September 24, 2011 in Blog by Dee

What Makes a Great Teacher?

By GreatSchools Staff

Study after study shows the single most important factor determining the quality of the education a child receives is the quality of his teacher.

What makes a great teacher? Teaching is one of the most complicated jobs today. It demands broad knowledge of subject matter, curriculum and standards; enthusiasm, a caring attitude and a love of learning; knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques; and a desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. With all these qualities required, it’s no wonder that it’s hard to find great teachers.

Characteristics of great teachers:

Great teachers set high expectations for all students. They expect that all students can and will achieve in their classroom, and they don’t give up on underachievers.

Great teachers have clear, written-out objectives. Effective teachers have lesson plans that give students a clear idea of what they will be learning, what the assignments are and what the grading policy is. Assignments have learning goals and give students ample opportunity to practice new skills. The teacher is consistent in grading and returns work in a timely manner.

Great teachers are prepared and organized. They are in their classrooms early and ready to teach. They present lessons in a clear and structured way. Their classrooms are organized in such a way as to minimize distractions.

Great teachers engage students and get them to look at issues in a variety of ways. Effective teachers use facts as a starting point, not an end point; they ask “why” questions, look at all sides and encourage students to predict what will happen next. They ask questions frequently to make sure students are following along. They try to engage the whole class, and they don’t allow a few students to dominate the class. They keep students motivated with varied, lively approaches.

Great teachers form strong relationships with their students and show that they care about them as people. Great teachers are warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring. Teachers with these qualities are known to stay after school and make themselves available to students and parents who need them. They are involved in school-wide committees and activities, and they demonstrate a commitment to the school.

Great teachers are masters of their subject matter. They exhibit expertise in the subjects they are teaching and spend time continuing to gain new knowledge in their field. They present material in an enthusiastic manner and instill a hunger in their students to learn more on their own.

Great teachers communicate frequently with parents. They reach parents through conferences and frequent written reports home. They don’t hesitate to pick up the telephone to call a parent if they are concerned about a student.

Signs of a Poor Teacher:
These are the warning signs that there may be a problem with your child’s teacher:

Your child complains that his teacher singles him out repetitively with negative remarks.

The teacher is the last one to arrive in the morning and the first to leave in the afternoon.

He/She doesn’t return phone calls or respond to written communication.

Your child rarely brings work home from school.

Homework assignments are not returned.

The teacher does not send home frequent reports or communications to parents.

The teacher exhibits limited knowledge of the subject he is teaching.

Lessons lack organization and planning.

The teacher refuses to accept any input from parents.

What No Child Left Behind Means for Teacher Quality

The role of the teacher became an even more significant factor in education with the passage of The No Child Left Behind law in 2002.

Under the law, elementary school teachers must have a bachelor’s degree and pass a rigorous test in core curriculum areas. Middle and high school teachers must demonstrate competency in the subject area they teach by passing a test or by completing an academic major, graduate degree or comparable course work. These requirements already apply to all new hires.

Schools are required to tell parents about the qualifications of all teachers, and they must notify parents if their child is taught for more than four weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified. Schools that do not comply risk losing federal funding.

Although the law required states to have highly qualified teachers in every core academic classroom by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, not a single state met the deadline.

The U.S. Department of Education then required states to show how they intended to fulfill the requirement. Most states satisfied the government that they were making serious efforts, but a few were told to come up with new plans.

Over the next decade, schools in the United States will be faced with the daunting task of hiring 2 million teachers. We know that high-quality teachers make all the difference in the classroom. We also know that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find them and keep them. Twenty percent of new teachers leave the classroom after four years, and many teachers will be retiring in the next 15 to 20 years.

Recommendations from the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future

In 1996 the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, a private bipartisan panel, made several recommendations for ensuring that every classroom has a qualified teacher. Among the recommendations were the following key points:

Raise professional standards for teachers.
Improve salaries and working conditions.
Reinvent teacher preparation and professional development.
Encourage and reward teacher knowledge and skills.

Implementing these recommendations, however, is a slow process, dependent upon legislation as well as increased funding from both the federal and state governments, and a will to implement changes at the school district level. Parents can work together to keep the superintendent, their school board members and their state legislators focused on the goal of having a high-quality teacher in every classroom.

September 24, 2011 in Blog by Dee

How Parents Motivate Their Children Academically

Parent Involvement

Some research has found that the excessive involvement of parents with students who are at or above the desired achievement level can be damaging. However, low-achievers can greatly benefit from what may seem like too much parental involvement because they need the structure and that extra nudge.

Achieving the Right Amount of Involvement

For low-achievers, having a parent sit down with them to go over more difficult homework can be very helpful. Students who know that their parent finds their school work important and interesting are more likely to feel more motivated to strive to do better in school. Some extra attention from a parent could make a difference between a child staying a low-achiever and becoming an average-achiever (Cohen, 2001). A few extra hours a day with a low-achieving student might make a world of difference in years to come. Making a plan or a “to do” list with the low-achiever, as well as addressing those harder problems in homework together as a team could be helpful. Its important to let the student know that they have their parent’s support.

For an average-achiever, a parent who becomes “too involved” or who worries too much can result in the undermining of the child’s sense of “autonomy and motivation” (Cohen, 2001). With a student who has a grade point average of a B or higher, it may be best to occasionally ask that student if they need assistance.

Gender Differences

Research has been done that suggests that girls and boys attribute their success to different factors. “Specifically, girls were found to perceive the primary cause for their success [as well as failure] in schoolwork to be more internal and controllable relative to boys” (Leung,1993). This information should be taken into account when parents are trying to determine the best methods to motivate students. Also see the Helpful Hints section on this web site.

Reward and Punishment: Helpful or Hurtful?

“If you have not started the habit of rewarding with material prizes-don’t!” – (2001). Motivating Your Child To Learn. Parents and Children Together Series [Online]

A conception among some, parents and teachers alike, is that rewards and punishment can be useful and effective when trying to motivate a child to do a desired task, such as homework. However, research shows that students who are lured into doing something for a reward are less likely to do it again if no reward is given (Kohn, 1994). Similarly, according to James Kohn, punishment or “consequences” often evokes in a child feelings of “anger, defiance and a desire for revenge” (Kohn, 1994). This means that reward and punishment, even if it seems minor, could produce the opposite of the desired effect.

Robert E. Slavin, author of the Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice textbook, suggests that the most effective type of reward is giving praise. Giving contingent praise, or “praise that is effective because it refers directly to specific task performances”, is most effective because it emphasizes that success depends upon the amount of effort one puts in (Slavin, 2006). Receiving praise and good feedback assists students in evaluating themselves, helping them to create reachable goals. Once your student has established goals for homework or studying, they have already begun the process of becoming a self-regulated learner, or a student who has “knowledge of effective learning strategies and how and when to use them” (Slavin, 2006). A parent’s goal should be to help their child become a self-regulated learner.

Overall, I would say that rewards and punishments should be avoided if at all possible. They are quick fixes for parents who want to motivate their children to do well in school. In the long run, students will be more motivated and eager to learn if their motivation is not determined by conditional extrinsic factors, but intrinsic ones. Using “praise” only when the child has done well or improved, as Slavin suggests, is a mild form of reward that can teach that the amount of effort exerted and success are positively correlated.

Website https://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.benjamin/parent_involvement

September 15, 2011 in Blog by Dee

20 Ways To Motivate Your Employees Without Raising Their Pay

By: Dave Worman, Dr. Motivation
It is a costly mistake to get lost in the false theory that more money equals happy employees.
Believing this is costing you valuable time, revenue, employees…and even threatening your own job. Cash will always be a major factor in motivating people and a solid compensation plan is critical to attracting and keeping key personnel. But the key is that additional cash is not always the only answer and in many cases not even the best answer.
Too many bonus or commission checks get cashed, spent and forgotten just that quickly. Grocery stores and gasoline stations are among the necessary stops that
seem to get in the way of using your extra cash on something special for you.
One alternative to giving commissions or bonus dollars is to give gifts through a catalog point system.
The company you choose will provide you with catalogs, price sheets and point checks at no charge. The structure for your bonus plan can remain the same but instead of awarding cash to your employees you award equivalent points. Those points may then be used to purchase an enormous variety of gifts or travel plans from the catalog.
The stimulation involved is long-lasting. It begins with the employee being able to browse the catalog choosing what they will strive to earn. The catalog acts as a tangible reminder of their goal. The gift itself will last as evidence of their achievements.
Whenever I have implemented this program, the employees are overwhelmingly in favor of the point system as opposed to cash. This type of program is very popular with employees because they purchase things they would never normally have the “money” to afford.
With solid compensation in place, let’s look at non-monetary motivation…20 steps to success.
1. Recognition/Attention. When your employees accomplish something they have achieved something. Your recognition is appreciation for that achievement. I believe that most managers don’t give enough recognition because they don’t get enough. Therefore, it doesn’t come natural to do it. If this applies to you, you need to drop this excuse like a bad habit! Become a giver! Look at the price. Recognition is free!
2. Applause. A form of recognition yes, but a very specific form. Physically applaud your people by giving them a round of applause for specific achievements. Where? When? The answer is wherever and whenever. At meetings or company-sponsored social gatherings, a luncheon, or in the office. At the end of a shift, before a shift, and whenever possible in the middle of a shift.
Using plaques or trophies is another effective way of applauding your people. Although “wooden applause” is often successfully used in the form of Employee of the Month plaques, more creative ideas are sorely underutilized. Take the time to be creative, matching special accomplishments with unique awards.
3. One-on-One Coaching. Coaching is employee development. Your only cost is time. Time means you care. And remember your people don’t care how much you know… until they know how much you care.
Whenever the emphasis is on positive feedback, I make sure to do this coaching in “public.” Whenever you recognize and encourage people in “public,” it acts as a natural stimulant for others who are close enough to see or hear what’s taking place.

4. Training. Is training ever finished? Can you possibly overtrain? NO and NO. For whatever reasons, too many people feel “My people have already been trained” or “I’ve got good people…they only need a little training.” But training never ends. Schedule “tune- up” training sessions. These should be led by you or by a supervisor with help from specific employees who show a particular strength in the skills taught. I know this takes time, but these types of training sessions will continually enhance the performance of your people and the productivity of your business.
5. Career Path. Your employees need to know what is potentially ahead for them, what opportunities there are for growth. This issue is a sometimes forgotten ingredient as to the importance it plays in the overall motivation of people.
Set career paths within your organization. Do you promote from within? I hope you can answer yes to that. Although specific circumstances require you to look for talent outside your company you should always first consider internal personnel. If you do this you are sending a very positive message to every one that there are indeed further career opportunities within your organization.
6. Job Titles. When you talk about job titles you are tapping the self-esteem of people. How someone feels about the way they are perceived in the workforce is a critical component to overall attitude and morale. Picture a social gathering that includes some of your staff. The subject of work inevitably comes up. Will your people be proud, or embarrassed, to share their title and workplace? The importance of feeling proud of who you are and what you do is monumental.
Be creative as you think of possibilities for titles. Have your staff come up with ideas giving them input into the titles. Bottom line, you are dealing with pride…and pride enhances a positive attitude…and a positive attitude is the foundation for continuing success.
7. Good Work Environment. A recent industry study shows just how inaccurate your results can be. Employers were asked to rank what they thought motivated their people
and then employees were asked to rank what really did motivate them.
Employers felt “working conditions” was a nine (or next to last) in terms of importance. What did the employees say? Number two! Working conditions are very important to the way employees feel about where they work.
Cosmetically, does your office look nice? Are there pictures on the walls, plants and fresh paint among other features that generally make people feel good about their environment? Does their work space have enough room or are they cramped in a “sardine can?” What about furniture? Is the desk the right size, chair comfortable? Is there file space and do they have the miscellaneous office supplies needed for maximum performance? Is the temperature regulated properly so they don’t feel they’re in the Amazon jungle one minute and the North Pole the next?
8. On-the-Spot Praise. This too is associated with recognition but the key here is timing. When there is a reason for praising someone don’t put it off for any reason! Promptness equals effectiveness. Praise people when the achievement is fresh on everyone’s mind.
What is effective is for us to get off our keisters and go out and tell whoever it is what a great presentation it was or applaud them for the sale…praise them promptly for what they accomplished or achieved! Don’t allow time to creep in and snatch away any ounce of the positive impact that praise can have when it is delivered promptly.
9. Leadership Roles. Give your people leadership roles to reward their performance and also to help you identify future promotable people. Most people are stimulated by leadership roles even in spot appearances. For example, when visitors come to your workplace use this opportunity to allow an employee to take the role of visitors guide.
A great place to hand out leadership roles is to allow your people to lead brief meetings. Utilize your employees’ strengths and skills by setting up “tune up” training sessions and let one of your employees lead the training. The best time to do this is when new people start.
Or, assign a meeting leader after someone has attended an outside seminar or workshop. Have them lead a post show, briefing the other employees regarding seminar content and highlights.
Have your employees help you lead a project team to improve internal processes.
10. Team Spirit. Have a picture taken on your entire staff (including you!), have it enlarged and hang it in a visible spot. Most people like to physically see themselves as part of a group or team.
When running contests in your area, try to create contests and affiliated activity that are team driven. People driving to reach goals together definitely enhance team spirit solely because they must lean upon others and be prepared to be leaned on.
One very effective idea for me has been building a collage of creative ideas with the “Team” theme. All employees are responsible for submitting a phrase referring to TEAM on a weekly rotation. Each of these ideas (such as TEAM: Total Enthusiasm of All Members or There is no I in Team) is placed on a wall, creating a collage of Team-oriented phrases. Don’t have one person responsible for this…do it as a team.
11. Executive Recognition. This is the secret weapon. And like any secret weapon, timing is most critical. If this is used too often the value is diminished. And if it is used only for special occasions and rare achievements the value is escalated. We talked earlier about general recognition and the positive impact that has on your people. That will go up a few notches when it comes from an executive. Some of the same vehicles can be used here such as memos and voice mail. To add yet another level of stimulation, have an executive either personally call to congratulate someone (or a group) or even show up in person to shake hands and express his or her appreciation.
12. Social Gatherings. Scheduled offsite events enhance bonding which in turn helps team spirit, which ultimately impacts your positive work environment. Halloween costume parties, picnics on July 4th, Memorial Day or Labor Day, and Christmas parties are only some of the ideas that successfully bring people together for an enjoyable time. Some others that I’ve used with equal success are softball games (against other companies or among employees, depending on staff size), groups going putt-putt golfing or movie madness.
13. Casual Dress Day. This will apply more to the Business-to-Business world based on the difference in normal dress codes from the Business-to-Consumer arena. For those required to “dress business” every day a casual day becomes a popular desire. Use holidays to create theme color casual days such as red and green before Christmas or red, white and blue before July 4th, or black and orange prior to Halloween. This will add to the impact you’re trying to have by calling a casual day in the first place. Establish pre-vacation casual days for each individual employee to enjoy on the day before his or her vacation.
Major sports events are a perfect opportunity for casual days to support your local or favorite team with appropriate colors, buttons, and logo wear. Spontaneous casual days produce a lot or stimulation based on the element of surprise. Announce a casual dress day for the following work day “just because.” Use individual or team casual dress days as contest prizes or awards for specific accomplishment.
14. Time Off. Implement contests that earn time off. People will compete for 15 minutes or 1/2 hour off just as hard as they will for a cash award. And in many cases, I have had people pick time off over cash when given the choice. Put goals in place (padded of course) and when these goals are reached by individuals, teams or the entire staff, reward them with time off. Allow early dismissals, late arrivals, and extended lunch periods or additional breaks.
15. Outside Seminars. Outside seminars are a stimulating break. Because outside seminars are not always cost efficient for most people, consider on-site seminars or workshops for your staff. Use outside seminars as a contest prize for one or two people. Then set up a structured plan for those seminar attendees to briefly recreate the seminar to the rest of your people when they return. Now everyone gets educated for the price of one.
16. Additional Responsibility. There are definitely employees in your organization who are begging for and can handle additional responsibility. Our job as managers is to identify who they are and if possible match responsibilities to their strengths and desires.
17. Theme Contests. Over the years my contests have produced up to 170% increase in performance. But equally as important, they’ve helped maintain positive environments that have reduced employee turnover by 400%.
Overall the most successful contests seem to be those affiliated with different themes. Holidays, anniversaries, sports and culture are examples of ideas to base contests on. Sports, without a doubt, provide the largest opportunity for a wide variety of contests. Even Culture can be used to create theme contest. My favorite is using the ’50s and ’60s as a theme for a contest that I run at least once a year.
18. Stress Management. There are many articles and books available on the subject. Make this reference material available to your people. Make sure they know it is available and encourage them to use it.
If possible, have an in-house seminar on stress management techniques. So that production time is not lost, you might consider having a brown bag luncheon with a guest speaker on this subject. Because stress is an ongoing concern, anytime is a good time for a seminar like this to take place.
Be as flexible as you can with breaks during the course of the day.
19. Pizza/Popcorn/Cookie Days. Every now and then pizza, popcorn, or cookie days will help break up that everyday routine and help people stay motivated. Because it is a natural tendency for people to get excited in anticipation of something, structure some of these days in advance. Then buy some pizzas or different cookies or even whip out some different types of popcorn.
20. Gags and Gimmicks. Use different gimmicks as awards to help inspire performance increases from your people. The key to awards is establishing the perception of priceless value that is associated with them. They should be recognized as status symbols in your environment. Here are some of my ideas:
•Plastic/rubber whale for “whale” of a performance.
•Pillsbury dough boy for the person raisin’ the most bread.
•Cardboard stars for star-studded performances.
•Plastic phonograph records for setting a new record.
•California raisins for those with the highest percentage of “raisin” their productivity.
•Special parking space for the person who drives the hardest.
•Toy cymbals for those “symbolizing” total effort.
•Special Mountain Dew can for that person who exemplifies the “can do” attitude.
•A figurine of E.T. for out-of-this-world performance.
•The Eveready Bunny for those that keep going, and going, and going.
•Large Tootsie Roll replica for those on a “roll.”
•A drum for the person that “drums” up the most business.

September 11, 2011 in Blog by admin

The Four Keys to Helping At-Risk Kids

There’s more than one way to make a delicious bread, soup, or stew. Similarly, there is not just one recipe for reducing risk in students’ lives. But there do seem to be some essential ingredients to the process.

Drawing from recent studies on the topic, I’ve come up with four basic ingredients that seem to match well with the stories and observations people have shared with me based on earlier blog posts I have written. See what you think.
Caring, Sustained Relationships

One of the shortcomings of our educational structure is that relationships with teachers, especially in secondary school, may be caring, but they are not easy to sustain. Yet at-risk youth need relationships that are both caring and stable. They need to build a sense of trust and have the time to communicate the complexity, frustrations, and positive aspects of their lives in and out of school. Only after creating a strong relational base will an adult have the platform to be a source of enduring and cherished advice to a student. Students won’t confer trust to an adult based on his or her role as a counselor, psychologist, or social worker. We have to earn it by building a relationship.
Reachable Goals

Students often have unrealistic career and personal goals based on what they learn from the mass culture. Kids see sensationalistic media portrayals of exceptionalism as normative and, often, desirable and attainable. From the base of a caring relationship, we can help students form realistic and reachable career, personal, and educational goals. This does not imply that the goals are not challenging. The most motivating goals are those that are within our reach if we exercise some effort. Only someone who knows a student well and cares deeply about his or her well-being will be able to help that student form reachable goals.
Realistic, Hopeful Pathways

Students do not attain reachable goals on their own. Like any of us, students are more likely to move ahead when they know that there is a path to get there. Imagine how useless MapQuest or similar services would be if they allowed you to enter the starting point and the destination but did not give you a road map to travel from one to the other.

So it is with students. They need adult help to create realistic pathways, ideally with guardrails. They also need someone to reassure them that they have what the Character Education Partnership’s Merle Schwartz describes as “leeway and forgiveness” — that is, the knowledge that going off the path does not destroy the dream.

We must recognize the difficulty of trying a new path and both prepare students for obstacles and support them when they run into problems. This can be highly challenging, as some of the students’ erroneous actions will violate school rules or perhaps even legal boundaries. We must handle such cases individually and with discerning judgment rather than with the kind of formulaic justice that has led the United States to have the largest school dropout rates and, proportionately, the greatest prison population of any developed country, according to recent reports in the New York Times. This is how, all too often, promising lives get discarded.
Engaging School and Community Settings

With all the talk about the importance of engagement, it’s possible to lose sight of exactly what leads students to have a feeling of being engaged. The feeling of being engaged in a setting or group happens when students have opportunities to receive positive recognition and to make positive contributions, can spend time in environments in which teamwork is encouraged, and get help learning new skills that they find valuable and helpful in their lives. Engaging settings in the school and the community have logos, mottos, missions, and other tangible things that allow students to experience a sense of belonging and pride.

Particularly for students who are in disadvantaged circumstances, spending time in engaging settings both in school and after school is important. After-school settings linked to the school as well as community programs — such as Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and faith-based youth groups — provide more chances for students to build positive relationships with caring adults and, potentially, supportive peers.

One unique feature of mentors in nonschool settings is that they can often help students learn the rules of the game for success in school. Mentors in after-school and community settings are often better positioned to communicate clearly to students about the potential consequences of their actions and the behaviors that they need to change, and how to change them. Also, they can give feedback about how students are progressing so they can operate in a spirit of improvement. Caring adults outside the formal school system often have a better understanding of students’ lives outside of school and can help them find safe havens within the school day.

Now that you have read this, I invite you to share your own recipe variations. What’s missing that seems essential in your experience? Do you have any thoughts about how best to get your hands on these ingredients? Certainly, many are already present in the best evidence-based programs about social and emotional learning and character education, project learning, and other concepts featured at Edutopia.org. But your recommendations for other sources of ingredients will be just as helpful to readers. Bon appétit!
by Maurice Elias’