Nothing school leaders do is more important than interviewing teacher candidates. Deciding whether someone is worthy of instructing and influencing other people's children--what a huge responsibility!

Many schools base this crucial decision on how a candidate performs during a demonstration lesson. But should the demo lesson be a deal breaker or deal maker?

If a candidate was unprepared or seemed incapable of connecting with students, then yes, the demo should be a deal breaker. On the other hand, an awesome demo lesson should not be an automatic deal maker. In fact, several principals have told me about teachers who aced their demos but failed in their own classrooms.

Demo lessons can be a valuable part of the hiring process if you use them for two purposes. First, to weed out candidates who are clearly wrong for your students. And second, to set up post-demo debriefing sessions with other candidates. This includes teachers who hit a home run on the demo, but also those who struck out despite conscientious preparation and other qualities of effective teachers.

Great teachers are committed to excellence over many years, not just 20-30 minutes. Use the post-demo debriefing to assess whether candidates have this commitment. Ask them to reflect on their demo lessons, and see how they respond to critical feedback. Use the demo lesson process to determine whether candidates are not only capable, but also coachable. Use it to evaluate candidates based on their potential rather than just their performance.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I was observing a kindergarten class when students started talking out of turn during a reading activity on the rug. The teacher took less than 30 seconds to address this, and then facilitated the rest of the activity without further interruptions. How did she resolve this problem so efficiently?

Did she banish the offending students to their seats? Threaten to call home if they didn't quiet down? Write their names on the board under "Lunch Detention" or "No Recess"? Have them move their cards to red on a traffic light behavior chart?

None of the above. All this teacher did was calmly request the class' attention, and ask a student to remind his classmates why it's important for only one person to talk at a time. "Acoustics," the student replied.

Yes, kindergarten. And yes, acoustics. I had heard prior to visiting her class that this teacher was a star, and now I could see why. Like all great teachers, she understood that students usually do what we want them to do if they understand and accept why we want them to do it. In this case, the teacher wanted only one person to talk at a time, and had a brilliant idea for getting students to understand and accept the importance of this: she taught them about acoustics.

Of course, even in well managed classrooms, teachers need to redirect students from time to time. But as long as students buy into the rationale for our expectations, we can usually forgo punitive measures when students do the wrong thing. Instead, we just need to revisit why they should do the right thing.

Related posts:

• As a Rule, Forget About Rules
• Classroom Rules Rules

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 9:30 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

As educators, we must always do our best to assess and accommodate students' needs. Sometimes, of course, what students need clashes with what students want. Examples from previous posts include:

• not grading students' class work ("Why should I do it if you're not going to grade it?")
• requiring students to earn teachers' help by exhausting all other resources ("What do you mean, you won't help me? You're the teacher!")
• assigning students to groups rather than letting them choose their own groups ("I work better with my friends.")

The good news is that gaps between students' classroom needs and wants usually close once students experience the benefits of something they initially rejected. Here are two feedback form comments, about a week apart, from a student who felt put out at first by some of my policies:

I really think that you don't know what you're doing.

Now I get a sense of what you are doing. I realized that you're taking a step forward.

Every day is free for you, but I have thought about charging $5 admission. But seriously, if you have ideas for fun educational activities/games, I will consider them.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Flipped instruction, as I define it, isn't about teachers videotaping lectures for students to watch before class. It's about less lecturing, and more active learning. It's about giving students greater ownership of their learning. It's what science teacher Alli Romano does in her classroom, as she explains in this video:

Keep in mind, as I pointed out in Coach Students Rather Than Teach Students, that letting students take more active roles in their learning does not mean we should take more passive roles. It means we must take on new roles. By spending less time presenting information, Alli Romano can spend more time helping students discover and apply information. She lectures less, and helps students learn more.

Posted by David Ginsburg at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Some people think students are incapable of learning on their own or from each other. But the real issue isn't whether students are able to learn independently. It's whether teachers are ready and willing to let them. That's what I discovered when I stopped doing for students what they could do for themselves. And it's what teachers I've coached have discovered when they stopped doing this too. Yves Kabore is one such teacher, and here are some of his thoughts about this:

Letting students take more active roles in their learning doesn't mean teachers should take more passive roles. It means we should take new roles. We should assess students before assisting them. We should prepare for students' mistakes rather than try to prevent them. We should facilitate less whole-group instruction, and more whole-group discussion.

We should do what Yves Kabore has done to enable 6th graders to "fly through" material many 10th graders would find challenging: coach students rather than teach students.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I couldn't have been more prepared for my first year as a 9th grade math teacher in Chicago. Or so I thought.

I brushed up on my skills over the summer by working through Pre-Algebra and Algebra textbooks. I also designed an opening project that integrated Algebra skills and prerequisites. This project was sure to captivate students for two reasons. First, it involved marketing t-shirts commemorating the Chicago Bulls' recent NBA championship. (My students were all about the Bulls and Bulls' merchandise.)

Second, students would work on the project in cooperative groups. No boring lectures with me as the sage on stage. My classroom would be student-centered, with me as the guide on the side.

For the first week, students were engaged and thought I was a "cool teacher." But by the end of week two, cooperative groups had become combative groups, with kids bickering and, in one case, brawling. So much for guide on the side. I was the referee in the middle. Students no longer said I was a cool teacher, but rather "no teacher."

How could my classroom be such a mess after all that summer preparation? Simple. That preparation focused too much on lesson planning, and too little on classroom management and teaching methods.

New teachers do this all the time. They figure that as long as they plan creative, engaging lessons, students will love them and their classes will run smoothly. "My passion for science is going to be contagious for students," one newbie replied after I implored him to avoid the put-all-your-energy-into-creative-lessons trap. It was only after students were dangling from windows--third floor--during a bridge-building activity that he decided to put classroom management ahead of lesson creativity.

The point here is that there's often a disconnect between planning and preparation. My t-shirt project was well planned by most standards. It was coherent and comprehensive. I provided students graphic organizers, guided notes, rubrics, and other resources. On paper, I had done everything to ensure the project would be successful.

Yet it blew up despite such exhaustive planning. And like many teachers when things don't go as planned, I first blamed it on strategies and students: Cooperative Learning isn't what it's cracked up to be, and students aren't ready for Project-Based Learning.

The truth, though, is that the t-shirt project bombed because I wasn't ready. My students' response wasn't a reflection of their aptitudes or attitudes. Nor was it a reflection of Cooperative Learning or PBL. Instead it reflected my lack of proficiency with those methods and classroom management.

Creativity is an asset for teachers, provided we channel it where students will benefit most from it at any given time. After the t-shirt project debacle (and others), I used my creativity to come up with classroom management ideas that prevented future debacles. (Ideas such as establishing a student feedback board and wearing a tool belt.)

Of course, it's also important to learn how to implement instructional methods (such as Cooperative Learning and PBL) before planning activities that require you to use those methods. Don't just plan lessons; prepare for them.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Use your voice every time you need students' attention, and before long you won't have a voice. This is one reason teachers need non-verbal means of communicating with students. (Another reason is to avoid interrupting class.) The "teacher look," hand signals, and proximity are among the effective ways to redirect one or a few students without saying a word.

But getting the entire class' attention often requires a more noticeable approach, especially when students are working in groups. One option is to raise your hand as a cue for students to quiet down and raise their hands until the whole class catches on. The problem with this approach is that it can take a while for students to notice you've got your hand up.

Another option is to flip the light switch a couple of times, which can be effective unless your classroom gets so much natural light that students won't notice the blinking overhead lights. Another limitation of this approach is that it's inconvenient unless you're standing near the light switch.

What you need, then, is a quick, commanding way to get a message to the class without straining yourself or your voice. What you need is a whistle. And not just any whistle, but a train whistle, an idea I got from Jerry Cummins at a workshop he facilitated on cooperative learning. (A train whistle is better than a standard whistle because it's less likely to disturb other classes. Besides, don't you prefer the image of a conductor over that of a referee?)

A train whistle is ideal because you can use it any time from anywhere in the classroom. (It helps if you wear a tool belt like I did.) It also allows you to set up a code system where different numbers of toots have different meanings. One toot, for example, may signal a two-minute warning for the end of an activity; two toots may tell students to change their seating orientation; three toots may indicate that you need students' immediate attention.

The beauty of the train whistle is that it's great for both classroom culture and classroom management. Most children deal with more than enough serious stuff outside of school. Our classrooms must therefore not only be places where kids learn, but also places where kids laugh. And what kid wouldn't laugh at a teacher with a train whistle? (Some of my students let out a hoot with every toot.) At the same time, I'm not about gimmicks for gimmicks' sake. Everything we do as teachers should facilitate learning, and a train whistle does this by improving classroom efficiency.

A lighter classroom atmosphere and tighter classroom management--that's what a train whistle (along with a tool belt and other outside the box ideas such as Stand-Up Sleeping and Peace and Love Profanity "rules") did for my students and me, and can do for your students and you too.

All aboard.

NOTE: Check out this video clip from a teacher workshop to see me using my train whistle.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

One premise of the flipped classroom model is that students should spend most of their time in class interacting with content rather than listening to teachers present content. And I couldn't agree more, as I wrote in an earlier post on differentiated instruction:

Improving at anything takes practice. And not just any practice, but productive practice. If, for example, you want to be a better swimmer, it's counterproductive to spend hour after hour in the pool when your stroke is dreadful. Correct your stroke first, then swim laps. And correcting your stroke requires skillful coaching. Coaches can only help, however, if they know what you need help with--e.g., a swimming coach must see what's wrong with your stroke in order to help you get it right. Same goes for acting, music, art, and pretty much anything--including academics! And when it comes to academics, you as the teacher must be that skillful coach. For students to become better writers, they should therefore not only write more, but write more in your presence. For them to master math, they need to do more math in your presence.

Another premise of the flipped classroom model is that in order for students to interact with content in class, they must watch a videotaped lecture on that content before class (courtesy of their teacher or a virtual teacher like Salman Khan). In short, students watch the lecture at home, then work in class the following day on what would have been their homework. Hence the term flipped instruction.

But what if students don't need any instruction? What if they could learn from an activity by simply engaging in that activity? What if lectures are unnecessary, as I asserted at a recent workshop for new teachers?

There's no way around it: one-size-fits-all direct instruction isn't conducive to differentiated instruction. And this is especially true when it's provided via video, since teachers can't ask questions that allow them to assess and address students' misconceptions.

And lectures aren't just unnecessary for material students have seen before. Even when they've had little or no prior exposure to a concept or skill, students can often learn that concept or skill through investigation or discussion that builds on their prior knowledge or sparks new knowledge. And when students are stuck, it doesn't always mean they need a lecture. Just asking kids the right question is often enough to help them move forward.

I'm not suggesting you kick back while students learn or don't learn on their own. But a true flipped classroom model would involve little or no direct instruction--live or via video--up front. Instead, students would have a chance to learn by doing, with free access to resources that can help them (technology--including cell phones, class notes, past assignments, each other, books, and as a last resort, you).

Teachers, meanwhile, would circulate to assess what students know and what they don't know (and why they don't know it). They would help students troubleshoot as necessary, and determine what if any post-activity whole-group instruction--correction: whole-group discussion--students would benefit from such as sharing solutions and insights, addressing common misconceptions, and scaffolding understanding to a deeper level.

Again, the flipped classroom movement has had a positive effect on teaching and learning by stressing the importance of kids doing more math, more writing, more science in our presence. But let's not do flips over this until teacher-led instruction--whether on site or on screen--is limited to what students need, when they need it, and how they need it.

Recommended reading if you're considering flipping your classroom or you've already flipped it:

Brian Bennett, Flipped Classrooms: Let's Change the Discussion

Arthur Camins, The Difference Between Live and Taped Lectures

Emily Hanford, Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught

Mary Beth Hertz, The Flipped Classroom: Pro and Con

Lisa Nielsen, Five Reasons I'm Not Flipping Over the Flipped Classroom

Shelley Wright, The Flip: End of a Love Affair

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 8:45 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In a previous post, Connect With Kids in the Context and Confines of the Classroom, I wrote about the importance of having at least one meaningful interaction with every student every class period. But what I didn't mention is that it's also important to have a meaningful interaction with all students as they enter class.

I did this by greeting each student with my signature salutation, "Peace and love," followed by the student's name. And middle school math teacher Marlo Warburton does it her way, as you can see in this video:

There's nothing new about what I'm suggesting here. Many teachers greet students as they enter class, and find that it's a great way to connect with kids and set a positive tone for the class. Why, then, don't more teachers do this?

One reason is that they're doing last-minute preparations for class--getting materials together, writing on the board, pulling up their presentations on the whiteboard, etc. My advice to these teachers is simple: be more organized. (I've shared ideas in previous posts that can help.)

Another reason is that teachers haven't established a routine for the start of class that students can follow on their own. Often, for example, teachers have a "Do Now" on the board, which is great. But because the directions are unclear, students can't get started until the teacher explains the assignment. Rather than greet students as they enter class, teachers need to tell them what to do (over and over and over).

A solution for this is to provide visual, self-explanatory directions for class openers on the board or projector for students to refer to as they enter class. And if an activity isn't conducive to this (i.e., it requires an oral explanation from you), reserve it for later in the class period rather than use it as an opener.

By being more organized and tightening up your opening procedures, you'll be free to greet students as they enter the classroom--and ensure that your class not only gets off to a productive start but a peaceful and loving one too.

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Happy New Year, colleagues! I'm looking forward to another year of sharing ideas with you that improve student learning. But first I'd like you to revisit (and tweet if you're inspired) the three most popular posts on this blog in 2012 as you make New Year's resolutions for 2013. Here are the three posts, along with a quote from each:

• Don't Prevent Students' Mistakes, Prepare for Them. "Traditional teaching methods deny students the chance to learn from their mistakes by preventing them from making mistakes."
• Don't Evaluate Teachers, Coach Them. "Accountability without support is a formula for frustration and failure--for school leaders and teachers alike."
• The Effect of Affect. "How students feel in your classroom influences how they perform in your classroom."

Coach G

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Posted by David Ginsburg at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend