We also agreed that while the opening activities were a lot of fun, they did not necessarily connect to the lesson that followed. To begin, we agreed that the teachers were dedicated to creating a safe learning space for their students and that they had excellent ideas in terms of how to achieve this goal. If any liquid food in a bowl was defined as soup, did chocolate sauce count? Or if the food was defined by certain other parameters (e.g., could be eaten with a spoon), was cereal really soup? Was temperature significant? The teacher shared the enthusiasm of her students for this conversation and how lively the debate became as the class worked toward a shared understanding.Īfter the meeting, I met with the department chair to debrief. For example, one teacher played a game in which students needed to agree on a common definition of soup. The teachers, all sitting in a circle, shared some beautifully creative ideas with one another. We are very aware of the need to make students comfortable in class, particularly at the start of an instructional period, but sometimes that priority does not bear out for the remainder of the class.Īs an illustration, during a visit to a middle school social studies department meeting, I was asked to weigh in on how the teachers were developing connections with students. We run into difficulty when we do not make a clear connection between how teachers and students interact with each other and the way that relationships play into the establishment of a safe learning space. Targeting deeper relationship-building in our lesson planning should have a strong tie-in to what we want students to achieve. Used with permission of the publisher, W. Excerpted from “ Teach More, Hover Less: How to Stop Micromanaging Your Secondary Classroom ” by Miriam Plotinsky.
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