Instructional Coaching Newsletter

With the pressure for teachers to meet curriculum expectations in such a limited time, building a classroom community can sometimes be put on the back burner. What many teachers don’t realize is that by intentionally taking time to build a positive community in your classroom, you can ease the challenges of classroom management, improve student attitude toward learning, and create an environment where students feel welcomed and supported.

Below are links that provide different ways to promote a positive classroom climate in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.

5 Ways to Build Classroom Community (Secondary)

Building a Positive Classroom Community (Elementary)

Excerpt from Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education

1. Class periods should be designed with an understanding that what students will recall most is what takes place in the first part of the class and what students will recall second most will take place in the closing minutes of class.

2. Students should be given more frequent, formative, low-stakes assessments of learning.

3. Students need more opportunities to reflect, think meta-cognitively, on their learning and performance.

4. Students need to know that the pervasive way they choose to study is actually hurting their ability to learn for the long term and that self testing is much more effective then reading ones notes.

5. Students, parents, teachers and school leaders need to understand that sleep is critical to memory consolidation. Without sufficient sleep we create a system that perpetuates the illusion of learning.

6. Students need to know that “effort matters most” and that they have the ability to rewire their brain to make themselves better learners and higher-achieving students (the concept of neuroplasticity).

7. Students need more, but well judged opportunities for choice in their learning, which enhances engagement and intrinsic motivation.

8. Students need to love their limbic system and recognize the impact stress, fear, and fatigue have on the higher-order thinking and memory parts of the brain.

9. Students need opportunities to transfer their knowledge through the visual and performing arts.

10. Students need their teachers to vary the modality of teaching and assessment based on the content (as well as the time of day): What methods suit this topic best? What methods have I just used and will use soon so that I can provide a range of challenges? All students learn best when taught in a variety of modalities, and when the modality is chosen with the content in mind rather than the student.

11. Students need to know the anatomy of their brain, especially the role the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus play in their learning.

12. Students need frequent opportunities during the school day to play.

Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education by Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher

• Chapter 3: Pgs. 25-29 (5 pgs)

The importance of quality feedback is immense. John Hattie's Effect Size List identifies it as having a .70 effect size which equates to over a year and half worth of growth when it is used with fidelity. Teachers need to provide feedback that supports student with gaining a better understanding of problems and solutions and moves learning forward. This piece of the learning process can often be forgotten or neglected due to time constraints.

Here are some great resources to learn more about the importance of feedback and strategies to use it effectively.

Douglas Reeves on feedback

Effective Feedback

Feedback in Schools by John Hattie

Example of teacher giving feedback

The graphic below compares task and process feedback.

Looking through a trauma informed lens when working with students is a goal for many of our faculty and staff members in the Maquoketa Community School District. One resource that may be beneficial in continuing to grow in this topic is Trauma Responsive Educational Practices or the TREP Project. The Trep Project was founded in 2016 with a focus of providing educators with resources to better assist students faced with trauma. The Trep Project specifically provides teachers with tools to assist students coming to us from backgrounds that include high levels of toxic stress, living in poverty stricken areas, dealing with homelessness, and living in areas of high crime.

Resources included on the Trep Project website are practice briefs, specifically dealing with strategies for de-escalation and student re-engagement, teacher well-being, and understanding the acting out cycle. Other resources include a flexible framework for making informed decisions and the 12 Core Practices for Understanding Traumatic Stress Responses in Children and Families. More information can be found at http://www.trepeducator.org.

Classroom Screen is a free and simple tool to use in the classroom so you can project your favorite widgets to help students focus more on their work.