Monthly Archives: August 2011

“T – 1″: First Impressions on Parents and Students

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Residents of Southeast Asia understand typhoons. As the winds pick up, people in the community scramble to secure windows, haul terrace furniture inside, and stock up on food.

The pre-service week has been a typhoon of activity, with my focus shifting to and from classroom arrangements, organizational details, school-wide goals, and often-unanticipated “stuff”.

“T minus 1″ is Orientation Day. Parents and students come to the classroom and introduce themselves. Even though I’ve just been through a pre-service week typhoon, I must appear poised, professional, and approachable.

Over the years, I have learned some tricks to making a good first impression.

1. Send out letters in advance
I was raised to not talk too much about myself (I’m still struggling with the “About Me” page of this website). But parents and students want to know something about me.

Fortunately, I’m a writer, and I can share information about myself in letter form. I email one Parent Letter and one Student Letter. I’ve heard of teachers sending postcards – which students love to receive. I would probably send postcards to lower elementary students.

The goal of the parent letter is to establish trust and connect with parents personally. I love it when the mothers share that they, too, are writers and when fathers ask me about my favorite golf courses in India.

The student letter should build students’ anticipation about the year. They’ve seen previous fifth graders march through school in Civil War uniforms – they can’t wait to have their turn. Everyone loves camp week. I inform students about other things they can look forward to experiencing.

2. Give parents an activity so that you can talk with students.
Computers are ready so that parents can double-check their emergency contact information and update personal contact details. Parents add their names to an emergency phone tree (those at the top of the “tree” are willing to call three to four other parents, as necessary). Finally, they consent (or do not consent) to allowing us to share their email addresses with other parents who want are planning birthday parties and such.

While parents accomplish those tasks, I chat with students. I want to learning about their summers, their pets, their summer reading, and their hobbies.

3. Give students an activity so that you can talk with parents.
I like to see which students can independently follow multi-step directions. I have an Orientation Day Checklist ready for each student. One important 5th grade reading skill is the ability to follow multi-step directions. Students are anxious to impress me with their reading ability and independence.

While students are working through the checklist, I ask parents about their summer, their levels of jet lag, and their transitions to Hong Kong (this is especially important to discuss with new families).

4. Empathize with the “typhoon” the parents now experience.
I suppose Orientation Day is the day that the typhoon begins for parents. Were they ready to provide their children’s emergency contact information? Have they correctly identified their children’s bus numbers? Have they purchased the correct uniforms?

I also realize that, In the expat community, a good number of parents are overcoming jet lag or are in the throws of culture shock.

The parents and students want to make good first impressions on me as much as I want to make leave good impressions with them. Like many teachers, parents and students may lose sleep in the excitement and anxiety of a new school year.

We’re all in this together.

5. Authentically and personally connect with students and parents the first week.
With students, I try to state a specific, personal observation on the first full day of school. Some of my phrases include the following:

  • “I notice how you… Thanks for that.”
  • “You look like the kind of reader/writer/learner/student who… I’m so glad to know that.”

When I make those connections and make the students smile, I send a quick email to parents (sometimes a phone call). This helps assure them that their child is happy and that I am getting to know their child as an individual. In the email, I also thanks and acknowledge parents’ input from the Parent Letter. I want parents to know that their input is appreciated.

As student and parents feel comfortable, the typhoon of worries dissipates.

Maurice Elias has similar ideas for beginning the year well with students and parents. What strategies do you have for making students and families feel comfortable at the start of a school year?

“T – 2″: Preparing for the Extra Duties

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At “T minus 2″, I begin sifting through the calendars and emails about upcoming meetings, lunch duty schedules, curriculum planning updates, and more.

As I enter dates into my plan book and Google calendar, I remember the year that I was a substitute teacher. I arrived at 7:30 and left at 3:30 with all papers graded, plans for the next day solidified, and specific anecdotal notes on the progress of each child. I often wondered, Why is it that, when I teach full time, I stay until 5:00 and never feel caught up?

This post is a stream-of-consciousness post to try and understand the reasons.

Meetings (Estimated time: 3 hours per week)
Teachers often have at least two other weekly meetings. Teams or grade levels meet weekly for “business” stuff. In a data-driven school, teams and grade levels meet regularly to analyze student work and discuss implications for future instruction.

Regular faculty meetings build upon the pre-service meetings and grade-level meetings. Faculty meetings are also used to vertically align grade-level curriculum and instruction. What did the grade levels see as they analyzed student work and student data? Based on these analyses, what can we conclude about the strengths and weaknesses in our programs? What are the implications for future instruction? Future professional development?

Then there are the work meetings after the meetings. Based on the analysis of student work, teams might decide they need to gather more resources or research in a particular area. They need time to discuss and digest the new information. Following professional development meetings, teachers prepare classrooms for instructional changes. And, teachers need to plan for new assessments so that they are prepared for the next round of student work and student data analysis.

Curriculum Planning (Estimated time: 3 to 4 hours per week)
Sometimes I miss textbooks. When I taught with textbooks, my plan book listed page numbers and outcomes. Admittedly, my students became really good at reading and answering questions. Here is an example of what students left knowing: The Montillation of Traxoline. Poor kids. I wish I could do those first years over.

Now, every unit is focused on Essential Questions and Enduring Understanding. Each lesson has a teaching point anchored to a standard or benchmark. Common assessments are created. Materials need to be gathered. Lessons should be differentiated.

The good news is that we do all this planning in teams. The bad news is that these planning sessions take time – both to organize a unit and to collect (and sometimes write) materials.

The Email Trap (Estimated time: 5 to 6 hours per week)
My inbox by priority:

  1. Emails from parents
  2. Emails about meetings
  3. Emails about school procedural stuff (overseas ordering, laminator update, duty schedules, etc.)
  4. Email feeds for blogs I regularly read (the extra click to the RSS feed is too easily forgotten or pushed aside)
  5. My poor husband and friends (they know to send an SMS if something needs an immediate read)

Duties (Minimal, but significant)
My current school is a dream – I have one lunch duty every couple of weeks. That said, I notice when I miss that 20 minutes of prep time. How did I survive in schools where I had daily recess and lunch duties? What got pushed aside in the schools where I didn’t have a teaching assistant to do my copying and my bulletin boards? These duties can add anywhere from 2 to 6 hours per week.

Helping others (Estimated time: 1-2 hours per week)
I’m so thankful that “helping colleagues” is a natural part of my team’s culture. Colleagues and I discuss everything from student concerns to technology updates to curriculum short-cuts, and more. We share professional books. We look over student work and discuss lessons that go awry. We share resources. My students benefit from my discussions with colleagues – but the discussions happen during prep time.

The Stuff That Goes Wrong (2-3 hours per week)
It happens. The laminator film runs out. Technology crashes. Students have meltdowns. Stuff happens. Expect it.

Reflection
The principals at my school do their best to eliminate roadblocks that suck time from planning, instruction, and assessment. The lack of extra duties is a testament to that. I feel truly blessed with about six hours of prep time per week.

I’m not sure what else could be eliminated. Even with teacher aids and minimal duties, teachers clock roughly 14 work hours per week apart from direct contact with students.

I am at school. It is 6 pm. I haven’t even started grading papers or prepping lessons…

“T – 3″: Zooming in and Zooming Out of Teacher Meetings

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Students arrive in three working days.

The only thing I want to do is work in my classroom. But there are meetings. Obligatory attendance. Would admin know if I skipped?

I admit these feelings as a trained administrator, knowing the importance of the pre-service meetings. If I were to write objectives for the meetings we have had, they would be as follows:

  • Build a positive school-wide and divisional culture
  • Inform both veteran and incoming faculty of the annual school-wide goals
  • Create vision for how faculty and staff fit into the aforementioned goals
  • Review policy and procedures, making sure all teachers hear the same message and can communicate the same message to the parent community
  • Build knowledge of assessment practices
  • Demonstrate how teachers can access student learning data from previous years
  • Teach teachers about new hardware and software
  • Discuss and set protocol for meetings (updating policies and procedures, with teacher input)

Then there are grade-level meetings, the objectives of which are as follows:

  • Establish a feeling of “team” and a culture of trust. Both are important for a Professional Learning Community
  • Set up meeting protocols
  • Examine the first units of the year, striving for alignment of student learning objectives
  • Assign “extra duties”, deciding teams of teachers who will plan units, lead out in camp planning, grade-level transitions, and more
  • Share ideas and resources

And, there are ad hoc meetings that

  • Further educate teachers on the use of technology
  • Check-in with new teachers and their mentors
  • Further inform grade level leaders and curriculum leaders of the divisional vision for the year, establishing protocols and timelines for how the school-wide goals will be accomplished.

Every year, teachers believe they do not have enough time in their classrooms – it takes me roughly 8 to 16 hours to set up a classroom. Every year, administrators do their best to consider the necessity of classroom set-up with the desire to move a school forward in terms of strategic plans. Could some of these meetings be eliminated? The objectives are sound.

I suppose it’s a bit like the book Zoom, where the focus begins in one small place and expands. As the focus expands, the reader sees where all the pictures “fit”. In the context of pre-service school, we zoom into our classroom, then we zoom out to see the bigger school-wide goals, then we zoom back in to see how we fit into those goals. Zoom in – zoom out. Repeat.

“T – 4″: Thinking Through Organization of Students and Their Supplies

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Once the bigger pieces of furniture are in order, I begin working on the finer details. Specifically, I ask myself What processes can I put into place the will expedite student movement from one activity to another?

Teaching time is precious. If students take more than a minute or two to transition from one activity to another, a teacher can lose hours of important instructional time.

Quick student groupings
Each student desk has a letter and a color affixed. I will quickly group students into groups of five or six by saying I’d like all the A’s here, B’s, there…. I can get them into groups of four or five by color by saying Reds go here, purples go there…

In contrast, student name tags are not affixed to student desks. Instead of moving student desks, I move name tags. In this way, students will experience different color and letter groups as the year progresses. Even if the arrangement of desks changes and/or name tags are switched, each child will have a specific letter and a specific color group.

Eliminating Loose Paper
Another way teachers lose instructional time is by passing out and collecting paper. Students rummage in desks and backpacks looking for required sheets. A couple systems will keep supplies together.

Math Baskets: Each student has a magazine holder full of materials. Materials include their math workbook, math textbook, measuring tools,  a loose paper folder, an erasable white board, a white board marker, and a yellow writing journal for open-ended math questions.


Plastic Zipper Bags for Literacy Supplies: The plastic zipper bags hold students’ independent reading books, their writing journals, their reading journals, a pen, and any loose paper we happen to pass our during a lesson (a rare occasion – but it happens). These zipper bags go from home to school in backpacks.

Online Reading Logs: I want to keep track of students’ reading, but I don’t want to send home paper logs. Here is a screenshot of a Google Spreadsheet that I use:

Each student has his or her own sheet. The sheet is locked so that only the one student (and I) can edit a particular sheet. Also, Google Spreadsheets have revision histories so that information is never permanently lost. Individual student names (below the blue bar) have been omitted for privacy reasons.

Name Labels: The quickest and easiest way for students to get names on supplies is to use name labels. I put large labels on the math baskets, reading cubbies, and backpack cubbies before the year begins. Students have a whole sheet of small labels (with their first names only) that they affix to their homework planner, their literacy plastic zipper bag, their loose paper folder, their pencil box, math and reading journals, or anything else that might need a name.

Student Data Notebook: Everything confidential goes in this binder, which is labeled “General Info.” Each fall, we receive student data on reading and writing levels, we get reports from nurses about health issues, we get notes important notes from parents. The section of the binder I use most is the “passwords” section. Students have their own school accounts as well as accounts with Voicethread, Renzulli, KAZ Typing, andEveryday Math. As much as I warn them to make each password the same (and not share it with anyone), some children will inevitably forget their passwords. I keep them all on sheets to which I can refer.

Prepping the Common Area for Assigned Floor Seating: Before the 1:1 computer program, I didn’t mind if students sat by reading and writing partners in hodge-podge order. Now, I like students to sit in rows for two reasons. First, student are able to “turn and talk” quickly – with their knees facing their partner. Second, once everyone is seated, students can put their laptops on the floors and teachers can still walk between them.

To create “walk room”, I have students line themselves up horizontally with a color and vertically with a number. Eventually, students will be assigned seating with reading and writing partners. Rather than running to a favorite spot or sprawling on the floor, each child will now have a spot on the grid to which they can immediately walk.

Structure Balanced with Differentiation
Why so much structure? Shouldn’t students be allowed choice, freedom, and play? Throughout the year, students will choose what they write. They will choose what they read. Math homework will be differentiated. Since most of my instruction is differentiated, I find classroom structure particularly important. Am I set up so that students can quickly transition when asked to do so? Do they know how, where, and when to find the materials they need? Can they move safely without the danger of hurting a person or an expensive piece of equipment?

What do you think? Is the balance right? What structures do you have in place?

Before the Students Arrive: T – 5

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Today was “T Minus 5″. Students arrive in five working days.

Two feelings: chatty and overwhelmed.

Importance of Chat
Each school year begins with faculty and staff assemblies. I look over a sea of roughly 300 people, about a third of whom I know fairly well. I want to hear about their summers. I want them to expand on their Facebook updates – all the fun stories they didn’t post.

I think the importance of beginning-of-year chat is underestimated. While stories of summer escapades do not immediately enhance student learning, the shared stories build community. A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is built upon teachers who trust one another. If my colleagues trust me enough to share the “unpublished” versions of summer stories, they will probably trust me enough to debate important issues later in the year.

Expat institutions can expect a flood of new teachers every year. Chat time allows me to get to know them as people before I get to know them as professionals.

The Overwhelming
I estimate it takes anywhere from 8 to 16 hours to set up a classroom well. I can set up a room in eight hours if I have a teaching assistant to do bulletin boards and my classroom library is in relatively good order.

My one and only performance goal this first day is to make my classroom look more ready than it is. “Looking ready” means this: desks and furniture arranged, bulletin board background material and borders are up, my bookshelves look neat, and other messes are hidden.

First impressions matter. If an administrator or parent enters the classroom, they’ll think I’m ready to go. Also, I need uncluttered space to do my more complicated thinking about classroom management, student placement, and planning.

Classroom at the end of Preservice Day 1
Total work hours to set up classroom: 5

Desks are arranged so that students can have guided conversations the first few days. Also, I spread them out for easy student movement throughout the room. No name tags yet - just keeping it simple.

The common area is open. Bulletin boards in the background are the same as they were last year (I covered them with paper before I left the previous June).

Bookshelves look tidy - but that is an illusion. My students will re-organize the books during their first week back. The purple board will remain empty so that I can hang lesson anchor charts. Carts on the left will house students' computers.

My desk is in the back of the room with bookshelves and shelves for extra student supplies.

Other Organizational Considerations

School parents pay for school supplies as part of their tuition. I put supplied in plastic pencil boxes - one box for each student.

Extra supplies are kept in the back of the classroom. When students find items on the floor, they put the "lost" in these bins. When students find something missing from their personal pencil box, they go to these bins to get what they need. Students no longer search in their desks for long periods of time or ask me for extras.

I don't allow students to sharpen pencils during class (it interrupts my teaching or students' trains of thought). If a pencil is dull or broken, it goes in the blue container and the student grabs a freshly sharpened one. Each morning, one group of students is responsible for sharpening all pencils in the blue container.

As student supplies arrive (items on the left), I begin piling them up along a line for distribution later. As parent reading materials arrive (the piles to the right), they are also stacked for later distribution).

I cannot overstate the importance of staying late the first day to finish these “big” pieces of furniture arrangement. Very soon (if not already), the meetings and extra duties will begin.

What are your classroom arrangement tricks? Organizational tips?