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Inspired
Teacher
Blog
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Tell Me Something
Learning how to create safe spaces for students to share their thoughts and feelings can be a challenge when you have so much else to accomplish in a class period. But there are some simple things you can do to make great strides in that direction.
Read (and respond to) the Blog.
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Center for Inspired Teaching is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that exists to ensure schools make the most of children's innate desire to learn. We do this by investing in teachers. Please visit our website to learn more about our philosophy, programs, and results.
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How well should I know my students?
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On any given school day chances are pretty good that you spend more of your waking hours with your students than you do with your friends or your family. Strangely, there are rules of professional etiquette that seem to require a completely different set of communication skills for interactions with our students than we exhibit with our peers. Certainly the relationship between you and your students should be different from that of your friends and family, but perhaps there shouldn't be as many differences in the ways you communicate. For example:
- With students we're expected to fill every minute of classroom time with content and standard driven instruction. We're expected to know how well they're going to do on a test but not how well they're doing at home. With friends and family the expectations are exactly the opposite.
- We consider our class respectful when students are quiet in the hallways and obedient to the rules of the school. But do we hold them, and do they hold us, to the same expectations as our friends and family who show us respect by inquiring about our feelings and helping us when we are in need?
- You probably know every intimate detail of a close friend's family troubles, and how those troubles are causing him or her difficulty in staying focused at work. What can you do to find out if the "lazy" or "unfocused" students in your class are going through something similar?
Talking with your students, inviting them to share their lives in journals, listening to their conversations, and creating classroom discussions that enable them to air their personal thoughts - all of these activities are intimidating in the classroom because they are likely to generate answers that aren't in the book. Learning about the lives of our students and truly growing to respect them as individuals opens us up to caring about them the same way we care about our friends and family.
But you are spending many, many precious hours of your day with your students so it's worth considering what YOU can gain from spending those hours with people who are more than numbers in a grade book.
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INSPIRED TEACHER HOMEWORK:
What do you do to get to know your students? Please send Jenna a short description of your strategies. If your idea is selected for inclusion in the next newsletter we'll send you some great Inspired Teaching gear!
Email: jenna@inspiredteaching.org
Last Week's Inspired Idea:
We asked teachers to share a strategy they used to "warm up" their classes. Heidi Dupler had this to say:
"When I taught first grade..we stretched before reading and did dances after long periods of sitting..helped a lot I think!"
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Three Part Listening
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This is a conflict resolution strategy but it is also a useful introduction to literacy discussions about author's tone, purpose, audience, etc.
Click here to learn more.
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Journaling Activities
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No matter your grade level, no matter your subject, journal writing is a great way to connect with your students' lives and understand the ideas and issues they bring to your class.
Click here to learn more.
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Teacher Resources
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Active Listening
This article and its many links talk about the skills and steps required for demonstrating true "active listening" for, with, and among your students.
Trust and Trust Building
This essay from the organization "Beyond Intractability" offers scientific viewpoints on trust, trust building, trust breaking, and trust rebuilding.
Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior
These 110 rules George Washington copied down as a school boy could provide fertile ground for a deeper conversation about rule making and why rules exist. Is it necessary to have 110 rules? Could the spirit of these rules be summarized in just a few? Are these rules from the 1600's applicable to life in 2007?
Mark Your Calendar for Smithsonian Teachers' Night
Friday, November 14
Teachers of all subjects and grade levels can find new classroom-ready resources and attend demonstrations led by Smithsonian educators at the Smithsonian's annual resource expo for educators. Smithsonian Teachers' Night takes place at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery,
whose programs are collectively known as the Donald W. Reynolds Center
for American Art and Portraiture, above the Gallery Place-Chinatown
Metrorail Station. Entrance to Smithsonian Teachers' Night is free, but you must register on the website. For more information and to register, visit www.teachersnight.org.
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