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Jane Bluestein
"You can’t just stand up in a room and say, “Now kids, we are going to de a lesson on respect. Now respect is important because “yada yada” and let's put some posters on the wall.” This doesn’t work, especially in an environment where teachers speak so disrespectfully to kids and to one another. How often are we not walking the talk?" - J. Bluestein
Interview with Jane Bluestein, by Kate Bedford
My notes - What I like and don't like about her writing
I first heard of this person when I was surfing on Josh Freedman's Six Seconds site. I felt encouraged and heartened to read her words. Then I went to her web page where she has a lot of articles. I don't agree with everything she says, as you can see by my notes at the end of the articles, but I want to let you know of her work.
S. Hein
June 2004
Interview
with Jane Bluestein
By Kate Bedford
Jane Bluestein is an award winning author and speaker. Her newest
book, Creating Emotionally Safe Schools! It is a comprehensive
look at how we can make any educational institution
safer—from an emotional, academic, behavioral, social, and
physical standpoint. Formerly an inner-city classroom teacher,
crisis-intervention counselor, and teacher training program
coordinator, Dr. Bluestein currently heads Instructional Support
Services, Inc., a consulting and resource firm in Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
During our interview, I was struck by both Jane’s passion
for education and compassion for children and teachers alike. She
is a dedicated educator as well as an advocate for change.
Listening to Jane’s descriptions of modern schools, I felt
both despair and tremendous hope. Mostly I was relieved to know
that American schools had an advocate and reformer like Jane
cheering them on.
Kate: In your new book, Creating Emotionally Safe Schools, you
paint a disturbingly grim picture of the social dynamics of
modern schools:
Jane: That was not my original intent. In fact, I really went
into this trying to keep it as positive as possible, but that
would have meant ignoring a great deal of feedback from some of
the people I interviewed. I was appalled by the number of people
who had such horrible experiences being tormented by other kids,
and often right under the noses of teachers who did nothing to
advocate for them and nothing to support them. The first couple
times I heard this I thought they were extreme cases. As I
started getting more stories, many were violent. I worked with a
woman who was severely abused in school. I asked her what the
teachers did about it and she said, “Nothing, they would
send the kids back to class.” She was actually beaten with a
baseball bat in front of one of the teachers. When I started
getting stories like that from dozens of people, I thought,
“This is a disturbing trend.” Then I found some early
childhood literature that said in about 3/4 of incidents between
preschoolers, that were witnessed by adults, teachers did not
intervene. They took no action at all.
I think to gloss over that would be a real disservice to kids who
are not experiencing support and yet are experiencing any kind of
teasing humiliation, and even brutal physical abuse, at school.
Kate: In your book, you describe the kind of students who tend to
be picked on as having low verbal skills, low social skills, and
being without the social allies to back them up. That is a good
argument for emotional intelligence programs:
Jane: It tends to be a vicious circle. When kids who have a
greater sensitivity and few psychological strengths are picked
on, they tend to buy into it and get upset. Then the bully has
achieved his or her goal and gotten her reaction. What ends up
happening is the kids who do not have the social skills, or the
ability to laugh things off, are hyper sensitive to this kind of
teasing. They are the ones who draw the most fire because they
are the ones who are the most fun to watch blow up.
If you have kids who are very solid in their sense of who they
are, in their own groundedness, in their own emotional
intelligence, these are kids who can laugh it off. Part of what
bulling is about is getting a reaction. Imagine if you call me a
name and I say, “Yeah, that’s right”. Your bulling
didn’t work because you’re trying to get a reaction
from me. Chances are you are going to move on to an easier
target.
We have two things going on here. First of all, we have a high
level of reactivity and sensitivity. We are all sensitive to
varying degrees. One of the goals I would see is trying to help
teens to not take everything so personally. Immediately they can
misinterpret social cues, or blow things out of proportion, or
even assume something is negative. We need to teach kids how to
depersonalize these contacts and not let them inside their energy
fields. A second goal is to the help kids become a little more
respectful of each other.
Kate: I liked the quote in the book, “We have taught
tolerance but we have not taught respect.”
Jane: Punishing intolerance and disrespect is not a way to teach
tolerance and respect. That is the model we have now.
Kate: Then how do you see teaching tolerance and respect? How do
you go about putting that into a school?
Jane: You put kids in situations where they are interacting with
people who are different from them but with a shared goal. For
example, one of the principals I worked with took over a school
that was an absolute mess - totally unsafe. She took some of the
biggest bullies, some of the toughest kids in the class, and
paired them with the special-needs students. Suddenly, all kinds
of behavior changes started happening.
That is what I did my dissertation on. I had my 3rd, 4th, and 5th
graders going down to work with kindergarten kids. Originally I
sent them down because I was carpooling with the kindergarten
teacher and she was so exhausted I was afraid she was going fall
asleep on the way home. So I started sending my kids down there
to give her a hand with things like getting these kids zipped up,
and getting their milks open. About a week or two later, she told
me “So and so cut recess to come down and read a story with
my kids. So and so cut recess to put on a puppet show and teach
my kids their colors.” Who do you think was cutting recess?
Kate: The Bullies
Jane: Yes! The kids who were at the bottom end of the academic
achievement and social skills ladders. Do you know what happens
when schools implement social skills programs or peer mentoring
programs? Who always gets picked? The highest achieving the
best-social-skills kids. We know we can take these
low-social-skills kids and put them in a situation where they can
be a helper, where they can do service, or be a mentor with
somebody who looks up to them, somebody who needs something they
have, somebody who respects who they are and what they have to
offer, that’s when we see the changes. You can’t just
stand up in a room and say, “Now kids, we are going to de a
lesson on respect. Now respect is important because “yada
yada” and lets put some posters on the wall.” This
doesn’t work, especially in an environment where teachers
speak so disrespectfully to kids and to one another. How often
are we not walking the talk?
Kate: In other chapters in your book you talk about the role a
teacher can play as sympathetic witness to a student, and look at
the teachers’ role in creating emotionally safe schools.
Jane: A few years ago I did a book called Mentors, Masters, and
Mister McGregggor. It is a collection of stories about teachers
who made a difference in students’ lives. I started very
simply. I put tape recorder under everyone’s nose and asked,
"Who was the best teacher you ever had?” God help you
if you sat on a plane next to me because I asked everyone I met.
I asked the clerks at the hotel, if they weren’t busy. What
I got back were stories about teachers who not necessarily stood
up for the kid, but at least witnessed for them. Sometimes all
they did was say, “My door is open if you need me.” Or
teachers said, “I know your mom just died, I know
you’re having a hard time right now, or if you ever need to
talk, I am here.” A lot of times people gave me the feeling
that if it hadn’t been for that one teacher, that one little
bit of attention and caring, that kid would not have made it that
year. All it takes is one little acknowledgement. That is what I
mean by advocacy. You are not going to court for the kid. It
simply means you notice that child and you notice that kid in
distress. How many kids go through a divorce, go through some
family trauma in a small town where everyone in the town would
know what is going on, yet everyone ignores it and them. All it
takes is noticing a kid. Make that connection.
Kate: Josh’s question for you is, “What piece of
research or information do you want every teacher to know? What
do you want on their bumper stickers to help them be more
emotionally savvy teachers?”
Jane: Make a connection. It comes down to that. And make a
connection by listening. Make a connection by looking at kids
with your heart instead of with your grade book. Make a
connection. Part of it too is taking care of yourself, which
means screening out a lot of the negative press that we get.
Screening out the pressure we have on us for all things
quantifiable. So we can shut the door and connect with a kid in a
way that says, “You are where you are. I accept where you
are. I honor where you are. And I am here to go from where you
are to some place a little higher.”
Kate: One of the pieces I enjoyed about your book was the
discussion of what it meant to listen. The idea that listening is
different from sitting there waiting for your turn to answer. Did
you find many teachers lacked listening skills?
Jane: I don’t think many of us have had really good models
for that. It certainly is a skill I have spent most of my adult
life trying to develop and I still feel like I have a long way to
go on it. I have a list of non-supportive responses in one of my
other books. It includes giving advice, just dismissing it or
minimizing it, or making excuses for the other person. When I go
over those in a workshop with teachers –oh the groans I
hear. Everybody is saying, “Man, I do that all the
time.” We have not had that many models of people who
actually shut up when we are talking and hear what we have to say
without listening for an opening to getting to their agenda, or
tell us what we should do, or tell us that we are too sensitive.
At what point do I get to have the space to just feel, and be,
and express? I can’t do that in an environment where no one
is listening. The sad thing is how many adults say, “I
really want the kids to come to me, I want them to trust
me.” But how many roadblocks do we put up?
Jane: One of the skills I teach in my workshops is to start
asking questions and then shut up and listen instead of giving
advice. Use questions as a way to help guide the kid to a
solution. Ask the kind of questions that honor the kid’s
intelligence and ability to solve problems, and take
responsibility for his or her issues, while being there to
support them as they are trying to figure out what options are
available to them.
Kate: In preparation for this interview I looked at the
Department of Education’s Web site and found an Executive
Summery of George Bush’s Education plan. I want to read you
part of that plan. He says, “Increase accountability for
student’s performance. States districts and schools improved
achievement will be rewarded. Failure will be sanctioned. Parents
will know how well their child is learning and schools held
accountable for their effectiveness with an annual state math and
reading assessment in grade 3 and 8.”
Jane: I have a few problems with this. I have been in the
education profession for close to 30 years and I have never seen
morale as low as it is right now. When people ask, “What is
driving teachers out of the profession?” the one thing that
I see over and over again is this lust for test scores. I heard a
great quote, “You can’t tell the quality of the sheep
by how much it weighs.” And another quote, “The chicken
doesn’t get heavier just because you keep putting in on the
scale.” Kids don’t get smarter by testing, they get
smarter by teaching. And look at what they are testing; they are
testing only two of how many intelligences? What if the way a
child is smart happens to be in an area other than math and
reading?
Kate: In testing only two kinds of skills they are not getting a
picture of how prepared this individual is for life.
Jane: I don’t have a problem with the test. I have a problem
with that they do with the results.
A great test uses the results as a way of saying, “Okay,
Here is what I need to teach you.” What a great test. But,
what happens to teachers when kids that don’t test well?
Look at what has happened in schools where the sanctions have had
stakes like funding, promotion, and bonuses. I was in a school a
few weeks ago and teachers told me they are hearing teachers say
to kids, “Its your fault I didn’t get my bonus.”
Ok, tell me how that is going to raise the kids’ test
scores? This punitive approach means we are shifting the focus
off of teaching. What teaching really is about is starting
wherever the learner is and moving them forward, not punishing
that child because someone didn’t do a good job last year.
I am, quiet frankly, very nervous about what is happening in this
profession. I don’t know where we lost control. I don’t
have a problem with measurements and, at a fundamental level, I
don’t have a problem with accountability, when you make me
accountable for my behavior. But, when you make me accountable
for the performance of students who I’ve only worked with
for a certain amount of time, without the support of being able
to address their needs individually- that gets into the area of
severe dysfunction.
Kate: It is making you accountable for someone else’s
behavior, but their behavior in a very narrow field.
Jane: No question, no question at all.
Kate: You set aside teaching them the big picture and how to
think, and put that energy towards taking a test.
Jane: Exactly. I think the whole situation has gone out of
control and the kids and the profession are being hurt. We are
losing teachers. I have teachers telling me, “It is just not
fun anymore. I am not teaching.”
Teachers are so busy “covering content.” I love that
whole idea, “covering content.” What’s that got to
do with teaching? If you want to increase test scores, you start
where the kid is and move him forward. Build on current
knowledge, build on current strengths, build on their strongest
intelligences, and build on their preferred modalities. But, we
are still basically teaching like every kid in our school is
going to go into a factory when they get out. We don’t have
the kind of economy that standardized testing reflect. The whole
notion of standardization is a throwback to a time that basically
doesn’t exist any more, and hasn’t existed since the
mid 50s.
By the way, just throwing a bunch of computers or a bunch of
money at schools to get them online is not a way to prepare kids
when every other piece of our structure, our infrastructure, our
relationship structures, our energy dynamics, our power dynamics
are basically set up to turn kids out to work in a factory.
In so many ways this is the best time ever to be teaching. I said
that at the end of the book. One of the biggest challenges in
writing this book was not giving into the despair I feel when I
go out on the road and talk to teachers.
This should be such a good time to be a teaching. Think about how
much more we know about how people learn now. We are in such a
wonderful place to take advantage of this information and
actually create learners. I mentioned this whole thing of
covering content. This whole thing of “I have to get through
these 16 pages of math this week.” Well, if those 16 pages
are over the heads of the kids you are teaching, you may as well
be covering content in another language. Covering content is not
teaching. If all you want to do is cover content, you don’t
even need kids. Go on down to the bus station and cover content.
If your content is division, and I don’t know how to add or
subtract, you can cover that content until the cows come home. No
matter how beautifully you present it, no matter how wonderful
your materials are, if I don’t have the developmental
readiness, the experience, the skill foundation or whatever else
I need to make room and hang this new information on, you are
wasting your time and you are wasting my time.
Kate: This brings me to my final question. Hypothetically, you
have been assigned to be George Bush’s education advisor and
he assigns you to design the perfect school, the emotionally safe
school, and the school that is designed to create learners. What
would you do? What would you include in your dream school?
Jane: Firstly, Absolutely outlaw corporal punishment in school.
We must become more creative and positive in dealing with
discipline issues.
I would also I would throw out the idea of standardization. If
you have two kids in that school don’t you dare standardize
them unless they are clones.
Then, I would get rid of the current grading system, as we now
know it. If you are talking about accountability, do it in a form
of documentation that is actually more description, more
comprehensive, and would include things like work samples,
something more project-based. Use these kinds of experiences to
teach basic skills.
Teach skills through projects and hands-on experiences. Rather
than having everyone on the same page, bring in service learning
to teach social skills. Instead of teaching a lesson on social
skills, and then moving onto math, incorporate service learning
in the classroom.
Return to doing what we were doing about 40 years ago, teaching
to the whole child, teaching to the heart, teaching to the head.
Doing more interactive tutoring, and peer mentoring. Create
multi-age classes where activities are set up so that every child
can succeed and develop skills based on their personal needs.
Let kids move more. This is absolutely important. Bring in more
tactile, kinesthetic, sensory stimulation. More music, more
movement, more brain integration. Watch how many kids who are
being labeled hyperactive are suddenly not hyperactive anymore.
We can get rid of a whole lot of those labels if we get kids out
of their seats, moving around, interacting, talking, and using
all their senses in learning.
Develop better relationships between teachers, between teachers
and administrators, between teachers and parents, so that we
really do have a village, so that school is a caring community.
Right now we don’t have a caring community and we don’t
get caring by punishing non-caring. They don’t learn by
shame and they don’t learn by punishment and they don’t
learn by fear and they don’t learn by threats. And whatever
they do learn by fear and threats is not what we want them to be
learning.
We’ll just mail this off to George and see what he has to
say. I sent him a copy of the book.
Kate: Well, he wants to be the education president.
Jane: If you want to be the education president then how about
teaching the way people learn.
Kate: Thank you so much for your time
--
(I found this on www.sixseconds.org it is also here http://www.janebluestein.com/articles/interview.html)
For most of us, the word
“discipline” conjures up thoughts of reactive and
controlling measures for dealing with student misbehavior.
However, the model of discipline proposed in 21st Century
Discipline is an ongoing, proactive set of behaviors used to
create a cooperative environment which minimizes the likelihood
of negative, disruptive behavior. (This positive discipline
process can occur in any group—a classroom, department,
building or district.)
Consider yourself fortunate if you are working with teachers who
are already committed to a win-win discipline approach, such as
the one described in this book. They will make your job much
easier. These are teachers who assume responsibility for handling
misbehaviors that occur in their classrooms. They will see you as
a resource, not a rescuer, and will be far less likely to request
that you solve their discipline problems for them. In contrast,
teachers who use typical win-lose strategies frequently find
those techniques frustrating and ineffective for managing
conflicts with students, parents or other teachers, and may
frequently ask that you intervene.
The attitudes of win-win teachers are generally more positive
than their authoritarian counterparts; they and are also able to
provide an atmosphere that encourages growth and learning without
the stress and external control typical in a win-lose classroom.
By focusing on the connections between choices and outcomes,
these teachers help students take responsibility for their
actions and behaviors. As a result, their students are more
likely to exhibit initiative, independence, self-management and
an awareness of others’ needs than students in a win-lose
classroom, who often do only what is required to get by or stay
safe. Win-win teachers are also clear about their limits and
boundaries, and secure enough to encourage empowerment among
their students.
Yet, 21st Century Discipline can be quite a challenge for any
teacher unfamiliar with win-win management models. To generate
their commitment, these teachers first need to learn how 21st
Century Discipline can pay off for them. As often occurs in the
life of an administrator, your job will involve selling these
ideas to them, giving them good enough reasons to want to change
what, in many instances, will be deeply ingrained habits and
ideas.
If necessary, start with staff members who are most open to
change, perhaps those who have already indicated a commitment to
win-win objectives, if not the actual skill to reach them. Allow
their successes to be the invitation and inspiration for others.
These teachers will need information about effective adult
behaviors for achieving a variety of interactive goals. Your
support will encourage them to take risks and try new approaches
and will help build confidence in developing new techniques. Keep
in mind that implementing successful changes in the classroom
takes time and effort. A win-win focus involves rethinking,
relearning and retraining, and could take some teachers a number
of years to fully implement.
Beware of the difficulties inherent in attempting to require
across-the-board attitude changes or even implement any
particular discipline program school- or district-wide. Be
especially wary of programs that offer quick fixes or simple
formulas for managing or reacting to children’s behavior,
regardless of the amount of pressure you feel from your community
or staff.* Relationship building—the key to minimizing
discipline problems—is a process. Since so many of the
changes necessary in making a transition from industrial-age
beliefs and behaviors to those of an information-age model occur
at a very personal level—and on a very individual
basis—you probably won’t have much success attempting
to mandate the change or trying to establish 21st Century
Discipline as a uniform discipline code. (Adults aren’t much
different from kids when it comes to being told what to do,
especially if such mandates include directives about how to feel
or what to tolerate!) Work with your core group and anyone who
cares to join in and focus your energies on creating a school
climate in which 21st century, win-win interactions are likely to
emerge.
The strategies described in this book also apply well to adult
relationships. This may translate to letting go, or to sharing
some of your authority to involve teachers in decisions you may
have previously made alone. Empowered teachers, those who feel
they have input in decisions that affect them, have a greater
stake in—and are more likely to commit enthusiastically
to—the success and welfare of the organization.
As an administrator, begin to think of new ways to motivate,
empower, value, inspire and build commitment with your staff,
perhaps by:
• giving them opportunities to suggest topics and resources
for inservice and staff development programs
• presenting options for scheduling, room assignment or
grade level
• trying to accommodate staff members’ needs for input
and choice when making administrative decisions that concern them
• providing the most direct channels possible for access to
supplies, resource personnel and yourself
• modeling the beliefs, behaviors, language patterns and
attitudes you would like your teachers to adopt
• offering acceptance, feedback and support while
encouraging teachers to solve their problems themselves
• resisting the habit to get in the middle of—and
taking responsibility for—squabbles between kids and
teachers, even if that’s always been your job
• refusing to punish students for infractions you did not
witness
• helping teachers resolve conflicts with other staff
members or parents without assuming responsibility for the
solution of the problems
• encouraging the development or creation of a
reward-oriented school environment; helping teacher find ways to
increase the number of positive options they can offer to
students
• providing resources or support necessary to help teachers
develop success-oriented instruction and routines (make success
possible for students at a variety of ability levels)
• being visible in non-conflict arenas; visiting every
classroom, as often as possible, to offer feedback or just help
out finding something positive to say about every member of your
staff
• making time to regularly acknowledge the contributions
your staff members make (including casual, informal verbal or
written messages of recognition and appreciation)
• encouraging (not requiring) your staff to do the same for
one another
• using motivators and rewards to show appreciation,
recognize special achievements or just break up routines
• identifying and changing negative, reactive school
policies
• maintaining regular and positive communication with the
community
• taking care of yourself; learning to let go, delegate, set
and maintain boundaries
As you model cooperative interactions with students, parents and
staff, you will set the tone for the entire school. The payoffs
for you and the other adults in your building are considerable.
But in terms of learning, behavior and self-concept, the real
winners are the students.
From http://bluestein.com
Great Expectations: Good News for Beginning Teachers
by Jane Bluestein, Ph.D.
No one knows better than a first year teacher that the beginning
of the school year bristles with anticipation—and not just
for the kids. Yet, despite the excitement, the weeks before
school are often filled with unsettling thoughts: “Will I
ever be able to fill all those hours until lunch?”
“What if a parent comes to meet me and can only say,
‘You’re the teacher?!” “Am I going to be able
to keep the vows I made to myself to treat my students in a fair
and loving way?”
There can be many scary feelings to face just before your role as
“Teacher” becomes real. To put those worries in
perspective, take a moment and fantasize; picture your idea of a
perfect first year. Imagine how you want to feel, the climate you
create in your classroom and some of the ideals you have set for
yourself. This vision can be a big help in your personal
goal-setting process.
For example, most beginning teachers want to be competent and
creative in a classroom where students are inquisitive and on
task. They envision themselves as flexible and fun, enjoying
their job, respected by parents and looked upon as a valuable
addition by their school staff.
These are great expectations—and important ones. But it is
also important not to let your expectations put undue pressure on
you! Here are some suggestions to turn your beginning
teacher’s dreams into achievable goals.
I Want my Students to Behave
You know you have the ability to think of a
dynamic lesson and design a terrific bulletin board. It may be
difficult to feel as confident about managing a roomful of
students. There may be days when you will worry, “These kids
must not like me at all because if they did, they would never act
like this! What am I doing wrong?” Beginning teachers are
often torn between wanting to develop a friendly relationship
with their students and fearing that doing so will ultimately
undo their sense of authority. Not true! Your students need and
want to believe that you’re responsible and in charge, but
you can be very friendly, warm and personal and still be the
“adult” they need.
You can create a warm and positive climate in your classroom by
identifying and considering your students’ needs and
interests. You can meet students’ needs for belonging and
control by involving them in decisions that concern them, like
allowing them to choose which assignment to do first, or even
letting them choose a partner for a particular assignment. Simply
being able to make choices may give some of your students a real
boost of confidence and often improves the chances for
cooperation because it meets their need for control within limits
you determine. Plus, making choices is an important step toward
developing individual responsibility and decision-making skill.
Often beginning teachers feel insecure when other teachers walk
by their classroom or the principal passes by their kids in the
lunch line. Sometimes it’s hard not to panic and think,
“ I know I would look like a better teacher if my students
were not so noisy.” It’s true that part of your
competence as a teacher will be reflected by your students’
behavior, but certainly not all of it. Try not to jump to
conclusions or put a lot of energy into managing what other
people think of you. Your primary concern is the quality of your
relationships with your students and the overall climate in which
you and your students coexist.
A very important challenge for any teacher is the ability to
separate who your students are from the behaviors they exhibit,
especially their negative or disruptive behaviors. In other
words, can you still perceive a student as worthy of your
attention and care even though she forgot her homework again,
walked away from a mess he made or even said your assignment was
stupid? Your ability to recognize that the students are not their
behaviors will allow you to accept them without necessarily
accepting those behaviors.
Be sure that your students have plenty to do. Always have a set
of “emergency plans,” quick and easy backups for when
things don’t quite go as expected—or take as long as
you had hoped. Overplan! Undirected kids have a way of turning
time on their hands into classroom disruptions.
Finally, a classroom atmosphere that emphasizes responsibility
and cooperation, in which you model the positive behaviors you
would like them to demonstrate and attempt to meet their needs
for power and structure, tends to minimize the kinds of
resistance and opposition that lead to so many classroom
conflicts.
I Want my Classroom to Run Smoothly
Time management and classroom planning are
always more challenging for new teachers who are often dealing
with certain management issues for the first time. Policies
regarding school attendance and lunch count, home visits and
field trips are not necessarily things you would automatically
know (or even be expected to know), so ask! Everyone else had to
ask at some point, and being aware of important policies and
procedures will immediately make your life easier.
Another realization will help, too, on days that unexpectedly
turn hectic: It may be your students—not you—who are
being overwhelmed. Sometimes a great learning experience goes
down the tubes simply because the students do not have the
independence and basic learning skills necessary to do the work.
Don’t assume that your students have down pat skills such as
listening, using basic tools (like a ruler or even the pencil
sharpener), moving nondisruptively into small groups or putting
their materials away when they’re finished. While it may
seem time-consuming to have students practice these skills,
devoting time early on to practicing skills, routines and
behaviors your students will need to succeed in your class will
save all of you many hours and much grief later.
Even your own enthusiasm and creativity can be a problem at
times. One of the best things about new teachers is the
excitement, creativity and enthusiasm so many of them bring to
their work. And after collecting ideas and materials during your
teacher training, it’s hard not to want to try everything at
once. Nonetheless, being sensitive to the students’ needs
and energy can pay off in a big way. High levels of enthusiasm
may, at times, be too much for your kids to handle. On days when
children seem hyper, it may help to tone down your energy or
soften your voice. Be careful to avoid the tendency to present
too much too soon, offer too many activities at once or make too
many changes before your kids can handle them. Save some of your
more incredible activities for slower times, when they’ll be
appreciated and when your students have mastered the routines and
logistics they’ll need to succeed. You don’t want to
run out of steam in the first week!
Start slowly and simply. Establish a daily routine your kids can
handle. Leave room for some student decision-making, but be
careful to not overwhelm. Your students may not have much skill
or confidence with decision-making yet so avoid offering too many
choices, or choices that are too open-ended, at least in the
beginning. Responsible decision-making and self-management
requires certain skills and trust, which may take some time to
develop. Once you and your class feel comfortable with one
another and have some of the basics down, you can expand
available options.
Remember too, that you will always run into events you simply
cannot plan for or control. As the newcomer on staff, you may be
the one who has to cope with major changes, including the
possibility of room changes or even being moved to a different
class or grade level a few weeks into the school year. At the
very least you will have to accommodate new students, transfers,
pullouts, equipment failures and last-minute schedule changes.
This demands confidence, flexibility and, most important, a sense
of humor. Nobody likes these inconveniences, even seasoned
veterans. Hang in there and don’t hesitate to ask others to
share their specific strategies for coping with these problems.
I Want my Students to Succeed
Everyone needs to succeed. In order to take
the kinds of risks necessary to learn and grow, your students
must perceive that success is within their reach. This means you
need to learn a great deal about your students’ interests,
cognitive abilities and learning skills before simply presenting
content or assigning tasks. Yet with all the pressure to
“get through the curriculum,” it’s easy to forego
this important step. Nonetheless, if your intention is to
encourage all of your students to learn, grow and be successful,
you’ll need to start with them wherever they are—and
that’s likely to be different from one child to another. (To
be honest, if your intention is simply to cover content, you
don’t even need kids! Without assessing what they know and
what they need, you’re bound to be teaching over the heads
of some students, and boring others to tears, neither of which is
likely to result in academic growth.)
You may eventually want to vary your methods of instruction to
include small groups, learning centers, self-selection or
learning contracts, individualized assignments and
student-teacher conferences. Keep in mind that working with
different strategies will require various self-management skills
your students may not have yet developed (or, with older kids,
had a chance to practice for a while). While teaching these
skills may appear a rather challenging and time-consuming task,
keep in mind that the more independent and responsible your
students become early on, the more you’ll be able to
accomplish together all year.
Again, start slowly and keep things simple. Let your students
know when they may and may not come to you with questions and, if
you aren’t available to help, offer them the option of
asking a classmate or switching to a different task until
you’re free. Keep independent work and routines relatively
simple at first—things the kids can do on their own. While
some of these assignments may seem like busywork to you, remember
that your intention is building confidence, independence and
self-management. You’ve got a whole year to focus on
content! It takes time, energy and practice to establish these
skills and routines. As the students become better able to work
on their own, you will be able to make the work more meaningful
by increasing the variety of materials, the number of choices,
the amount of work required and the intellectual processes
required.
Use their mistakes as opportunities to teach, shape behavior or
encourage them to make different choices. Your patience and
persistence can encourage them to keep trying. Schools
traditionally have been very negative and critical, and many
people assume that we need to be this way or kids won’t
learn or take us seriously. Not true! In fact, a consistent focus
on errors and omissions, or a tendency to shame or humiliate
students (even in the misguided interest of improving their
performance or behavior) will undermine your attempts to provide
emotional safety and can ultimately restrict growth in all
students, not just in the one being criticized. Focusing on the
positive, even when it seems as though a student has done just
about everything wrong, allows you to build on the student’s
strengths—whatever they are! This approach can have an
extremely positive impact on the climate of your classroom.
When a child has turned in work that you know can be better, how
about telling her it’s a “great first draft,”
rather than scolding her for sloppy work? When another turns in a
story with many misspellings, punctuation errors, incomplete
sentences and no capital letters, how about noting the one thing
he got right (perhaps excellent handwriting or an interesting
title) instead of wearing out the red pencil marking every error?
Then defy tradition by using the mistakes as a basis for your
instruction—instead of a bad grade! Start with what
they’re doing well and teach them the rest! You may really
have to look for good points sometimes, but your positive focus
will be tremendously encouraging and appreciated.
I Want to be Accepted as Part of the Staff
Your sense of feeling accepted in your
school community plays a big part in your feelings about your
work. Establish your sense of belonging by blending in without
sacrificing your individuality. The transition from being a
student to being a professional is, to a large degree, a function
of how you see yourself. In relating to your principal, the
parents of your students and your peers, the greater your sense
of yourself as a professional, the more likely others will
perceive and treat you as one.
Respect the existing relationships and dynamics, but at the same
time be open and friendly. Initiate conversations, participate in
school and social activities, and gradually get to know
individuals. Be cautious in setting expectations, making demands
or imposing your values and priorities on others. Pay attention
to how much of your conversation is about you. Tune in to whether
you are consistently complaining about students, school policy,
other teachers or parents and how often you feel the need to
share the details of your classroom experiences and
accomplishments. Lack of confidence usually presents itself in
the form of justifications that suggest that “everyone seems
to know what they’re doing except me” or arrogance that
may sound something like “no one around here cares, works or
tries as much as I do.” Neither attitude is likely to
enhance a professional image or your relationships with others.
Likewise, neither is likely to be true.
Build a support system by identifying one or several members of
your staff with whom you feel capable of developing a close
working relationship. Approach people with a blend of confidence
and openness. You may be new and willing to grow, but you are
also a very capable person and you belong there as much as
anyone.
I Want to be Great!
As a student, or a student teacher, you
received feedback on a fairly regular basis. Suddenly as a
teacher you are much more on your own. While the autonomy can be
wonderful, the relative isolation can also lead to a loss of
perspective. Especially during the first year or two, you may
tend to judge yourself by presumed expectations of others, by
your students’ behavior or growth, or even by what other
teachers are doing. You may also find that your expectations for
yourself are higher than any that you’ve ever encountered
previously from external sources. Watch these tendencies, as the
feedback they offer may not only be inaccurate, but extremely
discouraging as well.
The teaching profession has historically expected initiates to
perform as competently (and independently) as veterans.
Understandably, new teachers often feel a tremendous pressure to
get everything going at once! Remember that running all of your
different programs, especially if you’re in a self-contained
classroom or working with a number of different preparations,
demands familiarity with the content and management of each
program, the development and preparation of materials and the
establishment of the learning skills necessary to function
successfully in each class. All of these take time. Ask more
experienced teachers for reality checks or suggestions for
pacing, prioritizing and implementing that will work for you.
If you need to take several weeks to build the independence your
students will need to participate in small groups, hold off
introducing complex logistics or programs until your kids are
ready. If you haven’t already stockpiled a roomful of
dinosaur “stuff,” decide whether you’ll feel
comfortable starting your unit with what you have. Throughout
your career, you will continue to amass resources and materials,
as well as skills and confidence. You don’t need everything
you will ever have on a topic to introduce a it to your class.
Most of all, try to resist the temptation to measure yourself
against other teachers. You may find yourself panicking at the
realization that the other fourth grade is 15 pages ahead of your
class in one subject area or another. Yet, this comparison is
rarely fair, for a number of reasons. For one thing, the other
teacher may simply be more familiar with the material after years
of experience with it, and may have devised a more-efficient set
of lessons and activities. Or perhaps your students needed some
preparation another teacher didn’t address, or your kids had
more questions. You may have decided to explore the topic in
greater depth or with more attention to individual needs. You are
not in a race with anyone, and the speed with which you sail
through the curriculum is by no means a measure of your
competence or your students’ degree of learning.
In striving to become the best teacher you can be, be careful not
to identify too closely with another teacher. Simply adopting
someone else’s teaching behaviors can rob you of the chance
to develop your own personal teaching style, a process that can
span your entire teaching career. What works for one person can
become a complete disaster if the behaviors don’t match the
intentions, personality or teaching styles. Try new things that
feel right to you, strategies that allow you to operate within
the bounds of personal comfort and integrity.
Also avoid measuring your success by your students’
successes. When your students have a good day, it’s easy to
walk away from work feeling quite the super-teacher. Yet when
they just can’t seem to grasp a concept, are restless beyond
belief or have made it painfully clear that school isn’t
where they want to be, does that mean it’s time to consider
dental school? Hardly.
There will be days when you come to work prepared to the teeth,
organized, dynamic and in a wonderful mood, and something—or
everything—still goes wrong. It’s never easy when this
happens, but there are silver linings in every apparent failure.
Instead of feeling guilty, resentful or inadequate, can you step
out of the picture and rationally look at what worked and what
didn’t? Consider a few different approaches for next time or
think about what your kids may need to know first before the same
lesson can go more smoothly. A bad day can be a great opportunity
to learn what works, to stretch in new directions or consider an
approach that might never have otherwise crossed your mind.
Use these opportunities to maximize your professional growth.
Good day or bad, start making notes on your lesson plans, unit
files or “to do” lists. Jot down the little things you
can do to make your lessons—or teaching life in
general—go better. Your notes might include “preview
the film,” “make flashcards for the new vocabulary
words,” “put the chart on darker paper,” or
“next time, remember to have enough scissors for
everybody.” This habit will not only help you develop your
powers of planning and anticipation, it will also help you avoid
similar mistakes the next time you teach that concept or unit.
Try keeping a journal to monitor your own growth, if only one
line a day on a calendar or datebook. At the end of each day,
write down at least one thing you felt good about, some concrete
evidence of your growth and development. You can use some of the
following examples taken from the journals of beginning teachers
who recorded short messages about their growth on a weekly basis:
“My self-control seems to be improving, I kept my cool
through a tough situation.” “I’m remembering to
get each child’s attention before talking.”
“I’m smiling more.” “I am feeling comfortable
with the faculty at my school. The teachers have become so
supportive, and I am becoming more confident as a teacher.”
“I don’t cry every day.”
And even if you get scared, frustrated, discouraged or
overwhelmed, remember this: as time goes on you will become more
organized, more efficient, better prepared and hopefully, more
satisfied. Teaching, like any other set of skills you’ll
ever tackle, is a developmental process. You’re not supposed
to be perfect yet!
Look for small steps every day, record your growth and go back
over your notes from time to time to see how far you’ve
come. Build your support network and don’t be afraid to ask
for help. And most important, make sure you take the time every
day to pat yourself on the back for the risks you have dared to
take and all the things you are learning to do well. Much success
and happiness to you!
From http://bluestein.com
"Punishing intolerance and disrespect is not a way to teach tolerance and respect. That is the model we have now. "
"You can’t just stand up in a room and say, “Now kids, we are going to de a lesson on respect. Now respect is important because “yada yada” and let's put some posters on the wall.” This doesn’t work, especially in an environment where teachers speak so disrespectfully to kids and to one another. How often are we not walking the talk?"
"Relationship building—the key to minimizing discipline problems—is a process."
"Since so many of the changes necessary in making a transition from industrial-age beliefs and behaviors to those of an information-age model occur at a very personal level—and on a very individual basis—you probably won’t have much success attempting to mandate the change or trying to establish 21st Century Discipline as a uniform discipline code. (Adults aren’t much different from kids when it comes to being told what to do, especially if such mandates include directives about how to feel or what to tolerate!)"
'They don’t learn by shame and they don’t learn by punishment and they don’t learn by fear and they don’t learn by threats. And whatever they do learn by fear and threats is not what we want them to be learning."
"You can create a warm and positive
climate in your classroom by identifying and considering your
students’ needs and interests."
The use of typical teacher-sounding words and terms like:
misbehavior
negative, disruptive
choices and outcomes
children’s behavior
on task
(See my thoughts on "disruptive" behavior)
She says "I Want my Students to Behave" - This mentality is hundreds of years old. The focus is on behavior. Not on feelings, thinking or even learning.
She also talks about "learning contracts". I strongly oppose these. (See this editorial )
"refusing to punish students for infractions you did not witness" - this quote from her article for administrators tells us she still believes in punishment. She doesn't say, "refusing to punish, period."
She uses the term "success-oriented instruction" but she I am afraid she sees "success" as basically high grades, which is not any different than what we have been doing for the past two hundred years or so. In that article she also says "I want my students to succeed" but who defines success? Society? The same society that produces teenagers who kill themselves?
She is still talking about the "creation of a reward-oriented school environment". She doesn't seem to be aware of or a fan of Alfie Kohn's work on rewards. He makes it clear that rewards have problems. And I say setting up a reward based behavior control system is like training dogs and dolphins, but has no place for developing individuals who have a mind and feelings of their own.
She says, "Overplan! Undirected kids have a way of turning time on their hands into classroom disruptions." I'd say the "kids" are way too controlled already. I say give them more free time. Time to talk about their feelings, solve problems and conflicts, talk about what is important to them. Time to just relax and social and be "kids" and teenagers. In the countries I have visited where students are happier and use less drugs than in the UK or the USA, for example, the students are more relaxed and have more freedom and more free time.
Here is a little word analysis:
She used the words "kid" or "kids" about 60 times in the interview and the two article I first posted here. She uses student/students about the same number of times.
She uses the words teen or teens just once, and never uses the words teenager or teenagers. What this tells me is she sees teenagers too much as "kids." She fails to distinguish between the two very different groups of people.