Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program

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Mentoring Matters Establishing a Supportive
Culture for Learning Classroom Management, part 2

• Alabama Teacher Mentoring Program

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Learning Outcomes

• Mentors will be able to
• Talk about the importance of classroom
  managementin particular, mental set and
  withitnessand help beginning teachers
  understand and learn these skills.
• Understand the relationship between positive
  teacher-student relationships, student behavior,
  and student achievement
• Consider ways to help a beginning teacher reflect
  on the extent to which he or she creates a
  community of learners, in which students are
  motivated to learn
• Talk with colleagues in confidence about
  successes and challenges of mentoring a beginning
  teacher

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Agenda

• Review/Learn
• Review four components of classroom management
  think about the value of an appropriate mental
  set.
• Sharing
• Think about positive teacher-student
  relationships and what they look like.
• Learning
• Classroom management, part 2 research about
  teacher-student relationships and teacher mental
  set strategies to accomplish these
• Committing
• What ideas can I use? What have I learned? What
  will I use with my mentee?

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Three Major Roles of Effective Teachers (Marzano)
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Marzanos Meta-Analysis

• Reported in Classroom Management that Works
  Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher.
• Included the findings from more than 100
  different studies
• Addressed four general components of classroom
  management, each of which has a positive
  relationship to student engagement and student
  achievement.

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Four Components of Classroom Management (Marzano)

• Rules and procedures
• Disciplinary interventions
• Teacher-student relationships
• Mental set

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Summary of Marzano Findings

• Students in classes where effective management
  techniques are employed have achievement scores
  that are 20 percentile points higher than
  students in classes where effective management
  techniques are not employed.
• Students in these classes have a 23 percent
  higher engagement rate. Marzano, p. 10

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Appropriate Mental Set

• Of Marzanos four components, mental set has the
  largest effect on student behavior, engagement,
  and achievement.
• Mental Set Frame of Mind

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The Mental Set of Effective Classroom Managers

• Incorporates two Constructs
• 1. Withitness (with-it-ness)
• 2. Emotional Objectivity

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What is the Mental Set of Effective Teachers?

• They are mindful of whats happening.
• They pay attention
• They dont get absorbed in what theyre doing to
  the exclusion of whats going on around them
• They stay tuned in to the students
• Mindfulness involves a heightened sense of
  situational awareness and a conscious control
  over ones thoughts and behavior relative to that
  situation. (Marzano, CMTW, p. 65)

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Withitness

• Kounin discovered the difference between
  effective and ineffective teachers was not in
  how they handled the disruptive behavior of
  students, but in the disposition of the teacher
  to quickly and accurately identify problem
  behavior or potential problem behavior and to act
  on it immediately. Marzano, p. 66-67

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Techniques of With-it Teachers

• Position themselves to be able to see all
  studentsand move around the classroom, getting
  to all sections
• Periodically scan the classroom
• Pay attention to potential problems
• Make eye contact
• If eye contact doesnt work, move closer
• If moving closer doesnt work, say something
  privately to the student --Marzano, p. 70

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With-it Teachers Forecast Problems

• What might go wrong?
• Anticipate problemsparticularly with special
  needs students

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To Learn With-it-ness, Observe Master Teachers

• Teachers develop withitness over timeits a
  subtle and situational quality

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Another Component of the Mental Set of Effective
Teachers

• Emotional Objectivity reacting to student
  misbehavior in a calm, unemotional, objective
  fashionnot personalizing student behavior
• More typical human reaction to disobedience is to
  feel hurt or angry this undermines classroom
  management

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Consciously ReframeLook for Reasons Why

• Dont personalize student misbehavior

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Monitor Ones Own Thoughts

• Mentally review students before class each
  dayparticularly the potential problems
• Try to imagine these problem students engaging
  in positive behavior
• Keep positive expectations in mind when
  interacting with these students

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Take Care of Ones Self!
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Address Ones Own Emotional State
it is critical for you not to carry anger,
resentment, and other hostile feelings once a
discipline situation is over. If you are angry
with a student from an incident that happened the
day before, you might enter a power struggle just
to flex your muscles and show who is boss.
Dont. Start fresh each day. --Curwin and
Mendler cited in Marzano, p. 74
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Strategies to Enhance Emotional Objectivity

• Guided imagery
• Deep breathing
• Maintaining a sense of humor
• Laughtergoing to movies or watching t.v. shows
  that one finds funny
• Treating oneself to a reward on especially hard
  days

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Emotional Objectivity

• Rate your beginning teacher on the extent to
  which he is able to stay objective when dealing
  with problem students.
• What feedback would you like to give him about
  this?
• Remember, to be effective, praise should be
  specific, contingent, believable, and varied.
  How might you phrase the feedback?
• Corrective feedback sometimes is more effective
  as the result of self-assessment and reflection.
  What questions might you pose to your beginning
  teacher on this topic?

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How Well is Your Mentee Taking Care of Himself?

• Find a partner with whom to talk.
• What evidence do you have that the beginning
  teacher with whom you work is taking care of
  herselfor failing to do so? (Remember the
  typical emotional phases of beginning teachers.
  See your Mentor Manual.)
• How could you help? Could you find time to do
  deep breathing together? Or go to a funny
  movie together?

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Alabama Quality Teaching Standards

• Standard 2 Teaching and Learning
• Organization and Management of Learning
• Using Instructional Strategies to Engage Learners
• Assessment of Learning

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Standard 2 Teaching and Learning

• Organization and Management of Learning
• 2.1 Designs a classroom organization and
  management system built upon sound,
  age-appropriate expectations and research-based
  strategies for promoting positive behavior
• 2.2 Creates a climate that promotes fairness and
  respect
• 2.3 Creates a safe, orderly, and stimulating
  learning environment that nurtures motivation and
  engagement of learners

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What Does It Mean To You?

• Imagine a classroom with a climate of fairness
  and respectthat is safe, orderly and
  stimulatingand that nurtures student motivation
  and engagement (2.2 and 2.3)
• In such a classroom, what would the teacher be
  doing? What would students be doing? What would
  it feel like? Sound like? Look like?

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Is this classroom more like
A forest?
A garden?
A lake?

• A beach?

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Teacher-Student Relationships The Keystone for
Effective Classroom Management

• Study of over 10,000 adolescents found that
  positive connections to parents and teachers
  was the strongest factor to protect teens from
  destructive and risky behavior.

by Resnick et al. (1997)
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Teacher-Student Relationships The Keystone for
Effective Classroom Management

• When students feel connected at school, they are
  less likely to engage in violence, drugs,
  alcohol, sex, or other harmful behaviors.
• (Vitto, page 8)

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Teacher-Student Relationships The Keystone for
Effective Classroom Management

• Resnick also found that positive relationships
  with teachers was more important than
• class size, amount of teacher training, classroom
  rules, school policy
• in protecting students from destructive
  behaviors.

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Teacher-student Relationship

• The teacher-student relationship is easily lost
  in a confusing web of rules, limits, and required
  objectives.
• Rogers and Frieberg (1994, p. 33)

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What Do Students Say About Teachers To Whom They
Feel Connected?

• She listens to me
• He thinks Im important
• She talks with me
• Learning is fun with him
• Vitto, page 65

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In a study of high school students,

• 84 percent said that disciplinary problems that
  occurred could have been avoided by better
  teacher-student relationships.
• Marzano citing Sheets, p. 42

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Positive Relationship

• A balance of firmness, fairness, and
  friendship --Vitto

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Firmness

• Consistent predictable outcomes to behavior
  same consequence to the same misbehavior monitor
  for follow-through
• Assertive back up words with actions
• Clear expectations students have been clearly
  taught what is expected

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Fairness

• Impartialnot favoring some students over others
• No assumptions of wrongdoing (based on past
  behavior without getting facts)
• Respect and fair treatment to all

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Friendliness

• Speak calmly
• Do not take misbehavior personally
• Show interest in the student
• Be courteous and respectful
• Have a sense of humor
• Demonstrate care and concern for students

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Relationship Barriers and Builders

• Barriers
• Making assumptions
• Rescuing/explaining
• Directing/telling
• Criticizing
• Should-isms

• Builders
• Questioning being open
• Exploring
• Encouraging/Inviting
• Celebrating
• Respecting
• Adapted from Vitto, pp. 67-70

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2 Defining Dimensions of Teacher-Student
Relationships

• Dominance
• vs.
• Submission

• Cooperation
• vs.
• Opposition

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Dominance vs. Submission
High dominance characterized by clarity of
purpose and strong guidanceboth academic and
behavioral Marzano, p. 42
High submission characterized by lack of
clarity and purpose p. 43
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Cooperation vs. Opposition
High cooperation characterized by concern for
the needs and opinions of others and a desire to
function as a member of a team Marzano,
p. 43
High opposition characterized by active
antagonism toward others and a desire to thwart
their goals and desires p. 43
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High Dominance
Optimal Teacher-Student Relationship
High Opposition
High Cooperation
High Submission
42
New Teachers

• often exhibit highly cooperative behaviors,
  but are not good at dominant behavior since
  they have not been in leadership positions
• Over time (6-10 years), they become competent in
  dominant behaviors but they also become less
  cooperative

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• Teachers appear to decline in cooperative
  behavior and increase in oppositional behavior, a
  change that negatively affects student
  attitudes. (Wubbels et al., 1999, p.166)

How might you present this information to your
beginning teachers to prompt reflection and
self-awareness?
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Positive Climate for Learning

• Encourages students to be excited about their
  learning
• Challenges students
• Provides safety for exploration and risk-taking
• Supports students and facilitates their
  supporting one another
• Demonstrates respect of differences in learners

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Promote Positive Climate

• Speak courteously and calmly
• Share information
• Use positive statements as often as possible.
• Establish a feeling of community.
• Evertson, p. 63

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Ratio of Positive to Negative Interactions

• Data collection related to relationships record
  rates of positive and negative teacher-student
  interactions. (Recommend 3-5 positives for each
  negative.)
• A teacher can inadvertently increase negative
  behavior by paying attention to students more
  when they are misbehaving than when they are
  behaving appropriately. Vitto, p. 63

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Praise

• Contingent
• Specific
• Sincere
• Varied

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Positive Attention Other Than Praise

• Referring to student answers or commentslater in
  the day or the week
• Showing interest in student comments, e.g.,
• Can you tell me more?
• Can you give an example?
• Show me how you came up with that answer.
• Thats a creative answer. Can you tell me how
  you thought of that?

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Creating Community

• In saying that a classroom is a community,
  then, I mean that it is a place in which students
  feel cared about and are encouraged to care about
  each other. They experience a sense of being
  valued and respected the children matter to one
  another and to the teacher. They have come to
  think in the plural they feel connected to each
  other they are part of an us. And, as a result
  of all this, they feel safe in their classes, not
  only physically, but emotionally. --Kohn, p.
  101

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To say that a classroom is a communityis to say
that it is a place where

• care and trust are emphasized above restrictions
  and threats, where unity and pride (of
  accomplishment and in purpose) replace winning
  and losing, and where each person is asked,
  helped, and inspired to live up to such ideals
  and values as kindness, fairness and
  responsibility. Such a classroom community
  seeks to meet each students need to feel
  competent, connected to others, and autonomous.
  
• (From the Child Development Project cited by
  Kohn, p. 102)

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Building a Community

• Ask the students.
• Its really important to me that you feel free
  to say things, to come up with ideas that may
  sound weird, to make mistakesand not to be
  afraid that other people are going to laugh at
  you. What do you think we can do to make sure
  that happens? Kohn, p. 111

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Building a Community

• Relationship with Adults
• Sample behaviors that let students know they are
  respected and cared about
• Remembering details about a students life
• Knowing my sisters name
• Writing notes to students
• Visiting their homes
• Holding private conversations
• Asking students what they thinkand listening to
  the answers

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Building a Community

• Relationship between and among Students
• Interdependence and cooperation
• Respect for different points of view
• Listening to what others say reflecting back
  what they hear
• Learning about one another
• Understanding and accepting how others feel

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Building a Community

• Students relationship to the what and how of
  their learning
• Class meetings can be context for generation of
  questions to pursue in the next unit of study.
• Cooperative learning processes help build
  positive relationships between different groups
  of students.
• Real-life, everyday problems serve to connect
  students to the curriculum.

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Reflections on Classroom Climate

• All of us can improve our classroom climate.
• Suggest your beginning teacher complete the
  self-assessment.
• Model reflection by completing this
  self-assessment for your own classroomor for
  your relationship with your mentee.
• Share the results together.

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Committing

• Think back over what we have reviewed during this
  session, related to Mental Set and Positive
  Teacher-Student Relationship.
• In your Mentor Manual, look at Chart 9, which
  presents ideas about topics of interest/need
  related to the school calendar.
• On what do you want to focus with your beginning
  teacher?
• What do you want to accomplish in the next week?
  Month?
• How will you keep the administration and other
  teaching staff involved and informed?

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Commitment Circle
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References

• Cotton, Kathleen. Schoolwide and Classroom
  Discipline. School Improvement Research Series,
  9. Portland, OR Northwest Regional
  Educational Lab. (Available www.nwrel.orgt/scpd
  /sirs/5/cu9.html
• Evertson, Carolyn M. and Emmer, Edmund T.
  Classroom Management for Elementary Teachers.
  Eighth edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson. 2009
• Kohn, Alfie. Beyond Discipline From Compliance
  to Community. Alexandria, VA ASCD. 1996.
• Marzano, Robert J. Classroom Management that
  Works Research-Based Strategies for Every
  Teacher. Alexandria, VA ASCD. 2003.
• Resnick, M., Bearman, P., Blum, R., Bauman, K.,
  Harris, K., Jones, R., et al. Protecting
  adolescents from harm Findings from the
  national longitudinal study on adolescent health.
  Journal of the American Medical Association,
  278, 823-832.
• Rogers, C. and and Frieberg, H. J. Freedom to
  Learn (3rd ed.) New York Merrill. 1994.
• Sprick, Randy, Knight, Jim, Reinke, Wendy, and
  McKale, Tricia. Coaching Classroom Management
  Strategies and Tools for Administrators and
  Coaches. Eugene, OR Pacific Northwest
  Publishing. 2006.
• Vitto, John M. Relationsip-Driven Classroom
  Management strategies that Promote student
  Motivation. Thousand Oaks, CA Corwin Press.
  2003.