Attendance... or lack of it

Last year was an interesting year for some of the secondary teachers in the project.  When it came to thinking about a student that they wanted to really work with -- they were often students who did not attend regularly.  When you choose these students who desperately need you to focus on them, it is more difficult because the students are not there to build a relationship with, and when they do attend, the teacher often feels like they have to spend that time 'catching them up'.

We know there are lots of reasons students stop attending regularly, or never begin to attend regularly.  At secondary some of the students have just given up.  They want to get through school but until now it has not been a very positive experience, so they lack hope that attending will help them.  For others it is the chaos in their lives. Perhaps they are hungry, or drinking too much; perhaps they are easily swayed by peers to stay away or are just not in any type of environment that makes getting to school a priority.  For others it is the anxiety of actually attending school that keeps them away.

Whatever the reasons, some of the secondary staff started to try to draw some of their kids back to school.  Gordon Neufeld, in his book "Hold onto Your Kids" says "... what fundamentally empowers a teacher to teach is the student's attachment to her.  Children learn best when they like their teacher and they think their teacher likes them.  The way to children's minds has always been through their hearts"  (p. 212).  He goes on to talk about 'wooing' children, or 'collecting them'.  He gives this advice to both parents and teachers: the need to keep up the relationship, be involved, and be in their face or space in positive ways.

What we observed last year was a group of teachers doing exactly that.  Teachers who decided that in some way they were going to convince their students that they wanted them in the class, that they missed them when they were not there, that they believed in them, and needed them for the class to be complete.  In some of these cases, their classrooms for sure were more peaceful when the student was absent - but they didn't let that stop them!

Through social media, phone calls, emails, walks to the smoke pit, or walks that took them even further away, teachers attempted to give their students a positive message of 'I miss you' or "I hope to see you in class today' as well as often a second or third message - "here is a heads up on what is coming up tomorrow so you are ready" or "remember that this is due, if you need help come in before school", or a message that connected with something they knew about the student such as the following message a teacher sent a student who loved Justin Bieber:

Creativity and humour seemed to go along way!   A personal connection showing the student that the teacher cared made a difference.

When students are at-risk of not completing school, attendance issues are huge.   We can throw up our hands and say "If they aren't going to attend there is nothing I can do -- it is their problem".  Or we can do what these teachers did: attempt to look from the student’s point of view at their anxiety, at their feelings of not belonging at school, at their lack of hope, and then make that extra effort to convince them to come back.

by Judith King

Puppet Power: The Teachable Moment

Earlier this week we had a guest performer present a puppet show to the whole school in the gym.  What an unexpected and awe inspiring treat!  The performer was a world class talent and his show was without any "flash" just him and his puppets, some as simple as just his hands and a cloth.  The whole school was engrossed in his unique creative storytelling; it was incredible.

We saw this before recess so I quickly scrapped the original day plan and gathered materials for making puppets from the art room.  I'd seen in a magazine a kids craft for spoon puppets that I remembered after having seen the puppet show.  So a handful of plastic spoons, some felt scraps, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, felts.. and we were off.  I showed the kids some examples from the magazine picture.  That's all they needed! They were thrilled to be making puppets and wanted to make more and have fun with them.  Some of them are so creative, and it really was impressive to see what they came up with.

The next day we finished making our puppets and got into groups to write a short play to be performed with their puppets.  We had a class discussion about our target audience to consider while we were writing our scripts, (the grade ones) and what that might mean for how we structured our writing.  We then discussed the goal of the story: to teach a positive lesson to the grade ones.  We brainstormed a list of about 10 ideas, things like: include don't exclude, sharing, name calling/kindness, etc and wrote these on the board to refer to.  They were then given time to write their scripts together.  There was total engagement, and they were happy to be working on this project.  They practiced the show when they were done.

The students performed their show for the class and then we invited the grade ones to come join us and watch the positive lessons the big kids had to teach them. The show went well and we performed for both grade one classes.

It was an unexpected teachable moment that led to several really good classes for our students.

Post courtesy of Kent Percevault

Community Teaching

This is my favourite teaching tool.   It can be used in so many different ways.  Here is one example:

Step 1: Students are taught a concept (in this case it was chores at home for FSL 12)
Step 2: Students are told to create a lesson plan...they need to teach the concept to people in the community.
Step 3: Students go on main street in different locations in their groups...they each take a large whiteboard and markers....

Task:
They have to survey 10 people.
- they first need to teach the people what the phrase "qu'est-ce que vous n'aimez pas faire" means
- they then need to teach the people (with visuals) 8 or so french vocab words (chores)
- they then teach the people how to respond by saying, "i don't like to....+ word"

**They ask the people if they can take their picture for proof to show me, or collect a signature

I also have had students go onto main st. with their group and teach people how to conjugate irregular verbs.  They use their whiteboards to demonstrate, and then have the people try it themselves!

Post courtesy of Lindsay Anderson

Math on the Move (Math 9)

After a lesson on determining the height of objects using similar triangles and shadows I decided it was time to venture forth into the wilderness (or more exactly, the school field).  After a review and some confused questions from a couple of my students we set forth.  Armed with a tape measure, paper and pencil students were asked to determine the height of the flag pole, the height of the north-west corner of the fence around the tennis court, and the height of the statue in front of the school.

Luckily it was sunny so finding our shadows was successful, although for some reason some groups got a more accurate idea of their height when they laid down!  Every group appeared engaged in the lesson and every student was able to turn in their own copy of the results.  A short discussion regarding similar units helped to clarify some of the confusion regarding different answers between groups.

It was interesting to see who took control of the tape measures, who recorded the information and which students were confident in their computation skills and took control of the calculator.  Also, interesting was the speed in which some groups asked for help and the reluctance on the part of some groups that were having some problems in wanting to ask for help (and no, they were not all males!).

All in all, a successful lesson that I felt showed the relevance of the math in an enjoyable way.

Post courtesy of Dave Killick

Effective Strategies for Secondary Students At-Risk (Part I)

Last  year, teachers in the different lens project followed and completed case studies for 37 students at the secondary level.  While of course all students are different and not every strategy applies to every situation, here are 3 successful strategies that appeared over and over again throughout the teacher reflections.

1.  Establishing Positive Relationships:  Establishing a positive relationship with the student was reported to be the most important strategy in working with students at risk socially or academically.  Teachers did this in multiple ways:  meeting and greeting the student, attending sporting events that the student was participating in, and making personal connections by talking about the student's interest. Teachers also tried sending students reminders through texting, facebook, or phone calls, advocating for them in meetings where the student could hear the teacher talk about them in positive ways and offer support, building trust with them, encouraging them to attend, and encouraging them to try something a different way, building a team of teachers around the student so the student knew there were a number of them supporting him/her, showing tolerance for unusual behaviour, and following up on issues and concerns.

• I always used him as an example in analogies – it gave him the attention he needed.  (gr. 9)
•I advocated a lot for her – I sat in on admin meetings, counselor meetings etc., made a tremendous amount of accommodation in partnership with the alternate teacher.  (gr. 11)
•I made a point of talking to him each day he was in class at the start.  Nothing even school related… we started to develop a good relationship that helped in the classroom. (gr. 12)
•I had informal interactions in the hallway and before/after class.  I felt he liked/respected me – he brought me a novel of his own because he thought I would enjoy it.  (gr. 10)
•The more I talked with him, the better his behaviour became. (gr. 9)
•For one month we had success as she linked to a short term peer tutor that had a link to her socially in the community. (gr 11)
•After he returned to class with his leg injury, I made a point of asking him about his leg, his rehab, physio etc. every day I saw him.  I think that connection was huge in our relationship development.  He became much more pleasant, and more focused on getting his work completed and handed in. (gr 12)
•I made an effort to check in with her to find out how she was doing.  I made sure she was aware of timelines, schedules and important due dates.  I strongly believe that the simple conversations about her daughter increased the relationship between her and I.  We realized that our children were in the same daycare facility which opened up dialogue between us.  (gr 12)

2.  Giving Choice and Creative Options that build on student strengths / interests and passions:

Many teachers reported that part of the success with their students was due to either teaching in different ways, or allowing students to respond in a variety of ways.  Teachers gave choice on assignments and students responded by making films, building projects, or using music or art or verbal skills to show their knowledge.  Students appreciated choice in assessments, projects and being able to link curriculum with their passions such as skateboarding, music, or hockey.

• When we did the first project he chose to work on a project on his own.  He handed it in on time and it was totally complete.  When we did a cartoon where I gave them the pictures and he had to write a story, he did not complete it.  When he was told to do the same type of assignment again where they could find their own pictures and had less guidelines he did it on time and it was complete.  For the final project he chose to write a visual dictionary style assignment.  He handed it in on the day it was due and presented to the class what he had done.  The choice of assignment and freedom to do what he wanted seemed to make all the difference.  (gr. 10)
• He loves poetry – he wrote a poem to present 10-12 facts about the unit we were studying.  It was unique and well received by the class. (gr. 10)
• Giving choices was definitely a great option for him.  We were creating magazine covers in the computer lab for a unit and the students were to pick any theme they wanted, and focus on what they were interested in.   He of course chose a skateboarding theme for his cover.  He was focused, actively participating, not looking for answers from other students and actually producing great work!  He finished the project on time, handed it in and was genuinely proud of his work!  (gr 12)
• He responded well to challenges that he was given. He also appreciated choice in the class and the ability to use music to show his understanding. Overall I think the class just really worked well with his abilities.  (gr. 12)

3.  Partnering thoughtfully:  Teachers consciously worked with groups in their classroom to support those students who had more difficulty working with others or students who needed someone to explain tasks or read material.

• It was always important to place him with the right partner(s) to keep him focused.  An odd combo is the friendship he formed with a straight A perfectionist student. (gr. 10)

• The initial partnering of a pre-determined student really worked well. The other student was very good with him, and it took the pressure off me to integrate him into regular activities right away. Once he got more accustomed to the other people in the class and the general pace of things, I believe it was much easier to get him to work with others than it would have been if I had just randomly thrown him in with different partners. By the end of the course he would work with everyone. It is always my goal by the last month to be able to randomly draw names from a hat and have the students comfortably participate with any group members and I was able to do this with no fear about his group members. (gr 12)

Getting to Know You (Student Surveys)

As another year begins and our new students enter our classrooms, children and adults alike are faced with excited anticipation. A quick option for the first few days of class is to give students a survey to help determine some information about individual kids. Teachers often focus on outlining their expectations for the course but don't always appreciate the advantages of considering the perspectives of their students. Often there is no time for individual conversations with every student (especially in that first week). A short survey can provide a small window into how a student is feeling about your course, and what types of activities or environments might help them succeed. Online software such as survey monkey is free and easy to use (and can give you quick feedback about overall trends in your class), or you can simply type up some questions, and have students answer them by hand. Whatever method you choose, an initial survey can provide insight into what might work best for your students, and it sends the message that you are interested in working with them towards their success in your classroom. Click here for a sample survey. This one is targeted at a high school class, so the language and questions would obviously have to be adjusted for younger grades or for different subject areas.

Really Understanding Real Work

We recently completed the Vikings unit in our Social Studies 8 class.  I try hard at getting students to think about the actual work that the Vikings did in order to survive and I really want kids to get how tough it was to live back then, but also realize how much we take hard, physical work for granted.

The Vikings were great mariners because they explored other areas across the Atlantic Ocean, and they just plain spent much of their time in coastal regions.  Their ability to survive was dependent on their ability to create reliable boats that could carry men (and loot), which meant a lot of time and resources went into creating decent boats.

To get students to understand the difficulty of creating a watertight boat I had students create a scale model of the real thing.  The students were split into groups of 4 and they were given some raw materials - solid maple - to cut, shape, and assemble.  Kids got into the shop and actually cut the maple into ribs, cut the maple plies, and glued and nailed their work together in a generally authentic Viking design.  It took a total of 5 or 6 classes to complete.  We then took our boats on the last day of school before spring break and floated them on the lake and tested their weight carrying capacity and their "watertightness".  Many kids had projects that held several large rocks - weighing an amount comparable to a gallon of milk.  I was impressed and the kids had a great time.

What I liked most about this project is that students had to work co-operatively, carefully, and be focused to get these in the water by the deadline.  They learned how painstaking the process is to create a quality boat - one that in real life would carry many people to far off lands.  Everyone had a good time (and learned a lot about boat building) but the best part was watching the kids proudly watch their work sail off the dock - even the students who aren't typically successful in Social Studies.

Post courtesy of Kevin Bond

The Year at Princess Margaret

Here is a three minute video with some highlights from the Different Lens collaborative group at Princess Margaret Secondary.



Or the one-minute version...