A-Z of Education Today: Behavior

A friend of mine has been posting her A-Z of the medical field on Facebook recently, and the more I read her highly humorous, often facetious posts, I became inspired to create my own A-Z of Education. I know that most people are aware of what alphabetical order means, but I feel the need to clarify that these posts are NOT in order of importance, and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Behavior is always the talk of the town around a school. What does it mean? Who's doing it? How do we control it? What's punishable and how do we punish for it? Even at the beginning of the school year, when everyone is supposed to get a fresh start, the primary topic of conversation revolves around behavior, primarily student behavior, although teachers, trust me, our behavior comes into question quite often, and even administrators' behavior gets talked about the further up the ladder one goes. 
 

So, what does it mean exactly?
Let me start by defining behavior, else we might all have a different definition.  Behavior is the way in which we act in a given situation for a given set of circumstances.  For the most part, behavior is a conditioned response to stimuli, conditioned being the important word because we learn most of our behaviors from the modeling of others.  This is important when we seek to control someone else's behavior, especially that of a student.  How much do we know about the modeling they've gotten? Are we judging them based on the modeling we've had, and are we then punishing them for coming up lacking according to our expectations? As children, from Kindergarten all the way through high school, are developing and changing at rates we can't even pinpoint, do they ever get a chance to come in fresh without preconceived notions about how they'll behave based on teacher-lounge conversations?  Remember, we're talking about conditioned responses. They've had 5 years of modeling before they even get to us, and then we see them for 6 out of 24 hours a day, 180 out of 365 days a year, for give or take 12 years.  Do we really think that our expectations for behavior take precedence over the ways they're expected to behave in the situations and circumstances in which they find themselves the rest of the time?

Whose behavior is most important?
I know the obvious answer to this question is students' behavior, right.  I'm not quite so sure.  Based on the definition and the fact that conditioning takes place over time, we are unlikely to get anywhere if our focus is only on student behavior.  After all, they reflect the models they've been given.  C'mon now, how many of us don't know an adult who has been late to work?  How many of us, me included, have "winged" lessons because we didn't do our "homework" of writing lesson plans?  How many of us have literally yelled at students for being to loud?  Are we modeling the behavior we expect to see in the school and in our classrooms, or are we mirroring the flaws that we see in their behavior?  Uh oh.  You see, once we get to a certain age, we should be able to determine which conditioned responses are appropriate and which ones aren't.  That's adult development, not so much for children, and, well, teenagers...my definition of "teenager" is "bad decisions".  No matter how much many of them may look like adults, they still have so many things going on physically, neurologically, and socially that action takes precedence over thought.  Knowing that your behavior is inappropriate and consciously choosing to behave appropriately are two completely different processes.  So, the question of whose behavior matters most is an important one...I would say it's OUR behavior that will, over time, have the greatest impact.

How do we control behavior?
And here's where I lose everyone...we start with ourselves.  Instead of asking "what's our school's discipline policy," how about asking "what model do I want to show my students."  Fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the only behavior we can truly control is our own.  We can model our behavioral expectations, and we can even punish those who don't meet our expectations, but do we really control their behavior?  The number of repeat offenders in our penile system show that behavioral change doesn't occur simply by expectation and punishment alone.  So, what do we do?  We remember that students are individuals, just as we are, with their own sets of experiences, and that they inherently want to be successful.  We acknowledge that sometimes the behaviors we hate (such a strong word) the most are often the same ones that keep them safe outside of the school environment.  We learn new ways of engaging students in the learning we're facilitating in class.  Let's not just assume that because we created the lesson and they are physically present for the lesson that they are either interested or engaged in learning said lesson.  If we don't plan for their engagement, we might as well plan for their "off-task" behavior. Oh yeah, and we check our behaviors because we're always on stage, even when we think students aren't paying attention.  If our clothes are a little too tight, students notice; if we're late to class or unprepared (last minute run to the copier, anyone?), they notice; or if we're yelling at and/or praising the same students daily, they notice.  Rather than focusing on the negatives, let's find ways to celebrate the positives by drawing attention to what we want to see rather than giving attention to what we would rather not see.

Does that mean no punishment for bad behavior?
Uh oh, let the flood gates open!  I'm not saying let everything go and have a free-for-all.  Remember that safety is always our primary concern, right up there with student learning.  So, we must immediately deal with safety issues, but we have to be honest that the majority of behavior referrals and subsequent punishments are related to the things that annoy us rather than anything dangerous--things like coming to class "unprepared," talking "out of turn," arriving late, etc.  When thinking about punishment for behavior, we really need to focus on what our behavioral goals are and whether or not the punishments we're seeking help us move closer to those goals.  Removing students from the classroom for extended periods of time does not help them learn the expectations of the classroom, and it takes them out of the learning environment.  I really don't want to get into grade penalties in this blog, as I have a whole post on grading brewing right now, but I will say that there is little logic in penalizing or rewarding with grades based on behavior.  If grades are meant to demonstrate academic achievement, then they should be based on just that.

And please don't think that I think I'm perfect or that I'm living in a perfect world here.  All of these things I've talked about, I've done.  I've also grown over the years as a person and an educator, and a great number of students have shown me that there's a lot more to getting the behaviors I hoped for than just me saying I have "high expectations" because what I was really saying is that I expected the students to behave like me.

A-Z of Education Today: Accountability

A friend of mine has been posting her A-Z of the medical field on Facebook recently, and the more I read her highly humorous, often facetious posts, I became inspired to create my own A-Z of Education.  I know that most people are aware of what alphabetical order means, but I feel the need to clarify that these posts are NOT in order of importance, and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own.  So, here we go...

Accountability...wow, such a loaded word!  It's supposed to be the holy grail of what will fix all that is wrong with education in our country (NOT!) and yet it's also one of the most hated words amongst those who are actually in a position of educating.  There appears to be a definite disconnect and a lot of misinformation about what accountability is and why it's really a good thing, at least to me.

Whenever I'm with a group of educators actually talking about teaching "accountability" inevitably comes up.  It is often defined synonymously with "testing", and shrouded in anger that the collective WE are the only ones being held accountable, not students, not parents, not society, not...whatever.  It's a fairytale of the wicked witch that we tell ourselves to keep from changing the way we think about how we do things.  There is, however, another fairytale, shrouded in just as much anger, resentment, and truth:

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a shared sense of responsibility for student learning.  Parents were responsible to make sure their student attended the house of learning (as they still are today), and many took personal responsibility to remediate any behavioral issues that might keep the teacher from handling his/her responsibility.  The teacher had the responsibility of delivering the collective knowledge (canon of literature, mathematical equations and "facts", scientific methods and theories, and civic obligations via accepted histories).  Each teacher had a different method of delivery, but very few delivered in different ways.  There were the lectures, the worksheets, the notes, the memorizations, the discussions, the practices, the readings, and the occasional group projects.  There were also the don't-write-with-that-hands, turn-your-paper-like-suches, and don't-question-mes.  Teachers were teaching as they always had because it worked for them, so it should work for everyone.  Administrators were responsible for the smooth running of the school and the discipline of children who weren't meeting the behavioral expectations set for students. The plan was to keep "bad" students from disrupting the teaching in the classroom.  The responsibility for learning, however, was on the student alone; if they didn't accept the collective knowledge as their own or respond appropriately to the delivery methods used, then their grades suffered.  Everything was graded: classwork, homework, quizzes, tests, behavior, participation, following directions (separate from behavior?), organization, neatness, everything! Students who were ahead of the curve already knowing the material were given A's, praised for being "smart" and given the privilege of helping the teacher grade everyone else's work.  Those who were behind the curve either worked really hard to keep up with the curve or were left to sit quietly while the others moved along from one lesson to the next--"You earn your grade by what you do, so no one is to blame but you."

Ok, so the fairytale above is a little tongue-in-cheek, but not so far removed from the reality of education pre-accountability.  Of course there have always been great educators who cared about whether their students learned the material and they naturally differentiated or sought help when they didn't know what to do.  Of course, there were parents who fought to make sure their children left school with more knowledge than that which they entered.  And then there are the students who didn't get it, and didn't have the support; those who just put their heads down to not cause a disturbance to the "teaching" going on around them and left with less than that which they entered.  There are also the students who didn't quite get as far as they could have because it was enough to know they could pass the test (even before they walked in the classroom).  There was no reason for these students to work hard or learn how to persevere because "learning" was natural for them.  

We've always been good at teaching to the middle because it's where most of us are comfortable.  I'll admit that MY story is also in that fairytale as both a student and a teacher.  I loved school because I got it; it came naturally, and it was the one place I could control how adults saw me.  I got the praise when I passed 4th grade tests I could've passed in 1st grade, and I loved helping my teachers.  I thought that what my teachers were doing just worked, until I grew up and saw how many of my peers were illiterate and unprepared.  Then I went into education and fell into the same pattern of teaching the way I "learned" forgetting that learning for me came easily.  Did all my students learn, NO! Did half of them learn? Probably not.  But I learned.  I learned that their learning is just as much my responsibility as it is theirs, almost more so because I have to first help them learn how to learn my content and from me before I can hope that the majority of them learn said content. 

You see, it's not accountability that's the problem; we have to, NEED to be held accountable, and I believe the majority of us in education don't mind being held accountable.  The problem is the way in which we're held accountable, and the ways in which we talk to each other about it that makes the situation that much more unbearable.  Holding us accountable for performance on a one-size-fits-all test makes everyone uncomfortable, but most especially those who have tried their hardest to get away from one-size-fits-all teaching.  "Teaching to the test" becomes a survival plan for too many who have been beaten down by a system and society that constantly says they're not good enough.  We're told to focus on growth in student learning as our accountability model, and yet we're still praised for proficiency numbers, that include those students who were already proficient the day they stepped in the classroom.  As a teacher, I learned from my students that I needed to be held accountable for the majority of their learning.  As an aspiring administrator, I feel accountable for the learning of the students AND the staff who serve them.  I'm not afraid of accountability, but I question the validity of the way in which we're held accountable and the credibility of the information disseminated with the sole purpose of pointing fingers and placing blame.