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Author: HES Marketing

Important “Look-Fors” when Choosing an Observational Instrument

Written by HES Marketing on .

You have high expectations. You recognize that teacher observations have the potential to be much more than a step in the Annual Professional Performance Review, APPR (3012-c and 3012-d). All teachers, not just those on Teacher Improvement Plans (TIPs), deserve professional growth feedback. You are searching for the best observational instrument because it is an investment in student learning. Moving the needle on teacher effectiveness improves student learning.  

Observing for Teacher Growth and Teacher Evaluation 

Professional growth and teacher evaluation are not the same. The Regent’s Teacher Evaluation System demonstrates minimal educational standards. Professional growth focuses on effective teaching to maximize student learning. New York State mandates two annual observations by trained observers, often the principal.  Most district leaders agree that teacher growth requires more than two observations per year and that the act of focused observation is itself a teacher growth opportunity.  Using the same observational tool for both purposes provides improved data reliability and trust in the system. 

Observational Instrument “Look-Fors” 

1. Practical and Easy to Use  

Administrators are more likely to observe teachers frequently with an observational instrument that is easy to use. Frequent observations give administrators and teachers a richer body of knowledge about teacher needs. Each observation and the accompanying feedback provide a snapshot. With regular observations, patterns emerge that help administrators distinguish between an anomaly and an ongoing opportunity for growth.  

Frequent observations also lower the stakes for teachers for individual observations. The difference between regular informal observations and only two formal ones is similar to the difference between formative and summative assessments for students. In addition, frequently observing and identifying evidence of learning promotes a growth mindset culture. 

Ease of use is also essential for districts using observation for peer learning and growth opportunities. It should be so intuitive that teachers learn to use it with a short tutorial.  

Look for these practical and ease-of-use features in an observational instrument:   

  • Evidence of learning and instruction such as pictures, notes, responses, and timestamps all in one place. 
  • Drafts are auto-shared until the observer finalizes the observation 
  • Automatically shares the completed rubric after observer takes it out of draft mode  
  • Pre-created “quick sentences” in the scripting area 
  • Can upload pictures and activate the camera from within the rubric 
  • Has video tutorials on the website 
  • Great customer support  
  • Web-based interface 
  • All elements have an intuitive design for quick learning

2. Based on Best Instructional Practices 

Observational data and feedback must align with state and district expectations. New York State uses various editions of the Danielson Framework for Teachers (FFT) and other well-known rubrics. One observational tool used to have exclusive rights to the 2013 edition, but that is no longer true. All education partners, including eDoctrina and eWalk, now have access to all editions, including the 2013 FFT.  

Look for this foundational feature in your observational instrument:  

  • It complies with the framework edition that your district uses.  
  • Time and date stamps included in scripting area to gauge lesson pace 
  • The script is easy to add as evidence to the observable components section 
  • Embedded descriptions of rubric ratings   

3. Enhances Collaboration 

You want an observational tool that integrates the collaborative process into its platform. Collaboration promotes trust between the observer and the teacher and in the system itself. Immediate feedback allows everyone to respond when everything is fresh in their memories. The tool should use the common language of your district culture to foster in-depth conversations about research-based practices.  

Look for these collaborative features in your observational instrument:  

  • Automatic email delivery when the observer is ready to share 
  • Embedded response section 
  • Ability to control the level of access for specific observations to allow for conversations and protect privacy 
  • Ability to choose which observation events count towards the evaluation. 
  • Includes a streamlined electronic signature capability

4. Reflects District Values and Priorities 

Just as every student and teacher is unique, so is your district. Your district’s leadership and accountability team have carefully crafted priorities based on specific demographics. Your observational rubrics should reflect this hard work.   

Look for these differentiated features in your observational instrument: 

  • Administrators able to add customized quick sentences for scripting 
  • Fully customizable rubrics and calculation methods 
  • Ability to have multiple rubrics 
  • Ability to integrate with assessment tools and data  
  • Back-end calculations made according to your district’s specifications 

5. Helpful for Making Data-Driven Professional Development Decisions 

Perhaps the most appreciated use of a superior observational instrument is feeling confident that you can provide teachers with proper support. You will have easily accessible data supporting which teachers would make great mentors and who would benefit most from having a mentor. You want to choose professional development that moves the needle in student engagement and learning.  

Accurate data is critical to the APPR. Automating the calculations improves trust in the evaluation system because it removes the possibility for human error. It means you provide an accurate end of year report with your district specific calculation to NYSDOE.  

Look for these data features in your observational instrument: 

  • Automatic back-end calculations 
  • Links with SLO tools 
  • Evaluation dashboard where all components are managed on a single screen  
  • Ability to see individual teacher growth 
  • High-level data reports about groups of teachers 
  • The ability to quickly drill down for more detailed information  
  • Data presented visually for straightforward interpretation 
  • High inter-rater reliability with built in calibration instrument 

Making the Final Decision 

If you are looking for the best teacher observation instrument, take a moment to watch a video about using OBSeRVE. It is part of the eDoctrina Accountability Suite that you can take for a test drive. OBSeRVE checks all the boxes for a quality instrument and integrates seamlessly with eDoctrina’s other great products. We built OBSeRVE because we believe that the best observational instrument makes implementing MTSS with fidelity feasible.  

Data tells us that district leaders agree. Among districts that use eDoctrina for multiple education solutions, we have a renewal rate of almost 100 percent because principals and teachers love being able to access all information from one cohesive system. As one satisfied user put it, “The power of the data is incredible. eDoctina satisfies our needs and goes above and beyond.

Ways to Improve Emotional Support for Teachers

Written by HES Marketing on .

Teachers act as a frontline support system for students’ emotional needs. COVID-19 intensifies the emotional needs of students, which intensifies emotional stress for teachers. Many district leaders are looking for ways to increase their emotional support for teachers.

You are probably interested in supporting teachers emotionally because it is the right thing to do. Did you also know that emotionally supporting teachers has practical benefits as well? It promotes a positive district culture, improves student learning, and is cost-effective. 

District Culture

Improving trust and relationships among teachers and administrators is the first step towards creating a positive district culture. District leaders build confidence when they value and support their teachers. Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, a leading authority on organizational culture from Harvard Graduate School of Education, said, “A culture will be strong or weak depending on the interactions between the people in the organization. In a strong culture, there are many, overlapping, and cohesive interactions among all members of the organization.” Simply put, district leaders who consistently interact with teachers will be in a better position to support them.

Student Learning

Experienced teachers positively influence student learning because they develop their skills over many years. Teachers who feel supported by their leaders are more likely to stay in their positions. Unfortunately, even before the pandemic, statistics showed that over 50% of teachers quit teaching before reaching retirement age. That attrition rate hurts students.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals describes how principals should not underestimate their role. According to the Wallace Foundation, principals rely on district leaders to provide resources and help. Research shows that even leaders as high in hierarchy as the superintendent impact student achievement.

Cost-Effective

Retaining teachers also saves the district money. The cost of recruiting, hiring, and training one new teacher typically ranges from $9,000 to $21,000. An urban district with 5,000 teachers could save five million dollars by reducing teacher attrition from 15 percent to 10 percent. Dedicating half of it to support teachers equals 2.5 million dollars. Dividing those resources among 5,000 teachers equals $500. $500 per teacher will provide a lot of supportive resources.

Respect, Listening, and Responding are Foundations for Emotional Support

We asked teachers across the US to describe how administrators are supporting them this year.

Some teachers gushed, “My administrators are the best! I don’t have enough superlatives to describe how they go above and beyond to help us teachers feel supported. I love my job.”

Others said, “My administrators are not helping at all. They make it worse. I am stressed beyond belief, and they keep piling on the work.” Emotionally supporting teachers requires respect. Micromanaging kills respect. Instead, empower teachers to play critical roles in decision making about how to achieve shared goals. Giving teachers agency fulfills their inherent desire to make a difference.

Another key to emotionally supporting teachers is listening and responding appropriately. Listening sounds easy, but not enough leaders intentionally incorporate listening into their day. The danger of not seeking input from everyone is that more vocal teachers will dominate what you hear. To get a balanced understanding, go into classrooms or call each teacher regularly. You will learn a lot from these informal conversations.

Crafting a response that values the teacher is hard too because leaders must confront their limitations. However, failure to listen and respond appropriately creates a chasm between teachers and district leaders.

One teacher wrote that teachers in her district told leaders they were suffering from work overload. The district responded with, “Take time for self-care,” but then added more meetings to the schedule. Luckily, most district leaders are more perceptive than that.

Support that Goes the Extra Mile

You may be looking for specifics for taking your emotional support to the next level. Teachers sang the praises of the administrators going above and beyond the norm. Read on for inspiration about outstanding teacher support that fell into four categories.

  1. Reducing Responsibilities and Granting Time Off
  2. Giving Gifts and Supplying Food
  3. Building Community
  4. Providing Technology Tools

Helping Teachers Fulfill their Responsibilities

Teachers feel overwhelmed and expressed how much they love getting time off from work to relax and recuperate. However, unless administrators also amended professional responsibilities, receiving time off felt disingenuous. After all, most teachers are already putting in more than their contract hours. As one teacher said, she doesn’t have “a work fairy.” Here are a few ways principals and district leaders lightened teachers’ loads.

  • Taking over recess/lunch duty
  • Making phone calls to students’ homes
  • Covering classes when a guest teacher isn’t available
  • Shortening and canceling meetings
  • Postponing professional development
  • Not requiring teachers to turn in lesson plans for review
  • Making one non-instructional day per week to allow for planning, collaboration, and communication
  • Streamlining the Educator Effectiveness Plan process

Giving Gifts and Supplying Food

Food and gifts show teachers that you care about them and build morale. Here are a few gestures from principals and district leaders that made teachers smile.

  • Organizing parents to bring meals to teachers
  • Buying gift cards for a restaurant
  • Catering staff meetings
  • Bringing coffee and doughnuts on Mondays
  • Stocking the staff lounge with grab-and-go snacks and drinks
  • Organizing meal delivery to teachers experiencing hardship
  • Giving door prizes at meetings where the lucky winner received a bottle of wine, a gift card, or a gift basket
  • Cash bonuses or raises
  • Adding an ergonomic chair to every classroom
  • Giving token gifts such as a meditation app, hand sanitizer, lotion, masks, a book of inspirational quotes
  • Adding a teacher’s calming corner, complete with a massage chair, in the teacher’s lounge

Community Building

Teachers often feel isolated from peers. Principals improve camaraderie and innovation with community building. Teachers like the following ideas.

  • Relaxing the dress code
  • Book clubs
  • Throwing eggs at a big sign saying “COVID”
  • Putting a blank poster outside the door of staff members and encouraging everyone to write uplifting words and praise
  • Virtual game nights like Bingo and Trivia with small prizes
  • Starting each meeting with a quick icebreaker
  • Scavenger hunts
  • Creating a book with a page dedicated to each staff member, showing what makes that staff member special

Providing Appropriate Technology Tools

Social distancing required teachers to adopt technology at warp speed. Unfortunately, many teachers spend their personal money to equip themselves and students with the proper EdTech tools. Districts support their teachers emotionally by supplying improved software and hardware to teach efficiently. Here is a list of some of the tech tools teachers appreciate.

  • Microphones, document cameras, monitor lights, tablets
  • Communication platforms
  • Access to an easy to use and robust Learning Management System
  • A discretionary budget for learning apps and subscriptions
  • Digital collaboration tools
  • Curriculum software that includes automatic grading and data collection.

As leaders, you may follow the philosophy of the French statesman, Andre Malraux, who said, “To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.” At Harris Education Solutions, we want to help you honor and support our community heroes-teachers.

Help Students Returning to the Classroom Navigate their Emotions

Written by HES Marketing on .

Ms. Conner guarded the door, which was ajar, so seven-year-old Mark would feel safe changing his rain-soaked clothes.  As Ms. Conner discretely ensured Mark’s privacy, she pondered his destructive tendencies and realized that they were his way of expressing and releasing emotional turmoil. Now his stress and grief were manifesting as a fear of being alone, even for a few minutes. Admitting this vulnerability and asking for help was out of character for Mark. Despite his usual bravado, this little boy needed emotional support as much, if not more, than other students did. Mark is hardly alone in having a big emotion overwhelm his ability to regulate behavior.   

No child escaped repercussions from the pandemic. Some students suffered catastrophic losses. Many students dramatically changed their lifestyle. Every student had to adapt to differences in the community and at school. New thoughts and conversations about safety permeate every aspect of daily life.  

Students returning to the classroom after remote learning or a holiday break will have varying responses.  Returning to school can be an emotional experience, even in regular times. In addition to all the typical emotions, students returning in 2021 may also be suffering grief, depression, fear, disappointment, anxiety, guilt, loneliness, and more.  

No one expects you to act as a counselor. However, your daily interactions provide an opportunity to help students develop socio-emotional skills. The blog Supporting Students Experiencing Trauma During the Covid-19 Pandemic discusses the importance of classroom routines and ensuring students feel a sense of control in their lives. 

Teaching Empathy and Emotional Intelligence 

As discussed in Three Steps to Emotionally Support Students to Promote Academic Success, feeling emotionally safe in the classroom improves learning. As the teacher, you set the tone. However, students affect the emotional climate as well.     

A student who has not experienced stress from the pandemic at home may start feeling it in the classroom. Students likely echo their family’s response to the pandemic, which may be quite varied among different students.  

This convergence of perspectives and feelings offers an opening to explore empathy and emotional intelligence. Without such instruction, many students will be oblivious to the feelings of their classmates.   

Consider the differences between Marie and Mason. Marie had regular social interactions outside of school during the pandemic, including attending group events. Mason stayed home except for a few brief outings in which he always wore a mask and stayed six feet apart from others. At recess, Marie repeatedly invites Mason to play, and Mason continually declines. Marie may inadvertently be pressuring her friend to engage in a way that makes him uncomfortable, and Mason may be unwittingly hurting Marie’s feelings by rejecting her invitations.   

Open conversations about what feels safe to each student help mitigate these types of situations. Reading and discussing literature is another great way to explore different emotional responses. Teaching children to respect the feelings and differences of other perspectives not only improves class culture. Harvard Business School considers Emotional Intelligence essential to a person’s professional success.   

Happy, Sad, Excited, and Nervous – All at Once 

Human emotions are rarely orderly and logical. Students often experience cognitive dissonance because they have conflicting feelings about the same situation. Let students know that an onslaught of coexisting mixed emotions is normal. Mason’s anxiety about the virus does not negate his excitement to see his friends.   

Helping students identify each feeling and its source helps them make sense of how they feel. According to the experts in emotional intelligence at 6seconds.org, naming and admitting fear and anxiety helps people face them. Emotional check-ins also give students practice identifying their emotions and aid in forming a trusting relationship.  

Like learning any skill, learning to identify and cope with tricky emotions requires seeing someone doing it. Some of your students may lack a model of emotional health in their home environment. You could act as the model or invite a guest speaker to address the class. Talking about a time you experienced conflicting emotions normalizes how they feel. The Disney movie Inside Out does a great job showing the purpose of negative emotions and could be used as a light-hearted entry point to the discussion.  

Of course, keep your discussions and resources appropriate for the students’ developmental level and the classroom. As you teach students to identify authentic emotions, including healthy coping strategies will help your students through tough times. These conversations invite your students to increase their awareness and manage their feelings. 

Providing Comfort and Calm 

Even in the calmest, most nurturing classroom environment, students may have emotional breakdowns.  Emotional breakdowns look different in different individuals because emotional expression varies by culture, gender identity, developmental level, personality, and temperament. Whereas Mark often destroyed property, Marie would cry, and Jordan would withdraw. If possible, try these strategies to help the student in crisis.  

Help calm students so they can think clearly. Human touch is healing, and your first instinct may be to hug the child. Now, a simple embrace may not be allowed or safe. Dr. Robert D Keder suggests students hug themselves. The pressure and skin-to-skin contact of a self-hug mimics the feeling of a real hug. The self-hug will release oxytocin to aid in calming the child. He also provides some mindfulness exercises such as deep breathing.    

Once the student relaxes enough to think and talk, ask them what caused the intense emotions. As you listen, help the child find places they can take control of the situation. Unfortunately, there are circumstances where the only thing they have the power to control is their thoughts. Luckily, improving the positivity of one’s thoughts cultivates positive emotional responses.   

In the revolutionary work, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” it says,  

Whether they’re aware of it or not, all people keep a running account of what’s happening to them, what it means, and what they should do. In other words, our minds are constantly monitoring and interpreting. That’s just how we stay on track. But sometimes the interpretation process goes awry. Some people put more extreme interpretations on things that happen-and then react with exaggerated feelings of anxiety, digression, or anger. Or superiority. (p. 215) Carol S. Dweck 

For example, a child who incorrectly answers a question could think, “I am dumb.” or “I need to study this more.” The first thought demonstrates a fixed mindset, whereas the second thought shows a growth mindset. The growth mindset fosters an improved emotional response because it puts the thinker in control of the situation. Dr. Dweck emphasizes the critical role teachers play in helping students develop a growth mindset. There are plenty of growth mindset resources available for the teachers.  

Sometimes an event becomes catastrophized in the child’s mind. For example, a child may touch another child who is fearful of germs. While the event may seem small to an onlooker, the scared student may jump to the conclusion that they now have a fatal infection. The thought induces a panic attack.   

Acknowledge the student’s authentic emotion. The way a student perceives the situation may, or may not, have its basis from accurate information. Either way, the feelings triggered are genuine.  After verbally acknowledging their feelings, you may help the child reframe their negative thoughts and perceptions.  

Enlist Help 

A much as you care for your students, you do not have to shoulder all of their emotional needs yourself. Send families these parent resources  from National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Ask a mental health professional to teach some lessons on coping strategies. Refer children who need it to the next level of support.   

Being back in the classroom may present some emotional challenges for you too. Remember to take time to address your own emotional health needs. In the next blog, we will discuss how administrators can support the emotional needs of teachers and each other. At Harris Education Solutions, our mission is to help schools improve and succeed, thereby helping students succeed.  

Recognizing and Exiting Survival Mode in Education

Written by HES Marketing on .

Your family is enjoying a lovely picnic in the park. Suddenly, the wind picks up embers from another family’s barbecue, and sparks fly to dry grass near you. Everyone drops their food and runs over to stomp out the flames. You extinguish all the blazes, narrowly averting a wildfire. Unfortunately, the food is ruined, the grass is scorched, and your family is stressed.  

That scenario exemplifies going into survival mode to manage a crisis. You jump into action. You don’t pause to discuss fire science. When the fire is out, you clean up the mess and get new food for your hungry family. 

Survival mode is necessary to mitigate damage during a crisis. You must make tough decisions and follow through rapidly. The pandemic put many, if not all districts, in survival mode. At edInsight, we appreciate your decisive action to educate students safely. We are here to support your ability to make wise decisions.  

Most of our recent blogs focus on tips about educating during the time of COVID. This blog encourages you to consider the future as you transition out of survival mode into repairing the damage incurred. Survival mode is not a natural place for visionary leaders. Since you are reading a blog about creating future success, consider yourself a visionary leader.  

Pandemic Damage 

Everyone is stressed by constant changes and a lack of control. School-level educators are drowning from work overload trying to meet all their students’ needs and fulfill other expectations. A teacher posted to her friends, “There is nothing quite like the nauseating sting of anxiety from muddling through one monumental task, then sifting through the pages of emails you didn’t have time to take care of only to find out that you’re even further away from catching up. I give up… for today.”   

Parents are pulling their kids out of the public school system at alarming rates, stretching thin budgets even more. At least some parents chose to leave because they worried about their children struggling academically and socially. Parents of children with previously existing academic challenges were especially frustrated by their distance learning experience in the spring. EdChoice published a report detailing parental concerns by demographic data. 

Distance learning exposed weaknesses for the most vulnerable populations. Even teachers doing face-to-face instruction had to change their typical methodologies to enforce social distancing practices. Teachers are reporting that more students have more significant learning gaps than ever before. A high school teacher with many Title 1 students said that fifty percent of her students are failing. A fifth-grade distance-learning teacher lamented about a depressingly low student engagement. Another teacher admitted that she feels disconnected from her students and doesn’t have a firm grasp of what students know.  

It is up to district leaders to provide these dedicated educators with the tools they need to do their job well. 

Recognizing and Exiting Survival Mode 

While quick decisions and actions are necessary during a crisis, it comes at a cost. Some people call survival mode “slow death mode” because it is a downhill slide into reactionary management. Focusing on disaster mitigation leaves precious little energy and resources for repairing damage, systematic planning, and creating a culture of improvement.  

Teams in survival mode often exhibit the following traits: 

  • Not investing in systems and training 
  • Spending most of the time reacting to urgent situations  
  • Ignoring issues previously considered a high priority 
  • Overwhelming exhaustion and stress
  • Not tracking success indicators 

When a crisis lasts for a long time, such as the pandemic, teams must be careful not to become stuck in a reactionary mode rather than a proactive mode. The lack of a systemic approach to management and resource allocation eventually puts students’ future academic growth in jeopardy.  

Experts warn that pivoting out of survival mode is a gradual and intentional process. Some members of your team may be resistant to the change. Perhaps they think survival mode is still necessary or they feel energized in times of crisis. Listen to their concerns and value their skillsets because their energy and insights are valuable.  

However, as a visionary, people are relying on your talent for seeing a path toward a successful future. 

The Impact of Survival Mode on MTSS  

If your district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) deteriorated in survival mode, you are not alone. Implementing a robust MTSS system requires district leaders to analyze and plan carefully. Districts that invested in MTSS before the pandemic avoided much of the damage, but no one remained unscathed. 

If your district did not have a strong MTSS before the pandemic, it will need one after. The sooner your team starts implementing MTSS measures, the better for student outcomes. 

MTSS improves student achievement, closes learning gaps, and supports teachers. It focuses educators on the highest priority needs, increasing effectiveness and reducing stress.  

Repairing MTSS Requires Data  

As you transition out of survival mode, you need to know where students and teachers need support to create a road map to achieve desired student learning outcomes. Start by gathering pertinent data and analyzing it carefully. A comprehensive data dashboard makes those tasks much quicker and easier.  

Teachers teach most effectively when they quickly and easily see students’ growth. School administrators implement MTSS with Fidelity when they track student progress for large groups, sub-groups, and individuals. The ability to track progress gives administrators valuable information about which interventions to prioritize. A data dashboard provides teachers with specific information for improved communication with parents and students about progress and the next steps. Clear directives are vital to empower stakeholders to act towards the goal of every student meeting standards. 

edInsight Supports MTSS and Future Success 

Most people think of edInsight as merely a data dashboard. While our data dashboard is an incredible productivity tool, we are so much more. Our trainers go beyond teaching how to use the software; they coach how to think of data in new ways. You choose the criteria and benchmarks to support your specific MTSS approach. Every aspect is customizable. 

The software provides a way to include informal teacher assessments and formal district assessments in data analysis. It reduces teacher workload because they enter assessments directly into the system. The district software connects to the edInsight data warehouse, automating reporting and analysis.  

When your district is ready to plan for success, our products make an excellent investment in student growth. Say good-bye to trying to make sense of piles of paperwork and lost folders. Say hello to data-driven collaborative decision-making. 

Click here to learn more about how our team can help convert your vision into reality. 

Ideas for Reading Aloud in Multiple Learning Environments

Written by HES Marketing on .

“Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.” 

Jim Trelease, author of Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook

Reading aloud to children is a treasured time-honored practice, widely promoted by researchers and teachers. It improves literacy and language abilities, develops social-emotional skills, strengthens the learning community, and expands content knowledge. Many students, even those in high school, say that listening to their teacher read aloud is their favorite academic activity.

With all those benefits, you want to continue doing it even though reading aloud to remote learners takes some extra technology and planning. We asked some teachers for ideas about managing reading aloud in various situations.

Showing the Book

Most teachers suggest using a document camera to show the book to remote learners. Teachers like having a hands-free way to show the text, taking pictures of the book’s pages, and then embedding the photos into a Google Slides presentation. Teachers with both face-to-face and remote learners project the book on an interactive whiteboard or another screen for everyone to see.

Live Readings for Synchronous Teaching

Many teachers instructing in-person and remote-learners simultaneously read aloud in real-time rather than making a recording. They do not want to use valuable prep time making a recording.

Remote learners join via their video conferencing platform, such as Zoom. To do live readings to both groups, set up your technology so remote students see projected images and can interact with you and their classmates. You may be able to do it without extra audiovisual equipment, but a Bluetooth microphone and camera give you more configurations. Having another adult present helps coordinate the technology and student interaction.

Recordings for Synchronous and Asynchronous Access

Many teachers pre-record themselves reading aloud instead of reading the book in real-time. To lessen the amount of work of creating recordings, teams often assign members to read and record different books or chapters. This method also benefits students because they get to hear a variety of voices and styles.

Teachers with limited synchronous contact time often decide reading aloud works as an asynchronous activity. A lot of teachers pre-record themselves reading aloud even for synchronous learning. When possible, they make the recording without wearing masks, making it easier for students to listen. Teachers say using a recording gives them a much-needed opportunity to rest their voices during the school day. Using a recording enables teachers to focus on students better too. When using the recording synchronously, pause the recording as needed for class discussion.

Recording software, such as Screencastify, is useful for recording and creating a link to it. Some document cameras come with this ability too. Then you upload the link onto your LMS platform for synchronous or asynchronous access.

You do not want to violate copyright laws. Typically, you would need express permission from the publishers to make and distribute an audio recording of their book. This year many publishers, including Penguin, Penguin Random House Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and HarperCollins, have given teachers and librarians permission through December 31, 2020. You do need to follow specific requirements, though. Begin the recording by saying, “I am reading (title of book) by (author) with permission of (publisher).” If you upload the video to youtube.com, use the unlisted sharing setting.

To record a book from other publishers, or in 2021, go to the publisher’s website for copyright information.

Choosing Books

You have a wide variety of great books to choose from for reading to your class. Part of the selection process includes finding books with premade support materials available. Efficiency is especially important these days because prep time is at a premium. The following synopses are a sampling of elementary books supported by Castle Learning’s curriculum. Secondary teachers will also find plenty of support materials.

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl is the fantastical story of James Henry Trotter, who lives with his mean aunts after a rhinoceros eats his parents. Magic crystals make a peach grow as big as a house, offering James a place to escape. Inside the peach, James meets giant bug friends, and they go on an amazing adventure. Your class will laugh at the interactions of the boy, the bugs, and the outside world. They will even learn some interesting facts.

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner comes from a legend in the Rocky Mountain area. Little Willy lives with his grandpa. They struggle financially when his grandpa gets too sick to work. Little Willy sets a goal to help by winning prize money from a dogsled race. The only problem is that his opponent, Stone Fox, has never lost. Teachers who have read this book aloud rave about the love, lessons, and action but warn that you should have a box of tissues at the end.

Teachers of young children are wise to include an easy readers section as part of their read-aloud selection. Children will feel more familiar with characters and storylines when you introduce them through a read aloud. Familiarity gives young readers confidence to try reading these books independently. Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak is a classic series of stories about the adventures of a bear. Frog and Toad by Arnold Nobel are humorous stories about the friendship of Frog and Toad.

Non-fiction books are a great way to support and expand your lessons. Choose award-winning books like Horses by Seymour Simon. Its beautiful photographs and detailed descriptions are sure to ignite new interests.

My Librarian is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the Worldby Margriet Ruurs shows how children in different parts of the world access books. Your students will gain insight into peers’ lives in other places. They will also see there are many ways to solve the same problem.

For more descriptions of great books, consult Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook. Among the books listed are James and the Giant Peach, Stone Fox, and Charlotte’s Web, all supported by Castle Learning.

Ideas for Fun and Expanding the Learning

Students especially enjoy listening to books when readers dramatize them with costumes, voices, and gestures. Perhaps enlist a thespian guest speaker for unique recordings. By using technology, guest speakers could hail from across the globe as easily as down the hall. You might also use the free books currently available to students on Audible.com. The voice actors do a great job animating the story.

Build on the reading aloud experience with pre-reading and post-reading activities. Students could write or draw about connections from other literature or their own life. One teacher successfully used virtual conferencing for a readers-theater activity.

Castle Learning’s large bank of standards-aligned questions makes it easy to integrate a read-aloud into a lesson on language, comprehension, or other content areas. To find the appropriate questions, enter the book’s title into the keyword search tool and select the questions that fit the learning objective. You can print assignments and use them virtually. At Castle Learning, we help teachers work smarter, not harder.

Make the Most of Every Minute of Class

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COVID-19 Puts a Strain on an Already Scarce Resource – Time

Every instructional minute is precious. You have diverse learners needing to learn a lot of material in a short time. Hybrid and remote learning has amplified the challenge of optimizing instructional time. Routines such as taking attendance, cleaning, and checking for understanding take a bigger bite out of instructional time than usual.

To make the most of every instructional minute, try these three steps:

  1. Analyze contact minutes to identify time spent on administrative and custodial tasks.
  2. Increase the time you spend on actions that promote learning.
  3. Improve the effectiveness of instruction.
Analyze Contact Minutes to Identify Time Spent on Administrative and Custodial Tasks

Think about each minute you are with students. You want to streamline everything you do that is not tied to students learning. Use a simple accounting method to code your daily tasks by whether or not it advances student learning.

Use these notations for each routine task – PL for Promotes Learning, and AC for Administrative and Custodial. For example, taking attendance and approving bathroom visits are Administrative and Custodial, whereas Promote Learning would be for direct instruction and facilitating a class discussion.

Next, use the PL and AC codes to track how many minutes per hour you spend on tasks not tied to student learning. Simultaneously tracking and teaching would be challenging, if not impossible. Enlist the help of your colleagues. You and a colleague could use planning periods to help each other, or you could request an instructional coach to observe and track.

You may even ask students to observe and track. If you have young remote learners, their caregivers could help. Remote learners and their caregivers will have a different perspective on how much time is devoted to non-learning activities than you do. Asking for their observations will give you a more robust understanding of what you do not see.

Using eWalk would make gathering and analyzing the information manageable. eWalk is a flexible cloud-based app designed to help educators improve instruction by organizing observational data.

Increase the Time you Spend on Actions that Promote Learning

After getting a clear understanding of how you spend your contact minutes, try to streamline AC tasks. Every minute that you convert from an AC to a PL helps students stay engaged and learn more. Even modest improvements add up. Assuming 180 days of instruction, if you convert five minutes per day from AC to PC, your students receive 15 hours more hours of instruction in a year. Think of what your students could learn in 15 extra hours!

To take your spirit of improvement to the next level, involve the whole school. Ask school leaders to create an eWalk survey of the staff. This second survey will gather ideas about what other teachers do to reduce time spent on administrative and custodial tasks. These surveys act to solidify a culture of collaboration, valuing time, and data-driven instruction.

You probably won’t be able to convert all your administrative and custodial minutes. Set up ways for students to engage in independent learning during these times. When you must complete administrative and custodial duties, try one of these independent activities: reading, writing, completing emotional check-ins, doing warm-up exercises, and taking quick formative assessments. Castle Learning, eDoctrina, and edInsight offer easy cloud-based assessment tools that work equally well for remote and in-person learners.

Improve the Effectiveness of Instructional Time

After increasing instructional minutes, you will want to make the most of those minutes. The following ideas will help you improve the effectiveness of each instructional minute.

  • Plan your lessons to address specific learning outcomes using the district curriculum and state standards. A curriculum that is hard to access and transfer into planning makes identifying the desired learning outcomes challenging. Administrators can help teachers by providing easy to use curriculum and planning tools. edInsight software makes the curriculum more accessible and user friendly to facilitate setting goals, lesson planning, and collaborating.
  • Assess frequently to use data-driven instruction. Computer-based assessments make monitoring students’ progress easier. Not only are computer-based assessments easier to create and administer, but the data organization is also far superior to paper and pencil tests. You will have a better understanding of students’ level of mastery. You will then know how to differentiate instruction and choose lessons that address student needs. Targeted instruction advances your students toward meeting and exceeding the standards.
  • Use a dashboard to create groups for remediation and acceleration. Students get more value from their class time when instruction targets their specific needs. Student dashboards, like those from edInsight and eDoctrina, make differentiating instruction easier because you see at a glance where each student needs support.
  • Use individualized learning apps to take advantage of downtime. Students who work faster than their peers often get bored waiting for the next learning opportunity. Apps such as Castle Learning, edInsight’s Kandoolu, and others allow students to work on the specific skill they are ready to practice.
  • Communicate with caregivers of remote students about how students are responding to remote lessons. Remote instruction adds several layers of complexity to getting feedback about student understanding. Many remote students fail to alert the teacher when they don’t understand. Teachers then lose the opportunity to address the problem at the moment.

Sometimes the caregiver attempts to help and has various levels of success. Other times, students wait for the teacher to notice that they are struggling. Asking caregivers for their feedback and suggestions will go a long way to solve this problem. Once again, eWalk would be a valuable tool for gathering and organizing information.

Putting it All Together

While making the most out of every contact moment takes some effort, the rewards are worth it. Consider a science teacher who has 180 student contact hours per student per year. First,  streamlining her administrative and custodial tasks increases instructional minutes by five minutes per class. This change gives her students 15 more hours of instruction per year. Then, improving the effectiveness of every instructional minute by 10% is equivalent to adding six minutes to every hour of class. The students effectively get another 1080 minutes or 18 hours to the school year.  15 hours + 18 hours =  33 more hours of science.

That is an increase of almost 20% and enough time for students to learn a lot more science!

Three Steps to Emotionally Support Students to Promote Academic Success

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The Relationship of Emotions and Academics

“Jesse” got in a car accident on the way to a job interview. He was not physically hurt, but he felt emotionally shaken. Upon arrival, Jesse snapped at the secretary. During the interview, he struggled to retrieve words. These behaviors were uncharacteristic for him and yet, consistent with the effects of emotional trauma and stress. Not surprisingly, he did not land the job.

Jesse’s experience illustrates the relationship between emotions and cognitive functions. You probably see evidence of that relationship in your classroom. A plethora of research confirms that emotional factors influence students’ ability to concentrate, communicate, regulate emotions, and form relationships.

There is a common saying among educators, “Maslow before Bloom.” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs describes what motivates people. Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning describes levels of thinking. The saying “Maslow’s before Bloom’s” means that students must have their physical and emotional needs met before teachers should expect substantial academic progress.

Three Pillars of Supporting your Students’  Emotional Needs

You probably have children in your classes now struggling with emotional trauma and chronic stress. Chronic stress is ongoing, such as prolonged food insecurity. Trauma refers to events, such as the death of a loved one. Some traumas, such as abuse, occur repeatedly.

If a child is acting out and showing a lack of self-regulation, their need for emotional support is evident. However, not every child who needs emotional support shows it externally. The quiet child following the rules may be silently struggling, too, hoping someone will notice. Addressing and supporting your students’ emotional needs requires intentional effort.

Like most teachers, you would fix all the issues in your students’ lives if you could. While you may not own a cape or magic wand, three actions will make you a superhero in the lives of many children.

  1. Build a trusting relationship with all children.
  2. Teach emotional awareness and self-care skills.
  3. Identify children who need more support than you can provide and refer them to qualified specialists.
Building a Trusting Relationship

Your students will probably not tell you about their fears and insecurities on the first day. They must feel that you are a trustworthy person before they allow their vulnerabilities to show. You will earn students’ trust by creating a safe space for them. Give students control of how they share, be available to listen (or read) without judgment, and follow up on what they share.

Tell your students from the beginning that if they tell you that someone is in danger, you must report it. You do not want to breach their trust if that situation occurs.

Students will test your trustworthiness and open up slowly. The kid who starts talking about bickering with their sibling may be working up the courage to confide a more intense problem. That progression is why active listening is vital even when a particular struggle seems trivial.

Remember to follow up on celebrations too! A simple, “Congratulations on scoring a goal!” goes a long way towards your students seeing that you value them as people beyond the classroom walls.

Checking in with your students also contributes toward building a trusting relationship. Daily emotional check-ins give students practice with self-awareness. They also provide opportunities for students to alert you when significant changes occur in their lives.

Daily check-ins do not need to take up much class time. Depending on your learning model, students can do their emotional check-ins using a Google form or paper form. Either way, the students should be able to control who sees it. Forcing them to share their stories and emotions with you or other students will erode trust.

The actual check-in could be as simple as choosing the appropriate emoji to represent their current emotional state. It could be as involved as filling out a quick questionnaire. The questionnaire might ask questions such as, “How are you today?” “What is making you feel that way?” “Do you want to talk more about this?”

In addition to daily check-ins, you may want to incorporate regular in-depth check-ins. These could take the form of drawing, journal writing, and individual conversations. The longer check-ins give students more time to reflect on their feelings.

Teaching Self-Awareness and Self-Care

Your students will likely start by only sharing basic emotions, such as mad, sad, and happy, because they may only be aware of the surface level of emotions. As you build rapport and students become more self-aware, they will communicate a broader range of emotions.

There are many great programs for helping students build emotional awareness. They start by teaching students to identify their feelings. The Zones of Regulation® by Leah Kuypers is a popular program for younger children because it correlates emotion with learning readiness. Other programs use Plutchik’s emotion wheel to recognize opposing emotions, emotional intensities, and emotional combinations.

Students must go beyond identifying emotions to transition from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning. They must feel in control of their lives and feelings.

Talk about ways to self-regulate when their emotions overwhelm them. Research shows that engaging in mindfulness practices is key to self-regulation. There are great apps, books, and games to help teach mindfulness strategies. The strategies are often as simple as counting to ten, breathing deeply, and positive self-talk. Remind them that self-care, such as getting sufficient sleep, exercise, and human contact, are vital ingredients to self-regulation too. Edutopia’s list of mindfulness resources for distance learning offers some helpful suggestions.

Identifying and Referring Children 

Some of your students need more than what a listening, caring teacher can provide. They will require action, and the best way you can be a superhero is by connecting those students with the appropriate person. As a mandatory reporter, you must contact child protective services if you hear of abuse. Let professional investigators do the rest.

Teach your students about various resources available to them. Many school communities have hotlines, counselors, and other professionals that students can reach out to and ask for help. Provide a list of community programs to help with food, health, and clothing. Depending on the population you serve, you may want to alert them about which programs require proof of residency.

Academic Rewards are only the Beginning

Students who feel unsafe, unloved, and unworthy often struggle to remember information, understand concepts, apply new skills, or create things. You might say that the “lizard” part of the brain (amygdala) must be calm before the “wizard” brain (frontal cortex) functions optimally. The lizard part of the brain is the part that operates flight or fight responses, while the wizard part drives decision-making, self-control, and creativity.

Of course, emotionally supporting your students helps them in areas beyond learning. Young people need to learn how to navigate complex social relationships too. A teacher that communicates, “I hear you.” “I see you.” “I care about you.” will affect students profoundly and positively. That message has a rippling effect throughout the community.