I continued on Thursday morning with Bryce. I was a little hesitant to go to this because I know that Bryce uses PAT (read Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones for more info or read this old blog post), which I used for years in the middle school, but dropped when I got to high school. I'm trying to decide now if I want to try it again in my classroom. There are a lot of really great things there, and a lot of things that I think need tweaks. I did like that, in Bryce's class, they could not lose minutes that they earned.
Anyway, I went because I talked to Bryce before the class, and he said that PAT was only a tiny portion of his presentation. And he was right!
First, focus on procedures. This is something that is also talked about a lot in Fred Jones's book, but I got away from it by moving to a new school with new ideas about syllabi and trying to get to speaking French as quickly as possible. No longer! I will figure out the procedures that are essential for me to not go crazy in March, and I will drill the heck out of those!! Bryce says that he really focuses on this the first week or two of class and then GIVES THEM A QUIZ over the procedures. What a way to "prove" to the kids that it's important. I never thought of that because I use Standards Based Grading, and I don't have a standard for behavior, but I could definitely do a quick quiz that's not for points!
You need to have an attention-getter for those times when you have kids working in groups and then need them to focus quickly. Bryce says "Classe" and the kids respond "Si, senor." Carol Gaab uses a noisemaker or starts a cheer where the class yells "Go team!" at the end.
Bryce also has an end-of-class procedure. Class is not over until he says "Thank you for learning" and the class responds "Thank you for teaching us." I like this idea a lot.
Another procedure is the stupid paperwork that we always seem to have. On quizzes, free writes, whatever, they have to have First and Last name, Date in French, Class Period, and title of what it is (quiz, free write, etc). He also gives them a quiz over this! I think it's important for us to remember that our students have 7 different teachers with 7 different sets of expectations, so we can't expect them to hear the expectations once and internalize them. Then, when it's time to turn in the papers, he breaks the class into 2 teams and they "race" to get all the papers to the front first. The "loser" has to alphabetize the papers. As s/he is ordering, s/he is also checking to make sure that each student has all four things on their paper. If not, the paper is handed back.
As Bryce is going over his procedures, he uses himself as a model for bad behavior and uses a student as the teacher and for good behavior. In this way, no student gets an opportunity to get a laugh out of acting like an idiot.
Next, Bryce talked about his procedures for FVR (if you are not doing FVR...you MUST! I started two years ago and I will never go back...but there are some things that you HAVE to do to make it work that you can find on Bryce's site or on this blog post). He has a whole parade procedure for how kids get their books. Only 5 students at the library at a time and move quickly. Each student picks one book, and while this is happening, Bryce is asking those already at their seats about what they're reading or what they read last time. He also has them sometimes write a quick exit ticket about what they read that day. I have to say, I've been doing this and Bryce's tips for making it work in any classroom are spot on. Sure, I still have a few kids who try to hide a cell phone behind their book and text, but the majority are involved in reading. Yippee!
Bryce also talked about jobs in the classroom. I've done some of this on an as-needed basis, but I think I'm actually going to have students pick jobs this year. So I should probably start a list of what jobs I want to have in my classroom. Here are some that Bryce uses: Light guy/gal: he picks an active student far from the lights to give that student a legitimate excuse to get out of his/her seat. Hero: kills bugs (if you have never worked in an old building or the basement...you have no idea how important this job is). Host: welcomes guests, offers them coffee (I bought a Keurig off Craig's list for this purpose), answers any questions, etc. Interpreter: This person is in charge if there is a new student during the year. They sit next to the new kid, helping answer questions, teach procedures, make them coffee (new kids drink coffee for the first week to welcome them).
With these jobs, students can change/quit at any time by writing a little note to the teacher and they can be fired by Donald Trump (another job) at any time also. Donald also decides who gets a job if two people want the same job.
Bryce uses a participation rubric where students grade themselves on how well they've been participating every couple of weeks or so. I've tried this in the past, but not with any regularity.
Now, if someone is acting out, we use all of our teacher tricks (eye contact, proximity, etc). Then, if it still continues, Bryce stops, points to the rule being broken on the wall until the behavior stops. If it happens again, Bryce has the student go to fill out a think sheet. We had think sheets in my old school, but I didn't really like the verbage on them. I really liked the way the think sheet was written. It made it clear that it was a temporary snag that could easily be rectified by the student and was just a minor offense. Bonus is that you then have a paper trail if you ever need it to show to an administrator or parent.
Bryce told us about a scientist who studied chimps to find out who had the most influence. Turns out that the chimp who touched others most had the most influence. It's so true! I used to be scared to touch my students, but I can't teach like that. I'm a person who naturally touches shoulders, gives high fives, and hugs (only if it's student initiated). Who could possibly say no if a student asks "Can I hug you?" A few years ago, I started giving hand shakes at the door as the kids walked in. As the year continued, I got busy and didn't do it for a while. I noticed that the connection between my kids and me was lacking...so I started giving high fives and hand shakes again and I noticed a BIG difference. We need to show our kids that we care and there is nothing better for that than a high five, a smile, and eye contact.
Bryce and Alina both use the Password idea. I'm thinking about doing this. The kids don't get into my class until they have told me the password. I did this a couple of times last year just as a formative assessment. I had them count to ten or tell me their name or something else that didn't quite get enough reps in the classroom.
Last thing that we went over and something that I always talk about, but just as an aside: We need to teach our kids how our brains learn scientifically and quiz them on it. It will help them in life to know that positive thinking can increase test scores and repetition is key and classical music helps and all of those other things that we know as teachers, but that they don't even think about.
By the end of my 3 hours with Bryce, we still hadn't gotten to two sections of his presentation: consequences and movement. I'm pretty sure they are available on his website...
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