Lansing Public Schools July 19, 2011 Dorinda J. Carter Andrews, Ed.D. Enhancing the School Success of Boys of Color Grades PreK-3 Train-The-Trainer Summer Institute Lansing Public Schools July 19, 2011 Dorinda J. Carter Andrews, Ed.D.

Agenda Module 4 Activities Complete Discussion of Teach Like a Champion - Chapter 1(Setting High Academic Expectations), Techniques 1-5 Reflection and Practice BREAK Module 4 Activities (continued) Teach Like a Champion – Chapter 5 (Creating a Strong Classroom Culture), Techniques 28-35 Connecting with Your Students: Promoting Learning Through Teacher-Child Relationship (Strategies for Teaching Boys & Girls)

Establishing a Boy-Friendly Classroom Module 4 Establishing a Boy-Friendly Classroom

Connecting with Your Students One of the best predictors of students’ effort and engagement in schools is the relationships they have with their teachers. Students are more motivated to learn when they: Feel a sense of belonging and connectedness to the school Feel a sense of autonomy and self-determination; and, Feel competent

Connecting with Your Students For some students the only moments of safety, security, and acceptance they experience are in your classroom.

Would I Want to Be in My Classroom? Do I help each student feel welcome in my classroom? How? How can I do better? Do I provide my students with opportunities to develop a sense of ownership for their education? Do I incorporate and teach problem-solving skills in my activities so that students have an opportunity to learn how to make informed decisions? Do I discipline more as a form of punishment or as a way of teaching self-discipline? Do I involve students in helping to create some of the rules and consequences in the classrooms? Do I convey from the first day of school that mistakes are part of the learning process, that mistakes are expected and accepted and not to be feared?

CREATING A STRONG CLASSROOM CULTURE

Five Principles of Classroom Culture Discipline Management Control Influence Engagement You want to build a classroom culture that sustains and drives excellence. This requires mastiering skills in five aspects of your relationships with students.

Discipline The process of teaching someone the right way to do something; the state of being able to do something the right way Use as a noun instead of as a verb: “I teach discipline”; “I have discipline” NOT “I discipline you” The core of this definition of discipline is teaching. Teaching students the right and successful way to do things

Management The process of reinforcing behavior by consequences and rewards. What we typically call “disciplining” is often really management: giving consequences. When schools or teachers over-rely on management, students become desensitized to consequences and Machiavellian about rewards (Teach Like a Champion, p. 147).

Control Control is your capacity to cause someone to choose to do what you ask, regardless of consequences; asking in ways that make a person more likely to agree to do something.

Influence Influence gets students to want to internalize the things you suggest. Getting kids to believe – to want to behave positively – is the biggest drive of achievement and success.

Engagement Give children plenty to say yes to, plenty to get involved in, and plenty to lose themselves in! Champion teachers keep their students positively engaged so that they start to think of themselves as positively engaged people!

Techniques #28: Entry Routine #29: Do Now #30: Tight Transitions #31: Binder Control #32: SLANT #33: On Your Mark #34: Seat Signals #35: Props

Reflection and Practice Script the steps and expectations for the five most critical routines in your classroom Make a list of everything your students need to have to be prepared at the beginning of class Make a list of the three most common requests students make while you are teaching. Determine an appropriate nonverbal signal they can give you to request each of them.

What Stuck? An ‘Aha’ moment A pleasant surprise Something that you had to struggle with to understand Something that you don’t agree with Something that you agree with strongly Something you thought was particularly interesting Something you didn’t expect An insight or solution Something you want to know more about/A question that you have