S2-Ep2 - Importance Of Relationships

Angela:

Hello, welcome back to I've Tried Everything, a podcast focusing on behavior supports in schools. I'm your host, Angela Eisenberg, project coordinator at Region 13. Every week I talk with educators just like you. We cover some tough topics, share stories, and explore what works and what doesn't. Let's go. I'm joined today by William from Deer Park Middle School in Round Rock ISD. William, I'm so glad that you're here with me today. He's a part of our education certification program here at Region 13. You're a new to the profession.

William:

Yes, I am. Thank you, Angela.

Angela:

If you had to choose a song to sum up your first month, six weeks of school, what would that song be?

William:

I would say it probably has to be I'm Still Standing by Elton John.

Angela:

I love that, I love that. I've heard everything from I Will Survive to Rise Up, so that's awesome. That's awesome. Thinking about your classroom and the importance of building relationships with students, what is a strategy or something that you've done, that you've put into place in your classroom that you feel like that has started that really strong relationship building?

William:

I would say that my first worry when entering the classroom was, do I know everybody's name? I feel like knowing the name has the power, and that was something I really tried to drive in the first week of school. My mentor on campus is the ECT, the early career teacher instructional coach, and she gave me some advice where she would always do her attendance with a photo of the student-

Angela:

Oh, that's a great idea.

William:

And their name. The teacher access center that Round Rock uses has a photo version of the attendance, and so I use that every single day so that I can recognize that student even when they're outside of my classroom, because I feel like it's much easier to redirect unwanted behavior or inappropriate behavior if you know the student's name.

Angela:

That is an excellent way to look at it. When you think about a student's name, or even our names, our names are very personal to us.

William:

Yes.

Angela:

It's so important that not only do we know their name, but we know how to pronounce their name and make them feel that welcome in that sense. I always did, in my classroom, the name game where we went through everybody like, "Hi, my name's Angela," and then the next person would say, "Hi, my name's William and that's Angela." Because for me, it's a huge repetition kind of thing. But, having those pictures and having that correlation so that when you see them in the hallway and you can build those connections with them outside of your classroom is a great way to put that foundation of relationships in your classroom. When you think about professional development, in our education certification program, you get tons of professional development that you get on nights and weekends and that sort of thing. Then, I know schools do professional development. Of all the situations that you've been in for learning, what would you say is one of the best strategies or tips that has been impactful for you in your classroom?

William:

I would say really just making sure that you take the time to teach the behavior expectations that you want your students to follow. The ones that we were provided with, the ones that we were having examples of from Region 13 were super important to me, but I use the five P's: polite, prepared, patient, responsible. I cannot remember them all because I'm on a podcast for the first time.

Angela:

That's okay.

William:

But, I do stand by them and I introduce them and I reintroduce them and I reteach as necessary. I really do hold the students accountable by taking the time to share what kind of behavior expectations I have in the classroom.

Angela:

Do you consider those your guidelines for success in your classroom?

William:

I would, yes.

Angela:

That they're kind of embedded in everything you do, how you put procedures in place, and that sort of thing in your class.

William:

Yes, and I do reinforce those guidelines for success through the CHAMPs program as well.

Angela:

Okay.

William:

I have that written on my whiteboard. I can erase whatever I need to, and then I will poll the class, what kind of activity would we consider to be a successful student model for this activity? I get to hear their responses. Like, should we be allowed to talk while we are doing independent work? Should we be allowed to talk when we're doing group work? It does vary depending on the scenario. Getting their input and their involvement into creating the expectations for that activity really makes me feel like it is a more equitable way to teach expectations and reinforce them.

Because of course, if somebody's going to have a silly answer, like we should be able to talk in a quiet reading session, most of the students are like, "Well that's not really fair to everybody else." It's kind of a self-responsible activity for them to understand. It helps me, because I feel like I'm having a classroom discussion with people and they're being very responsible, but we're also setting out classroom guidelines for an activity that I've planned and I want them to do because I spend time on it, it's for their benefit.

Angela:

I love that. CHAMPs you referenced, it's from Safe and Civil Schools, Dr. Randy Sprick.

William:

Yes.

Angela:

I am a CHAMPs-ette too, because I did CHAMPs on the classroom, I found it very beneficial. CHAMP stands for Conversation Help Activity Movement Participation. When we think about those activities in the classroom that we have, whether it's direct teach, guided practice, independent work, you kind of put those expectations through that CHAMPs acronym. Can the students talk? Who can they talk to? How loud can they talk?

William:

Absolutely.

Angela:

How do you ask for help? Do you say, "Mister," across the room and you're supposed to walk to them, or do they raise their hand? Really helps guide the students so that there is not a question of the expectations. I find that when you get into the middle school arena and kids are going to seven, eight different classes in one day, trying to figure out what is this teacher's expectations versus this teacher. When can I ask to go to the restroom? When am I allowed to talk and have just some opportunity to have dialogue and socialization with my peers? Having that in the classroom can be extremely beneficial for teachers, so I'm glad that you've established that for your student success. If you had to think about one burning issue that you have with behavior, something that is still plaguing your classroom management, what is one of those issues that you're facing right now?

William:

Yeah, I think it's a common issue as well that most teachers could empathize with, is I do have a problem with students trying to direct mean or hurtful chirps to other students, where if I am redirecting a behavior that is unwanted from a student and I do that, I have a student immediately follow up with, "Yeah, you shouldn't do that," or "yeah, serves you right." I have those conversations in the class, this is a golden rule. Do unto others what you want done to yourself. Do you understand that if you are adding to the negativity in the classroom by chirping out these statements where people are meant to feel bad because you're doing it, you're intentionally not bringing the mood up in the room. You're intentionally leaving the maturity level at a lower level in the room. That's something I'm still learning about how to address the best way. I'm not sure if that's a classroom thing, or something I need to talk to my other grade level teachers about in terms of reinforcing kindness in our classrooms more.

Angela:

Thinking about the pandemic and how the pandemic impacted education, we talk a lot about learning loss and about the amount of learning that students missed during that time. We haven't spent a lot of time talking about the behavior loss, that leadership and character development growth that they missed, and how to appropriately interact with others and what that's supposed to look like.

William:

Yes.

Angela:

Being able to know when to chime in and when not to, and that sort of thing is huge. One of the strategies that I've seen be successful in a classroom is doing restorative circles. There is a closing circle that I saw a video from Edutopia, and it's called Apology, Appreciation, or an Aha. The students can give an aha from their learning, they can apologize for any behavior that they might have had or anything in the classroom, or they can give an appreciation to somebody. It has an opportunity for students to own their behavior, but also appreciate things and it sets a different tone for their classroom.

William:

I really like that, yeah.

Angela:

The other strategy that I've seen is really going back to reinforcement systems of owning your behavior. As a class, if we've really paid attention to us and not what other people are doing, then it's like the ticket and the bucket, so it's that way to acknowledge the fact that we're not being engaged in that other piece. But, to take it to the next level, I saw this done at a secondary, and I've also seen it done in elementary, where students can put something in the appreciation jar. There's an appreciation jar. Instead of focusing on the negative behavior that kids are doing, students are going, "I just want to say I want to appreciate Angela for helping me clean up," or, "William helped me with a problem that I had and problem solved with me." It's an appreciation jar. Instead of any kind o