Category: Teaching Strategies

Posted in Professional Development, Teaching Strategies

The Art of Teaching

Posted on by Dr. Carol Wertz

Teaching is an art form. Educators spend their lives honing their craft and perfecting their approaches until it becomes so automatic and intuitive that they are surprised when someone asks, “How do you do that?” The teacher blinks in surprise. Doesn’t everyone know? Doesn’t everyone do it this way? To watch a skilled teacher is truly to observe a master.

There are four stages leading to that level of proficiency:

  • Unconscious incompetence: This is the new teacher coming out of credentialing classes with lots of ideas, stars in his/her eyes, and pinterest at the ready! Blissfully unaware of all the challenges ahead, s/he pictures the classroom full of smiling attentive students who grasp each concept in a timely fashion, allowing the class to move through the expected standards with time to spare. With her class before her, s/he may not be aware of boredom, notes being passed, students checking out, or the unacceptable noise level. Student behaviors fall to the wayside as s/he concentrates on getting through the lesson and delivering the content that was planned.
  • Conscious incompetence: Reality check. Now the teacher is beginning to realize all s/he doesn’t know and a bit of stress sets in. “There’s so much I don’t know. How am I ever going to be able to teach like Miss Smith?” The search for more resources and professional development begin. Veteran teachers can play such an important role in this time period by sharing tips, encouraging, and modeling successful strategies. Hopefully, administrators are pairing new teachers with a veteran in the building
  • Conscious competence: As teachers gather new ideas and strategies and consciously implement them, their skills grow. They find those particularly suited for different subject areas and prepare the necessary charts, graphs, and tables that they’ll be able to use year after year. They consciously practice the procedures, routines, and strategies that will help increase student engagement, noticing those that students particularly like. Their “withitness”, a term meaning those all important “eyes in the back of the head” increases and they become aware of all that’s going on in the room while teaching.
  • Unconscious competence: While teaching is always a challenge and there is always more to learn, teachers will finally reach the stage where it becomes second nature. Though the students change yearly, there are always strategies they love, techniques to keep their attention, procedures and routines that need to be in place. And at this stage, you know what those are! This teacher makes it “look easy”, although everyone knows it’s not.

Why is this important to realize?

For the administrator, it helps to know what type of professional development might be most beneficial. Teachers at the fourth level could be used as leaders to help advance newer teachers to the next level, and thus be groomed for leadership positions.

For the teacher, it is important to realize that the journey to becoming a skilled teacher is just that – a journey. Often the new teacher compares him/herself to the best teacher in the building and can’t understand why her classroom doesn’t look the same! It’s a process during which the teacher is making a thousand decisions as to what s/he wants the future to look like, from management style to the culture of the classroom to keeping up with new strategies. During these formative years, it’s vital for the teacher to have realistic expectations while continuing to move forward.

Just a sidenote – I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon with the advent of Covid 19 and online learning. Those teachers who were very skilled and in the unconscious competence category have all of a sudden moved backwards into # 2. It’s a very unsettling feeling for them to have to wrestle with the mode of delivery for the subject they know so well. Veteran teachers are struggling to learn new areas of expertise and keep up with those who are much less skilled in teaching, but more knowledgeable in the world of technology. This presents an opportunity for true “cooperative learning” with each one teaching in his/her area of strength.

Posted in Teaching Strategies

A quick numbers game for K-6th graders: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division

Posted on by Dr. Carol Wertz

Teachers, I’ve got a fun number drill for your students. It’s practical and easy to prepare. You’re going to love it!

For a pretty pdf file of the instructions, go here (it’s free).

What’s great is that these cards are a really quick assessment tool.

You can easily see: Who knows this information? Who is struggling? 

 All you need for this is a set of cards for each student, zero through nine.  For your younger students, you’ll prepare the cards. Use a marker and make the numbers large, so they take up the whole card. Or if you have older kids, they can make their own decks.

Ideas for younger students

  • Have the students line them up in order. And that’s important, that they can identify the numbers and be able to put them in order. 
  • You say “Everybody grab your four.” Pull it down. (Don’t bother to have them hold it up because you know how it is. They’re going to have it backwards and so forth. It just takes too much time. We want this to be a fast, easy game.) 
  • Call out the numbers and be sure they pull them down, then put them back in order. 
  • Create larger two-digit numbers: teens, 20s 30s 40s, all the way up to 98. (The only problem: We don’t want to be doing 55, 44, 33, doubles of any kind because we don’t have two of each number.)

For older grade levels

  • You ask them to put them in order backwards.
  • You can hold up a number of objects or a card with a certain pattern of the dots on it,. They pull down the card that shows how many you have.  Say “One more” or “One less”. for example “ I’m going to say 8, I want you to go down one more” so they’re going to pull down their nine or” one less”, go down to the seven. That’s a really important concept for them to be learning.
  • They can be working in pairs. So one is the teacher, one is the student, then they can switch roles.
  • You can create a Math Center and use these cards
  • Teach addition and subtraction. If you say “three plus four”, they pull down their seven. “Eight minutes six”, they pull down their two. 
  • Teach multiplication facts. You say “Nine times five”, they pull down their 45…
  • Teach division
  • You could also make cards with the four operations on them.  Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Then you say “ 6, 7, 42”. They’ll pull down their multiplication card to show that they know the relationship of these three numbers.
    • It’s really important for kids to realize that addition and multiplication increase the number,  division subtraction, the answer is going to be smaller. 

Storing the cards

These cards can be put all together with each student’s name on a plastic baggie. you can keep them in a bucket or in each student’s pencil box.

I hope you see how easy these cards are to use. They’re something that you can pull out anytime.  If you’ve got 5- 10 minutes of extra time, pull them out, have fun!

Next steps

Let me know which grade level you’re teaching and how you end up using these cards. And if you’re interested in quick strategies that will engage your students, email me at carolbwertz@gmail.com to book an hour with me and I guarantee you’ll leave with 15 more strategies to make your life easier.

Posted in Relationship, Teaching Strategies

Boredom – Whose Problem Is It?

Posted on by Dr. Carol Wertz

“I’m bored. An all too familiar statement in classrooms (and homes) around the world.

What do students mean when they say this? It’s usually blurted out without a lot of thought behind it, because – let’s face it – it’s pretty popular to say. But a closer analysis tells us it could mean, “I already know this”, “I don’t see the purpose in learning this”, “I don’t understand the explanation”, “I don’t have any idea what this subject is all about”, “I don’t know what to do next”, or “I really feel like doing something other than this!”

There are two aspects of this statement to explore. The first is that often we find ourselves rushing to alleviate a student’s (or our child’s) boredom, as though it were our problem! What we forget to tell them is: It isn’t! Lest that sound harsh, let’s unpack that.

This is actually a great teaching moment to work on communication skills. Explore what they really mean by the statement and help them to say what they really mean. Then, together, you can work on a solution. If the problem is that they don’t know what to do with themselves, you can help them think of some options. Don’t forget to include some “work options”. “Oh, good, I was just thinking I hadn’t assigned enough homework.” In fact, using humor can be an effective redirection to start the conversation.

The second aspect of this actually might lead to self-reflection on our part. I recently heard an interesting statement by Tucker Max, an author and instructor for Scribe’s online writing course. “There is no such thing as a short attention span; there is only engaging material and non-engaging material. There are lower thresholds for boredom.” With all the demands on our time that the internet provides, people don’t tend to engage in activities that are not the most interesting to them . And for the younger crowd, that means watching entertaining, fast-paced videos at the touch of a button.

How do we compete with that? I don’t think we try. We always let our students know WHY we’re studying this concept, WHY this is important for us to learn. And then we make sure our material and the way we’re presenting it is absolutely the most engaging it can be.

“I’m bored,” is a non-statement in my classroom. “Please rephrase that in a more academic manner,” is what students hear upon its utterance. Always said with a smile…and complete faith in their ability to do so.

Posted in Community, Inspiration, Relationship, Teaching Strategies

5 Key Strategies for Teachers to Keep Communication and Connection with Students During Coronavirus Times

Posted on by Dr. Carol Wertz

Did the world just stop….or is it going at a speed you’ve never imagined possible? As we navigate this very surreal time in our history, we are wading into situations and making decisions that have never even been thought of. We have all had the familiar ripped out from under us and we’re being asked to do something we have no idea how to do! And if that’s true for us as teachers, it’s doubly true for students and parents.

Students need an anchor during this time, and that anchor needs to be something recognizable, something they know how to do, and something that can give them a feeling of success. Its key component has got to be communication that makes both children and parents feel connected, supported, and valued.

Some teachers I’ve spoken with are feeling resentful that this has been put upon them. And if WE’RE feeling that way, just imagine the feelings of the parent who has lost both her jobs, has no income and now is being told she must be the teacher! Our most important job at this point is to be a coach, a cheerleader, a leader, and a listener.

There are 5 key strategies that will help both students and parents to feel connected during this time.

  1. Phone call to every student,which includes talking with the parent.

Students must know that you’re thinking of them and you’re concerned about their feelings during this time. If you have sent home packets of work, let them know why. This is so the students won’t fall backwards and will keep them up to where they were when they left school. If you serve upper grade students that have email, let them know ahead of time you will be calling and give them an agenda of somethings to talk about. It’s not all about “the work”, but much more importantly, processing some feelings about what’s happening, and keeping them engaged in the importance of the learning process. How can we continue to move forward? In talking with parents, hear their concerns and give them the empathy they deserve. They are feeling overwhelmed, and afraid they’re not up to the task. Assure them you are still on the job and want to help, including referring them to another county service if necessary.

2. Find a way the child can still creatively contribute to the classroom.

It’s so important that students feel that they are still a part of a caring group that is familiar to them. Set up a facebook page, and feature activities that students are doing. Examples: send a picture of a video of yourself reading a book, learning a new game with your sibling, playing outside for P.E. time, researching a new subject, making a video, telling what your special act of kindness has been that day, writing a letter to your grandma, etc.

3. Make a video of you doing a classroom activity.

For younger children, the perfect activity is storytime. Tell the children to get a blanket and curl up on the couch while you read a story to them. Read just as though you were in the classroom, making a comment here and there, asking for a prediction, and putting in the animation you always do. This is something the little ones (and parents) will treasure as it provides a sense of “familiar”. If you’ve been reading a chapter book each day in the classroom for middle elementary or junior high students, continue with that. This is a time in the day that children looked forward to and it was a time to relax and unwind a bit. Let them know we can still continue with some of the routines we know.

4. Let students and parents know the parts of the routine that don’t have to change.

Most teachers established a routine in their classroom, perhaps even displaying it on the board so students would know what time different activities would happen. Share this school schedule with parents. For example, if your students are used to writing in their journal for 15 minutes as they come into the room, that’s how they start the morning. Does the pledge of allegiance come next? Why stop? One of the hardest things for parents to contend with is “the schedule” and being consistent. Remind children of the routine at school and share it with parents. Help parents adapt it for home, but stick as closely to what students are used to as you can.

If students are used to having a “fun Friday”, that’s something they could enjoy at home as well. Allow them to choose an activity to do on their own or to choose a topic they want to know more about. Maybe that’s the time to zoom with friends and do something online together. Be creative and flexible with this.

5. Continue to be positive and focused in a forward moving direction.

As has been said so often, “We WILL get through this.” And when we have, I’m convinced we’ll be able to look back and specify all the things we learned through this challenge. Both students and parents need hope. When they lose theirs, we become the merchants of hope for them . This is our time to step into the gap and be the listener, the encourager, the leader, and the partner our students and parents need.