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Monday 25 January 2016

How To Teach Without Getting Stressed-Out; Arghhh!

How To Teach Without Getting Stressed-Out; Arghhh!

How To Teach Without Getting Stressed-OutI have a technique you can start using tomorrow that will eliminate stress from your teaching life.
This no-stress method is so effective, in fact, that many professional athletes use it before a competition.
For them, keeping their composure can mean the difference between winning and losing, success and failure.
For teachers the stakes are equally high.
It’s the difference between having a pleasant day and a miserable one, between loving your job and counting the days to retirement. Plus, teachers who are able to keep their cool have fewer behavior problems.
The technique is easy to use, takes just a couple of minutes, and works surprisingly well.
The Decide-First Method
It’s called the decide-first method of stress relief. I stumbled upon it many years ago while still a wet-behind-the-ears student teacher.
My first student teaching assignment was with an unruly group of fifth graders.
As is often the case, the teacher in charge of the class was looking for a way to take a break from her responsibilities. The students were bouncing off the walls, and she was pulling her hair out. Soon after I arrived she handed the class over to me.
I couldn’t have been happier.
Dirty Little Secret: teachers who frequently volunteer to host student teachers often need mentoring themselves.
When I made the decision to become a teacher, I decided that I was going to love my job no matter the circumstances. I wasn’t going to sit back and see if I was going to be fulfilled, happy, or having fun.
I was going to make it happen for myself.
So when I was thrown to the wolves as a new teacher, this attitude led me to start using the decide-first method.
Every day before walking into the chaos of my first teaching experience, I sat in my car, closed my eyes, and decided that no matter what happened that day, I wasn’t going to let it affect me emotionally.
A herd of elephants could come crashing through the door, but I committed myself to being as calm as a Tibetan monk.
At the time I didn’t have experienced classroom management skills. I knew few of the strategies and techniques that are now second nature to me.
But a funny thing happened.
The students began to feed off of my calm energy. And every day I gained greater control and respect. Within a couple of weeks I was indeed enjoying—loving—what I was doing.
A Lesson From Sports Psychology
I was watching the Tennis Channel recently, and during a segment called Fit To Hit, sports psychologist Dr. Allen Fox was asked how tennis players can best control their emotions on the court.
He said that, before a match, if they will make a conscience decision to keep their composure—despite the adversity they may face—then remarkably, they will.
It’s that simple.
Being stress free in the classroom, as well as on the tennis court, is a decision you make. Stress doesn’t happen to you; you let it happen to you.
But you can’t wait until you’re feeling stressed. By then it’s too late. The key is to decide beforehand.
How To Use The Decide-First Method
The following is a three-step plan for eliminating stress from teaching. Do it every day before your students arrive in the morning, and you will be happy with the results.
Step #1
Close your classroom door, sit down in a comfortable chair, and allow yourself a minute or two of silence.
Step #2
Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and relax your body.
Step #3
Decide that you will stay calm and relaxed no matter what happens that day. Commit yourself to handling every situation, every unforeseen circumstance, and every behavior with poise and confidence.
And you will.
The Benefits
The most obvious benefit of using the decide-first method is that you’re going to like your job a lot better. Here are a few more benefits:
  • Your calm, confident demeanor will sweep the negative and excitable energy out of your classroom.
  • Your students will respond to you differently. You’ll appear more in control, more confident, and more like a leader they’ll want to follow.
  • Your students will become calmer. Your state of mind has more effect on students than you realize. What you’re feeling on the inside reveals itself clearly on the outside.
  • Behavior will improve. You’ll begin relying on your classroom management plan instead of trying to force or convince students to behave—which is ineffective and stressful.
Try the decide-first method tomorrow. It could be the best day of teaching you’ve had in a long time.

Classical Music And Classroom Management

Classical Music And Classroom Management

Classical music wafting through the classroom.
The link between classical music and learning is well established. It has been shown to enhance certain forms of intelligence, like verbal and spatial abilities.
And teachers who regularly play Mozart while students are practicing math skills report that it helps with concentration and attentiveness.
But did you know classical music can have a positive effect on classroom management?
Having classical music playing in the background when students enter the classroom can reduce tension and anxiety, making them less inclined to act up. It also builds a subconscious association between the sound of the music and behavior that is conducive to learning.
A study on heart patients found classical music to have the same stress reducing benefits as the drug Valium. The study didn’t imply that the music made them sleepy, just more relaxed.
In 2004, classical music was piped into London Underground train stations and into certain dangerous neighborhoods. As a result, incidences of vandalism, assault, and robberies dropped in those areas by as much as 37%.
Have you stayed at a hotel recently? It seems more and more of them are playing classical music as you first enter your room. They want you to associate feelings of relaxation and peace with a stay at their hotel.
Stores, too, are using music and an appeal to our sense of smell to enhance our buying experience. Abercrombie and Fitch, for example, works especially hard at this. They want to build positive and hip associations with the act of walking into their stores.
Others, like Starbucks, use music to create an atmosphere that represents the image they want to convey in the customer’s mind.
What associations do your students have when entering your classroom? A chaotic, noisy, or frenzied experience will increase tension, encourage misbehavior, and negatively affect attentiveness.
The very act of walking into certain classrooms can trigger feelings of restlessness in students. Think of a Walmart store on the day after Thanksgiving. Chaotic situations cause people to behave poorly and do things they wouldn’t normally do.
In the midst of restless energy, students are not ready for learning, and teachers have an uphill battle before the day has even begun.
Classical music is an easy way to start building positive associations with entering the classroom. As soon as students hear Bach or Vivaldi wafting from the doorway, they know it’s time for learning.
But it’s not something you do just once in a while. It must be done every day in conjunction with a specific morning routine.
It’s important to choose music without big crescendos and startling transitions (avoid Wagner). On the other hand, I’ve found CDs specifically compiled for relaxation to be uninspiring. The best choices are the popular works of Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, and, my personal favorite, Vivaldi.
Download what you like at iTunes or you can find an excellent series called 25 Classical Favorites at Amazon. It’s a great compilation for around four dollars.
Put the music on as soon as you arrive in the morning and listen while preparing for the day. It will put you in a productive mood and remind you of the feeling tone you want to promote in your classroom.
Never let your students forget that your classroom is a place for learning. Besides having a potent calming effect, classical music is a perfect reminder.

How To Motivate Students Without Losing Control Of Your Class

How To Motivate Students Without Losing Control Of Your Class

motivated studentIf you’ve been teaching for longer than say… three minutes, then you’ve no doubt been hammered over the head with the idea that enthusiasm is important to effective teaching.
In order to motivate students, you have to be passionate about your subject.
I don’t disagree.
Enthusiasm is important—critical even.
But what if it’s causing your students to misbehave?
Yin And Yang
Regular readers of this website know that calmness is important to classroom management success.
Students feed off of your energy, and excitability isn’t a good thing when it comes to classroom management. Yet, if your students are uninspired, then you’re not helping them grow academically.
So what do you do? Can you be both calm and enthusiastic?
Well… yes and no. You can certainly be calm on the inside while showing enthusiasm. But there are times when you need to show calm on the outside.
Effective teachers understand when it pays to be enthusiastic, and when it pays to be calm.
They work together—like yin and yang.
The key is to use both to your advantage. Below are a few guidelines to help you know when to use one, and when to use the other.
When To Be Calm
You should be outwardly calm during…
Transitions
Transitions can be opportunities for students to misbehave. So it’s important your students see that you’re calm and in control. During transitions, position yourself in a highly visible area of the classroom and silently observe.
Procedures
Like transitions, your students need to be focused on completing procedures androutines quickly and correctly, so you can get on with the business of teaching. Again, stand in one place and calmly observe.
Independent Work
During this most critical learning time, resist the urge to interrupt your students—enthusiastically or otherwise. Your job is to fade into the background, keeping the classroom peaceful and conducive to concentration.
Entering & Leaving The Classroom
A high percentage of misbehavior occurs on the way in or on the way out of the classroom. So refrain from shuffling papers, talking to students, or making announcements. Instead, observe silently and be ready to enforce your rules with a consequence.
Misbehavior
When students misbehave, enforce your classroom rules dispassionately. This keeps you from losing your cool and ensures that the burden of responsibility remains with them.
When To Be Enthusiastic
You should be enthusiastic during…
Lessons
Whenever you stand before your students to teach a lesson, you must show passion for your subject. To convince students that the subject your teaching is worthy of their attention, they have to see that you’re excited to teach it.
Modeling
Modeling can be drudgery for students, or it can be an opportunity for an unforgettable learning experience. Which one depends on you. Detailed modeling in particular lends itself perfectly for having fun with your class—which makes classroom management a lot easier.
Read Aloud/Shared Reading/Guided Reading
Reading great books aloud with gusto will motivate children to read better than any other method, technique, or strategy. Your student’s love for reading will grow every day if you merely tap into your inner Meryl Streep.
Storytelling
I believe so strongly in the power of storytelling that I devoted an entire chapter to it in Dream Class. Nothing compares with the rapport-building, leverage-creating, and excitement-producing power of acting out stories for your students.
Learning Games/Science Experiments/Special Projects
Children will like and enjoy whatever you show enthusiasm for. The success of experiential activities hinges on the amount of excitement you can generate. So channel your favorite game show host, dance like an Egyptian, or throw on a lab coat and spectacles and really go for it.
Warning: Don’t Do The Opposite
Teachers who struggle with classroom management typically do the opposite of what is recommended above.
They get excited, stressed, and angry (enthusiasm of a different kind) when they should be calm and observant, and they become spiritless when they should be teaching like their hair is on fire.
Following the guidelines above, however, causes everything important to improve—classroom management, attentiveness, motivation for learning, and love for school.
Note: I was sad to learn of the passing of former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. He was an amazing teacher and an inspiration to many. Last September I wrote about him in an article called The Effective Teaching Secrets Of A Master.

Why Boredom Is A Leading Cause Of Misbehavior And How To Cure It In Two Minutes

Why Boredom Is A Leading Cause Of Misbehavior And How To Cure It In Two Minutes

Several years after beginning my teaching career, I went back to school to earn a second master’s degree. I wanted to reach the end of the pay scale and was hoping to learn something new in the process.
After researching colleges near my home, I chose a university that catered to working adults. You know the kind: gigantic national chain, classes held in an industrial park, no sports teams.
The first evening of my first class, I sat in the front row—hand raised, bright-eyed. But slowly, as the semester wore on, I inched my way to the back of the room.
The instructor was painstakingly boring.
A typical class period consisted of theory regurgitation and a slow, scratch-the-surface plod through the coursework. Before long, I found myself in the last row next to a special education teacher from Wisconsin.
Her name was Monica and she, too, was exasperated with the slow pace of the class. We became friends—she was hilarious—and I’m ashamed to admit that during lectures we often played meaningless games to pass the time.
She’d slide a piece of notebook paper over to me with the headline, “Hair Bands Of The 80s” or “Classic Cartoon Characters.” I would write Motley Crew or Fred Flintstone at the top of the list and slide it back over. Then she would add a name, and we’d go back and forth until one of us was stumped.
I had mixed feelings about doing this. On one hand, I felt I owed the instructor a level of respect and should at the least feign interest. On the other hand, I had to sit in a hard chair and listen to him paraphrase from the $65 textbook lying open in front of me.
But despite my mixed feelings—and no small amount of guilt—I continued playing silly pencil and paper games, passing notes like a seventh grader, and chatting under my breath with those around me.
I couldn’t help myself.
After class one evening, I joined my classmates for dessert at a local restaurant. There, I heard story after story about how the rest of the class was biding their time while waiting for the class period to end.
They, too, were passing notes, playing hangman, and watching the clock.
It didn’t matter that we were adults. None of us, 8 years old or 80, is immune to the force of boredom, which can make us do things we know we shouldn’t.
The only difference between my classmates and a group of fifth graders was that we were more covert in our bad behavior.
The fact is, if students are bored, misbehavior will follow.
The “Say Hello” Strategy
One solution is to use the “say hello” strategy. It’s a quick and easy way to reinvigorate your students, improve their attentiveness, and stem the tide of boredom.
Here’s how it works:
When you notice your students’ attention waning and boredom seeping in, simply let them get up, move around the room, and say hello to their friends and classmates.
Interacting with friends has a unique way of energizing tired synapses. It feeds and revitalizes the brain, gets the blood flowing, and releases the pent up urge to engage in minor, though disruptive, unwanted behaviors.
Surprising your students with the strategy works best. Just blurt out, “Stand up and say hello to your friends!” And then leave them alone and let them visit for a couple of minutes.
Like everything else, your students need to know what your expectations are, but I’ve found students to be appreciative of the break and thus exceedingly respectful of the gesture.
You can also use this strategy shortly before a lesson that requires prolonged attention, or right after. But be careful not to over do it or it will lose some of its effectiveness.
Few students can sit and attend for very long without active engagement. Sometimes the solution is as simple as giving them exactly what they want: A moment to talk with their friends.

Why Hard Lessons Are Good For Your Students

Why Hard Lessons Are Good For Your Students

So you’ve got this awesome science lesson planned.
The materials are all laid out. Your lab coat is hanging on a hook behind your desk. Your fake horned-rims are dangling conspicuously from the breast pocket.
Your students know they’re in for a cool learning experience, and all morning the classroom has been abuzz. Smartly, you scheduled the lesson for the afternoon.
The building of anticipation is fun and helps students appreciate these moments.
But inexplicably, when they return from lunch, they don’t seem so appreciative. It’s as if you’ve switched classes with the rowdies next door.
They enter the classroom noisily. They slouch chatty and unfocused in their seats. And when you give a direction, it’s loosely followed. You send them back to perform these routines over again, but still they persist.
It appears that, at this moment anyway, they’re taking you and the special classroom you’ve created for granted.
You glance over at your carefully arranged materials, your freshly pressed lab coat, your well-thought-out lesson plans . . . then up at the clock on the wall. It’s time for science to begin.
You ponder your options.
You could give a rousing lecture and express how disappointed you are. You could delay the lesson and reteach your rules and expectations. You could press on and hope the allure of the lesson will shake them from their apathy.
Or . . .
You could call off the lesson altogether.
Whether it’s canceling a cool science experiment, a special activity, a holiday party, or an outdoor learning game, hard lessons—those that profoundly disappoint students—can be the best medicine for your classroom.
Here’s why:
Your classroom is a two-way street.
Hard lessons send the message to your students that your classroom is a two-way street. You give your best for them. That’s a given. But the expectation is that they must give their best for you.
The most successful classrooms have a balanced teaching/learning relationship, with both parties feeling obligated and appreciative of the other. When this relationship becomes lopsided, often burdensomely weighted toward the teacher, complacency and entitlement arise.
Hard lessons remind students to appreciate their teacher and the remarkable classroom he or she has created, thereby restoring equilibrium in the relationship.
Excellence is expected.
When you let things go, when you accept less than what your students are capable of, in effect you’re telling them that mediocrity is okay, disrespect is tolerated, and half-efforts are acceptable.
When your first attempt at holding your class accountable (i.e., performing routines over again) is taken with a shrug, it’s a clear sign that something more drastic is in order.
Taking you or the classroom for granted is not okay and cannot be ignored. Hard lessons bring students back to reality, respect, and appreciation and make an unspoken but emphatic statement that excellence is expected.
It won’t happen again.
Hard lessons, both for individuals and whole classrooms, result in a humbler attitude more attuned and eager to make amends. If the disappointment is strong enough, students will bend over backwards not to make the same mistake twice.
They become sharper and quicker to listen and hop-to the direction you ask them. And the next time you have a similar lesson or activity, you’ll discover in your students a very different attitude.
After a hard lesson, they know that with you as their teacher there are no threats, no negotiations, and no second chances. Just action. And action alone, supported by the leverage of a classroom they enjoy being part of, sets fire under their feet.
An Enduring Lesson
Hard lessons are best left for your students to process on their own. So avoid explaining, lecturing, or trying to tell them how they should feel. Your words will only lessen the weightiness of the experience.
You can, however, make your actions more impactful.
Before making your announcement, go ahead and slip on your lab coat and nerdy glasses. Stand expectantly in front of your neat display of materials. Pause a moment until every eye is on you.
Speaking softly, say:
“Because of your behavior today—walking into class noisily, following directions poorly, side-talking—I’m canceling the science lesson.”
Then calmly take off your glasses and lab coat and place them both back inside the closet.
It only takes a moment.
But the lesson will stay with them long after you close the closet door.
Note: If the activity you’re cancelling is a lesson, it’s perfectly fine to teach it on another day.

Why It’s Okay To Let Your Students Experience Failure

Why It’s Okay To Let Your Students Experience Failure

Because we care.
This is why it touches our heart to see our students upset or crestfallen. This is why when they bomb a math test or bury their head in their arms over another behavior regression, we seek to soften the blow.
We engage them to talk it out, to see the silver lining, to put it in their rear-view mirror. We tell them that it’s going to be okay, that we all make mistakes, and that it wasn’t such a big deal after all.
We’ve become so conditioned to easing the burden that it has become part and parcel to the job. It’s expected, which is why you see teachers all over campus, in and out of the classroom, huddled with students, lifting chins, assuaging guilt, and making it all better.
We tell our students what they should think and how they should feel. We downplay their downfalls. We frame in the most positive light.
But in doing so, critical life lessons are lost.
The truth is, our students are far better off when allowed to experience their mistakes, failures, and defeats. They’re better off when left to stew, to ponder where they went wrong, and to gain strength from their disappointment.
You see, when we ease their burden, when we redefine for them their failure to prepare for the test, to learn the material, to follow the rules, to listen to the instructions, to treat others with respect . . . lessons are never learned. And the same mistakes are repeated over and over again.
We do our students a disservice by interfering with the normal, human, and energy-producing powers of regret. We snatch away their creativity. We weaken their determination. We undermine their ability to overcome obstacles.
We owe it to our students not to minimize failure, but to allow them to feel it. For these feelings, these churning, sinking, aching feelings of disappointment are the impetus they need to learn from their mistakes.
They are what cause them to say, “No more, never again!”
To help your students grow in character, maturity, and independence, to help them improve their behavior, motivate their work habits, and encourage healthy self-reflection, you have to allow them to experience failure.
You have to expose them to the truth of where they are, both behaviorally and academically, in order for them to climb their way out.
A meaningless ‘C’ when they deserve an ‘F’ is not only dishonest, but it’s harmful. And so is telling them how well they’re doing when in fact they’re not doing well at all.
This doesn’t mean you’ll withhold praise or swallow your desire to encourage. It only means that you’ll offer your words artfully, based on the truth, and after your students are granted the dignity to know and experience when they have failed.
Now is the time, when they’re young and impressionable, to learn the lessons that will save them from great and future hardship. Now is the time to fail spectacularly, to learn from their mistakes, and to grow strong and resilient.
Now is the time, when the stakes are low, to build the fortitude needed to overcome that closed door, that letter of rejection, that loss of job. For every time you soften the blow or mask the truth, you make their future murkier and more difficult.
Amid the backdrop of a celebrity culture run amok, amid the bombardment of both a warped view of success and an undersell of what it takes to succeed, they need you now more than ever.
They need the truth now more than ever. They need kind and faithful accountability now more than ever. They need your gentle touch, your honest words, and your willingness to allow for private self-reflection.
They need to experience failure now, in the safety of your loving guidance, so that it doesn’t crush them in the future.
So that instead, they’ll rise to their own two feet, face the inevitable disappointments to come with grace and determination, and blossom into compassionate, contributing citizens of the world.

Why Caring Too Much Can Make You A Less Effective Teacher

Why Caring Too Much Can Make You A Less Effective Teacher

Why Caring Too Much Can Make You A Less Effective TeacherTeaching is important, to be sure.
But if you’re not careful, this fact can weigh heavily.
It can cause you to wrap an unhealthy amount of your identity into your job. It can cause you to be distracted around your friends and family.
It can cause you to care too much.
And when you care too much, not only are you wrung out, preoccupied, and no fun to be around, but you make mistakes that make you a less effective teacher.
You become personally offended when students misbehave. You become irritable, easily frustrated, and less approachable.
You become so invested in your students’ success, so pressured by administrative powers, that you begin doing for them what only they can do for themselves.
The truth is, the most effective teachers maintain a level of professional distance—from their students, their classroom, and even their school.
They view teaching as a two-way street. Meaning, they give their best for their students. They teach high-interest lessons. They build leverage and influence through their consistent pleasantness and likability. They create a learning experience their students want to be a part of.
But they also expect the best in return, which manifests itself in everything they do.
From enforcing consequences dispassionately to giving directions one time to their reluctance to kneel down and reteach individuals what was taught to the entire class minutes before . . . their actions announce to the world their deep and abiding belief in their students.
You see, when you take on what are your students’ responsibilities, even emotionally, they’ll be left with the message that they have a free pass.
So they shrug in response to your urgent exhortations. They ignore your requests for quiet. They listen only when convenient. They daydream and side-talk and count tiles on the ceiling.
It never occurs to them that they’re sitting in a sacred place of learning or that they desperately need what you have to offer. The result is a stressed-out teacher and a class full of students who just don’t care.
In the most effective classrooms, responsibilities are clearly separate and defined.
The teacher does their job well, providing everything their students need to be successful, then hands the onus to do the work, discuss the book, perform the experiment, and solve for x in full over to their students.
Your job is to teach, inspire, and hold accountable—which is completely in your control. When you focus your physical and emotional energy on these three core responsibilities, and determine to turn the rest over to your students, your stress will all but disappear.
At the same time, the whole vibe of your classroom will change. The winds of complacency and apathy will die out. Balance will be restored to the kingdom.
Your students will feel the burden of responsibility for learning and behaving settle upon their shoulders, where it belongs. Their respect for you will soar. Their sense of independence will swell. Rapport will come easy—light and effortless.
Your heavy mood, your hurt, and your disappointment will lift and dissipate into the heavens. You’ll have the energy you need to create your dream class. And you’ll finally be able to leave school at school.
Now both you and your students will possess the same look: Happy yet determined. Calm yet filled with purpose. Fulfilled yet resolute.
The way it’s supposed to be.