Making Your Worst Class Your Best & Reflection

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Happy Holidays to all you and I hope you are enjoying a well deserved holiday and soaking up some much needed time with your family. I especially appreciate you taking the time to read this during a time of year when even thinking about work is something many of us are trying to avoid. :)

Whether you’re using this time to not think about anything professional, or simply enjoying the slower pace and taking this opportunity to “get things done” I hope you’re able to use it in a way that suits you to the betterment of students.

If you’re familiar with my work, you know that I believe there are six essential “steps” to being “focused on learning” in the classroom, one of which is reflection. For that reason, this is always a special time of year for me. I’ve enjoyed transitioning to a new role this year as a full time school improvement consultant, and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) finishing my first book this spring or early summer. I’m also looking forward to recording an entire wave of instructional videos next week after piloting that idea last summer.

I hope you’ll consider spending some time reflecting and goal setting as well, and I wanted to share with you today a number of tools I’ve developed over the years to help with that process, each of which are sampled and linked below. Additionally, I also have a small eBook entitled “110 Questions for School Leader Reflection” I’d love to share with you. I typically have it available for purchase here, but as a holiday gift to you, if you respond to this email and ask me for it, I’ll be happy to share it with you free of charge, no strings attached. :)

Happy Holidays to you and your family and I hope you all do whatever best helps you focus on learning and be great in the new year.

-Mark

TURNING THINGS AROUND: MAKING YOUR WORST CLASS YOUR BEST CLASS

It starts by recognizing that as important as relationships with individual students are, collections of students also have a “culture” about them and a relationship a given time of day that defines them. Each class has its own culture, and sometimes despite effective work by effective teachers, things can get a little “out-of-whack”.

I can’t promise anything, but I can tell you that I’ve had success using this formula to “re-boot” a given class.

30 QUESTIONS FOR TEACHER REFLECTION

Below you will find a list of 30 Questions Teachers should be regularly asking themselves to ensure they’re classroom is as focused on learning as they would like it to be. Feel free to beg, borrow, steal and share however you see fit.

Modeling Reflection – Questions to Ask With Students

1.Was this activity successful….why or why not?

2.If we do this again, what can I do differently to help you learn more?

3.Did this activity help you learn more than others we’ve done? Why?

Classroom Culture – Questions to Ask About Your Rules & Relationships

4.Are the relationships that I have with my students helping or hindering their ability to learn?

5.Could the problems I have in my classroom be solved by pre-teaching my expectations or developing rules/procedures to deal with these issues?

6.Was my demeanor and attitude towards my class today effective for student learning?

7.Am I excited to go to work today?

35 QUESTIONS FOR STUDENT REFLECTION

Relationships and Collaboration

1.What are some ways you could share this learning with your parents or family?

2.Could you say something positive about each of your classmates?

3.What could you do today to help you develop better relationships with your peers?

4.Why is it important for students in a school to have positive relationships with each other?

5.What are some ways in which the adults in the school could help you improve the relationships you have with your classmates?

6.What, if anything, have you done or said lately that may have been considered bullying towards other students?