1. Social Emotional Learning: The Foundation

My time in the classroom has shown me the incredible value of teaching the 5 aspects of SEL. These facets of SEL foster a safe learning environment that empowers the students to manage themselves, speak up for themselves, learn from each other, ask questions when they don't understand(using language that is productive and positive), and carry those skills beyond the classroom. Yes, content area instruction is important, but if the classroom culture and school culture is not, at its core, safe and supportive, learning suffers because a child with an activated amygdala can not learn effectively!

2. How to Give Instructions

Learning how to give instructions has been a valuable tool in order to reduce frustration and increase compliance. Making sure that the students are focused on me BEFORE I start, then having a queue to alert the students to incoming instruction is key. Combining a queue with a physical motion is even better! Having the students echo each instruction in order, and then asking if there's any questions or asking a student to repeat the instructions is a stellar way to clear up any confusion. Having the students wait to be released to follow the instructions is another vital component of giving instructions. As students are following instructions, calling out positive acknowledgement of a few students that are following the instructions or utilizing whatever positive classroom management technique is in use also encourages listening to and following instructions. This aids in the learning across all content areas!

3. Mind-Body Connections

Finding ways to include movement in learning is vital to creating stronger neural connections. In ELA, acting out vocabulary words helps students remember the words. Hand motions, with rhymes to go with them for phonics instruction is a great way to remember tricky concepts such as blends and digraphs. Another example is segmenting blending, onset rime using physical movement and part of the body. Movement with math is invaluable in adding fun to learning math concepts and it takes the focus off the potentially mundane and shifts it to the movement, thereby creating automaticity to the math facts. Math and music can also be combined through rhythm counting. Science concepts, such as the solar system, can be taught where some students act as the planets with a "sun student" in the center. The planet students move around the sun! Building models is another way to incorporate movement into learning.

4. Eduprotocols

Learning about and thinking of ways to implement Eduprotocols has me excited about teaching because these protocols infuse the classroom with fun(emoji-generated writing, I'm looking at YOU) and innovative ways to make the hum-drum exciting. With a buffet of Eduprotocols to choose from, there are some to fit every content area. In fact, one of my favorite features of Eduprotocols is that they can be used across content areas, thus increasing their efficacy and impact. Eduprotocols can be scaffolded to meet students at their level, and progressively increasing the cognitive lift load.

5. Lesson Study

Teachers are actively researching best practices by evaluating their teaching as part of a teacher cohort that welcomes in experts from outside their core group. It is a space where teachers can seek the insights and input from other teachers by asking questions and seeking feedback. Since being vulnerable and being open to learning are indicators of having a growth mindset, participating in a lesson study group shows that, as a teacher, you are actively looking for increase your pedagogical knowledge, improve student outcomes, and learn ways to connect with your students in an impactful and meaningful way. The biggest benefit in my view is the chance to shore up those content areas where you don't feel as confident in. This fosters a much stronger web of connections between content areas, giving the teacher ideas for improving instruction across all content areas.

6. Standards Alignment

With vertical mapping, the teacher takes a wider view of a specific content area across grade levels. It is valuable to know what came before and what comes after in order to know what students have already been introduced to and how it was taught. Using the same language/terminology assures continuity of learning in my classroom and subsequent grade levels. This is beneficial across all content areas for the students' long-term learning. With horizontal mapping, finding ways to connect standards across content areas within the same grade level reinforces learning in a way that shows students that knowledge in one content area can be used with another and thus prevents students from compartmentalizing content areas. Writing standards can be connected with social studies and science, for instance.

7. Essential Standards

This strategy was a bit of an epiphany for me because it showed how to select the standards that would give the students the most "bang for their buck" and prevent (or at least reduce) overwhelming both myself as the teacher and the students with an over-abundance of to-do's and the pressure to accomplish it all. This methodology gives students the ability to transfer their learning/understanding to be more solidified in their brains as opposed to forgetting it as soon as it is regurgitated on an assessment. For example, ELA Standard 6.RS.1. "Conduct brief as well as multi-day research tasks to take some action or share findings orally or in writing by formulating research questions and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate; gathering and assessing the
relevance and usefulness of information from multiple reliable sources; and paraphrasing or quoting the data and conclusions of others, providing basic bibliographic information for sources, and respecting copyright guidelines for use of images" requires skills that can be applied to social studies, science, art, and even math!

8. Quick Draw with Pair-Share

Asking students to draw an image to represent a word or a concept is an excellent way to have the students think more deeply(higher order thinking) about the word or concept in question. This can be used for all content areas:
- draw "opinion writing"
-draw "photosynthesis"
-draw "community helper"
-draw "obtuse angle"
Then students share with a partner and the learning deepens! Or, some students can display their drawings while the others do a gallery walk and then the two groups switch. Movement, explaining, and learning!

9. You Can Do It!!

The old adage "why do for them what they can do for themselves"(oh wait, Serena taught me that!), applies here. Finding ways to give autonomy and responsibility to students are keys to fostering confidence and self-reliance. This is where the front-loading comes into play. Taking that time to put protocols into place and practicing their execution until the students know exactly what is meant and required saves the teacher's sanity and energy. Being able to use a short-hand that everyone understands(and can thus self-regulate or help those new to the class learn) creates a much calmer and more efficient classroom. The use of consistent protocols across all content areas is a value-add to the learning experience. Even if a protocol is not commonly used in one content area, being able to transfer those protocols by just being able to say "we're going to do this like we do it in X " is a very understandable transition and reduces stress.

10. 5-E Learning

As an educator that loves students participating in active learning, I absorbed the 5-E learning model like a sponge. This model begins with surmising the students' background knowledge, then goes into hands-on learning followed by giving students the space to ask questions and learn in a multi-modal format. They should be able to explain what they've learned at this stage, then move on to being able to apply what they learned and finally show proficiency through either formal or informal assessment. This model is most effective with science, but I envision its usefulness in ELA(what is a primary, secondary source for example), social studies(different forms of government), and math(would you rather have 1/4 of a cake or 4/16 of a cake?)