Yesterday I had the privilege of watching Karen Boyes, a Habits of Mind guru, teach a class at our school. I also had two staff meetings run by her, devoted to teaching the habits of mind.
It was an interesting experience to see a lot of new strategies at work. A few things I saw from her that I'd really like to use (coming from both the staff meetings and the observations):
1) Saying thank you instead of good, great, fantastic, etc. This I'm still a bit torn on (it's one of those things you don't want to be true, after all those years of people telling you to heap on the praise to children) but I completely agree with the theory behind it so I think it's definitely worthwhile to have a go at it. I still will find a way to use a variety of praise (I think behaviour is one area, though I do like the "thank you for doing the right thing" that I use quite a bit).
2) Lots of talk time, giving children the chance to be prepared to answer so that speaking is less of a risk. I've actually made some adjustments over the years so that participating is less of a risk and children are prepared, but she did give some good suggestions as to how to bring that aspect to a whole new level. She was very insistent on getting the children "knee to knee." I've already tried this, and though they did at first confuse it with "elbow to elbow, knee to knee," I did find that it has worked fairly well. I've also increased the amount of time I've having them talk to their partners. Not only does that get them more confident with speaking, but it also forces them to participate. I also use popsicle sticks so that all the children know they could be called upon for any question so they need to have some sort of an answer (usually after talking to partner so they're not put on the spot).
3) It's a small thing, but I really liked her use of "Hold your words in, put your hand up." I liked how she showed us a picture of this with a younger student, but I wasn't sure it would work with my class. I talked to them about it and when I saw one student doing it, I commented on it and picked her to speak. Funnily enough, the about 5 or 6 of them were doing it the next time I asked. Though, the student who did it first, didn't really need to do it (she waits her turn all the time normally) but maybe it will catch on.
4) Her description of the Line of Life with Blame, Excuse and Deny below and Ownership, Accountable, Responsible on top was something I immediately started using today. I actually saw many children who were doing the things below the line. In fact, I had a wonderful inadvertent example of excuse, when I was asking the children to explain what it meant. One child gave his answer and it must have been the same answer another boy wanted to give so the other boy put his hand down and said "d@33it" (imagine the two 3s are 2 ms). So I said "excuse me, do you think that language is appropriate at school?" and he said "But I didn't know." Absolutely brilliant. I of course pointed out the irony of the whole situation to him by saying that was making an excuse. He was tearful for a bit, but within a few minutes he was back. The children really did seem to understand that and now I have a diagram to put in the classroom to remind me and them. It should also help me remember to refer to it in those situations.
5) In her lesson, it was interesting also, to see what she did when things didn't go as planned. She tried an activity with the children that they obviously didn't get. Instead of getting frustrated or ending the lesson then and there, she kept going. First she let the kids keep trying and offered small reminders of what was needed. When it was clear there were some problems, she stopped the whole class and asked them a question to focus their thinking. Eventually they were able to be successful. No voices needed to be raised
6) Over the last week with Karen and with our certification, I've learned a great deal about the Habits of Mind and have tried to incorporate them more into my teaching. I'd never heard of them before coming to Rowandale, but they are things I've done throughout my life and I definitely see them as the habits that have made me successful. So helping children learn these habits is obviously a good idea. Karen was able to give me a lot of good ideas as to how to start embedding these into the children's lives. I hope I'm up to the task (if not, I'll persist).
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