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Meeting No. …Day: Tuesday

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Attendants: English Staff

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........................................................................................................Things to have prepared before the school starts

Make sure you have a plan in place for how you will communicate with parents.  Know the answer to all of these questions before you meet with any parents.

1- How can parents stay up-to-date on what is going on in the classroom? Will you have a newsletter, a blog, a website, a homework book, a student planner?  

2- Will you send home graded papers on a daily basis, or in a Thursday or Sunday folder?  

3- What is the best way for parents to contact you if they have a question or concern?

4- How can parents expect to hear from you about a child's behavior, good or bad?  Will you call them directly, send them an email, or send a note home in their backpack?

Think through how you want to handle homework throughout the year.  Here are some questions to ask yourself.  These are ALL questions that students and parents have asked at least once.

1- Will students have consistent homework each week?  (For example: Do they have weekly reading log or fluency etc. that will come home every week for the entire school year?)

2- In addition to "standing" weekly homework, will you send home unfinished work with students to complete at home?  

3- How do you grade homework?  Completion?  Accuracy?  What is your justification behind the way you are grading?

4- What is your late policy, and what are the repercussions if homework is not turned in on time?

5- Where and when will students turn in homework?

Before students walk in the door, have a plan in place for how you will reinforce positive behavior and how you will redirect negative behaviors.

1- Are you going to have a clip chart system for individual behavior?2- How will you reinforce positive behavior and what are the

consequences for inappropriate behaviors?3- Will you have some rules for pupils to follow throughout the year?

Make sure you decide ahead of time what notebooks, folders, or binders you will be using for which purposes. Make sure you know if you want all of your students to use the red folder for homework and the yellow folder for classwork, etc.  This will help you in the long run, but if you don't plan ahead, you won't have as much opportunity to be as organized. 

What other things you should prepare for before the school starts?

Things Every 21 st Century Teacher Should Do This   Year

A new school year always brings about new ideas and hopeful ambition for teachers. However, it’s almost 2017.  Gone are the days when we can use the excuse that “we don’t do technology”.  Part of being a teacher in the 21st century is being creative in integrating academics and learning into student’s digital lives. With access to content

being ubiquitous and instant in student’s out of school lives, we can either reject their world for our more traditional one, or embrace it.

All you need is a single smart phone, an open mind and some student-led creative thinking.

And so, I present the things every 21st century teacher should try in their classroom this year:

1. Post a question of the week on your class blog

One of the best ways to engage student (and family) interaction with your classroom is to have a class blog.  While these are becoming more common, I like the trend of having a weekly student “guest author” write up the ideas and learning objectives discussed in class.  This is also a good place to discuss appropriate commenting behavior on blogs and websites.

2. Have a class twitter account to post a tweet about the day’s learning

Just like a blog only smaller.  Nominate a “guest tweeter” and have them summarize the day’s learning in 140 characters or less. Then ask parents to follow the account so they can also get a little insight into the happenings of the school day.

3. Create your own class hashtag

Tell your students and their parents about the hashtag and have them post ideas, photos, and questions to it.  It’s a great way to get people from not only in your class but also around the world to contribute to your class conversation.

4. Create an infographic as a review

Those clever little graphics are appearing everywhere. Why not make one as a way to help visual learners review and remember information?

5. Integrate Selfies into your curriculum

This one might take some outside the box thinking,  but I’m guessing that there are students in your class that could come up with a creative way to do this.  Maybe take a selfie next to a science experiment? Or a selfie with an A+ paper?

6. Create a recipe on IFTTT.com to make your life easier

With all of these tools and social media platforms, it might be a good idea to create some ways to automate tasks in your classroom.  IFTTT.com has some great pre-made “recipes” to combine some of your accounts into simple workflow solutions.  You can even have your plant email you when it needs water.

7. Create a Class Instagram Account 

Have a daily student photographer who’s job is to post an example of something your class/students did that day. You can ask students to take photos of objects or artifacts, not a person.  

8. Make a class book

The ease with which you can publish books now is amazing.  Using a tool like Book Creator or iBooks Author, you can publish to the iBooks store or Amazon.  Don’t want to do something that intense? Keep it simple and make a book using Shutterfly and then have it printed as a keepsake.

9. GHO on Air with an expert

With so many resources and experts available, it only makes sense to bring in someone from “the real world”. This not only creates interest in the topic, it adds an air of authenticity.  Using Google Hangouts On Air means you can record this session on the fly and post it to your class site or embed it on your blog to generate discussion at home.

10. Become an activist for a worthy cause.

If the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge can teach us anything, it’s that sometimes a little creativity is all you need to awareness to a cause. Whether it’s helping a country in need or finding a cure for a disease, our new connected society can be a powerful thing when galvanized for good.  Participating in a global project gives students perspective on their own lives while helping others with their own life challenges.

BONUS – Let your students drive the learning

While you could do all of these challenges by yourself, the real power comes in letting students own a piece of it.  They have the curiosity and the digital acumen, it’s the teacher’s job to give them instructional focus and empowerment.  We live in wonderfully connected times.  Despite all of technology’s perceived misgivings and the apocalyptic fears that we are losing ourselves as a society, why not use some of this power for good?

Just know that as a teacher in the 21st century you ultimately hold the key to unleash this creative beast.  So try something on the list this year that may force you a bit out of your comfort zone because there is no better way to learn than trying. Just be sure you blog about it when you are finished as learning in isolation helps no one. Oh….and be sure to hashtag it.

Creating a Culture of Kindness in Your Classroom

The best way to promote kindness and caring behaviors in our classrooms is to model them. When we show our students what it LOOKS like and SOUNDS like to be kind, there is a far greater chance they will repeat those modeled behaviors. It is so important to remember that children watch their teachers all the time and listen to everything they say (especially when it’s not in a lecture). Essential caring behaviors and kindness are more often “caught” than they are “taught” in the classroom.

 Listen With Your Heart!We teach our kids that listening is part of being “ready to learn,” but it is important to go one step further with regard to this vital life skill. We should teach students how to “listen with their hearts” from day one. When you teach children to care enough to listen, truly listen for the meaning of what is being said, you are teaching them how to be kind and empathetic.  

Random Acts of KindnessIt is a blessing to work in a positive environment where people are caring and look out for one another. I suggest that this year we start a Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Secret Buddy program. It is an activity for staff to be a part of it. The program is easy to organize and a great way boost morale and do kind things for one another.The first thing to do is send out a questionnaire to fill out for people who want to be a part of RAK. This questionnaire gives your RAK Buddy lots of personal information, so they can do thoughtful things for you during the school year. At the end of the year, our social committee hosts a RAK Buddy reveal party, and it is so much fun to finally find out who was spoiling you with kindness throughout the year. Kindness in the ClassroomThere are so many resources to help bring kindness into your classroom. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has a great website for teachers that includes lessons, videos, and kindness ideas. Additionally, “research has shown that teaching social and emotional skills like kindness improves behavior and academic success.

Celebrate World Kindness Day!Friday, November 13th is World Kindness Day. This day is a global 24-hour celebration dedicated to paying it forward and focusing on the good. There are many ways to get your class involved, and it is just one more way to instill and teach kindness to your students. 

Are You a Bucket Filler?I love the book How Full is Your Bucket? The story has very relatable characters and a symbol (the bucket) that is easy for young children to understand. After sharing this book with the class, you can discuss that when we do kind things for others, it makes us feel good too. It would be nice if you follow up the story by building a “Bucket Filler/Bucket Dipper” anchor chart.  Writing With a PurposeI remember in my early years of teaching, I use to always feel like I needed to provide prompts for my kids to use in writing. Now I realize the importance of students having a

voice and control in their writing. You can do a writing project and ask your students to think about ways in which they could be “Bucket Fillers” and spread kindness around the world.  The kindest teacher in English department competition

A competition will be held by the end of each period to select and recognize the kindest

teacher according to students’ perspective:

Listed below are five tips for being a kind educator:

• Smile: Never underestimate the power of a smile. It can make you more appealing,

and your class more comfortable. Exude happiness just by simply smiling.

• Soothe: Feel your students’ trials. Observe their difficulties and then help them by

giving examples from your own learning.

• Focus on language and tone of voice: Remember that words have enormous

power. Choose your words very carefully and the tone you use. Before speaking first

consider, if it is true, necessary and kind. If it lacks any one of the elements, consider

rephrasing the sentence.

• Patience: Is a great virtue to have, seek or teach. If you can give enough space and

time to your students to work on concepts they will feel a sense of comfort with you and

the topic at hand. This process will also teach them the power and value of patience.

• Respect: Value the input of your students. This builds huge trust between you and

them.

Finally, I would like to conclude by the following words from Plato: “Be kind,

for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.”

How to Become and Remain a Transformational Teacher

However talented, no one is a natural-born teacher. Honing the craft takes significant care and effort, not just by the individual, but also by the school at large. Though experience does matter, it matters only to the extent that a teacher -- regardless of how long he or she has been in the classroom -- commits to continued professional development to refresh his or her status as a transformational teacher. Along those lines, even after a decade in the classroom, I don't claim to be beyond criticism -- not in the least. Still, I wish to offer some advice on constantly striving toward perfection, however elusive that goal will always remain.

Constantly Share Best Practices

As a first step, work toward recognizing that, no matter how long you've been in the classroom, there will always be someone else who's more effective at a certain facet of teaching.

Find a Trusted Mentor

No matter how much experience you have, it's crucial to find and rely on a trusted confidant. They offer thoughtful advice on how you might do things differently. No matter the subject, you should value hearing fresh perspectives from new and veteran teachers about becoming even better at your job.

Commit to Classroom Observations

You should do your best to observe other teachers in action. You can benefit from watching a colleague inject humor into his English classroom to cultivate a more relaxed but effective learning environment. Or you can be grateful for observing a colleague teaches Arabic to students whom you instruct. She might possess a gentle firmness that learners respond to and students know that she cares about them.

Change Things Up

You should observe other teachers to see how they change things up, especially when you get too comfortable in a routine. It's certainly easier to teach the same books and content each year, but it's also incredibly boring, which can lead to burnout

Model the Usefulness of What You Teach

In line with changing things up, you should always look for new ways to model the usefulness of what you teach. Students want to know how they can apply what they learn in the classroom to the real world.

Caring Beyond What You Teach

To motivate your students toward success, you should strive to show that you care about them beyond the classroom. Do your best to attend plays and other student-run productions. The transformational teachers have a deep understanding of how their role transcends far beyond any subject that they're teaching. Such teachers have the most lasting impact on their students long after graduation.

6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? It would be saying to students something like, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes -- no safety net, no parachute, no scaffolding -- just left blowing in the wind.

Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and then providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you may give a child an entirely different piece of text to

read, you might shorten the text or alter it, and you may modify the writing assignment that follows.

Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids, then for those students who are still struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment and/or making accommodations for a student (for example, choose more accessible text and/or assign an alternative project).

Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common though. In order to meet students where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson, or differentiate instruction, you have to know the individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. (As education researcher Eileen Raymond states, "[T]he ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance.")

So let's get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet, or perhaps you've not used them in sometime and just need a gentle reminder on how awesome and helpful they can be when it comes to student learning:

1. Show and TellHow many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Modeling for students is a cornerstone of scaffolding in my experience. Have you ever interrupted someone with "just show me!" while they were in the middle of explaining to you how to do something? Every chance you have, show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do.

Try the fish bowl activity, where a small group in the center are circled by the class as the group in the middle, or fishbowl, engage in an activity, modeling how it's done for the larger group.

Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. If a teacher assigns a persuasive essay or inquiry-based science project, a model should be presented side-by-side with a criteria chart or rubric. You can guide students through each step of the process, model in-hand of the finished product.

Use think alouds, which will allow you to model your thought process as you: read a text, solve a problem, or design a project. Remember that children's cognitive abilities are still in development so opportunities for them to see developed, critical thinking are essential.

2. Tap into Prior KnowledgeAsk students to share their own experiences, hunches, and ideas about the content or concept of study and have them relate and connect it to their own lives. Sometimes you may have to offer hints and suggestions, leading them to the connections a bit, but once they get there, they will grasp it as their own.

Launching the learning in your classroom from the prior knowledge of your students, and using this as a framework for future lessons is not only a scaffolding technique, many would agree it's just plain good teaching.

3. Give Time to TalkAll learners need time to process new ideas and information. They also need time to verbally make sense of and articulate their learning with the community of learners who are also engaged in the same experience and journey. As we all know, structured discussions really work best with children regardless of their level of maturation. If you aren't weaving in think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, triad teams or some other structured talking time throughout the lesson, you should begin including this crucial strategy on a regular basis.

4. Pre-Teach VocabularySometimes referred to as frontloading vocabulary, this is a strategy that we teachers don't use enough. Many of us, myself included, are guilty of sending students all alone down the bumpy, muddy path known as Challenging Text -- a road booby trapped with difficult vocabulary. We send them ill-prepared and then we are often shocked when they: a) lose interest b) create a ruckus c) fall asleep.

Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn't mean pulling a dozen words from the chapter and having kids look up definitions and write them out (we all know how this will go. Again, see above a, b, and c). Instead, introduce the words to kids in photos, and in context to things they know and are interested in. Use analogies, metaphors and invite students to create a symbol or drawing for each word and give time for discussion of the words (small and whole groups). Not until they've done all this should the dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those definitions they've already discovered on their own.

With the dozen or so words "frontloaded," students are ready, you as their guide, to tackle that challenging text.

5. Use Visual AidsGraphic organizers, pictures, and charts can all serve as scaffolding tools. Graphic organizers are very specific in that they help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and grasp concepts such as sequencing and cause and effect.

A graphic organizer shouldn't be The Product, but rather it's a scaffolding tool that helps guide and shape the student's thinking so that they can apply it. Some students can dive right into the discussion, or writing an essay, or synthesizing several different hypotheses without using a graphic organizer of some sort, but many of our students benefit from using them with a difficult reading or challenging new information. Think of graphic organizers as training wheels; they are temporary and meant to be removed.

6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, ReviewThis is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or learn a new concept or content. Here's how this strategy works: a new idea from discussion or the reading is shared, then pause (providing think time), then ask a strategic question, pausing again. By strategic, you need to design them ahead of time, make sure they are specific, guiding and open-ended questions. (Great questions fail without giving think time for responses so hold out during that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to "give the gist" of what was just discussed / discovered / questioned. If the class seems stuck by the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss it with a neighbor.

Trying Something NewWith all the diverse learners in our classrooms, there is a strong need for teachers to learn and experiment with new scaffolding strategies. I often say to teachers I support, you have slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, take longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.

9 Tips to Support English-Language Learners

If you are teaching English Language Learners, here are some tips and strategies that you can practice in the classroom to create a safe environment and support the students throughout their learning process:

1. Speak slower, not louder: Students need to process the words separately and form an understanding, for ELL students this requires some extra time. Speaking louder doesn't help and in fact sounds condescending.

2. Make sure to pause frequently and write out instructions on the board: This gives time for students to think about the instructions and ask questions if they have any. Use the pause time to write the information on the board in case a student has misheard a word or a sentence.

3. Provide short instructions, preferably starting with action verbs, ex: "Write 5 adjectives to describe the main character". Long instructions overwhelm ELL students, as they will probably need to look up a few vocabulary words, as well as

process chunks of information. Short instructions with action verbs are clear and concise.

4. Write key vocabulary on a word wall: The space will create a safe environment for ELL students to ask questions about unfamiliar vocabulary and as a result build their confidence in speaking and practicing their oral communication in the classroom.

5. Check for student understanding frequently: Do not ask "do you understand/is that clear?" Do ask questions about content/instruction: "will you present today or tomorrow?" "Is this list in the correct order?" 

By asking the latter students usually will default to "yes we understand". Instead, go over the material again and summarize it in the form of questions. By doing this you will see that students will start answering together and even explaining tasks/concepts to their classmates. This creates a safe and open culture in the classroom to ask questions.

6. Provide visual guides, and/or infographics: Visuals act as a supplement for unfamiliar vocabulary words as well as concepts. Using them will also support different learning styles in the classroom.

7. Use body language and gestures to express appropriate words: Don't be afraid to do this! Body language and gestures can help in explaining words, activities and even concepts.

8. Do not correct with negative expressions: For example, "No the verb seen is incorrect." Instead model correct usage, "Yes, that's true! We see things differently." Many ELL students are very shy, because they're afraid to make mistakes when speaking. By modeling correct communication skills you will be encouraging students to continue to practice their oral communication skills in a safe space free of judgment.

9. Avoid idiomatic expressions and/or sarcasm: These expressions can be confusing for ELL students to understand, because the meaning behind them is figurative as opposed to literal. Sarcastic expressions are especially misunderstood and often taken literally. However, ELL students love learning about English idioms so devoting a class solely for idioms is encouraged and can be lots of fun!

Finger Exercises for Kids learning Handwriting and How to Hold a Pen Correctly.

Handwriting is something that takes children a while to master. It is a skill to coordinate a pen/pencil in a controlled manner to produce an exact result and one that develops over time and experience. To develop good handwriting, you require good fine-motor skills,hand/finger muscle strength and a good pen-grip/hold.

Being a trained teacher, since my children started holding and drawing with writing tools (pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paintbrushes), I have been encouraging them to adjust their grip to hold their writing implements with the three correct fingers that allow for good handwriting down the track.Many children don't practice holding a pen using the correct 3 fingers until they get to school and then it's often a matter of trying to correct the natural hold that they have developed.Whilst children (and adults) are able to write using other various holds, the time-tested method below, once mastered, is the most comfortable way to write, allows for ease of movement and is the least likely to cause muscle strain or discomfort, especially when writing for lengthy periods of time.

How to hold a pen correctly

Holding a pen/pencil correctly requires just three fingers. The thumb, index (pointer) and middle finger. This three fingered hold is known as the Tripod Hold/Grip.

Lightly pinch a pencil between the thumb and pointer and rest the pencil on the middle finger.

Finger exercises for practicing coordination and strengthening finger muscles 

One of the ways that they have been attempting to correct and encourage a proper pen grip/hold, practice coordination and as a finger and hand muscle strengthening activity in my daughter's grade 1 class, is with the following three finger exercises. She couldn't wait to come home to show them to me as she thought they'd be great to share on the blog! "This could help lots of children, Mum!"Before writing, have your children try a minute or so of each of the three exercises.

The WoodpeckerHolding your pen/pencil towards the pointy end, use your 3 fingers to push the pencil forwards and then pull it back. Children can pretend that the pencil is a woodpecker that is pecking a tree (their other hand). Ensure that children keep their hand still and only use their finger muscles to push the pencil forwards and backwards.

Here's a demonstration:

The CaterpillarStart by holding your pen/pencil towards the pointy end. Use your 2 top fingers (thumb and pointer) to push the pencil forwards and slide it along the middle resting finger until your fingers reach the end of the pencil, (almost like crawling along the pencil) then pull the pencil back, sliding your fingers along, until you reach the pointy end of the pencil again. Try going the full length of the pencil, up and down a few

times.

The Helicopter

Holding your pen or pencil in the centre with the three correct fingers, attempt to twirl the pencil around like the blades of a helicopter by switching the fingers one at a time from one side of the pencil to the other.

Like any habit, it takes time to form a new one and children will learn to hold a pencil correctly with time and practice. The above exercises are a fun and challenging way to encourage the use of the three correct fingers for a good pen grip as well as strengthening the muscles. This will all aid children in developing good handwriting.

Encourage them to practice writing by:

writing about things they love,  keeping a journal,  drawing and tracing pictures,  writing a menu for dinner, making a toy or present wish-list, designing a comic strip, playing games like paddocks and tic-tac-toe, etc.

The Profile of a Modern TeacherOne of the greatest misconceptions in education today is that certain teachers have a higher natural aptitude in technology than others.

This inspirationalgraphic sets out to disprove that notion and remind the audience that external skills are only a function of the internal dispositions that allowed them to grow.

What Can You Do with Google?

Eight Things Skilled Teachers Think, Say, and Do

Among the many challenges teachers face, often the most difficult is how to engage students who seem unreachable,

who resist learning activities, or who disrupt them for others. This is also one of the challenges that skilled teachers

have some control over.

Teachers' challenge is to know their interests and goals, and to develop trusting relationships that help students

connect their learning to their goals in a way that motivates from within.

How can teachers do this? It's helpful to consider this question in three parts: What skilled teachers think,

what they say, and what they do.

What Skilled Teachers Can Think1. Remember that authoritative beats authoritarian.Being authoritarian means demanding obedience without giving any explanation for why one's orders are

important. Being authoritative, on the other hand, means demonstrating control, but doing so relationally

through listening and explaining. Studies of effective parenting have found that children view parents who

use an authoritative style as legitimate authority figures; such children are less likely to engage in

delinquent behavior. The opposite is true for children of authoritarian parents (University of New

Hampshire, 2012).

Opting for the authoritative style will make students more likely to respect your authority—and probably

more eager to cooperate.

2. Believe that everyone can grow.We should believe that everyone has the inner power to grow and change. We see mistakes as

opportunities to learn. And we should refuse to to believe that people's traits—such as intelligence—are

immutable.

Teachers should not place students into categories, and place the primary responsibility for overcoming

learning challenges on the students. Teachers should consider responding to a student's challenges to be

the joint responsibility of the student and the educator.

Teachers aren't superhuman. There are some things we cannot accomplish. But we must ask ourselves

whether we too readily write off students who try our patience as "incapable," or some similar adjective,

without considering whether differentiating instruction for these students might spur change and growth.

3. Understand that power isn't a finite pie.If I share the power I have, that doesn't mean I'll have less. In fact, the pie will get bigger as more

possibilities are created for everyone.

Giving students choices—about their homework, assignments, how they're grouped, and so on—leads to

higher levels of student engagement and achievement (Sparks, 2010).

Remembering that power isn't finite helps us see that asking students for ideas on what might help them

feel more engaged isn't a sign of weakness, but of strength. So is seeking advice from students' parents

or from teachers in other classes in which challenged learners show more success.

What Skilled Teachers Can Say4. Give positive messages.Positive messages are essential to motivation. Subtle shifts in teacher language infuse positive messages

throughout our interactions. Here are three helpful practices:

Use positive framing. "Loss framed" messages (if you do this, then something bad will happen to you)

don't have the persuasive advantage that they're often thought to have. "Positive framed messages" (if

you do this, these good things will happen) are more effective (Dean, 2010).

Say "yes." Avoidant instruction is language that emphasizes what people should not do ("Don't walk on

the grass." "Don't chew gum"). Some researchers (British Psychological Society, 2010) believe that a

more effective way to get a desired behavior is to emphasize what you want people to do. For example, if

a student asks to go the restroom, but the timing isn't right, rather than saying no, try to say, "Yes, you

can. I just need you to wait a few minutes." Or if a student is talking at an inappropriate time, instead of

saying, "Don't talk!" go over and tell that learner, "I see you have a lot of energy today. We'll be breaking

into small groups later and you'll have plenty of time to talk then. I'd appreciate your listening now."

Say "please" and "thank you." People are more likely to comply with a task (and do so more quickly) if

someone asks them instead of tells them (Yong, 2010). I've found that "Can you please sit down?" is

more effective than "Sit down!" Saying thank you provides immediate positive reinforcement to students.

Research (Sutton, 2010) shows that people who are thanked by authority figures are more likely to

cooperate, feel valued, and exhibit self-confidence.

5. Apologize.Teachers are human, and we make plenty of mistakes. There is no reason why we shouldn't apologize

when we do. But saying, "I'm sorry," may not be enough. I often use the "regret, reason, and remedy"

formula recommended by Dorothy Armstrong (2009). For example, if you find some students talking,that

you had to yell at them to keep quiet, a few minutes later, try to say this, "I'm sorry I barked at you earlier.

I was frustrated that you weren't doing what I'd asked you to do. I'll try to show more patience in the

future." You will notice a great difference in their work after this apology.

What Skilled Teachers Can Do6. Be flexible.Being flexible might be the most important thing teachers can "do" to help students to get past whatever

challenges of their own they confront. Three practices would help teachers to differentiate instruction and

classroom management in a way that helps everyone.

Help them get started: Once people start doing something, they tend to want to finish it (Dean, 2011). If

we get a disengaged or anxious student started, that's half the battle. For a task that's likely to challenge

some students, present a variety of ways to get started: a menu of questions, the option to create a visual

representation of a concept, a chance to work with a partner. Encourage students to launch themselves

by just answering the first question or the easiest one.

Help postpone tempting distractions. Making a conscious decision to postpone giving in to temptation can

reduce a desire that's getting in the way of a goal (Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2012).

For example, if a student eats frequently during class. You don’t take the food away, you make a deal

instead with her— she can eat in the classroom during two specific times: when she finishes her work and

at the end of the class. You will find out that the student may not eat anything the whole period.

Acknowledge stress. When a student is demonstrating self-control issues in class, talk to them and let

them express their feelings in an outside the class conversation, you would discover that this student is

going through family disruptions or similar problems. Sometimes, just providing students an opportunity to

vent worries can have a positive effect.

7. Set the right climate.At school, baseline rewards might include fair grading, a caring teacher, engaging lessons, and a clean

classroom.

8. Teach life lessons.Good teachers frontload the school year with life-skills lessons. These activities help students see their

short-term and long-term interest, to try their best to fulfil them.

What We Can Always DoConsistently implementing these practices is easier said than done—and is probably impossible unless

you're Mother Teresa. But most teachers already do something that makes all these practices flow more

naturally, and that we can do more intensely with conscious effort—we build relationships with students.

Caring relationships with teachers helps students build resilience. By fostering these relationships, we

learn about students' interests and goals, which are fuel for motivation.

On Fridays, a teacher called Mr. Ferlazzo asks his students to write short reflections about the week. One

Friday, he asked them to write about the most important thing they'd learned in class that week. One

student wrote, "I didn't really learn anything important this week, but that's OK because Mr. Ferlazzo tried

his best."

Even if we can't always think, say, and do the ideal thing to strengthen struggling students' motivation,

there's always something we can do to meet them halfway. We can try our best.