by Tracy Rosen, teaching & consulting since 1996, blogging about it here since 2007. All views are my own and you should take them with a grain of salt, I do.
âIf we can help children slow down and think,â Dr. Haick [school principal, Piedmont Avenue Elementary School] said, âthey have the answers within themselves.â
from:In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN, Published: June 16, 2007, NYTimes
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Image: aafad 38/365 the name is lom… by lamont_cranston made available by a creative commons license on flickr.
I just read an article by accident, on addressing the issue of racism in school, because I was looking for a different article in the March 2003 issue of Phi Delta Kappan. That one wasn’t available but this one, Ending the Silence by Donna M. Marriott, is. The title intrigued me, and this bit yelled out to me:
…classroom teachers are the only real agents of school reform. It is teachers who translate policy into action; who integrate the complex components of standards, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment into comprehensible and pragmatic instruction; and who balance an ever-changing array of political, economic, social, and educational factors while trying to meet the individual needs of children.
That first line in particular screams truth. In order for us to create vibrant, learning-rich, successful classroom communities we need to start with teachers. Too often teachers are handed new sets of guidelines called reform that they are expected to carry out. Very often they fall flat. They have no meaning for anyone beyond the policy-makers who crafted them.
If teachers were involved in a process to improve their classrooms for the success of those in it – in a process that reached out to their values as teachers and as people, then there will be true reform.
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“AI’s fundamental approach
of seeking to discover, honor, and amplify what works, the life-giving
elements, is a “system” process that works at all levels,
with individual students, one-on-one student-teacher relationships,
classrooms, schools, school districts and communities.”
from Leadership at Every Level: Appreciative Inquiry in Education by Rich Henry
Appreciative Inquiry, for me, seems so logical, simple, true, and essential, that I forget not every knows this.
I am presently involved in a change process at one of the schools I work with. In the past, as the principal tells me, she found something she liked and was passionate about – some new pedagogical twist of the month – and tried to impose it on her teaching staff. Now she realizes that can never work, that what she was actually creating was a climate of insecurity, of ever-changing focus, and that teachers were actually shifting towards complacency with this.
Our goal with the present initiative is nothing less than to shift paradigms of teaching and to create a community of sharing and ongoing learning that will celebrate diversity. What this looks like will emerge as we go because, while we have a general vision of where we want to go, the details will be filled in by community members – teaching and support staff, parents, students, and the board.
Unlike previous change initiatives, the principal is moving slowly and is starting by changing the conversations that are taking place within the school’s walls. We are encouraging people to ask each other questions around their passion for teaching and learning and community. I am already seeing the change as conversations in the staff room are much more collaborative and focus on practice rather than complaints.
Our next step is provide a context for the conversation shifts, and a framework from within which the community can create their best future.
I am excited about seeing where this school goes.
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The following is a rather lengthy quote, but I feel compelled to include it here. It is so revealing of the influence that teachers have on the students and the cultures of their classrooms. The quote describes a reflective period in a mini-action research cycle of one teacher – go to the article to see how he uses this reflection as a basis for change.
Before school had even started I knew that I would have to work especially hard to make sure Matthew had a respected place in the room. I called on him for answers when I knew he had them. I partnered him with students who could be counted on to work patiently with him. In the first few months things seemed to go pretty well. Matthew was at least tolerated and well-treated, if not yet a cherished class member. Not so today. When did the studentsâ treatment of Matthew erode? What brought it on? And why had I not noticed?
Turning my observerâs eye upon myself
My inner voice said that if I wanted the answers, I had to first look at myself. Over the years Iâve learned that good teaching involves having a willingness to look at your own behavior and ask what part you might be playing in whatâs going on in your classroomâthe good and the not-so-good. So the next day I turned my observerâs eye upon myself and began to note my own behavior. Before Morning Meeting started Matthew was butting his head into Tylerâs shoulder. âMatthew! Stop!â I snapped. As students moved from Morning Meeting into math groups, I heard myself barking, âMatthew! Sit down now!â I seemed unable to speak the childâs name without an exclamation point behind it.
I reflected. In September I would have redirected Matthew with a gentle hand on his shoulder or a quiet âMatt, move over here now.â In September I made sure to welcome him warmly at the beginning of each day. Today I did not check in with him before Morning Meeting. In September I made it a point to use Matthewâs name in positive comments. Today I was loudly and frequently calling attention to his awkwardness.
I realized how very tired I was. Tired from the intense energy that the first phase of the school year requires and hungry for the late December week off that marked the first substantial break of the year. In addition to this predictable energy dip, the effort required to help the intensely needy Matt navigate daily classroom life added to my fatigue. As my exhaustion grew, my alertness to our classroom interactions diminished. I managed to overlook the rough tones and edgy words creeping into the childrenâsâand myâinteractions with Matthew until they had escalated to an undeniably attention-grabbing level.
But now I was noticing. Moreover, as I continued to notice, it became clear that I was contributing to Matthewâs mistreatment. But wait, let me be more precise: I wasnât just contributing to his mistreatment. I was teaching it. When I snapped at him, I gave permission to twenty-three others to snap at him too. I was using a surefire teaching strategy: modeling. I knew well the power of modeling and used it often and intentionally: âWatch how I lift Matilda out of her cage.â âWatch while I dribble the soccer ball around Jen.â âWhat did you notice? Now you try it this way.â
I realized that my interactions with Matthew were a powerful, unintentional modeling. When I stopped seeking Matthew out to say a friendly hello in the morning, the students stopped too. When I snapped commands at him, they snapped too. I was treated to a painful refresher lesson about the strength of modeling.
This was taken from What Teaching Matthew Taught Me: When a fourth-grade teacher tries to figure out why his class behaves poorly toward one particular student, he first has to consider his own behavior.
Please go read the rest of that article, for it outlines how Matthew’s teacher used an appreciative inquiry process to create change in his classroom. Very powerful.
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Stressed-out parents may also tend to focus their child’s attention on
negative events, the researchers add, which leads to a phenomenon
called “attention bias” toward threat, making them more likely to see
threats in their environment and to focus more intensely on these
threats. from Genes plus parenting may promote shyness, anxiety on CNN, March 19, 2007
What implications does this have for learning?
I like to think that the reverse is also true. That if a child’s adults focus their attention on positive events, then a child will be more likely to focus intensely on a positive future.
I wrote ‘child’s adults’ because I don’t think that this is only a result of parents – teachers play a huge role in focusing the attention of children.
My next post shows an example of the teacher’s influence and negative events.
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