Rose Ferrero Bulletin
Week Of: April 19, 2021
This week, Kudos go out to all our teachers … yes, ALL of them, as they have continued to work extremely hard during one of the toughest times imaginable to be a teacher. Though forced to not only provide Tier 1 core instruction on the state standards they deem essential for their students in an exclusively virtual environment, they still make sure to find time to meet with small groups of students for Tier 2 intervention, and Tier 3 remediation. In addition, the preparation of lessons has become, at times, similar to a project, as teachers spend more time looking online for various resources to make their content more meaningful to students. Moreover, as they work within this virtual environment, teachers have learned to become more knowledgeable regarding the technology available to them and have taken it upon themselves to self-train on a variety of these tools. Finally, many of our teachers have, and still continue to do so to this day, reach out to students and families when a student is not taking part as much as he/she should be. I sure hope all of you know how much I appreciate you and your efforts … you are the best there is in this business, and if anyone doubts that, please send them to me for a “talking to”!
WEEKLY QUOTES FOR OUR TEACHERS
LCAP GOAL 5: SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS – Six Ways to Successfully Build Relationships With Your Students
It is all about relationships when it comes to education, and we constantly stress this fact at Rose Ferrero. Study after study has shown that a classroom teacher is the number one contributor to student achievement, even above the parent, peers, the entire school, or poverty. In her book, “Teaching Boys Who Struggle in School,” Kathleen Palmer Cleveland states, “The quality of the teacher-student relationship is the gateway to helping an underachieving boy find success in school” (And I would say the same goes for girls as well). Students who struggle in school are more willing to re-engage, research shows, if the student has trust (and “trust” is the key word here) in two things: first, that the teacher believes the student can succeed, and second, the student believes his/her teacher will provide the support the student needs while he/she is trying. With that said, here are some ways our teachers start building a solid foundation when it comes to relationships with students.
1. You Have to Believe: For starters, teachers have to believe that they make an impact. Just like in the movie Field of Dreams, you have to believe in order for it to become reality. Teachers have to do the same with their students. As an educator, you must believe that you can energize, engage, and connect with your students.
2. You Must Adapt: As an educator, you need to remain nimble to respond to parents and students. If you aren’t constantly pushing yourself to get better, you are falling behind. Think about connecting first as a person and then as an educator. As you move through the school year, reflect on how you put students first, how you connect with students on a daily basis, and how you show you care—not only about their school successes but also their home successes.
4. Personalize Learning: If you want to keep students in school, you have to build the relationships and make learning personalized for them. Start with greeting students at the door and welcoming them into your room. Always call them by name and pronounce their names accurately. Nothing is worse than having your name butchered every day. This strategy seems very simple, but you would be surprised how often it is overlooked.
5. Get Your Students Interacting: Students connect by talking to and interacting with one another. Often, educators feel the pressure to plow through the standards, usually by way of a lecture, as they believe it is the fastest and most efficient method. We have to stop this. We must create environments where students engage with one other and us as they learn and experiment with their research, theories, and applications of the content. The Gradual Release of Responsibility calls for 50 percent of class time being spent with students collaborating with one another using the language of instruction. Although the time spent collaborating for each lesson might vary from day to day, by end of the week, students should have spent roughly 50 percent of their instructional day collaborating with their peers.
6. Relationships Mean the Most to At-Risk Students: Yes, relationships are important, but they are the most important to at-risk students. Often, students that come from a poverty background only come to school for the connections they have with the other students and staff. For students who had experienced some form of adverse childhood experience, the number one thing that helped them pull through and graduate high school was a strong, caring relationship with someone outside of their parents, and this was usually someone in the school community.
Remember, as mentioned above, “trust” was the key word … and if each educator is proceeding with the above qualities in mind, the message received by the student remains consistent: “You can trust me.”
LCAP GOAL 2: PROFICIENCY FOR ALL – Trusting Relationships Set the Stage for Safe and Secure Learning Environments
The teacher student relationship not only builds trust (remember that key word?), but it also sets the stage for maintaining a supportive, safe, and secure learning environment for all students, but especially for underachieving students. What makes a teacher effective is his or her ability to understand the issues certain students may be facing, to build a trusting relationship, and to support the student so that he/she feels safe enough to re-engage in learning. This type of supportive environment accepts the student for who he/she is, supports the student when he/she struggles, and lets the student know that it is oaky to fail, but also challenges the student to succeed.
In order to build a classroom learning environment that supports all students, especially the struggling student, it needs to be an affirming space in which all students belong and feel both respected and valued as members of that environment. We must keep in mind, as we do at Rose, that a “safe environment” is one in which mistakes are not only tolerated but are cherished as learning opportunities. This significantly reduces students’ fear of failure, and when students no longer fear failure, they are more prepared to take risks, persist in the face of a challenge, and are less likely to engage in self-protective behavior that can be detrimental to success.
A climate of safety may also affect a struggling student’s ability to pay attention to, acquire, and process what is being taught. Brain research is very clear in this regard – a stressed or frightened brain does not learn well. When the brain perceives threat or distress, its neural capacity to reason rationally is minimized. The brain is “emotionally hijacked” into the fight or flight mode and operates at survival level. It is important to keep in mind that a struggling student may perceive threat when none is intended or as a result of a stimulus that others may not regard as threatening. This phenomenon is known as “downshifting,” and it happens to underachieving students in classrooms every day.
Together, building trusting relationships and establishing a nonthreatening, safe and secure learning environment pave the way for success. No other factors are more essential, and the ultimate success of any other factors builds on the foundation of these first two.