During Tiffany's presentation for staff on Wednesday I had to write this quote down in my journal (I keep a whole section of quotes in my journal). It took some time for me to process her quote before I fully understood it and then began to make many connections to the many great teachers here in our building.
When the teacher is a thermometer for the classroom there no vision for what the class should look like in terms of behavior and student learning. A thermometer teacher would find it a waste of time to continue reviewing/practicing procedures and want to get right into the curriculum (we have SO much to teach, right?). Unfortunately, this means that after the "honeymoon phase" with a new class, chaos will slowly begin to take over and learning will not be the top priority of the class.
When the teacher is the barometer for the classroom, the teacher sets the tone and climate of the room for behavior and learning. When the class is loud in the hallway on the way to a specials class, the barometer teacher will turn the class around, take them back to the classroom, review the Hallway Code of Conduct and try it again. Yes, they will be late for that specials class, but I'm sure our specials teachers would be supportive of practicing procedures that mean there will be less disruptions from a loud hallway.
When I'm out visiting classrooms, I see a lot of great things happening from many barometer teachers. Here are some of the other characteristics I notice from our barometer teachers:
- Uses a soft voice when conferencing with students to set the volume level/tone for the room.
- Models respect/communication skills and provides students with the opportunity to practice these skills in class meetings.
- Displays a sense of urgency for learning throughout the day for students, never wasting a moment of time. Students know that as soon as their morning procedures are done they must complete bell work or read at their desks. The learning objectives for the day are on the board (or added throughout the day) so that students can use those objectives to reflect on their learning.
- Continues to learn each day and models a love of learning for the students. Todd Whitaker says, "If you didn't learn anything today, then your students probably didn't either."
- While having a sense of urgency for learning, focuses on teaching students and not content.
- Is focused on learning (as opposed to just teaching) and inspires students to focus on their learning as well, not just grades in the gradebook.
I welcome your thoughts on this. If you'd like to, you can add your thoughts in the comment section below on the blog.
I see modeling every single day here in the elementary. Since my room is right by the bathroom/milk area I get to see how students act when they need to be patient in high traffic situations. There is a high chance that students will forget how to act when either waiting for milk, waiting in line after the bathroom, washing hands,etc. (Especially at the start of the year) Every teacher here is great at stopping inappropriate behavior, and sending them back to redo it. By the end of the year behavior is miles apart from how they acted at the start! ~Justin
ReplyDelete