August 29, 2023 • 33 mins
Student apathy needs to be responded to with direct action. In this episode of TMBS, I share strategies to help students maintain their focus on the WHY of education. These strategies can also help keep student mindset focused on growth.
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(00:00):
Hello, everyone, and welcome toanother edition of the Marvin Bird Show.
You've caught us right in the middleof a series where we're talking about how
to respond to student apathy. Howto respond to student apathy? Now,
largely apathy is uh, it's ait's it's a learned habit. Many times
(00:23):
students they enter your classroom with thatapathy. It's it's been sunk in because
of habits that they've picked up alongthe way, for a number of reasons,
for a number of reasons. Andit is it is a it's a
fact of life. It's something thatus teachers that that we we have to
(00:44):
deal with and we have to learnand figure out ways to respond to it.
Now, we talked about how sadlyin education there is this there's this
focus on blame. There's this focuson assessing blame, you know, when
(01:06):
the numbers don't come in uh,the way that we want them. And
for sure, we want student achievement, you know, we want student achievement.
We want all students to be successfulin the classroom. But we're not
there yet, you know, we'rewe're not there yet, and so in
education there is this you know,blame is like water it's got to go
(01:30):
somewhere. Blame is like water,it's got to go somewhere. And I
talked about how in the first episodeof this series that it's it's a lot
easier to just to to lay theblame at the feet of teachers, sadly,
and it's it's it's easier to saypublicly, well, you know the
(01:53):
teachers, they don't they just needto they need to develop a growth mindset,
or they just need to learn howto embrace change, or they're just
they're they're resistant to change, orthey're just they're stuck in their ways.
It's it's easier to say that onTwitter as opposed to well, Johnny just
(02:15):
he just doesn't see the care Johnny, he's not he's just not interested in
an education. And you know whereI land, You know where I land.
I am. I will all foreverand always be a teacher, even
though I'm not in the classroom anymore. I think that is unfortunate, and
I wish that it would stop thelaying of blame on the feet of teachers,
(02:42):
because I think it does it doesmore harm than good. You know,
we got a lot of great teachersout there, a lot of teachers
on Twitter who read those comments,those blanket statements that blame teachers for for
where there is a lie of studentachievement. And I don't think that's right
(03:04):
simply because simply because we've got teachersout there, they're busting their butts,
they're working hard, and even rightnow at the beginning of a new school
year, we've got teachers digging intotheir own pockets to provide resources for their
students. They are trying their verybest to be a part of the solution.
(03:25):
But again, blame works like water, it has to go somewhere.
It has to go somewhere, andthat's just the fact of life. But
I will also say this because thename of this podcast is teachers are leaders.
And we all know as leaders thatwhen something doesn't quite go the way
(03:50):
that we had planned, the waythat we had hoped for, what great
leaders do is we look at ourselvesfirst and try to determine could possibly could
I Could I have done something alittle bit differently? Could what? What?
What could I have done better inorder to affect these numbers that that
(04:13):
I'm getting from the students, LikeThat's just that's what great leaders do.
And I think that I think thatwhat happens sometimes is is that that just
gets that gets lost when we whenwe when we have conversations, because there's
a lot of productive conversations about educationthrough social media and other venues, there's
(04:36):
a lot of good conversations. Butyou know, definitely, I would submit
to to my audience here is Ithink that we can do better when we
talk about education, because you know, it does we don't have to play
the blame game. We don't haveto play the blame game in terms of
(04:58):
in terms of education and through socialmedia. Now, for sure, there
are there are there are teachers outthere who who could stand a little pointed
feedback in the area of you know, their lesson planning and and and and
spicing things up. That is thatis absolutely true, and it is my
(05:23):
hope, it is my prayer thatthose conversations are being had with those teachers
about their lesson plans as opposed toyou know, social media, you know,
blanket statements. Gosh, you know, it would be nice if if
teachers had more engaging lesson plans.No, that that doesn't that doesn't change
(05:44):
the thinking and and and actions ofteachers if it's left on social media no,
those those discussions need to those hardconversations need to be had with the
teachers themselves. But I think Ibelieve that for the most part, a
majority of teachers out there are doingwhat they can. And as we always
(06:08):
say, the teachers great teachers,they exhaust all the tools in their toolbox
for it to help students, andwhen they've exhausted all of those tools,
they go get some more in orderto help students find success. You know,
you don't always see the fruits ofyour labor during that year that you're
(06:30):
working with that student or during thattime that you're working with that student.
But great teachers, we don't giveup. We don't give up. We
keep trying. We keep trying.And you know, with with education,
you know, as teachers, andwhat I have learned throughout my years as
(06:53):
well, and this is why Icame. I came up with teachers or
leaders I learned. I discover thatyou know what my administration they were,
they were limited as well, likeyou know that my administration, they were
depending on me to find find asolution when it came to you know,
(07:16):
students who were were lacking in termsof academic success. My you know,
the thing that you know, alot of my administration, a lot of
their response was Okay, well,well we'll suspend them when when they make
really bad decisions. But the otherstuff, in terms of helping them to
(07:38):
understand why this was important, whythey should engage, a lot of that
was left to me, the teacher, and that's why we landed. That's
why I landed on Teachers or Leaders. And so we're going to continue our
conversation in terms of how to respondto student apathy. I have an article
(07:59):
that I want to share with youtoday. But before I get to that
article, what I want to dois I want to talk about my book.
It's coming out soon and very soon. It'll be available for pre order
very soon. The name of mynew book is Teachers or Leaders. That's
the name of the book. Thename of the book is Teachers or Leaders.
(08:20):
It's coming out soon and very soon. I'm so excited about it.
And in this book, it's it'sgoing to be a very short read.
I lay out, I lay outmy case point by point that teachers are
leaders. I give you tools thatyou can use, stories and anecdotes that
(08:46):
you can use in order to equipyourself so that you can lead your students
to success. So I'm very excitedabout that. I'll have more information for
you in the weeks to come abouthow you can pre order yourself a copy
of my brand new book just comingout soon and very soon. Now let's
(09:07):
transition here. I want to goand I'm going to point you to an
article, and actually I will I'mgoing to share this article with you.
I'll link it linked to it inthe description section. But I want to
go back to the first episode inthis series when we were talking about student
apathy. I believe that in education, there are very few absolutes. They
(09:33):
are there's no one size fits all, But I believe I believe that there's
one. There's there's a few things, and this is one of them.
This is one of them. Ibelieve that if if students understand the purpose
of school, if students understand thepurpose of school, then they'll be more
(10:00):
They'll be more willing to engage,they'll be more willing to take risks,
they'll be more willing to do alittle bit more, They'll be more willing
to they'll be self motivated, they'llbe intrinsically motivated. If they understand the
(10:22):
purpose of school. And this iswhat I submit to students when I talk
to them. This is what Isubmit to young people through my vision Chaser's
YouTube channel, and I submit tothem this the purpose of school. The
(10:43):
purpose of school is to learn howto set goals and accomplish goals while dealing
with obstacles along the way. Again, the purpose of school is to learn
how to set goals and accomplish thosegoals while managing resistance along the way.
(11:07):
See, there's a distance between settinga goal and accomplishing a goal, and
that that distance, that space inbetween the two, that's where that's where
people learn how to be successful.That's where people do. That's where people
develop that resilience, that grits,that tenacity. It's it's all about that
(11:31):
distance between the goal and accomplishing thegoal. That's the that's the difference maker.
What do people do in between settingthat goal and accomplishing that goal.
Because you can set a goal allday long, you can set you can
say, oh, this is whatI want to do, I'm gonna do
this. You can set that goalbut just never get there because you didn't
(11:56):
manage correctly what was in between hereand setting goals and accomplishing goals and managing
the resistance in between. That isall that. That's something that that applies
to every classroom, every classroom,whether it be maths, social studies,
(12:16):
English science. You're learning how toset a goal and accomplish a goal while
dealing with resistance along the way.So this is something that I came across.
This is a way to help studentsto really dig into that, to
(12:37):
lean into that a little bit more. You see. I think that when
students, when they understand when youtell them that and you make it plain
to them that it's about setting goalsand accomplishing goals, and that employers are
looking for anyone who can do that, who can set a goal and accomplish
a goal and manage resistance like employers, All employers are looking for that.
(13:01):
That's what employers are looking for.That is universal. Everyone can benefit from
that. Employers are looking for peoplewho know how to do that, who
have those skills. That's what employerswant. And I think that once you
once you once you lay that,once you once you drop that seed,
students are going to listen to you. You got students at that point,
(13:24):
and so now that gives you theopportunity to Now that you've given them those
words, Now what are you goingto do? What actions are you going
to take to follow up on that? Now that you've got their attention?
And that's why I think what I'mgoing to give you today is going to
be very important. We're following upon that purpose. We've given them the
(13:48):
purpose. Now what are going tobe the action steps to back up that
purpose, that thought, that seedthought that you've dropped in their mind?
And to that end, I wantto share this with you. Okay,
So I want to share with youthis article from Edgetopia and the title of
this article is guiding students to sustaineffort in school, and they give a
(14:16):
number of a number of strategies thatyou can use. But one of the
strategies that I want to focus on, it's called facilitate goal progress awareness.
Notice that we're goal remember my purposepurpose, I tell students set goals,
accomplish goals, manage the resistance inbetween the two. So it says here
(14:41):
in this article again I'll link toit. Goal progress awareness requires frequent feedback
and sustain student effort. Their brainswill invest more effort in the task and
as a result, students are moreresponsive to feedback. This progress awareness builds
their ability to recognize that their effortis correlated to their progress and boosts their
(15:05):
perseverance. Again, as teachers,you're the architect of your environment and definitely
how your students think that affects theenvironment in your classroom. That's why this
is so much more than just executinga lesson planned. This is why I
(15:28):
say teachers are leaders because you haveto pay attention to this and I thank
you so much for being here toconsume this information. And I hope that
this information leads to transformation and theway that you think and then the actions
that you take in your classroom,and I hope the same happens for your
(15:50):
students as a result. So let'slook at this. There are a few
steps in this facility to facilitate goalprogress awareness. The first step is simply
consult with students. Now we knowand I'll never ever, I promise I
would never. I would never disrespectyou by throwing by saying you know,
(16:15):
well, number one, you gottabuild relationships with students. I would never
throw something out there like that andjust pretend like it's just groundbreaking information for
you. That you've never heard ofany such thing. I know that,
you know that. I know thatyou know that. But step one here,
when it talks about consulting with students, it's it's digging deeper into that
(16:41):
relationship, right, it's digging deeperinto that relationship by talking about you know,
what are your goals? You knownow that now that I've I've shown
you, Hey, this is thepurpose of school. We're going to be
doing a lot of goals setting inthis classroom, just like you're gonna be
expected to do goal setting in thereal world when you leave here. Show
(17:04):
me here in this English class thatyou can set a goal and that you
can accomplish that goal while dealing witha ton of resistance along the way.
If you can get that work in, if you can get that practice saying
WHOA, you're going to be ingreat shape at the next level and the
level after that and the level afterthat because you've had that practice here.
(17:25):
So let's sit down when during thisconsult with students, let's sit down and
let's see if we can if wecan set see if I can help you
to set some goals based off ofwhat you're what you're thinking Okay, so
that's that's step number one. You'rejust you're you're consulting with students. You're
(17:45):
their guide, you're helping them alongthe way. You're encouraging them to do
a lot of the talking. Andthen based on the things that they're saying,
let's set some goals. Okay,so step number one, consult with
students and set some goals. Steptwo remind students how to get help when
(18:07):
blocked. Now, this is Ithink that this is often these are the
times where it helps if you could, if you could multiply yourself, if
you can be in multiple places atone time, Because I see this a
lot in math classes. You know, when I go to observe a math
teacher, I'll see the teachers inthere. They're standing on their head trying
(18:32):
to address students, trying to helpstudents all throughout the room. You know,
once the teacher has released the studentsto work on their own, all
right, and so the teachers workingwith one student and then you know,
student in the backs got their handup, and then you may have another
student over there, they've got theirhand up. After Yeah, they they
(18:53):
may did they try their very best? Did they try did they did they
go through everything that they could havedone while they were by themselves? Maybe
not? And so as a result, that leaves a teacher just like,
oh man, if I could onlyclone myself, that would be great.
(19:14):
So I'm reminded of that when whenI get when I talk about this step,
remind the students how to help,how to get help when they are
blocked, And a lot of timesit's this is a habit that students need
to learn, Like just because justbecause it doesn't feel good here, just
because you're you're stuck, just becausethe answer doesn't immediately come to you,
(19:40):
that's okay, that's okay. Thereare what are the things that you can
do before you raise your hand andask a teacher? Did you did you
ask your partner sitting next to you? Did you review your notes? Like
what are the things that you wantyour students to do before or they raise
(20:00):
their hand for more direct instruction?Not that you're discouraging that, but remember
the practice is how to set agoal, how to accomplish a goal,
and manage the space in between.And as students get older, they need
to they need to take more accountabilityand responsibility to manage that space in between
(20:25):
themselves, like using the resources thatare at their disposal before they raise their
hand for more direct instruction, becauseonce they get to a certain level,
they're going to be expected to digin here a little bit more in order
to find that solution. So it'sjust really good practice. Step three,
(20:48):
have students create progress journals. It'sthere's just nothing like, for sure,
words of affirmation from teacher to student. That's great, that's great, But
I think that there is something thatthat happens in the mind in terms of
(21:11):
in terms of developing that growth mindsetwhen the student writes down when when they
write down their progress, when theywrite down the things that they've accomplished,
and how those things make them feel. You see, when we talk about
mindset and helping students develop that growthmindset, the growth mindset, that's always
(21:32):
going to be something that you haveto work on daily. You have to
work on daily, because if youdon't work on it daily, then it
becomes a fixed mindset that is thatthat doesn't immediately seek to find solutions.
It's it's a fixed mindset that isjust that settles on on less than and
(22:00):
less than what could be, whatcould be more optimal, what could what
could have a more favorable outcome.You see, you constantly renew your mind
daily by the things that you read, by the things that you say.
You're constantly setting your mind on growthas opposed to letting it remain fixed daily,
(22:27):
each and every day. And Ithink that with with these progress journals,
allowing students to put their own wordson paper or if if you desire,
you know, type on a Googledoc or whatever, they're they're constantly
there. There's that internal process,that internal process which is so important of
(22:48):
them writing out m this is,this is. This is what I accomplished
today. I was able to connectthe dots here on this problem and I
got it right. I feel goodabout that I can do this. There's
just something magical that happens internally whenstudents are able to go through that exercise.
So I have students create a progressjournal, and then they can go
(23:14):
back to that journal and read itand just see how far that they've come
over time. Next up check inintentionally. Now. When I was in
the classroom, I had a desk. I had a student desk right next
to my desk because I valued thattime. I value that time talking with
students about how they were doing,how things were going, checking in on
(23:36):
progress. And I think that thatis something when you do that, you're
modeling to students. No, youjust you don't just say this is a
goal that I want and just leaveit at that. No, you're intentional
about checking in on the progress.How are we doing? We said it,
we ment it. How are wedoing in regards to the space between
us setting the goal and accomplishing agoal. So checking in with your students
(23:59):
it shows that you are And againit just as we all know, relationships
are important, but it's just it'sjust this illustrates the point that relationships are
foundational. We can't do any ofthis stuff if we don't do the work
to build the foundation, if wedon't do the work to build that foundation,
(24:19):
to build that relationship. We gotto have that so that when we
check in intentionally, the students theytrust the things that we say. They
trust what we're trying to do.And then next up is the next step.
Step number five is provide preview rubricsof what will be evaluated in the
(24:40):
project unit or test. I justthink it's always good practice to give students
those things ahead of time. Letthe it's just it further answers the question
why am I doing this? What'swhat's the purpose of this? What is
the goal? What specifically am Ibeing asked to do? And I think
(25:02):
that's that's just that's good practice.That's good practice because as great teachers were
already planned out. We know whatwe're doing, we know what our focal
point is. So why not sharethat with the students so that they have
an understanding of it as well?And then what this does is the article
says, is it if students sayknow what they're going to be evaluated on,
(25:26):
this can also promote confidence within studentsand help them to feel less overwhelmed
because there are no surprises coming theirway. So the only good can come
from this. Again, we're talkingabout how to facilitate goal progress awareness so
(25:47):
that each and every day students theyunderstand how they're doing in terms of managing
the space between setting a goal andaccomplishing the goal. Next step, next
up is complete an effort to progressgraph. Now this is this is uh,
(26:08):
this is very simple, and Ithink it's interesting as well. I
think it's interesting as well. Sojust imagine a simple a pie chart.
Okay, imagine a pie chart,and it's and it's cut out in in
quarters, okay. So, andeach quarter of the pie represents a step
(26:33):
in a project that a student hasto do. Now, with technology,
we can do all sorts of thingsin terms of you know, color coding
the pie. Let's say the piestarts out all the quarters, they start
out as red, right, Butas a student completes a quarter the that
quarter, that specific quarter of thepie turns green. Okay. And that's
(26:59):
and that's just another another tool tohelp students visualize their progress. And I
and that's important. That's important,and that's something that and that's something that
many students can benefit from. That'ssomething that many students can benefit from.
If you think about a lot ofthe apps out there, a lot of
(27:22):
apps use they use this kind oftechnique to inform people and to manage their
thinking and expectations as well. Wejust had pizza night last night was Friday.
We had we had pizza and night. We order from Dominos, and
Dominoes has something very similar where itcharts out the progress. It's it's pretty
(27:48):
cool because it's a it's a barand as as as as you know,
they go along with each step toto prepare your order. You see,
it starts here received your order,and then it gives the name of the
person Andrew is preparing your order,and that that part feels in red.
And then the next part your orderis in the oven. And then the
(28:11):
next part Andrew oh is checking yourorder to make sure that it's cooked the
way that you want it. Andthen the next part, Frank is on
his way. So just I thinkthat that's I think that's good. And
we as a society where we're conditionedto we we know what that is and
(28:33):
that helps that that can only thatcan only help. And then it also
gives a link to you know,creating those nice little charts. And again
I'm gonna share this article with youso last, but not least number seven,
and I think that this is alsogood practice as well, and it
speaks to the grading practices. Numberseven gives self corrected practice. Again.
(29:02):
You know, when we talk aboutgrading, grading, with grading, for
a lot of students, there thereis there comes that anxiety. But one
way you can take away that anxietyis by allowing students these opportunities to test
in a low stress situation. Likehere's a practice test. I want I
(29:25):
want you to see how you doon this practice tests and what the What
happens here is as it says inthe articles, students can see their status
and evaluate and evaluate changes such aswhat to focus on, strategies such as
rewriting notes, taking multiple self correctedpractice tests, and and all these things.
(29:48):
They are they are allowed to see. They're able to see because they're
so focused on the goal. They'reallowed to see how all of these how
all of these things impact their successalong the way. They're able to draw
draw the line of connection that,oh wow, this because I was so
(30:11):
laser focused on this goal and progress, monitoring my progress, monitoring along the
way towards accomplishing this goal. Yeah, I did pretty. I did good
on this practice test. And Ican specifically point to questions three, six,
seven, and ten because I wasfocused on my goal. That's how
(30:32):
I was able to get these right. Now, these other questions that I
didn't get right, I need tomake some adjustments there, and I can.
I can do that. But Ifeel I feel pretty confident because I
know, based on what I did, I was able to get these questions
right, So I can do thesame with these other questions. By the
time the actual test comes along.That's how it works, ladies and gentlemen,
(30:56):
That's how it works. So again, let me run through those we're
talking today. We talked about theneed to facilitate goal progress awareness, because
that's what school is. It givesstudents the opportunity to practice setting a goal
and achieving a goal, managing thespace in between. Number one. Consult
(31:17):
with students about their goals. Whatdo you want to do? Number two
remind students how to get help whenthey're blocked. What do you do when
you're stuck? What can you do? How can you depend on yourself to
get yourself unstuck? Number three createa progress journal where the students are using
their own words to talk about what'shappening inside of them, how are they
changing, how are they better?And then number four check in intentionally and
(31:44):
this is just building on that foundationof the relationship that you've already established and
you're just checking in with them seeinghow they're doing. That's just what you
do in a relationship, You checkin. And then number five provide preview
rubrics. What are we going todo during this unit? What am I
what is expected of me during thisunit? So that there's no surprises.
(32:04):
And then number six an effort toprogress graph visually showing students how they're doing
throughout the unit, throughout the progresstowards their goal. How are they doing
so they could visually see them?And number seven give self corrected practice tests
giving students low risk, low anxietysituations because ultimately the test is coming,
(32:31):
giving them an opportunity to see howthey might do how they might perform on
that test. Well, that istoday's episode of the Marvin Bird Show.
I thank you so much for beinghere, and until we meet again,
please don't forget to check out mywebsite Marvinbird dot com marvenbird dot com for
(32:52):
some very brief professional development opportunities,and my blog posts take you about five
minutes or less to get through theSo thank you so much, and until
we meet again, please don't forgetthat teachers are leaders
Hello, everyone, and welcome toanother edition of the Marvin Bird Show.
You've caught us right in the middleof a series where we're talking about how
to respond to student apathy. Howto respond to student apathy? Now,
largely apathy is uh, it's ait's it's a learned habit. Many times
(00:23):
students they enter your classroom with thatapathy. It's it's been sunk in because
of habits that they've picked up alongthe way, for a number of reasons,
for a number of reasons. Andit is it is a it's a
fact of life. It's something thatus teachers that that we we have to
(00:44):
deal with and we have to learnand figure out ways to respond to it.
Now, we talked about how sadlyin education there is this there's this
focus on blame. There's this focuson assessing blame, you know, when
(01:06):
the numbers don't come in uh,the way that we want them. And
for sure, we want student achievement, you know, we want student achievement.
We want all students to be successfulin the classroom. But we're not
there yet, you know, we'rewe're not there yet, and so in
education there is this you know,blame is like water it's got to go
(01:30):
somewhere. Blame is like water,it's got to go somewhere. And I
talked about how in the first episodeof this series that it's it's a lot
easier to just to to lay theblame at the feet of teachers, sadly,
and it's it's it's easier to saypublicly, well, you know the
(01:53):
teachers, they don't they just needto they need to develop a growth mindset,
or they just need to learn howto embrace change, or they're just
they're they're resistant to change, orthey're just they're stuck in their ways.
It's it's easier to say that onTwitter as opposed to well, Johnny just
(02:15):
he just doesn't see the care Johnny, he's not he's just not interested in
an education. And you know whereI land, You know where I land.
I am. I will all foreverand always be a teacher, even
though I'm not in the classroom anymore. I think that is unfortunate, and
I wish that it would stop thelaying of blame on the feet of teachers,
(02:42):
because I think it does it doesmore harm than good. You know,
we got a lot of great teachersout there, a lot of teachers
on Twitter who read those comments,those blanket statements that blame teachers for for
where there is a lie of studentachievement. And I don't think that's right
(03:04):
simply because simply because we've got teachersout there, they're busting their butts,
they're working hard, and even rightnow at the beginning of a new school
year, we've got teachers digging intotheir own pockets to provide resources for their
students. They are trying their verybest to be a part of the solution.
(03:25):
But again, blame works like water, it has to go somewhere.
It has to go somewhere, andthat's just the fact of life. But
I will also say this because thename of this podcast is teachers are leaders.
And we all know as leaders thatwhen something doesn't quite go the way
(03:50):
that we had planned, the waythat we had hoped for, what great
leaders do is we look at ourselvesfirst and try to determine could possibly could
I Could I have done something alittle bit differently? Could what? What?
What could I have done better inorder to affect these numbers that that
(04:13):
I'm getting from the students, LikeThat's just that's what great leaders do.
And I think that I think thatwhat happens sometimes is is that that just
gets that gets lost when we whenwe when we have conversations, because there's
a lot of productive conversations about educationthrough social media and other venues, there's
(04:36):
a lot of good conversations. Butyou know, definitely, I would submit
to to my audience here is Ithink that we can do better when we
talk about education, because you know, it does we don't have to play
the blame game. We don't haveto play the blame game in terms of
(04:58):
in terms of education and through socialmedia. Now, for sure, there
are there are there are teachers outthere who who could stand a little pointed
feedback in the area of you know, their lesson planning and and and and
spicing things up. That is thatis absolutely true, and it is my
(05:23):
hope, it is my prayer thatthose conversations are being had with those teachers
about their lesson plans as opposed toyou know, social media, you know,
blanket statements. Gosh, you know, it would be nice if if
teachers had more engaging lesson plans.No, that that doesn't that doesn't change
(05:44):
the thinking and and and actions ofteachers if it's left on social media no,
those those discussions need to those hardconversations need to be had with the
teachers themselves. But I think Ibelieve that for the most part, a
majority of teachers out there are doingwhat they can. And as we always
(06:08):
say, the teachers great teachers,they exhaust all the tools in their toolbox
for it to help students, andwhen they've exhausted all of those tools,
they go get some more in orderto help students find success. You know,
you don't always see the fruits ofyour labor during that year that you're
(06:30):
working with that student or during thattime that you're working with that student.
But great teachers, we don't giveup. We don't give up. We
keep trying. We keep trying.And you know, with with education,
you know, as teachers, andwhat I have learned throughout my years as
(06:53):
well, and this is why Icame. I came up with teachers or
leaders I learned. I discover thatyou know what my administration they were,
they were limited as well, likeyou know that my administration, they were
depending on me to find find asolution when it came to you know,
(07:16):
students who were were lacking in termsof academic success. My you know,
the thing that you know, alot of my administration, a lot of
their response was Okay, well,well we'll suspend them when when they make
really bad decisions. But the otherstuff, in terms of helping them to
(07:38):
understand why this was important, whythey should engage, a lot of that
was left to me, the teacher, and that's why we landed. That's
why I landed on Teachers or Leaders. And so we're going to continue our
conversation in terms of how to respondto student apathy. I have an article
(07:59):
that I want to share with youtoday. But before I get to that
article, what I want to dois I want to talk about my book.
It's coming out soon and very soon. It'll be available for pre order
very soon. The name of mynew book is Teachers or Leaders. That's
the name of the book. Thename of the book is Teachers or Leaders.
(08:20):
It's coming out soon and very soon. I'm so excited about it.
And in this book, it's it'sgoing to be a very short read.
I lay out, I lay outmy case point by point that teachers are
leaders. I give you tools thatyou can use, stories and anecdotes that
(08:46):
you can use in order to equipyourself so that you can lead your students
to success. So I'm very excitedabout that. I'll have more information for
you in the weeks to come abouthow you can pre order yourself a copy
of my brand new book just comingout soon and very soon. Now let's
(09:07):
transition here. I want to goand I'm going to point you to an
article, and actually I will I'mgoing to share this article with you.
I'll link it linked to it inthe description section. But I want to
go back to the first episode inthis series when we were talking about student
apathy. I believe that in education, there are very few absolutes. They
(09:33):
are there's no one size fits all, But I believe I believe that there's
one. There's there's a few things, and this is one of them.
This is one of them. Ibelieve that if if students understand the purpose
of school, if students understand thepurpose of school, then they'll be more
(10:00):
They'll be more willing to engage,they'll be more willing to take risks,
they'll be more willing to do alittle bit more, They'll be more willing
to they'll be self motivated, they'llbe intrinsically motivated. If they understand the
(10:22):
purpose of school. And this iswhat I submit to students when I talk
to them. This is what Isubmit to young people through my vision Chaser's
YouTube channel, and I submit tothem this the purpose of school. The
(10:43):
purpose of school is to learn howto set goals and accomplish goals while dealing
with obstacles along the way. Again, the purpose of school is to learn
how to set goals and accomplish thosegoals while managing resistance along the way.
(11:07):
See, there's a distance between settinga goal and accomplishing a goal, and
that that distance, that space inbetween the two, that's where that's where
people learn how to be successful.That's where people do. That's where people
develop that resilience, that grits,that tenacity. It's it's all about that
(11:31):
distance between the goal and accomplishing thegoal. That's the that's the difference maker.
What do people do in between settingthat goal and accomplishing that goal.
Because you can set a goal allday long, you can set you can
say, oh, this is whatI want to do, I'm gonna do
this. You can set that goalbut just never get there because you didn't
(11:56):
manage correctly what was in between hereand setting goals and accomplishing goals and managing
the resistance in between. That isall that. That's something that that applies
to every classroom, every classroom,whether it be maths, social studies,
(12:16):
English science. You're learning how toset a goal and accomplish a goal while
dealing with resistance along the way.So this is something that I came across.
This is a way to help studentsto really dig into that, to
(12:37):
lean into that a little bit more. You see. I think that when
students, when they understand when youtell them that and you make it plain
to them that it's about setting goalsand accomplishing goals, and that employers are
looking for anyone who can do that, who can set a goal and accomplish
a goal and manage resistance like employers, All employers are looking for that.
(13:01):
That's what employers are looking for.That is universal. Everyone can benefit from
that. Employers are looking for peoplewho know how to do that, who
have those skills. That's what employerswant. And I think that once you
once you once you lay that,once you once you drop that seed,
students are going to listen to you. You got students at that point,
(13:24):
and so now that gives you theopportunity to Now that you've given them those
words, Now what are you goingto do? What actions are you going
to take to follow up on that? Now that you've got their attention?
And that's why I think what I'mgoing to give you today is going to
be very important. We're following upon that purpose. We've given them the
(13:48):
purpose. Now what are going tobe the action steps to back up that
purpose, that thought, that seedthought that you've dropped in their mind?
And to that end, I wantto share this with you. Okay,
So I want to share with youthis article from Edgetopia and the title of
this article is guiding students to sustaineffort in school, and they give a
(14:16):
number of a number of strategies thatyou can use. But one of the
strategies that I want to focus on, it's called facilitate goal progress awareness.
Notice that we're goal remember my purposepurpose, I tell students set goals,
accomplish goals, manage the resistance inbetween the two. So it says here
(14:41):
in this article again I'll link toit. Goal progress awareness requires frequent feedback
and sustain student effort. Their brainswill invest more effort in the task and
as a result, students are moreresponsive to feedback. This progress awareness builds
their ability to recognize that their effortis correlated to their progress and boosts their
(15:05):
perseverance. Again, as teachers,you're the architect of your environment and definitely
how your students think that affects theenvironment in your classroom. That's why this
is so much more than just executinga lesson planned. This is why I
(15:28):
say teachers are leaders because you haveto pay attention to this and I thank
you so much for being here toconsume this information. And I hope that
this information leads to transformation and theway that you think and then the actions
that you take in your classroom,and I hope the same happens for your
(15:50):
students as a result. So let'slook at this. There are a few
steps in this facility to facilitate goalprogress awareness. The first step is simply
consult with students. Now we knowand I'll never ever, I promise I
would never. I would never disrespectyou by throwing by saying you know,
(16:15):
well, number one, you gottabuild relationships with students. I would never
throw something out there like that andjust pretend like it's just groundbreaking information for
you. That you've never heard ofany such thing. I know that,
you know that. I know thatyou know that. But step one here,
when it talks about consulting with students, it's it's digging deeper into that
(16:41):
relationship, right, it's digging deeperinto that relationship by talking about you know,
what are your goals? You knownow that now that I've I've shown
you, Hey, this is thepurpose of school. We're going to be
doing a lot of goals setting inthis classroom, just like you're gonna be
expected to do goal setting in thereal world when you leave here. Show
(17:04):
me here in this English class thatyou can set a goal and that you
can accomplish that goal while dealing witha ton of resistance along the way.
If you can get that work in, if you can get that practice saying
WHOA, you're going to be ingreat shape at the next level and the
level after that and the level afterthat because you've had that practice here.
(17:25):
So let's sit down when during thisconsult with students, let's sit down and
let's see if we can if wecan set see if I can help you
to set some goals based off ofwhat you're what you're thinking Okay, so
that's that's step number one. You'rejust you're you're consulting with students. You're
(17:45):
their guide, you're helping them alongthe way. You're encouraging them to do
a lot of the talking. Andthen based on the things that they're saying,
let's set some goals. Okay,so step number one, consult with
students and set some goals. Steptwo remind students how to get help when
(18:07):
blocked. Now, this is Ithink that this is often these are the
times where it helps if you could, if you could multiply yourself, if
you can be in multiple places atone time, Because I see this a
lot in math classes. You know, when I go to observe a math
teacher, I'll see the teachers inthere. They're standing on their head trying
(18:32):
to address students, trying to helpstudents all throughout the room. You know,
once the teacher has released the studentsto work on their own, all
right, and so the teachers workingwith one student and then you know,
student in the backs got their handup, and then you may have another
student over there, they've got theirhand up. After Yeah, they they
(18:53):
may did they try their very best? Did they try did they did they
go through everything that they could havedone while they were by themselves? Maybe
not? And so as a result, that leaves a teacher just like,
oh man, if I could onlyclone myself, that would be great.
(19:14):
So I'm reminded of that when whenI get when I talk about this step,
remind the students how to help,how to get help when they are
blocked, And a lot of timesit's this is a habit that students need
to learn, Like just because justbecause it doesn't feel good here, just
because you're you're stuck, just becausethe answer doesn't immediately come to you,
(19:40):
that's okay, that's okay. Thereare what are the things that you can
do before you raise your hand andask a teacher? Did you did you
ask your partner sitting next to you? Did you review your notes? Like
what are the things that you wantyour students to do before or they raise
(20:00):
their hand for more direct instruction?Not that you're discouraging that, but remember
the practice is how to set agoal, how to accomplish a goal,
and manage the space in between.And as students get older, they need
to they need to take more accountabilityand responsibility to manage that space in between
(20:25):
themselves, like using the resources thatare at their disposal before they raise their
hand for more direct instruction, becauseonce they get to a certain level,
they're going to be expected to digin here a little bit more in order
to find that solution. So it'sjust really good practice. Step three,
(20:48):
have students create progress journals. It'sthere's just nothing like, for sure,
words of affirmation from teacher to student. That's great, that's great, But
I think that there is something thatthat happens in the mind in terms of
(21:11):
in terms of developing that growth mindsetwhen the student writes down when when they
write down their progress, when theywrite down the things that they've accomplished,
and how those things make them feel. You see, when we talk about
mindset and helping students develop that growthmindset, the growth mindset, that's always
(21:32):
going to be something that you haveto work on daily. You have to
work on daily, because if youdon't work on it daily, then it
becomes a fixed mindset that is thatthat doesn't immediately seek to find solutions.
It's it's a fixed mindset that isjust that settles on on less than and
(22:00):
less than what could be, whatcould be more optimal, what could what
could have a more favorable outcome.You see, you constantly renew your mind
daily by the things that you read, by the things that you say.
You're constantly setting your mind on growthas opposed to letting it remain fixed daily,
(22:27):
each and every day. And Ithink that with with these progress journals,
allowing students to put their own wordson paper or if if you desire,
you know, type on a Googledoc or whatever, they're they're constantly
there. There's that internal process,that internal process which is so important of
(22:48):
them writing out m this is,this is. This is what I accomplished
today. I was able to connectthe dots here on this problem and I
got it right. I feel goodabout that I can do this. There's
just something magical that happens internally whenstudents are able to go through that exercise.
So I have students create a progressjournal, and then they can go
(23:14):
back to that journal and read itand just see how far that they've come
over time. Next up check inintentionally. Now. When I was in
the classroom, I had a desk. I had a student desk right next
to my desk because I valued thattime. I value that time talking with
students about how they were doing,how things were going, checking in on
(23:36):
progress. And I think that thatis something when you do that, you're
modeling to students. No, youjust you don't just say this is a
goal that I want and just leaveit at that. No, you're intentional
about checking in on the progress.How are we doing? We said it,
we ment it. How are wedoing in regards to the space between
us setting the goal and accomplishing agoal. So checking in with your students
(23:59):
it shows that you are And againit just as we all know, relationships
are important, but it's just it'sjust this illustrates the point that relationships are
foundational. We can't do any ofthis stuff if we don't do the work
to build the foundation, if wedon't do the work to build that foundation,
(24:19):
to build that relationship. We gotto have that so that when we
check in intentionally, the students theytrust the things that we say. They
trust what we're trying to do.And then next up is the next step.
Step number five is provide preview rubricsof what will be evaluated in the
(24:40):
project unit or test. I justthink it's always good practice to give students
those things ahead of time. Letthe it's just it further answers the question
why am I doing this? What'swhat's the purpose of this? What is
the goal? What specifically am Ibeing asked to do? And I think
(25:02):
that's that's just that's good practice.That's good practice because as great teachers were
already planned out. We know whatwe're doing, we know what our focal
point is. So why not sharethat with the students so that they have
an understanding of it as well?And then what this does is the article
says, is it if students sayknow what they're going to be evaluated on,
(25:26):
this can also promote confidence within studentsand help them to feel less overwhelmed
because there are no surprises coming theirway. So the only good can come
from this. Again, we're talkingabout how to facilitate goal progress awareness so
(25:47):
that each and every day students theyunderstand how they're doing in terms of managing
the space between setting a goal andaccomplishing the goal. Next step, next
up is complete an effort to progressgraph. Now this is this is uh,
(26:08):
this is very simple, and Ithink it's interesting as well. I
think it's interesting as well. Sojust imagine a simple a pie chart.
Okay, imagine a pie chart,and it's and it's cut out in in
quarters, okay. So, andeach quarter of the pie represents a step
(26:33):
in a project that a student hasto do. Now, with technology,
we can do all sorts of thingsin terms of you know, color coding
the pie. Let's say the piestarts out all the quarters, they start
out as red, right, Butas a student completes a quarter the that
quarter, that specific quarter of thepie turns green. Okay. And that's
(26:59):
and that's just another another tool tohelp students visualize their progress. And I
and that's important. That's important,and that's something that and that's something that
many students can benefit from. That'ssomething that many students can benefit from.
If you think about a lot ofthe apps out there, a lot of
(27:22):
apps use they use this kind oftechnique to inform people and to manage their
thinking and expectations as well. Wejust had pizza night last night was Friday.
We had we had pizza and night. We order from Dominos, and
Dominoes has something very similar where itcharts out the progress. It's it's pretty
(27:48):
cool because it's a it's a barand as as as as you know,
they go along with each step toto prepare your order. You see,
it starts here received your order,and then it gives the name of the
person Andrew is preparing your order,and that that part feels in red.
And then the next part your orderis in the oven. And then the
(28:11):
next part Andrew oh is checking yourorder to make sure that it's cooked the
way that you want it. Andthen the next part, Frank is on
his way. So just I thinkthat that's I think that's good. And
we as a society where we're conditionedto we we know what that is and
(28:33):
that helps that that can only thatcan only help. And then it also
gives a link to you know,creating those nice little charts. And again
I'm gonna share this article with youso last, but not least number seven,
and I think that this is alsogood practice as well, and it
speaks to the grading practices. Numberseven gives self corrected practice. Again.
(29:02):
You know, when we talk aboutgrading, grading, with grading, for
a lot of students, there thereis there comes that anxiety. But one
way you can take away that anxietyis by allowing students these opportunities to test
in a low stress situation. Likehere's a practice test. I want I
(29:25):
want you to see how you doon this practice tests and what the What
happens here is as it says inthe articles, students can see their status
and evaluate and evaluate changes such aswhat to focus on, strategies such as
rewriting notes, taking multiple self correctedpractice tests, and and all these things.
(29:48):
They are they are allowed to see. They're able to see because they're
so focused on the goal. They'reallowed to see how all of these how
all of these things impact their successalong the way. They're able to draw
draw the line of connection that,oh wow, this because I was so
(30:11):
laser focused on this goal and progress, monitoring my progress, monitoring along the
way towards accomplishing this goal. Yeah, I did pretty. I did good
on this practice test. And Ican specifically point to questions three, six,
seven, and ten because I wasfocused on my goal. That's how
(30:32):
I was able to get these right. Now, these other questions that I
didn't get right, I need tomake some adjustments there, and I can.
I can do that. But Ifeel I feel pretty confident because I
know, based on what I did, I was able to get these questions
right, So I can do thesame with these other questions. By the
time the actual test comes along.That's how it works, ladies and gentlemen,
(30:56):
That's how it works. So again, let me run through those we're
talking today. We talked about theneed to facilitate goal progress awareness, because
that's what school is. It givesstudents the opportunity to practice setting a goal
and achieving a goal, managing thespace in between. Number one. Consult
(31:17):
with students about their goals. Whatdo you want to do? Number two
remind students how to get help whenthey're blocked. What do you do when
you're stuck? What can you do? How can you depend on yourself to
get yourself unstuck? Number three createa progress journal where the students are using
their own words to talk about what'shappening inside of them, how are they
changing, how are they better?And then number four check in intentionally and
(31:44):
this is just building on that foundationof the relationship that you've already established and
you're just checking in with them seeinghow they're doing. That's just what you
do in a relationship, You checkin. And then number five provide preview
rubrics. What are we going todo during this unit? What am I
what is expected of me during thisunit? So that there's no surprises.
(32:04):
And then number six an effort toprogress graph visually showing students how they're doing
throughout the unit, throughout the progresstowards their goal. How are they doing
so they could visually see them?And number seven give self corrected practice tests
giving students low risk, low anxietysituations because ultimately the test is coming,
(32:31):
giving them an opportunity to see howthey might do how they might perform on
that test. Well, that istoday's episode of the Marvin Bird Show.
I thank you so much for beinghere, and until we meet again,
please don't forget to check out mywebsite Marvinbird dot com marvenbird dot com for
(32:52):
some very brief professional development opportunities,and my blog posts take you about five
minutes or less to get through theSo thank you so much, and until
we meet again, please don't forgetthat teachers are leaders
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