Today, we bring you a new episode from Berit Gordon's year-long series for new or newer teachers on the Heinemann Podcast. Berit, author of The Joyful Teacher: Strategies for Becoming the Teacher Every Student Deserves, shares tips for practicing routines with your students, even at the secondary level.
Transcript
Berit Gordon:
One tip that I give, especially teachers with slightly older students, let's say grades 5 and up, is very often we think, "You're 12 or you're 16, you should know how to enter a classroom." But one thing I remind them is when students are not doing something, even if we're faking it like mad, we sort of say, "Oh, let me teach you what it looks like to come into my room. Let me teach you what it looks like to talk to a partner and to physically turn your body toward them and to keep your mouth closed when they're talking. So you're not just thinking of what you want to say next. Or what it looks like to take out your AirPods and have something to write with."
And when we explicitly practice those routines with students, we're giving them the grace to come in and feel comfortable knowing exactly what we expect and to practicing it with them not like a drill sergeant. But with a smile, with a wink and a nod. Like, great, let's line up. Let's do it again. And when we explicitly practice those routines with students, it's a gift to them and it's a gift to us because they are more likely.
And the other reason I think that's such an important foundation when we're looking at management is to explicitly teach those routines is that when we have done it, and I do suggest doing it in a playful way as much as possible, even letting them call out reminders to you as you feign coming in and not knowing what to do. Or with younger students, I'll put the steps on sentence strips and mix them up, "Put them in the right order." And then once we practiced it with them, then we can say, if they are still struggling to come in, let's say, and get seated and transition to the work in a short amount of time, then I like to say, "Anything we're not yet doing, it just shows me we need more practice." I'm not being mean. I'm not setting up a conflict. I can just say, "That just tells me we need more practice. How many times do you think you need to practice this routine again?"
And I'll practice it with them until I feel like I'm losing the good faith of my highly compliant students. When they start getting frustrated, I'll just say, "That's okay. Some of you are still struggling, not a big deal. Not going to ruin my day. Shouldn't ruin yours. That's okay. You're just going to come practice that X time." And again, I'm not getting into a power struggle, but very often I need to create that little bit of extra time and practice for some of my students. And that time has to sting a tiny little bit. It can't be, you get out of your math test. It might be coming in at the end of recess and practicing that routine. And very often they do need that one-on-one time with me, they do need that sort of isolated practice, but it just reinforces this message, "Anything that we don't yet have in place, we just need more practice."
Typically, I find by the next day, I'm not having to give any reminders. So I do believe when we're thinking about instilling routines in our classroom, making sure that we've explicitly taught them and practiced them and made sure students know exactly how to be successful in our classroom.
I don't believe there is one way to teach well. There are many ways to teach well that will be true to themselves, but we all need some help with those hard parts of teaching so that they're not getting in the car exhausted at the end of the day. And in fact, that's one mini tip that I have for new teachers is when you get in the car, embrace neuroplasticity, which is really helping our brain form new synapses. And if we get in the car and do what I tend to do, what my nature wants me to do is I want to think of everything that didn't happen. All of the deficits, the plan that I never finished, the work that I'm still waiting to grade and return to students, a conversation that maybe I didn't navigate very well.
And a habit that we can try to do to form different pathways in our brain that will help us be a better teacher and feel better about teaching is to simply ask ourselves, "What's one thing I did today that helped students?" And to take note of it and to do our best to stop there and not follow it up with the million things that didn't happen. And even when we get home, say that same thing to whoever you go home to. Your partner, your cat, your plants, it doesn't matter. Say that so that we're strengthening those habits because we want to do the same thing for students. We want to help them notice what do you have in place, and then bit by bit what can you do from there. But not just working on this deficit model because it doesn't help students.
Edie:
Thanks for tuning in today. Please be sure to check out all the episodes in this series. New episodes drop the first Monday of each month. To read a full transcript, visit blog.heinemann.com. And for 30% off any Heinemann professional book, use code PROFBKS30P.
About the Author
Berit Gordon brings many years of teaching experience in New York City schools as well as in the Dominican Republic to her literacy coaching work. She is a graduate and former instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Berit is the author of No More Fake Reading, which offers solutions for boosting stamina, joy, and skills among adolescent readers. Whether running workshops, leading literacy coaching sessions, or working in classrooms, Gordon strives to help students fall in love with reading and writing, and to lay the groundwork so they are experts at both for life. She lives with her family in Maplewood, New Jersey.
You can connect with her on her website at BeritGordon.com.
