*New Series: The Truth Be Told "Please, Don’t Underline Your Words in Earwax"

"Please, Don’t Underline Your Words in Earwax"

This new podcast series stems from my original idea to share practical make and takes - easy tips along with real life shared stories - so that you can easily create joyful experiences in your classroom, daycare centers, and homes right away. In this series I am excited to talk with you about what is really happening in education right now. I am also going to share with you some of the really funny things students have told me over the course of my career… and sometimes… these interactions change our perspective or direction. So - Grab a cup of coffee and a notebook … I can’t wait to share these stories with you. The Truth Be Told

This episode is all about Student Toolboxes 

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Welcome to Let's Talk Teacher to Teacher podcast. My name is Dr. Gina Pepin. I am so happy to meet you. I have a really great passion for early literacy and teacher preparation, but you can learn more about me and my experiences, etc. at www.ginapepin.com. So this new podcast stems from my original idea to share those practical make and takes, those easy tips along with some real life shared stories so that you can very easily create joyful experiences in your classrooms, your daycare centers, and homes right away. But in this series, I'm excited to talk with you about what is really happening in education right now. I am also going to share with you some of those really funny things that students have told me over the course of my career. And sometimes, these interactions change our perspective or our direction. So grab a cup of coffee and a notebook. I can't wait to share these stories with you. The truth be told. Welcome everyone. Don't Underline Your Words and Earwax is the title of this podcast. Let's begin by talking about our students. Our students are creative and sometimes super innovative. Some students are really, really good at applying knowledge and skills with anything. And I am 100% sure that you right now are thinking about that one student that doesn't, they just don't get it yet. Maybe it's just because we don't quite know that student well enough yet, but we all know it's really important to supply our students with the right tools to learn. But what does that really look like? How do we know what they need to be successful? Some of our kids we know are in survival mode and they really are geniuses at using what's readily available to them. But sometimes that is not such a good scenario. You see, I teach reading intervention and the tools most of my students need can fit in a really small crayon box or a colorful bucket or basket. And some of those tools also include some intangible items like motivation, mindset, and even common sense. One of my students said, during intervention in a small group began underlining words in the earwax that he had on his finger. I was thinking to myself was he really trying to be gross or was he eager to just get started? Was he focused on the goal at hand and I was also thinking like what did I miss? What did I not supply him with for this activity or was it simply a preference? Our students are much better equipped to find alternate solutions and ways of doing things than we often are. I can truly share with you that I have learned more from my students than they may have learned from me and I continue to learn more and more every single day. What tools do your students need to be successful? Do you think you can share those right now easily and quickly? Something to think about. When you think about the desk caddy or those bins full of scissors, pencils, crayons, etc. Are these tools exactly what your students need in order to improve their learning experiences? One thing I want you to think about really deeply is do these tools change based on need or activity? Let's talk a bit more about this. First of all, my biggest suggestion to you is learn all you can about each student, individually and collectively. Know their challenges and their celebrations. Know their strengths and even know their struggles and their fears. Know what their interests are, their cultures and traditions, their perspectives, and then provide lots of feedback. It's really a perfect tool. In our book, Eric Litwin and I share what's called Three Stars and a Wish. This is a wonderful educator tool for feedback. It includes three things done really well along with one suggestion for improvement. Knowledge about our students helps us to compile data and plan activities around these things. So learn who your students are as individuals. Know their learning strengths and again their struggles. schools do this to support academic progress through a routine activity that they call win hour. What I need. The win stands for what I need. During this time teachers and support staff, volunteers, etc. They all work together to implement strategic instructional enrichment and even intervention activities. It's a really powerful time. But as we move forward in this discussion I want you to reflect on this. How can we help all of the different types of learners in our classroom develop their unique skills? Well, sometimes they simply need different toolboxes. Think about this for a moment. Let's say during book exploration time we ask a group of students to search through a variety of texts for the word people. People is a word we've talked about. We've viewed it in different contexts and fonts, etc. It's a class word. Once the word is found in a text, many of our students would simply raise their hand. and point to the word, showing you how they have successfully located it in a picture book, recipe book, stack of sports cards, etc. But, One of your students finds the word people in a picture book from your classroom library and all of a sudden, instead of raising their hand, they rip the page out from the picture book. Well, these students all understood the task well and they were able to complete it successfully. However, I failed to give them appropriate tools to complete the task. Knowing that that student usually tears out pages from all kinds of books or is often impulsive, I would have given them a different way to respond. A different way to demonstrate how they can find the word people. It is most certain with different tools learners can achieve different successes. So suppose a teacher presents students with the same task but provides them the right tools each needs to be successful. The students who can work cooperatively can work together in a small group and they have a bin with a selection of texts and four fun signs to hold up when they find the given word. The students who need to get up and move can be given a clipboard and a marker, pencil or crayon, and go around the room on a scavenger-like hunt to find the already strategically placed words throughout the classroom. They can check it off or write a number on their paper every time they find the word in the classroom. The key is to learn how to make simple, ongoing accommodations or differential opportunities for all students in your learning space and to truly realize that change continuously happens and you will need to get to know your students about a hundred times over and over and over again. That's okay. Before I go I want to share with you a few simple easy activities you can incorporate into your learning spaces today to get to know your students better. In addition to what we are already doing well like interest in majority and surveys. Here are some ideas for you to consider. Family introduction videos. You can also have your students create one word mission statements. Make time throughout your day for walk and talks or lunch bunches. Of course, display name poems. You can even host hopes and dreams conferences. It's an activity in place of the common all about me where you explore hopes and dreams and learning goals for the year. For older students, you can encourage them to create autobiographical mini-movies, trailers, screencasts, podcasts, newsletters, and social media posts, etc. about their lives in a really innovative and creative way. Create them opportunities for students to take photographs or record things digitally. You can also incorporate a family project called Five Things I Need to Know About You. So as we wrap this up, I want you to think about this. How do you routinely get to know your students? And most importantly, how do you continuously ensure your students have the right tools to be successful in your learning environment? Because remember, using earwax to underline words is only one of the many innovative and creative ways your students will show you how they are understanding something. Thanks for joining me today on this new series from Let's Talk Teacher to Teacher, The Truth Be Told. Until next time.