"Efficiency is doing things right, effectiveness is doing the right things." - Peter Drucker
| |
Time Management Strategies
How to delegate tasks and increase daily teaching time for an efficient classroom teaching takes time. And in school, as elsewhere, there's never enough of it. Like any executive responsible for the efforts of others, you will find that managing time — yours and the children’s — is one of your biggest challenges.
Time management is the thread running through almost all aspects of teaching — organizing the day, organizing the classroom, deciding how long and how often to teach various topics, recording children’s progress, or keeping time-consuming behavior problems to a minimum. Children only have so much time in your classroom.
Effective use of school time begins with efficient classroom organization and management — and vice versa. Much of the essentials of classroom life involve time management in some way: paring down paperwork; planning; establishing routines that eliminate wasted time and confusion; using learning centers, independent activities, and table top activities to give you time to work with small groups of children; and creating classroom environments that allow children to move smoothly from one activity to the next.
Increasing Teaching Time
You have less time to teach than you think. Lunch and rest time, outdoor time, cleaning up between activities, transitioning from one area of the classroom to another, interruptions, or other periods of non-instructional time account for at least quarter of a typical day. In many classrooms, that amount climbs to almost 50 percent. Incredible as those statistics may sound, they have been confirmed by separate studies at the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, and the former Institute for Research on Teaching at Michigan State University.
Here are some ways beginners and veterans alike can substantially increase teaching time:
- Find out which aspects of school time you can control. In some schools, teachers discover they can change the classroom schedule, extra activities, and outside interruptions.
- Schedule solid blocks of center learning and small group instruction time for each day. Ask for your principal's help in developing a schedule in which you can optimize the learning time.
- Plan for smooth transitions between lessons and always try to have materials ready for each lesson or activity. Do not waste trips throughout the day. Plan ahead so that if you are going by a supply closet, you can pick up what is needed.
- Consider how and when you schedule restroom breaks for maximum efficiency.
Delegating Tasks
Work together with teachers who teach the same age group. By alternating responsibility for the week’s lessons and activity preparations, teachers will support one another and lower their own work load. Using this strategy can help teachers while promoting teamwork among colleagues.
Adaptations were made to better suit this article for Stepping Stone School Classrooms.
The original article was copied from: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/time-management-strategies/
| |
Commonsense Solutions to Behavior Challenges in Early Childhood Settings
I’ve been writing a new book for the past several months. It’s about avoiding behavior challenges – essentially by understanding that children will be children! And, as I’ve been writing, it’s occurred to me that so many challenges can be avoided if we (1) appreciate and respect childhood for what it is, and (2) employ common sense!
Or, perhaps those two go together. Common sense should tell us that children aren’t small adults and can’t be expected to act like anything other than what they are. Still, in many early childhood programs, children are expected to be able to sit for endless minutes and hours, stay still, be quiet, and stand in straight lines – despite the fact that young children are not yet developmentally ready to do any of those things.
Yes, I know they will eventually have to be able to do all of those things. But as I’ve written before, eventually they also will have to learn to drive a car. That doesn’t mean we should put them behind the wheel while they’re still preschoolers.
I’m convinced one of the reasons we’re seeing more behavior challenges than in the past is that we’re more often asking children to do things for which they’re not equipped and the frustration is causing them to act out. I mean, if someone insisted over and over again that I fly a plane, or perform surgery, I’d get pretty frustrated too!
One of the things we know for sure about young children is that they need to move! Of course, many teachers hesitate to make movement and active learning part of their programs because when they think of children and movement, they immediately form a mental image of children “bouncing off the walls.” The concept of movement as an approach to avoiding behavior challenges feels like an oxymoron!
Fortunately, common sense does play a vital role in establishing a peaceful environment, regardless of how active the children are. For example, we’ve all been taught to begin where the children are developmentally. Doing so and then building from there with a logical progression of skills will ensure that the children are challenged but not overwhelmed. Not only can you expect greater success from children asked merely to build on their earlier successes, but you can also expect greater response from them.
You’ll also have fewer behavior challenges if you use your voice as a tool. If you want the children to move slowly, speak slowly. If you want them to move quietly, speak quietly. In addition, just as you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, you can attract more attention with a lower volume than with a higher one, as children are far more likely to react to a whisper than to a yell.
Remember, too, although you should present your challenges enthusiastically, if you maintain a fever pitch of enthusiasm, the children will become overstimulated. I witnessed this once when working as a university adjunct. One of my students was conducting a lesson with a group of five-year-olds and spoke to them at an extremely rapid pace and a high pitch throughout. By the time she asked them to move like turtles, what she got was a group of racing turtles!
Certainly, there are times when kids just being kids can make you feel as though you’ve lost control of them. But if you expect children to act like children, you can get ahead of potential issues and nip them in the bud. Here are three typical situations we’ve all experienced, along with solutions:
- You hand out equipment or a prop to the children and expect them to stand silently, holding onto it and awaiting your instructions with bated breath. But how realistic is that? Young children are playful and inquisitive! If you simply allow them some time to experiment with the props and get it out of their system, they’re much more likely to be ready and willing to listen to you and follow your instructions.
- You’ve asked the children to gather around but some just aren’t interested, perhaps because they’re in the middle of something they consider more important. It you get started with those who are interested, others will eventually join in – because young children are curious and don’t want to feel left out!
- Similarly, if you’ve asked the children to group themselves by twos for a game or activity and there are those who object to the child they’re paired with, start without them! There’s no reason to spend time debating with them – and taking time away from the children who are ready to go – when ignoring their behavior is so much more effective. If you begin without them, chances are very good that they’ll partner up and join in.
Speaking of taking partners: if you make a game out of it you’ll have a greater success rate. With an activity called Back to Back, you ask the children to get back to back with someone else as quickly and quietly as they can. You then count down, dramatically, from five to zero, at which point the children should all be paired up. Typically, the children will be more concerned with how quickly they can get back to back than with whom they’re pairing up – because they love games and they love a challenge. But if one of the children complains about his or her partner, implement the practice above.
These suggestions will help to avoid behavior challenges and create a positive learning environment.
http://www.raepica.com/2018/10/behavior-challenges-in-early-childhood-settings/
| |
|
“Family Style Dining” at Stepping Stone School
What is “Family Style Lunch” and why do we do it? What is “Family Style Lunch” and why do we do it?
At Stepping Stone School, all preschoolers eat their lunch “Family Style”. This is where they sit at a table with a small group of their friends (no more than six at a table) and serve their own food as well as pour their own milk. While they are eating, they are socializing with their friends and their teacher. The teacher serves herself some lunch and joins in the conversation while modeling good table manners. Lunchtime at Stepping Stone School is a happy, peaceful event!
| | |
Exciting Announcement!!!
Tadpoles is combining with Teaching Strategies GOLD Assessments – all in one app on your iPad!
Check your email to login to Teaching Strategies GOLD!
This new app will allow you do your daily Tadpoles input, along with ongoing electronic child assessments – no more assessment checklist booklets in portfolio folders.
Be on the lookout! All Employees will be receiving an email with a login to Teaching Strategies GOLD in the next week. You will need to log in (with the login info you’ll be given) and begin training. You can access the training under the dashboard tab "Develop" at the top.
This will bring you to the Quorm Platform which provides the training to get you started! We will be providing ongoing training as well!
The app will be added to your iPad in the next few weeks. Tadpoles and Teaching Strategies Gold is very similar to Tadpoles and will also complete the developmental documentation to assist with connecting activities and curriculum to children’s developmental assessments.
| |
|
Personal and Professional Self-Development Resources to Support Your Growth and Wellness!
Just a reminder Stepping Stone School has a wonderful resource library of personal and professional self-development articles for you to take advantage of!
The Vitality Journey is sent monthly via email to all SSS employees and is updated on the homepage of the LMS.
The Vitality Journey - Curriculum Edition is sent out via email to all employees monthly and is on the LMS homepage
The monthly Leadership Journal is sent out monthly via email to all members of the Leadership team. These topics follow the Gold Standard Leadership Development focuses
| | |
|
Why You Shouldn't Force Children to Apologize | |
You're on the playground with your class, one child suddenly snatches another child's toy. What do you do? While your natural response might be to gently coax the toy back then ask her to apologize, new research suggests coercing an apology may actually do more harm than good.
Why? Well, kids can tell when an apology is genuine - and when it's not. And they'll judge a person accordingly.
As part of new research published in Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, lead author Craig Smith and his colleagues explored whether children could distinguish between willingly given and coerced expression of remorse. In several small studies, the researchers looked at how children aged four to nine years old viewed three different "apology scenarios": unprompted apologies, prompted but willingly given apologies, and coerced apologies ("You need to say you're sorry!").
And here's what they found:
- Kids saw willing apologies as the same whether they were prompted or unprompted.
- Coerced apologies weren't seen as effective, particularly by kids aged 7 to 9. Why? Children aged 7-9 felt those coerced into apologizing felt bad after their apology because they were concerned about punishment, rather than feelings of remorse.
- Children of all ages thought the victims felt better after a willing apology. However, they determined that the recipient of the forced apology would feel worse than recipients of the willing apologies.
In a nutshell, according to the authors, coerced apologies were "less effective in communicating remorse and mending a victim's feelings".
Those forced into apologies were also viewed as "less nice" compared to those who apologized willingly.
"Coercing a child to apologize is going to backfire," said Dr. Smith. "Other kids don't view that apologizer as likable. The teachable element of having the child apologize has gone away and the goal of the apology prompt - to help a child express remorse, soothe someone else's hurt feelings and make that child more likable - is lost."
So, what should caregivers be doing? Try focusing on empathy.
"Make sure the child understands why the other person feels bad, and make sure the child is really ready to say, 'I'm sorry.' Then have them apologize," said Dr. Smith. "When your child is calm, help them see how the other person is feeling, and why. An apology is one way to do it, but there are lots of ways. Research shows that even preschoolers value it when a wrongdoer makes amends with action. "Sometimes this is more powerful than words."
Beeston, A. (2018, Nov. 29). Sorry, not sorry: why you shouldn't force your kids to apologize. Retrieved from http://www.essentialkids.com.au/health/relationships/sorry-not-sorry-why-you-shouldnt-force-your-kids-to-apologise-20181128-h18ga2
| |
|
10 Reasons Why Teachers Should Never, Ever Yell at Children
by Michael Linsin
Keeping your cool when working with young children can be challenging. When you yell, scold, and wag your finger, you’re often rewarded with immediate “improvement,” but the price is exorbitantly high.
Yelling is a costly mistake. Here’s why:
- Improvement is temporary. Yelling only works in the moment. Like a playground bully, it’s used to intimidate children into compliance. The only reason why it works is because the teacher has an unfair size and/or authority advantage.
- It doesn’t change behavior. Behavior only changes when children want to behave better–which is the result of accountability combined with a teacher they like and trust. In the end, yelling causes more misbehavior, not less.
- It weakens your influence. Yelling will cause children to secretly dislike you, distrust you, and desire to disrupt your class. Even one revengeful child can make your life miserable. You need the children on your side.
- It replaces real accountability. Teachers who yell tend to do so instead of following their classroom management plan. Children learn quickly that if they can endure their teacher’s outburst, they can be on their way without being held accountable.
- It sabotages real accountability. Teachers who lecture, yell, or scold while trying to redirect a child, drive a wedge through the caregiver/child relationship, causing anger and resentment.
- It causes children to tune you out. When you yell, you train the children in your classroom to listen to you only when you raise your voice. In other words, they learn that unless you’re shouting, you must not really mean it.
- It’s stressful. Yelling is a sure sign that you let misbehavior get under your skin. It’s an expression of frustration, of taking behavior personally, and of trying to get even with the children. It’s also terribly stressful. It’s bad for your health. And it makes teaching a cheerless slog.
- It’s difficult to defend. Yelling at children is near the top of the list of parent complaints. And it’s difficult to defend. “I’m sorry, I just lost my cool” is about the best you can do. The fact is, no misbehavior, and no level of disrespect, warrants yelling at children.
- It’s graceless. Have you ever seen yourself on video losing your cool? Probably not, but one thing is for sure: it ain’t pretty. You might as well grab a megaphone and shout, “Hey everybody–children, fellow teachers, parents, administrators–I don’t have control of my class!”
- It provides a poor model. Children are more influenced by what you do than by what you say. When you yell, react emotionally to misbehavior, or otherwise lose your composure, you provide a poor model for how to behave when things don’t go their way.
Instead of Yelling…
No matter how frustrated you may get with the children in your care, yelling should never be an option. Although it often works in the moment, the cost of gaining momentary control is much too high.
So instead of being that teacher, the one with the reputation for yelling and for “being mean,” why not be the one that every student wants as their teacher?
To start, create a classroom management plan that works–and stick with it. And then work on building influential relationships with children; the kind of personal leverage that causes them to want to behave.
| | |
Do you use your tone of voice and body language to your advantage?
| |
|
By Kathrin Tschiesche
This article is based on the free eBook “Effective Communication Skills”
What does it take to communicate with another person? How are we communicating even when we aren’t using words? When you begin studying communication, you’ll find that we communicate with much more than our words. In face-to-face communication, our words are only part of the message. The balance of the message, and in fact, the largest part of the message that we are sending to others is made up of non-verbal information. It is composed of our body language and our tone of voice. Let’s take a closer look at these two communication elements.
Face to face communication
Albert Mehrabian’s work on verbal and non-verbal communication in the 1960s and early 1970s is still considered a valid model today. He posed that the non-verbal aspects of communication such as tone of voice and non-verbal gestures communicate a great deal more than the words that are spoken. He also found that people are more likely to believe your non-verbal communication than your verbal communication if the two are contradictory. In other words, you are most believable and most effectively communicating when all three elements of face-to-face communication are aligned with each other. Over half of the information we send to others is through non-verbal methods.
Tone of voice
According to Mehrabian, the tone of voice we use is responsible for about 35-40 percent of the message we are sending. Tone involves the volume you use, the level and type of emotion that you communicate and the emphasis that you place on the words that you choose. To see how this works, try saying the sentences below with the emphasis each time on the word in bold.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
I didn’t say he borrowed my book.
The same sentence can have multiple meaning depending on which word is emphasized. The emphasis on a particular word implies additional information than what the words say.
Notice that the meaning of the sentence changes each time, even though the words are the same. The emphasis you place on the word draws the listener’s attention, indicating that the word is important somehow. In this case, the emphasis indicates that the word is an error. So in the first example, I didn’t say he borrowed my book, the phrase includes the message that someone else said it. The implied information continues to change in each sentence, despite the words remaining the same each time.
Body language
Over half of the message that we are sending to others is non-verbal, according to Mehrabian. This means that we receive more than half of what a person is communicating through the subconscious messages they are sending with body language.
Examples of body language include:
- Facial expressions
- The way they are standing or sitting
- Gestures with their arms or hands
- Eye contact (or lack thereof)
- Breathing rate
- Swallowing or coughing
- Blushing
- Fidgeting
Basically, body language includes anything they are doing with their body besides speaking. We recognize this communication instinctively, without having to be told what it means. Read the following examples and you’ll have a good idea of what the person’s body language is telling you. We instinctively recognize what body language is telling us.
- Mike is sitting with his arms crossed over his chest. His head is tilted down and away from you. His finger is tapping his arm in a fast, erratic manner.
- Jane is sitting back in her chair with her arms crossed behind her head. She is smiling at you and nodding her head from time to time as you speak.
- Dave is standing close to you at an angle. He is speaking just above a whisper and in a strained voice. He makes quick, sharp movements with his hands.
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that matters the most in relaying your message. We can picture these people and their behaviors from the short description here and without hearing a word from them, we have a pretty good idea of how they are feeling about the situation or about what we are saying to them.
Use body language to your advantage
There is another reason to understand body language besides being able to read what another is saying to you subconsciously. Body language is a useful tool that you can learn to use. You can mimic another’s body language when you want to express support for them. You can use a person’s body language to realize that your message is incomplete – there is more to say or there are questions to be answered.
When you are in a situation where you want to convey your support of another person, you can intentionally mimic their body language. If you are standing in the hallway and they lean to one side, mirror their action. If they sit back and relax, do the same. You are sending subconscious signals that you are on their side, even if the topic that you are discussing is one where there may be disagreement. It reaffirms that you are part of the same team, no matter what else might be going on.
You can also use this tool to gauge whether or not others are buying in on what you are saying. Are they using words that express agreement, but sitting all wound up with crossed arms and legs? Unless they just happen to be cold, chances are that there is some matter still unresolved in their mind. You can use this signal as information to you that you still need to do some explaining or ask some additional questions
| |
Building Vocabulary While Reading Together
Children enjoy sharing in the joy of reading! Research shows that reading books together holds many benefits, including helping children build vocabulary knowledge—an important part of literacy learning. Vocabulary refers to the words we understand when reading or listening and to the words we use when writing and speaking. Learning vocabulary in the context of a book can encourage your child’s interest in understanding and using new words.
Here are some ways to foster vocabulary knowledge as you read together. The examples are from the book Giraffes Can’t Dance, by Giles Andreae, in English, but you can use the following strategies as you read to your child from a variety of books in any language.
- Preview the book to choose new words to share with your child. Before reading with your child, look through the book and find words they may not know. Plan to pause to explain these new words.
- Give a brief explanation of the new word. Use words your child already knows as you define new words. For example, in Giraffes Can’t Dance, your child may not know the word rooted in “Gerald simply froze up. He was rooted to the spot.” You can define rooted as “frozen in place, stuck.”
- Provide a synonym. Offering a different word that shares a similar meaning is helpful. You could share, for example, that another word for rooted is unmoving.
- Ask your child to repeat the word with you. Say the target word (rooted) together.
- Connect the new word to something your child already knows. Think about what your child already has experience with. For example, you may say, “Remember when I dropped my plate, and I was so surprised I didn’t move? I was rooted in place for a moment.” You can help your child notice how words and concepts fit into different categories or experiences they know.
- Use objects, pictures, and movements to demonstrate the meaning of the new word. Point to illustrations in the book that help explain the new word. Make use of objects and/or movements to demonstrate a new word’s meaning (make a game of dancing and then suddenly being rooted to the spot).
- Read the book with the new word multiple times. Children often enjoy rereading their favorite books. Explaining words during repeated readings can help your child remember new words.
- Use the word at other times. Use the new word when you are not reading the book. For example, if you see a character in another book or in a movie who’s rooted to the spot, point out the expression and remind your child of the word rooted.
Reading together is a great way to introduce new vocabulary and support literacy learning.
| |
|
Weekly Task Checklists Lead to Successful Classrooms! | Download and print these helpful resources today! | | |
Infant Classroom Weekly Tasks | |
Toddler Classroom Weekly Tasks | |
PreK Classroom Weekly Tasks | |
Advanced PreK Classroom Weekly Tasks | | |
A teacher's vitality or capacity to be vital, present, positive, and deeply engaged and connected to her/his children and students is not a fixed, indelible condition, but a state that ebbs and flows and grows within the context of the teaching life. Stepping Stone School is committed to a program of professional development devoted explicitly to nourishing the inner and external life or core dimensions that are increasingly important for our educators on their journey.
-Rhonda Paver
| |
|
The Educator Vitality Journey is a program designed to help our teachers to make a daily, conscious effort to be positive, self-aware, passionate, and fully engaged in their roles, while deepening their understanding of their true potential.
| | | | |