time to call. I should probably do it later. Tomorrow. No, wait. Friday.

The solution: Enlist the help of a friend or mentor. Ask that person to play the role of parent and practice the phone call before you dial the number. Write down the key points you’d like to make when you’re on the phone and include some positive things along with any negative things. If you’re still nervous, ask to sit with a colleague while he calls a few parents so you can hear how he does it.

Stay in the power position.

The situation: I sit behind my desk when parents meet with me in my classroom. It’s just easier. I’m more comfortable, I can reach for files, my computer, and my grade book. Parents don’t seem to mind. No one’s complained.

The solution: You don’t realize it, but sitting behind the teachers’ desk is a power position. It tells parents that you and the parents aren’t partners; you’re the one making decisions. As much as it’s easier for you to access papers and grades, it’s better to gather those materials before the meeting and sit alongside the parent at a table. Look at papers together and discuss what’s best for the student as equals.

Stick to a negative message.

The situation: You’re having a parent meeting because Tony isn’t doing well in class, refuses to open his textbook, and either sleeps in class or argues. You have changed Tony’s seat, called home, talked to the guidance counselor, sent him to the office, conferenced with him privately, but nothing has worked and you’re frustrated. The parent enters your room and you show her documentation of every rule infraction Tony has had for the past nine weeks. She leaves angry and frustrated – with you.

The solution: The parent doesn’t think that you like her kid. She thinks that you’re just looking for everything Tony has done wrong while ignoring the fact that Tony is a gifted kid who is bored. It’s important to always look for one good thing every day about students, especially problem students. No one is all good or all bad and recognizing that the student has good behavior, too, will help you and the parent arrive at a solution.

Use as many technical terms as possible.

The situation: You want to appear knowledgeable and competent. So to make your points, you talk to the parent about her daughter’s learning styles, potential discipline plans, and a possible meeting with the BCT. You offer to involve the guidance counselor in meetings so he can explain the student’s affective behavior and adolescent behavior norms in addition to explaining the student’s cognitive behavior on standardized tests.

The solution: Keep talking like this and even you won’t understand yourself. Many parents don’t like to come to school because they remember their own unpleasant experiences with k12 education. They feel inadequate and uncomfortable instead of like the teacher’s partner in learning. Parents who feel this way stay out of the building and don’t answer the phone. Be approachable.

Parent involvement really is important to student success. Even though teens try to exert their independence and push their parents away, studies show that grades improve when fathers are involved in their students’ education. When mothers are involved, students have fewer discipline problems.

The educational aspirations of young African-American males are influenced by the choices that are available to them. With more than one third of African-American children living below the federal poverty line, over 60% living in single parent homes, and a high school graduation rate of only 50% in some states, African-American children, particularly males, face numerous barriers to academic success. However, every Black community, regardless of economic resources, contains shining examples of young Black men who achieve in school, regardless of immeasurable social disadvantages.

Importantly, education policy needs to examine the full scope of the experience of African-American males to improve their school performance. In Breaking Barriers: How Teachers can Help Black Males Achieve in School, I provide strong empirical support for the impact that personal and emotional, family, social and environmental, and school factors play in the ability of young males to perform and successfully participate in an academic setting.

Achievement gaps, racial disparities in learning and school funding, and the growth of punitive measures to address student academic and social behavior are only some of the issues that educators and administrators face in the battle to improve student performance. Not surprisingly, research evidence indicates that the better students felt about their lives, the more positive was their engagement and academic outcome in school. Students who had a less positive outlook had lower academic achievement.

The research also revealed strong evidence that modeling is an important component to academic development among Black adolescent males. Father’s education, but not mother’s education, had a significant impact on Black males’ academic achievement. Generally, parents who helped their children with homework, who were comfortable talking to teachers, who urged their children to do well in school and who maintained high expectations generally had higher-performing children.

“Liking” school and not being “bored” by school appears to be language that is particularly salient to school adaptive patterns for Black males. Two national surveys demonstrated that the more Black males report that they like school, and the less they report being bored by school, the better their educational outcomes. Black males also need to believe that what they are learning is important for their future and that the school work is meaningful. Research findings also revealed that academic failure among young Black males may also be attributed to feeling pressured by school work and feeling that school rules are too strict. Notably, low-achieving Black male students’ sense that they “belong” at school was similar to high-achieving Black male students. “Belonging” might be an initial investment in the learning process for low-achieving Black students that could ultimately foster an interest in school.

Across three national surveys, through the findings, a profile of a teacher that was particularly effective in fostering academic growth among Black males clearly emerged. High-achieving Black male students reported that their teachers were interested in them “as a person,” treated them fairly, encouraged them to express their views and gave extra help when needed. Teachers who were effective also routinely let their students know when they did a good job. Overall, Black male students who were successful perceived their teachers to be respectful people who treated them like they matter and nurturing people who builds up their strengths, instead of making them “feel bad” about their weaknesses.

The findings clearly demonstrated that Black male students perform best in environments that they perceive as safe. Low-achieving Black male students were more likely to carry a weapon to school for self-defense than middle- or high-achieving Black male students. High-achieving Black male students reported more often that they feel safe at school. The findings also revealed that Black students were significantly more likely than white or Hispanic students to feel unsafe at school. Current school safety measures explored in this study did not have a relationship to academic achievement among African-American students. These issues indicate a need for greater mental health services in schools and African-American communities.

For most, the research revealed in this study will remind them of, or provide statistical support for, commonly held truisms in contemporary education. Education is most effective when it promotes positive school-related growth experiences, with particular emphasis on teacher-child relationships, didactic learning and emotional support. Positive parent-child communication, including parents expressing praise, helping with homework, talking about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and cooperative parenting arrangements, promotes academic success among Black males. Providing community resources and academic assistance to children in low-income areas, which build character through civic engagement, volunteerisms and sports, can improve academic functioning. Most importantly, we must advocate for policy that reduces racial disparities in income and increases equity and inclusion in education.

Teacher caring and gang violence

Eleventh grader, Dyquan Caldwell, shared his tragedy in “A Mile in My Shoes Writing Project: African-American Males Telling Their Own Stories.” According to a recent study, teenagers like Dyquan are more likely to walk to school, pass through a metal detector when entering school, have major distractions from doing school work, have fewer opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, and sadly, more likely to report that their teachers say and do things to make students feel bad about themselves.

In the years following the Columbine tragedy in 1999, many schools installed metal detectors and security cameras, and hired security officers to combat violence in schools. Although the Columbine massacre, and several copycat incidents, happened at majority White high schools, a disproportionate amount of violence reduction strategies have been implemented at predominately Black public schools.

Today, 26% of Black students, compared to 5.4% of White students report passing through metal detectors when entering school, according to data from the National Crime Victimization Survey: School Crime Supplement (NCVS-SCS, U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). The same survey found no race differences between Black and White students’ reported carrying a gun to school (1% for each group), nor ability to acquire a gun without adult supervision (7% for each group).

Since the 1990s, all violent crimes have sharply reduced, including serious violence at schools. Compared to 15 years ago, schools are significantly less likely to experience a homicide or other violent acts on school grounds. Notwithstanding, 42% of Black students and 43% of Latino students reported that gangs were present at their schools, compared to 18% of White students. Among Black students reporting gangs at their school, 24% report that the gangs do not act out violently. In total, 17.7% report being in schools with frequent gang violence, compared to 6% for Whites (U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009).

The public perception that violence in schools is increasing, rather than decreasing, has led to less compassion among school personnel, increased anxiety among students, and ultimately lower levels of academic achievement and satisfaction among all students, but particularly Black students. A recent analysis of the NCVS-SCS found that Black children in schools with more violent activity in general, experienced more harsh treatment from teachers and perceive more unfairness in the school. Figure 1 demonstrates that across all races, students in schools with more gang activity are more likely to report that their teachers generally care less about students.

Schools’ response to violence, can aptly be described with a statement from prominent psychologist Abraham Maslow: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat every problem as if it’s a nail.” Recently, CNN reported that William Modzeleski, a school security administrator for the U. S. Department of Education revealed that the Obama administration plans to create secure schools, by improving overall education, getting children more involved in their studies and strengthening school communities. These changes will coincide with a decrease in spending for metal detectors and security personnel and an increase in school counseling services (See additional information at http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/04/20/columbine.school.safety/index.html). Such strategies are consistent with progressive research, including the studies featured here.

Several school-based activities were associated with less gang activity, including: spirit groups, for example, cheerleading or pep club; performing arts, for example, band, orchestra, or drama; and academic clubs, for example, debate team, honor society, Spanish club, or math club.

Overall, the findings of the study suggest that schools should measure holistic qualities of their environment based on their: (1) Abilities to make students feel supported and respected; (2) Skill at creating forums for students to express themselves; and (3) Ability to critique students without making them feel bad about themselves. Incentives for teachers to become involved with students outside of the classroom, such as through clubs, sports and other activities, could also cultivate more cordial student-teacher relationships.

Reference
U. S. Dept. of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics (2009) National crime victimization survey: School crime supplement 2007 [Computer file]. Conducted by U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. ICPSR04429 -v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor]. ]]> http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/breaking-barriers-ending-school-violence-improving-security-and-creating-a-culture-of-learning-in-schools/feed/ 2 http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/classroom-discipline-don%e2%80%99t-ask-why/ http://www.insidetheschool.com/articles/classroom-discipline-don%e2%80%99t-ask-why/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:15 +0000 diane http://www.insidetheschool.com/?p=1366 Teens are impulsive. That spontaneity is part of their charm. And it’s part of the problem, too.

Picture this: Nick sees a cute girl downstairs by the lockers. He thinks that he can impress her if he jumps over the stair rail from the upstairs landing to the commons below.

Not impressive, Nick, when the paramedics have to haul you to the clinic for a cast.

My first instinct is to ask Nick, “Why did you do this? Why did you think this was a good idea?”

The why is not productive. It’s likely that Nick doesn’t remember why he thought it was a smart thing to do, now that he can’t play baseball this spring.

Students misbehave or make poor choices for many reasons:

• Desire to impress someone
• Not enough sleep
• Trouble or conflict with another student
• Girlfriend problems
• Boyfriend problems
• The lesson isn’t difficult enough
• The lesson is too challenging
• The lesson doesn’t seem relevant to life or goals
• It’s the week before spring/summer/winter/Thanksgiving break
• It’s Homecoming week, the night of the big game, the day before the dance
• Feeling threatened or embarrassed
• Headache, stomach ache, hunger
• Rebelling against authority
• Home life is troubled

The why really isn’t important when it comes to a solution. Often discussing the why with a student can make her feel cornered. The teen tries to justify something that isn’t justifiable and becomes defensive. The why then becomes a power struggle.

It’s more productive to ask the what questions.

• What happened?
• What should have happened?
• What can you do to fix it?
• What do you think would be an appropriate consequence?

The answers to these what questions are factual, not accusatory. They lead to solutions, not power struggles. Best of all, the student learns what behavior would have been appropriate in the situation.

The why? Well, I can tell you why the behavior happened without even asking the student. Teens are impulsive. It’s part of their charm.

Chelsie’s change in behavior is consistent with that of a cyberbully victim, Hindjua and Patchin wrote in Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying.

Students who have problems with a cyberbully often change their behavior, avoid technology, and avoid school, the authors wrote.

“Our own research identified a link between cyberbullying victimization and adolescent problem behaviors, such as recent school difficulties, assultive conduct, substance use, and traditional bullying,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote.

Chelsie’s behavior is unusual for her, but she won’t confide in any adults, either. At parent-teacher conferences, Chelsie’s mom was concerned about her daughter’s behavior, but said that Chelsie won’t confide in her. The parent is worried about Chelsie, uneasy about her constant illnesses and absences, and upset about her grades. The mom wants to help but she thinks that Chelsie’s problem is just an adolescent phase.

It’s not just a phase. Chelsie, like 60 percent of cyberbullying victims, has chosen not to confide about her cyberbullying problem to a teacher, parent, or other adult. Why do students like Chelsie choose to suffer in silence? They have their reasons.

• Embarrassment. Chelsie is mortified that another student used a cell phone to snap a locker room photo of Chelsie. Worse, that photo has made the rounds. Chelsie’s hoping that by laying low, not socializing with anyone, staying off electronic devices, and avoiding school that the whole embarrassing incident will blow over.
• Attacks will escalate. Chelsie’s not a wimpy tattletale who runs to an adult when there’s trouble. She thinks that if she tells an adult about the cyberbullying, the attacks will only get worse.
• Adults don’t understand. Hinduja and Patchin’s cyberbullying study found that students don’t tell adults because they believe that the adults don’t know enough about the technology to help, the adults won’t do anything, or the adults will over-react. Chelsie believes her teacher wouldn’t help her, even if the teacher knew about the bullying. After all, Chelsie’s problem is a cell phone photo text message and students don’t use their phones in school. It’s really not the teacher’s problem. She doesn’t want to tell her mom because Mom will call the cyberbully’s parents and escalate the problem.
• Adults will blame the victim. Instead of working out a solution with the victim, an adult might chide the student for allowing someone access to an online account, sharing a password, or giving out a phone number. Chelsie thinks that if she told her dad about the cyberbullying, he’d give her a lecture about how she’s been irresponsible with her cell phone and private information. She’ll feel like she’s to blame for the malicious text.
• Adults will restrict digital access. Students prize their access to their electronic devices and they’re afraid that an adult’s solution to the cyberbullying problem is to remove the medium – the cell phone or computer. That kind of response punishes the victim and sends her the message that she is indeed at fault. Chelsie’s convinced that telling her parents will mean that they’ll take her cell phone away. She hates the bullying text messages, but she clings to the supportive ones her friends send her.

Better responses are to encourage students to confide in an adult about cyberbullying, explain how they can block cyberbullies cell phone and e-mail messages, and create strong passwords. Make sure that students don’t respond to bullying messages, but instead take the time to print out a hate-filled screen or save a harmful text message as a record of the bullying.

Cyberbullying isn’t a victimless crime. Teens don’t have the maturity to shrug off insults or respond appropriately to a bully. Studies have shown that students who suffer from bullying are five times more likely to be depressed than their peers. One out of ten of these bullying victims drop out of school.

When a cyberbullying victim confides in a teacher, the teacher needs to listen more than talk. Praise the student for talking about the problem. Students need to know that adults will do something about the problem and that the outlook for the bullying to stop is good.

“One of the reasons why cyberbullying is not taken seriously is that there remains a number of adults who continue to perceive traditional bullying as simply ‘a rite of passage among adolescents,’ as ‘boy being boys,’ or even as an inevitable and instructive element of growing up,” Hinduja and Patchin wrote. “However, we believe that if emotional, psychological, and potentially even physical harm stemming from online aggression can be reduced or prevented, it is definitely worth the effort.”

References:

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2008). Cyberbullying: an exploratory analysis of factors related to offending and victimization. Deviant Behavior. 29, 129-156.

Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J.W. (2009). Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Except, along the way, we’ve forgotten some kids.

We’re doing well at the middle and that’s great, but the demographics have remained almost unchanged for students who excelled in education standards like reading and math.

The Excellence Gap. According to a study from the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy, “As measured by the percentage of students scoring at the advanced level on the NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress], the excellence gap has been stable or growing for each type of demographic group (gender, ELL, race, and free lunch eligibility).”

But those gains are either statistically very small (less than one percent gains) or the disadvantaged groups’ scores have been stagnant, the study’s authors wrote. While the disadvantaged students’ scores remained the same, those of their advantaged peers rose.

Anecdotally, it seems that the strides we’ve made to decrease the achievement gap among the lower-scoring students would help improve all students’ scores. However, that’s not the case.

The authors wrote that, “[…] the act of helping underrepresented students trying to reach basic competence by itself seems unrelated to the scores of their peers at higher levels of achievement.”

Inequity among G/T Offerings. Part of the problem, the report’s authors wrote, is that gifted education programs are spotty. The federal government doesn’t fund gifted education, so it’s up to the states to budget for the programs. So, there’s no consistency in gifted education from state to state and even from school to school.

Wealthier school districts are able to offer more gifted education programs to their students, but many districts are cutting their offerings, their teaching positions, and gifted programming.

“Poorer districts, which often have greater Black, Hispanic, and ELL populations, would be unable to provide their students with the same opportunities [as affluent districts],” the report’s authors wrote.

Black and White students enter kindergarten with essentially the same reading and math capabilities, the authors wrote. Over the years, Black students fall behind the White students. This gap grows even faster for the Black students who had initially high math and reading scores. Fewer school resources, fewer enrichment activities, and less able teachers in the disadvantaged schools might be the factors that hold these students back.

How Can We Bridge the Excellence Gap? The report’s authors recommend more studies that focus specifically on the excellence gap and not just on the NCLB’s minimal competency requirements.

They also recommend:

• Making the excellence gap a national and state priority.
• Addressing both minimal competency and excellence at the same time.
• Set targets to close the excellence gap.

The excellence gap didn’t begin with NCLB, the authors wrote, but our current focus on minimum competency isn’t the way to grow our country’s scientists, engineers, and other highly skilled workers.

“[…] continuing to pretend that a nearly complete disregard of high achievement is permissible, especially among underperforming subgroups, is a formula for a mediocre K-12 education system and long-term economic decline,” the authors wrote.

Reference:

Plucker, J.A., Burroughs, N., and Song, R. (2009) Mind the (Other) Gap! The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education.” Center for Evaluation & Education Policy. http://ceep.indiana.edu/mindthegap/ Accessed 2/15/10.

My husband asks me why I don’t just throw it all away.

Well, some catalogs I might be able to cut up to use as conversation starters or metaphors in class. Some flyers I might be able to use in my mass media class to teach a persuasive print advertising technique.

And let’s face it: I like the pieces that call me by name.

I know it’s a trap before I open the envelope, but I respond better to the junk mail with my name on it rather than resident or valued customer.

Students are the same way.

When I taught, I tried hard not to lecture for most of the class period. But, we all know that the lecture, even a short lecture, is inevitable. Here’s how I ran mine:

Guided note taking. I gave students an outline for their notes so they could anticipate what was important and what topics we’d cover.

Student involvement. I had a designated note taker at the board or overhead projector who wrote the notes for the class. That freed me up to circulate among the students and make sure they were on task and that I was available for questions. I also had the designated name picker choose volunteers to answer questions from a deck of name cards.

Name dropping. This is the smartest thing I’ve done to help kids pay attention during a lecture. As I mentioned, it’s inspired from my junk mail. As often as possible, I tried to incorporate a student’s name into an example during my lecture. I didn’t choose someone who was nodding off or doodling instead of listening. I spread the joy around and tried to name each kid in the class during the lecture at least once.

If the student name didn’t work well in an example, I worked it in like I was having a one-on-one conversation with individual students. It went like this:

“So, Jonah, we’re not really sure if it was Shakespeare who wrote these plays or if someone else did it. But that’s not really important, right Jenny? The words by any pen would still be terrific, don’t you think, Lisa?”

That example might be overdoing it, but just saying those student names at random during the lecture and making eye contact with each kid really helped them pay attention. We all love it when someone calls us by name.

It’s just like how those colorful mailers get my attention when they print my name on the envelope: Diane Trim, you could be our next winner!

Name dropping like that is hard to ignore.

For the first week of classes, I had always asked my students to sit in alphabetical order so I could learn their names. That’s how I began the class.

A big guy in a muscle shirt with a tattoo and a gold-outlined tooth interrupted me. “Miss,” Sean said. “Miss, don’t put us in alphabetical order.”

I remember using some think time. “What should I do, Sean?”

“Let me assign seats.”

Sean made me a brilliant seating chart. I was too young and too chicken to ask him, but I’m sure Sean seated one gang on the left, the other on the right, and some neutral girls down the center as a buffer zone. Thank you, Sean, for looking out for me.

Life in summer English 11 was pretty peaceful until I allowed the class to divide themselves into teams for a review game. My students were completely engaged in the game. They enjoyed any opportunity to compete and began to trash talk. You can imagine how the trash talk escalated from good-natured ribbing to real insults. The original lesson plan had called for a friendly game with vocabulary words and a go-to-the-bathroom-free pass at stake, but it escalated to an event that was about honor, justice, pride, and revenge. They began to shout, stand up, and scatter desks.

I managed to end the game and settle the class, but I’m sure by now you can spot my earlier error. In my defense: I was new.

The error: don’t allow trash talk, good-natured ribbing, casual insults, or slams.

The problem with trash talk and other negative talk is that it can escalate to bigger things like harassment, bullying, or a fight.

Lay the groundwork. Know your school district’s harassment policies and explain them to the students at the beginning of the school year. If you haven’t done that already, today’s a good day to start. Let students know that you care about them as individuals, you want them to feel safe, and you want everyone in your classroom to respect one another’s rights.

Prevent trash talk.

• Set a tone of respect in the classroom. Do not rib students or use sarcasm.
• Praise students, especially when they’re nice to one another.
• Label the entire group as one of your favorite classes ever and hope that they become it.
• Instead of saying, “Stop that,” say, “Hey, Shamika. That’s not cool. How can you say that with respect?”
• Smile more than frown.
• Watch students for warning signs of disrespect – like trash talking.

No bystanders.
When faced with a conflict, some people, some teachers, look the other way. Looking the other way is the same thing as agreeing with the bullying behavior.

• Never let a negative comment slide. You must address it every time or students will think you agree with the comment.
• Reward students who stand up for one another with praise. Call their parents and let them know that their student has integrity and backbone.
• Don’t call attention to the trash talker’s target. Talk to the person privately, but don’t double her shame with a public poor baby.

Contact others and document.

• Always write down any bullying event in a notebook with the date, time, students’ names, and words or deeds, as best you can recall.
• Touch base with the victim privately the next day to check she’s O.K. Document.
• Let the guidance counselor know that the victim might need support. Document.
• Talk to parents and let them know what happened, what you’ve done, whom you’ve informed, and what the school policy is. Document.
• If the trash talking or negative speech continues, use your documentation to write a referral to the school administration. Include all parent phone calls, guidance counselor contacts, and any actions you’ve taken.

My summer English 11 class was challenging, but I learned a lot. I learned how to manage a classroom of 40 diverse kids in rival gangs and leave the room feeling like we all had a fun and productive morning. I learned to listen to my students because often they’re right. And I learned not to let insults slide. What starts out as funny can end up serious.

Students like to feel good about themselves, they gravitate towards teachers and classes where they feel good, and they like subjects that reinforce the notion that they’re good at something.

It’s nice, though, to see what we all accept as good classroom management and good teaching backed by research. It’s also good to be reminded of some simple truths that surround the simple concept of praising students for good behavior and good work. However, we all know that implementing these simple truths isn’t always so simple.

In the article, “Using Teacher Praise and Opportunities to Respond to Promote Appropriate Student Behavior,” I learned that not all students receive the same amount of attention. Indeed, the authors wrote that, from a very young age, kids learn that they receive more of a teacher’s attention for inappropriate behavior than for appropriate behavior.

That’s part of the problem, isn’t it? The kids who act out in class receive a lot of the teachers’ attention; however, good behavior goes unrecognized. Really, teachers are encouraging the cycle of disruptive behavior.

The authors also wrote that teachers tend to avoid engaging students with poor behavior, so these students don’t receive a great education. The student’s records of misbehavior and the many negative student-teacher interactions leads to fewer engagement attempts from the teacher. Teachers who have really disruptive students, the authors wrote, might try to tiptoe around the difficult kid so as to avoid setting the student off.

Of course, these teachers are trying to survive their school days the best they can, but when we look at it, avoiding students won’t improve their behavior or their education.

Prevent off-task behavior. The researchers wrote that it’s best to prevent poor classroom behavior before it starts. But, if I’m the beleaguered teacher with the out-of-control seventh period, I’m rolling my eyes right now. My class is well beyond the prevention stage.

Actually, it’s not. The researchers wrote that teachers can use two easy methods to prevent off-task behavior and promote learning. They are: targeted, meaningful praise for appropriate behavior and many opportunities for students to respond correctly to content questions. In other words: praise good behavior instead of punishing bad behavior and give students a feeling of success. It’s all about feeling good.

Teacher praise. These researchers aren’t the first to write about the efficacy of praise in the classroom. However, they do bring something new to the discussion: they write that praise is effective with all ages, all skill levels, and all children, even those with disabilities. They write that praise not only increases good behavior and decreases bad behavior, but, when combined with decreasing attention to bad behavior, it can actually lead to fewer student-teacher power struggles and other disruptions.

Students aren’t widgets and they don’t all respond to praise in the same way. Some might want a quiet word or a nod, some might want a whole class announcement about a successful pencil sharpening. They offer some guidelines for giving praise:

• Praise must be specific and linked to behaviors that the teacher wants to promote
• Praise must be tailored to each student
• Praise is meaningless if the teacher has no other positive, personal interactions with a student
• Some students need praise for small acts that other students might take for granted, like sharpening a pencil at an appropriate time. Give into that kid’s need. Praise doesn’t cost anything.

Opportunities to respond. Hand-in-hand with teacher praise are the opportunities for students to respond in class, the authors write. The more opportunities the students have to respond to academic questions correctly, the fewer classroom disruptions occur.

I was surprised to learn the number of opportunities to respond that the authors recommend. For new material, teachers should shoot for four – six opportunities to respond per minute, with students answering correctly 80 percent of the time. If the teacher’s reviewing material, the opportunities to respond should increase to between eight and twelve responses per minute, with a 90 percent accuracy rate.

I can tell you, I know I didn’t have that many opportunities to respond in my classes. Unfortunately, the authors of this study didn’t offer any strategies beyond visual response cards to increase the number of times students could respond per minute. There’s always the one-two-three finger method where students hold their hands close to their chests and signal with their fingers the answer to a question. Small whiteboards and dry-erase markers are effective, if the students can tolerate the overwhelming marker fumes.

Teacher reflection. The authors’ strategy to increase student opportunities to respond didn’t lie in teaching strategies, but in teacher reflection. In the study, the researchers recorded teachers in their classrooms once a week for 15 minutes and ticked off the number of times a teacher offered praise and opportunities for responses. They shared the results with the teachers. Over the course of the 15-week study, the teachers increased their praise rates and opportunities to respond as a result of the researchers’ feedback. One teacher in the study tripled her praise rates to 25-30 incidents per 15 minutes of instruction. Her opportunities to respond rose from 40-60 every 15 minutes to more than 100.

I think that taking a good look at your own teaching practice is a healthy thing. Graphing praise and response rates will surely help a teacher reflect on best practice and focus on improving one area of her teaching style.

Praise and opportunities to succeed help students to learn. Teachers who use these two strategies have more on-task behavior in their classes and fewer behavioral disruptions. Of course, studying and reflecting on one’s own practice is helpful, too.

However, I can’t help but think about that gal stranded in seventh period with her out-of-control class. She’s a nice person. She tries to be positive. She tries to teach. She reflects on her practice. She works hard. Praise and opportunities to succeed seem like simple solutions to implement, but this gal needs tools she can use today. Maybe she needs to write down a list of praise phrases that she can look at when she can’t think of anything but the final bell ringing. Maybe she needs some teaching strategies to give her students more opportunities to respond.

Do you have some ideas that might help this gal survive her seventh period? How do you give your students 6-12 opportunities to respond per minute? Let’s start a list in the comments.

Reference:

Partin, T.C., Robertson, R.E. Maggin, D.E., Oliver, R.M., and Wehby, J.H. (2009) Using Teacher Praise and Opportunistic to Respond to Promote Appropriate Behavior. Preventing School Failure. 54(3): 172-178.

As teachers we know that the schoolhouse gate doesn’t serve as a barrier to information from the real world. The sexual text messages and instant messages (sexting) our teens send to one another during their online evenings can create a lot of trouble during the offline school day.

But these cyberbullying events take place off school grounds. Really, should teachers get involved in this sexting mess? What can we do about sexting, anyway?

The case for intervention. In their book, Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying, Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin make the case that teachers are in the best position to help students with cyberbullying issues. Many students spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents, the authors write. Teachers see students interact with one another every day and might pick up on unusual behavior or a subtle cue that something is wrong with a student.

Hinduja and Patchin write that adults who are aware of teen sexual harassment, but fail to respond, can be held liable for not assisting the teen, even if the event takes place off campus.

Students who circulate sexting messages or other forms of cyberbullying can’t limit their messages’ reach or timing. Teens who check their cell phones during a school break or lunch can find a surprise sexting video waiting for them in their InBox. If the video is of someone the teens know, the whole school day can be disrupted.

The important legal principal to guide teachers and other school officials, the authors write, is this: School officials cannot discipline students for off-campus speech or behavior with which they simply do not agree unless the school environment is significantly affected.

Media as sexual exploration. Teens are curious about their bodies. They’re curious about one another’s bodies, too. This generation of kids didn’t invent sexual exploration, but they have many more ways to explore and share.

That’s both a problem and a benefit of digital media, the authors of “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media” wrote. Among gay and lesbian youth, online media give the teens a safe outlet to explore their sexuality in a way that they can’t offline.

“On the Internet, GLBT youth discuss a variety of sexual identities and queer politics, as well as seek partners, navigate the coming out process, and frankly discuss sexual practices, including safer sex,” the authors wrote.

However, teens who post or send sexting messages can also give the wrong idea about sharing sexual content. The authors wrote that teens who see risky sexual behavior online with no consequences are more likely to experiment with the risky acts. Girls who send sexting photos practice self-objectification.

The biggest worry, the authors wrote, is that teens whose sexual images appear online or in text messages have an increased risk of victimization.

Health information and the Internet. Research shows that 44 percent of teens turn to the Internet for health information, and one-quarter or more of them research sexually transmitted diseases, sex, and pregnancy. One study found that 41 percent of teens who researched a health issue online changed their behavior because of the information they’d found. The Internet can be a great place to discover answers to life’s embarrassing or awkward questions.

The problem is that they’re not sophisticated Internet searchers. They judge a site not by the site’s authors, but how slick the design is. If the site looks professional, most teens think, then it’s credible.

Some teens also don’t have the vocabulary to search the Internet for credible sexual information. Instead of using anatomical names, they search with slang terms. Of course, these teens find sexually explicit sites, the “Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd” authors wrote. Teens who are exposed to sexually explicit images are more likely to become sexually active at an earlier age than their peers.

What teachers can do. Kids are always going to be interested in their bodies. Cell phones and the Internet aren’t going away any time soon. Inappropriate photos have been around since the invention of the camera. So how can we prevent the spread of sexting messages?

• Educate students about how to assess the credibility of Web sites
• Offer teens appropriate Web sites and vocabulary in health classes
• Encourage students to visit their privacy settings on social network sites to make sure that their privacy is protected
• Review the district rules about cyberbullying with students and make sure they understand the consequences of their actions
• Invite students to come to you privately with questions or concerns about sexting or cyberbullying
• Give students guidelines about posting images online and over cellphones
• Hold parent meetings to discuss cyberbullying and sexting

MTV has a program called A Thin Line, which is trying to stop digital abuse, Amanda Paulson wrote in The Christian Science Monitor. Parry Aftab is the executive director of WiredSafety and an adviser to A Thin Line. Aftab says that teens rarely think about the consequences of their actions. They look at sexting as a safe alternative to sex.

Paulson quoted Aftab: I tell kids the five P’s. If you don’t want your parents, your principal, a predator, the police, or your potential coach, college recruiter, or boss to see it, don’t post it publicly.

References:

Brown, J., Keller, S., and Stern, S. (2009.) Sex, Sexuality, Sexting, and SexEd: Adolescents and the Media. The Prevention Researcher. 16:4, 12-16.

Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2009.) Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press.

Lenhart, A. (2009) Teens and Sexting: How and why minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images via text messaging. Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/PIP_Teens_and_Sexting.pdf Accessed 2/1/10

Paulson, A. (2009.) Sexting: at least 15 percent of teens take part. Christian Science Monitor. 12/16/2009, p1.