2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport

Erin Gokey and Andie Wochele are our morning beverage winners for this week!  Congratulations and thank you so much for taking the time to post a comment!

Our next Danielson focus is Component 2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport.  Teaching depends, fundamentally, on the quality of relationships among individuals. Teachers must manage relationships with students and must ensure that relationships among students are positive and supportive. Verbal and nonverbal behavior and patterns of interactions contribute to the overall tone of the class. In a respectful environment, all students feel valued and safe, encouraging them to take intellectual risks. 

The elements of component 2a are:

Teacher interactions with students, including both words and actions.

A teacher’s interactions with students set the tone for the classroom. Through their interactions, teachers convey that they care about their students.

Student interactions with other students, including both words and actions.

How students treat each other is as important as how teachers treat students—and arguably, for students, even more important. At its worst, poor treatment results in bullying, which can poison the environment of an entire school. At its best, positive interactions among students are mutually supportive and create an emotionally healthy school environment. It’s the teacher’s responsibility both to model and teach students how to engage in respectful interactions with one another.

In a proficient classroom in creating an environment of respect and rapport:

Teacher-student interactions are friendly and demonstrate general caring and respect.  Such interactions are appropriate to the ages, cultures and developmental levels of the students.  Interactions among students are generally polite and respectful, and students exhibit respect for the teacher.  The teacher responds successfully to disrespectful behavior among students.  The net result of the interactions is polite, respectful, and business-like, though students may be somewhat cautious about taking intellectual risks.

Possible Examples

* The teacher greets students by name as they enter the class or during the lesson.

* The teacher gets on the same level with students, kneeling, for instance, beside a student working at a desk.

* Students attend fully to what the teacher is saying.

* Students wait for classmates to finish speaking before beginning to talk.

* Students applaud politely following a classmate’s presentation to the class.

* Students help each other and accept help from each other.

* The teacher and students us courtesies such as “please,” thank you,” and “excuse me.”

* The teacher says “Don’t talk that way to your classmates,” and the insults stop.

In a distinguished classroom, interactions between the teacher and students and among students are highly respectful, reflecting genuine warmth, caring and sensitivity to students as individuals.  Students exhibit respect for the teacher and contribute to high levels of civility among all members of the class.  The net result is an environment where all students feel valued and are comfortable taking intellectual risks.

Possible examples:

*The teacher inquires about a student’s soccer game last weekend (or extracurricular activities or hobbies).

*Students say “shhh” to classmates who are talking while the teacher or another student is speaking.

* Students clap enthusiastically for one another’s presentations for a job well done.

*The teacher says, “That’s an interesting idea, Josh, but you’re forgetting…”

*A student questions a classmate, “Didn’t you mean ____?” and the classmate reflects and responds, “Oh, maybe you are right!”

Thoughts about your practice as you move through the next week: What activities do you use when building inclusion with and among your students?  How do you model respect with adults and students to your students?  How do you redirect students when disrespectful behavior happens?  What connections do you make with students to ensure each child feels valued and cared for?

Resources

Danielson Rubric

Video on Building Community

Choice Words

* Much of this work about the Danielson Framework comes directly from a "Teachscape" information document called "Framework for Teaching."

Comments section topic: Share a strategy you use to connect students to each other.

2c: Managing Classroom Procedures

Congratulations to our morning beverage winner from last week’s blog, Jenny McDonell!  Be sure to join the conversation!  Share your thinking!

As we wrap up the third week of school we are seeing students become more familiar in their classroom routines.  Classrooms that function smoothly are an essential support for student engagement and good instruction.  Have efficient routines been established in your classroom community?  Does your class feel as though it could run itself?

This week we are digging into Danielson’s Domain 2: Classroom Environment by focusing on Component 2c: Managing Classroom Procedures.  The elements that make up component 2c are:

• Management of instructional groups
• Teachers help students to develop skills to work purposefully and cooperatively in groups or independently, with little supervision from the teacher.
• Management of transitions
• Many lessons engage students in different types of activities: large group, small group, independent work.  It’s important that little time is lost as students move from one activity to another; students know the drill and execute it seamlessly.
• Management of materials and supplies
• Teachers have all the necessary materials at hand and have taught students to implement routines for distribution and collection of materials with a minimum of disruption to the flow of instruction.
• Performance of classroom routines
• Overall, little instructional time is lost in activities such as taking attendance, recording lunch count, or the return of permission slips.
  
  
  
  

In a proficient classroom in Managing Classroom Procedures:

There is little loss of instructional time to effective classroom routines and procedures.  The teacher’s management of instructional groups and transitions, or handling of materials and supplies, or both, are consistently successful.  With minimal guidance and prompting, students follow established classroom routines (Danielson Rubric, 2013).

Possible examples...

• Students get started on an activity while a teacher takes attendance.
• The teacher has an established timing device, such as counting down, to signal students to return to the carpet.
• The teacher has an established attention signal, such as dimming the lights or raising their hand.
• One member from each group collects the materials.
• Clean up is fast and efficient.

In a distinguished classroom, instructional time in maximized  due to efficient and seamless classroom routines and procedures.  Students take the initiative in the management of instructional groups and transitions, and/or the handling of materials and supplies.  Routines are well established and may be initiated by students (Danielson rubric, 2013).

What might this look like?

• Students redirect classmates in small groups not working directly with the teacher to be more efficient in their work.  
• Students propose an improved attention signal.
• A student redirects a classmate to the table he should be at following a transition.
• Students independently check themselves in at an attendance board.

Things to reflect upon...

• Are all of your routines functioning smoothly?
• Is your instructional time maximized due to your routines and procedures?
• Are students playing a role in carrying out the classroom routines?
• Do students know what they are supposed to do and where to move during transitions?

Resources:

Danielson Rubric

The Well Managed Classroom (by Harry Wong)

30 Classroom Procedures to Head Off Behavior Problems

* Much of this work about the Danielson Framework comes directly from a "Teachscape" information document called "Framework for Teaching."

Comment Topic of the Week:

Share a routine or procedure that maximizes instructional time in your classroom.

Join the conversation!

Congratulations to our “morning beverage” winners from last week’s blog: Monika Stevens and Liz Jaeger!!  We will be delivering you your favorite cup of “joe” next week.

It was wonderful to connect with everyone this week in our travels between Randall and Hawthorne.  We learned so much from listening in on your PLC discussions and we were quite excited to be a part of your teams.  We know...we’re big geeks...and we’re OK with that!   We hope to spend more time in classrooms throughout next week.  Please know that when any of us, including Joe and Chris, visit your classrooms in these first weeks it is not with an “evaluative” purpose.  We are just wanting to lay eyes, hands and hearts on you and your students.  As we lay the groundwork for our development for the year, we want to ensure everyone has the supports in place for continuing our paths to personalization.  The walkthroughs and your input help us determine what supports are most crucial right now and as we move forward with the planning and preparation of Waukesha One.

We wanted to introduce the Danielson Framework to everyone this week.  

“The Framework for Teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction, aligned to the INTASC standards, and grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching.  The complex activity of teaching is divided into 22 components clustered into four domains of teaching responsibility:

1. Planning and Preparation

2. Classroom Environment

3. Instruction

4. Professional Responsibilities

Each component defines a distinct aspect of a domain; two to five elements describe a specific feature of a component.  Levels of teaching performance describe each component and provide a roadmap for improvement of teaching.”

-The Danielson Group

At the heart of the framework is the belief that teacher growth occurs within conversations and reflections around the components in this rubric.  Whether you are reflecting on your own, with a colleague, or with a coach about your practice, feedback connected to the specifics in the components moves us forward.  This process is meant to be collaborative; built on the relationships and trust of the learning community.

Over the next few weeks we will focus our energy on Domain 2: Classroom Environment.  We will be sharing information on each of the components in domain 2 and connecting you to resources to enhance your practice in that area.  We hope to capture examples of evidence from domain 2 to share across both buildings as we build a common understanding of what practices support the classroom environment.

Finally, we want to thank you, again, for your willingness to open your doors and your classrooms to us and to each other as we continue on this journey of leading and growing with each other.

Comment Question for the Week:

What is the hardest thing you have ever had to learn how to do?

Leave your answer in the comment section below to be entered into a drawing for a morning beverage!

Emily & Faith

Happy 1st Week!

It is so exciting to see so many eager young faces throughout the halls...of course we are talking about all of our teachers as well as our students!  The preparation and commitment you all bring to this first week of school will be felt by the community of learners you are growing.  We are looking forward to working with each of you this year in the joyful pursuit of lifting students with your practice.

Our Blog: We plan to use this blog as a weekly forum to explore the Danielson Framework and the role it plays in Educator Effectiveness.  We will be gathering evidence of practice from all classrooms to share with both buildings as we build a common understanding and language around effective practices.  Thank you, in advance, for opening your classroom doors to us and our iPads.  The blog will also be a place for us to share information connected to our PLC work, district guidelines/deadlines and celebrate successes.  We encourage everyone to continue the discussion with comments and responses to each blog.  There may be a name drawn each week from those who post comments to get a scrumptious morning beverage.

Our Schedule: We are beginning the year with a schedule that we hope to keep throughout the year. Monday: Randall Day

Tuesday: Hawthorne AM, Randall PM

Wednesday: Hawthorne AM, Randall PM

Thursday: Hawthorne Day

Friday: Equalized Time Day

Considering the irregularity of each week and the flow of a school year, we appreciate your understanding when schedules need to change.  This schedule will be available on a website we are creating.  We hope to launch this site next week at a PLC meeting.  

Comment Topic:  Share a high point from your first days of the school year in the comment section below!