Breaux and Whitaker Do It Again

The gurus of educating educators, Annette Breaux and Todd Whitaker, have produced another gem. 50 Ways to Improve Student Behavior should be added to the library of every educator, teacher or administrator. As the title indicates, the book offers fifty nuggets of wisdom to help teachers improve student behavior.

Here's the beauty of the concept of this book: student behavior in the classroom improves as teaching improves. This book doesn't present fifty gimmicks to make students behave better. This book offers fifty ways to improve teaching, to improve classroom instruction and classroom management. As a teacher implements these fifty strategies and becomes a better teacher, voila!, the students behave better than ever (and they learn more, too).

This book would be valuable for teachers, obviously. However, this book would be great for educational leaders, too. Heads of school, division heads, disciplinarians (assistant principal or Dean of Students), and department chairs, all would do well to help their faculty implement the strategies included in this book. Breaux and Whitaker present the fifty nuggets of wisdom in only a few pages each, thus making them great mini-lessons for faculty meetings, in-service days, department meetings, weekly email communications to faculty, etc.

If you have teachers who are struggling with effective teaching, which includes classroom management, you will find those teachers' shortcomings and errors addressed in this book. If every teacher in your building will practice these fifty strategies consistently, your school climate will change, student behavior will improve, and learning will increase. I'd stake my next paycheck on it.

What We Learned from Annette Breaux 4.0

This is the fourth and final post in a series of reflections on our visit with Annette Breaux.

As I boarded an airplane this morning for a curriculum mapping conference led by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, I made sure to notice the affect and mood of the pilot. Much to my relief, the pilot smiled and seemed to be having a good day. As I buckled my seat belt and checked to be sure my seat back and tray table were in the upright-and-locked position, I thought about something Annette Breaux said to us. Annette compared teachers before class to pilots before flights. Their moods can determine how the rest of the day will go for the people under their care and protection. Who wants to hear a pilot moan and groan and talk about how bad he feels and how rotten his life is? Who wants to hear that from a teacher? Even if the pilot is having a rough go of it, I want him to fake it, smile at me and say "Welcome aboard!" As a student, I'd feel the same way about my teacher.

I am quite sure teachers feel the same way about administrators. Just as a plane full of people will feel uncomfortable with a gloom-and-doom pilot, a building full of teachers will feel uncomfortable with a moody, negative administrator. The mood of an administrator can energize or zap the morale of a faculty just like a pilot might if he complained to passengers as they boarded a plane.

Thanks, Annette, for the analogy and thanks for the great advice you passed along during your visit with us earlier this month.

What We Learned from Annette Breaux 3.0

This is the third post in a series of reflections on our visit with Annette Breaux.

Annette Breaux stressed the importance of attitude for teachers. Most teachers, thankfully, are happy to see kids every day. As a result, teachers generally smile and act happy to see their students each day or each period. However, as Annette pointed out, teachers have lives outside of school and with those lives come trials, difficulties, sleepless nights and the like. Teachers' attitudes before, during and after class affect students either positively or negatively. Teachers must not allow their personal lives and their difficulties at home to affect their students in a negative way. Therefore, Annette argued, teachers should fake it when necessary. On the days when teachers are tired, distracted, not fired up to be at school, they should smile and pretend to be happy to the best of their abilities. Obviously, teachers can't fake a state of mind indefinitely and that isn't what Annette Breaux meant. What she meant was teachers should smile and act happy so as not to adversely affect their students rather than pouting and complaining. Students are sharp and they'll pick up on negative vibes from teachers. Teachers must be cognisant of this fact. Besides, Annette posited, it's hard to be angry or irritated while smiling; smile, smile, smile.

This advice, in my opinion, is doubly important for administrators. This has been a week of weeks and, frankly, I'm exhausted. However, I can't let my students or my teachers know when I'm tired or when I need a break. As an administrator, I never know when a student, a parent or a teacher needs to confide in me, seek advice, find strength in my leadership or use my shoulder to lean or cry upon. Therefore, I can't afford to be tired or moody at school. I can't let my guard down for a minute. My fatigue or mood could affect a teacher who, in turn might affect a student. My fatigue or mood could affect a student who, in turn, might give a teacher a hard time. If the administrator can't be free of mood swings and signs of fatigue at school, how can the teachers be expected to keep personal and professional feelings separate.

My challenge to educational leaders is this: take Annette Breaux's advice (Fake it!) for teachers and apply it to your own life. Don't allow your fatigue or your issues outside of school to affect those around you. The ripple effect of a moody, grumpy or edgy administrator can have significant influence on campus. When you feel like you're not going to make it, fake it! Smile, smile, smile.

What We Learned from Annette Breaux 2.0

This is the second post in a series of reflections on our visit with Annette Breaux.

One of the most poignant things Annette discussed was the tendency to play the blame game regarding students. Using a very clever series of illustrations, Annette showed a high school discussing a student who lacks skills to be successful in high school. The high school blames the middle school. The middle school then blames the elementary school. The elementary school blames the kindergarten and pre-k. They, in turn blame the parents. You get the idea. I'd be willing to bet you have heard a conversation like this in your office, in your workroom, etc.

Quite often validity can be found in such statements. When we find ourselves with a student or students like the one mentioned above, seeking the root of the cause of the deficiencies can be a legitimate and productive endeavor. However, expending great amounts of energy placing blame almost certainly will not be the most productive use of resources. We must remember not to lose the student in the search for why the student is deficient.

When it comes to the student, I have always believed and Annette argued, we must meet the student where he/she is and move forward from there. At whatever level of skill we find a student upon receiving them at our school or in our division, we must assess their skill level and work to move forward. For example, if we inherit an entire class section of Algebra I students who seem to lack basic math skills, we can spend only so much time trying to pinpoint where the students got off-track. What we need to do with this class section is move them forward as much as possible and at a realistic pace from whatever level at which we find them. We can't thrust upon them coursework with which they'll be unsuccessful because we don't have the patience to bring them up to speed. The inherent danger, and indeed the challenge, with such an approach lies with our ability to move them ahead to a level of readiness and preparedness at which they will be successful in the next course in the sequence (Algebra II builds on Algebra I, Spanish II builds on Spanish I, etc.).

This philosophical approach to dealing with kids behind the curve applies to teachers and educational leaders alike. Teachers must move beyond, or get over, the fact the kids are behind schedule and get down to the business of teaching them and moving them forward. Administrators have more of a responsibility to seek out possible causes for any deficiencies than do teachers. However, administrators must keep in focus the question that should drive student-related decisions: what's best for kids? What is best for kids is for teachers and administrators to meet kids where they are and help them move ahead, to progress, to grow academically.

What We Learned from Annette Breaux 1.0

This is the first post in a series of reflections on our visit with Annette Breaux.

On Friday, January 2, we were fortunate enough to have Annette Breaux, educator and author of Seven Simple Secrets, on campus with our faculty . Annette promised us at the beginning of her time with us that we would not be bored for one minute and, three hours later, she had kept her promise. She spoke to us specifically about what it means to teach effectively and how to be an effective teacher. Much of what she covered with us came from her book, Seven Simple Secrets, so I won't reinvent the wheel here and outline every teaching strategy she discussed. I will recommend, however, that every new or struggling teacher be given this book to read. Additionally, there are numerous ideas in the book that experienced teachers could revisit or perhaps try in their own classrooms. I believe administrators would do well to have and/or read this book as well. If you are an administrator and are seeking an exhaustive list of practices you should be seeing every day in your classrooms, this book is a terrific resource. Add this book to your library immediately.

One of the things Annette said really struck a chord with me. She said, "We are teachers not for the kid that gets it but we are teachers for the kid that doesn't get it." I remember from my years of coaching and teaching how easy it was to teach and to love the kids who never caused problems, who made always made the A, who always "got it," often probably in spite of me. The truth is that those kids are most probably going to be doctors, accountants, etc., and successful ones, too, no matter what we do in the classroom. The kids in the middle of the pack, admittedly where many students fall, also will be fine though they do need direction, guidance and instruction more than the first group I mentioned. The students who "don't get it," and this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with intelligence, are the ones who really need teachers. Without teachers, this last group probably will not "get it," will not be successful, at least in the short run. Annette stressed the importance of reaching those kids. Even in an independent school or magnet school setting, some kids will "get it" sooner and more easily than others. Thanks, Annette, for reminding us that we must endeavor to reach each and every one of our kids. If we (teachers) don't, who will?