Friday Focus - October 21

"What really makes the difference between two schools? What matters most in the classroom? Effective educators understand the answer to these questions; indeed, they know that the real issue is not what is the variable, but who. Great teachers know who is the variable in the classroom: They are." 

~Todd Whitaker

In Todd Whitaker's webinar on What Great Teachers Do Differently, he brought up the classic classroom situation of giving an assignment/test to your class and the students do poorly on it.  What do you do?  Whitaker says that the best teachers blame themselves.  You can only control yourself.  This situation can and does happen to all of us as educators.  The variable that separates teachers is the response...the worst teachers blame the students. 

After hearing Whitaker's webinar I had to pull out his book to reread (I've reread his Great Teachers and Great Principals books a few times each now!). 

Whitaker states that great teachers consistently strive to improve, and they focus on something they can control---their own performance.  Other teachers wait for something else to change.  Great teachers look to themselves for the answers.  

As I reflect on the webinar/book on What Great Teachers Do Differently and our conversations last week for Data Days, I know that we have some of the greatest teachers that he could write about!  I was amazed by the conversations last week that resulted in:

• Cafe Menu strategies to focus on with at-risk readers
• Problem solving on scheduling for students in need of additional reading intervention
• Ideas of how to try to fit in reading groups and 1:1 conferring.
• A way to prevent the need for so much time to be spent on writing conferring-using writing mini-lessons to make a chart of Writing Expectations for their grade level.  (This will be like a "No Excuses" List--if a student brings a paper for revision that has an error on the list the teacher will not confer/revise with them).
• Ideas to manage the paperwork of reading groups/conferring.
• Using math chapter pre-tests to create WIN intervention groups and for having students make their own goals for growth.

Look at that amazing list that came out of collaborative conversations focused on what WE can do for our students.  I honestly have no idea what each of you have said/done when your class did poorly on an assignment or a test, but based on the work I see happening, I would be willing to bet that it would not just be putting a long list of F's into PowerSchool--it would be reflecting on how the lesson could be retaught in a different way with the focus on student learning.

I also see how this variable, "how the teacher responds," applies to classroom management. Just this week one of our classes behaved poorly for a guest teacher.  Did the teacher spend her time complaining about her kids? Nope. She focused on what she could do about it. She spent her lunch period calling parents the next day, asked that the students each write the guest teacher an apology letter and then went even a step further to create an I-Chart with the class on what to do if there's a guest teacher. Brilliant!

I truly appreciate your hard work and dedication to our students and I am always inspired by how you rise to the challenge of providing the best for all of our students.