I’ve joked before that for the shortest month, February is the LONGEST month—for teachers in particular. It can feel like the doldrums of the year, with Christmas break long in the rearview mirror, and spring break far off in the future. Presidents’ Day (or Family Day, in Canada, eh?) gives one day off for many schools, but this stretch of the year often feels like a slog.
So it’s funny that I often get invited to lead professional development workshops in February…is this what teachers want? (I hope so!) Truly, this is one of my favorite things to do. Getting to spend intentional time with K-12 teachers and talk about the good work we are called to do? Who wouldn’t love that? :-) But what to talk about in the thick of the February doldrums?
February is often the time of year I start to get restless in my teaching practice, but who has time to change everything up in the middle of the year? (Answer: no one.) So in these February workshops I often like to emphasize what I call “tiny teaching tweaks.” This is my riff on what James Lang names “small teaching” in his book by that name. He uses the analogy of “small ball” in baseball—instead of always swinging for the fences, let’s look for base hits, stolen bases, bunts to advance runners…all those little things that might not seem as flashy or impressive, but get the job done for winning games.
So in the past few weeks I presented similar sessions to two different schools related to tiny teaching tweaks—and both were so well received by the folks who needed a boost of encouragement. Maybe you could use that boost right about now as well? Here you go: three tiny teaching tweaks from Dr. Dave that you might find inspiring…that you can put into practice immediately!
Tiny Teaching Tweak #1: Use Call-Backs for Retrieval Practice
Retrieval practice is essentially important for helping ensure that important learning gets locked in to students’ long term memory! They key here is that regularly practicing retrieval (remembering things) strengthens memory—and the crazy thing is that research suggests that even the act of trying to remember (even if you fail and need a reminder) makes it more likely that you’ll remember in the future!
How to do this retrieval practice? Here are a few ideas you might try:
“Before we start reading today, what do you remember about the story so far? Can anyone remind me where we left off?”
“What did we talk about on Monday? What did we learn on Tuesday? How about on Wednesday?”
“We have done three investigations so far in this unit. Can you remind your partner of the results we found?”
“We have learned seven new vocabulary words this week. How many can you remember?”
Tiny Teaching Tweak #2: Normalize Questions as Part of Learning
Questions are a sign of thinking and engagement—we want students to ask questions! (I always start to worry a little when no one is asking questions.) But many students are reticent to ask their questions, whether because they don’t want to be seen as foolish, or because they are so conditioned to give the “right answer” to teachers’ questions, they don’t understand the importance of wondering. So the key idea here is figuring out how to normalize student questions as an important part of learning!
How do get kids to ask more questions? I haven’t found a bomb-proof approach here yet, but I have a few ideas you could try:
Shift from, “Does anyone have any questions?” to “What questions do you have?”
Next level: “Ask me two questions about ____.”
Pro level: When students ask questions, answer with a question! (I always like to respond with, “Oooooh…that’s interesting! How could we find out?” and then pursue students’ ideas for how to answer their own questions.)
If students are still reticent to ask, try putting them into duos or trios and have each group come up with at least three questions. Try framing it this way: “What do you think other students might be wondering about related to ____?” And then cold call on groups to ask one of the questions they have generated.
Tiny Teaching Tweak #3: Use Group Feedback
Real feedback is timely, specific, and actionable. That is, for it to be useful feedback, students need it as soon as possible, it should be focused on what is good (or not so good) about the work, and it should be aimed at putting the feedback into practice either as a redo, or applied to the next draft. But here’s the constant struggle: individualized feedback for each student can be overwhelming, particularly if you are a middle or high school teacher with lots of students! So here’s the key idea: group feedback is still feedback, and it can be both engaging for students and efficient for you as the teacher.
Here are a few strategies to consider:
If you’re using a digital platform (Google Classroom? Schoology? Canvas? Moodle?) try composing several basic feedback comments that capture how students tend to perform. (Because, you know, students often make similar errors to their classmates, or find the same successes as their classmates. Once you have 3 or 4 basic comments, you can copy and paste them in to the feedback space on students’ work, and customize as needed to tailor your comment to the specific student.
Provide verbal feedback on work to the whole group on patterns you noticed. Maybe something like, “I noticed that about 2/3 of you made this error…” or “Almost all of you did this really well—I’m proud of you!” Then, have students look for examples in their own work to illustrate the strengths and areas for growth.
See what I mean about tiny tweaks? These aren’t “swinging for the fences,” reimagine-your-whole-teaching-practice changes. But these kinds of tweaks might reinvigorate your teaching and snap you out of the February funk!
If you think your colleagues would benefit from tips like these, please share, and encourage them to subscribe! And if you’d like more of this kind of thing, let’s talk about getting me to your school, either in person, or via webinar!
Dave’s Faves
Here are three things I’m absolutely loving right now that I hope you might love too…
Dave’s Fave #1: Students who just “get me”
I got a message from a student this past Saturday; she was shopping at a local thrift store and thought of me. More than that…she really gets me, and how I don’t take myself too seriously. Here was her actual message:
Check it out…Liberty Mutual Converse at Melissa's Hope Chest thrift store!
And she included this photo:
Dave’s Fave #2: My new bag
For about 25 years now I’ve been using an over-the-shoulder messenger bag for my “school bag.” Okay, to be fair, I think I’ve had at least four different bags in that time. But my middle-aged back isn’t dealing quite as well with that as it used to, especially since I always walk to work, and the heavy bag isn’t always so great for the posture. So…I got a backpack. And you know what? I LOVE it. It has a million little pockets to keep me organized, and a padded sleeve pocket for my laptop, and cushy straps—it feels great! It’s a nice upgrade for me, and I’m loving it.
Dave’s Fave #3: Spotify’s “Atmospheric Calm” Playlist
Perhaps, you, like me, believe your life is a musical, and you are always on the verge of bursting into a song-and-dance number? (No? Well, okay then…) What I really mean here is that I almost always have music in the background, particularly when I’m grading, planning, or writing. The real problem for me though is when I have music with lyrics, I often get derailed and find myself singing along…or even typing the lyrics into whatever I’m writing. (Which can be hilarious or embarrassing, depending on what I’m working on!)
If you need some ambient music in the background that might just help you sharpen your focus, may I suggest Spotify’s “Atmospheric Calm” playlist? This is my go-to lately when I’m writing. (And, in fact, I’m listening to it RIGHT NOW as I am putting this edition of Positivity - Passion - Purpose together!) I hope you’ll enjoy it!
The Last Word!
Friends, don’t underestimate the importance of strong pedagogy—the “art and science of teaching,” as I describe it to the future teachers I’m privileged to serve. I encourage you to take a creative, playful approach to your teaching practice. And if you’re feeling like you want to respond to that with, “I’m just not that creative, Dr. Dave!” well…take heart in this. Remember that you are created in God’s image (see Gen. 1:26-28!) and God is the Creator. If you are created in his image, you were created to create! And if that feels too heavy for you, let’s just reframe “creativity”…and think of it as being resourceful instead of feeling like you need to generate every thing out of nothing, yeah? Steal great ideas, adapt them, make them your own, and commit to daring acts of pedagogy!