5 Ways to Create a Positive Classroom Environment

When you picture an uncomfortable classroom environment what do you see? I see Miss Trunchball locking students in the chockey like she did in the 1996 movie Matilda. How did students at that school possibly learn? Knowing one wrong move could land me in a closet filled with nails sticking out of the walls of it would be enough for me to shut my mind down and not say a word. ABCs.. who has time for that...
      Students need to feel comfortable in a classroom environment if we want them to learn. The second they feel uncomfortable their mind goes into survival mode and any information that we feed that them that is not necessary for their survival is not absorbed. Luckily, there are many things we can do to ensure our students feel comfortable and ready to learn.

1) Learn About Your Students
This is the first step in creating a successful classroom environment. At the beginning of every year I make a point to get to know my students within the first week. Doing this helps me learn about them, but also shows to them that I am interested in them as a person, not just a student. I do this in two steps:

1. Questionnaire: At the beginning of the first week of school I give the students a questionnaire asking them to share information about themselves and their interests. 

   

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2. Conferences: At the end of the first week of school I conference with each student for two minutes to get to know each student individually while the rest of the class is working on an assignment. I go over their questionnaire with them and try to make connections. "Oh, I see your favorite movie is High School Musical, I've seen that a dozen times. I still get the song Breaking Free stuck in my head on a regular basis. Who's your favorite character?" Boom! I just made a connection with them that will make them feel comfortable with me and I showed them that I value their opinions.

2) Stand at the Door and Greet Every Student
      At the beginning of every class period I stand at the door and greet each and every student. Now that I know about each student, what shows they like, what sports they play, etc, I will use that to start a quick conversation with them as they walk through the door. "How did your soccer game go last night?", "Did you watch the newest episode of Liv and Maddie last night?", "How did your Wednesday night Piano lesson go?" It's sometimes impossible to converse with every student but I make a point to make a personal connection with each student at least twice a week and greet everyone every day!

3) Give Your Students Choice
      As teachers we are given a great deal of curriculum to teach. That being said, the way we teach it is up to us. I give my students a variety of choice within every unit I teach because it shows them I value their interests, skills and opinions.

1. Differentiated Reading: I give them the option of choosing from different levels of reading when I give them a primary source. They are given the average reading and a more challenging reading. I find that most students chose the correct level. It shows them that I want to challenge them to achieve their personal bests because I believe in them.
2. Different Topics: When studying a certain area of study I let the students chose which topic to look into about that area. For instance, when learning about the advance culture of ancient Greece I let the students chose to look into either sports, literature, theater, art or architecture. 
3. Project Choice: With each project I give the students get to chose what type of project they want to do. The choices usually range from essays to creating newspaper articles to building 3D models. For instance, every year I give my World History Students my Early Civilization Artifact Project and I ask the students to pick an artifact from early civilization that represents a political, social or economic advancement and they have four choices on how to represent that artifact. This gives them a large range of options and really allows me to see what they know and what skills they have.

4) Reward Your Students
     Students want to know you care about them. Encourage them and show them you are proud of them when you are. If the students work hard as a class, let them know you noticed. For instance, my students spent a week doing a writing workshop, where we really worked on how to write a good DBQ essay. The students worked very hard and this was shown to me in their final essays. I was so proud of them, and I wanted them to know I appreciated their hard work, so the next day we played Kahoot, a crowd favorite, and I brought in cookies. We played multiple rounds of it and the winners got prizes. The questions were history related, but the students were having so much fun they didn't realize they were learning.

5) Share Personal Successes and Failures
        Students want you to be relatable. They see you as a successful adult who is doing well for themselves. Share with them your struggles and share your successes, this will remind them that you are a normal person, even if seeing you in the grocery store will always baffle them. For instance, I play in a softball league and my students know this. Every Friday morning they ask me how my games went. I tell them that I missed the pop fly that came right to me, but I also tell them when I got a double to tie the game. Doing this helps them to get to know me which helps build a respected dynamic between us.
      Although there are many ways to create a positive classroom environment, these five have worked very well for me. Creating this positive classroom environment has not only helped my students feel comfortable, which allows them to learn, but with such a positive classroom environment I also have minimal behavior issues because the students know I respect them and this helps them respect me.

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To Call in Sick? To Not Call in Sick? That is the Endless Teacher Question!

All of us teachers have lived to tell this tale:
   
      "Once upon a time there lived a beautiful teacher who loved her job. She spent countless hours in and out of the classroom developing curriculum, creating assignments, grading papers and trying to best help her students. One day this wonderful teacher got sick and didn't feel well. She knew she would only get better if she took the day off. The teacher sat and worried for countless hours, debating what to do. Should she take the day off and take care of herself? She knows that taking the day off would be best for her, but how dare she put herself first? "Let's face it" she thought, "taking the day off will be more work then going to work." She knew she would have to stay up late, creating substitute plans that would keep her students busy enough to allow her colleague to maintain control over the classroom and engage the students enough in which they actually learn something while she's gone. She knew trying to create such a substitute plans would take countless hours and she would just make herself more sick trying to stay up to accomplish such a goal. "I'll just give them a study hall!" She thought to herself! "What a great idea!" She thought. The students would be able to get work done for other classes and would be quiet enough that they wouldn't drive the substitute crazy...... Then the images starting coming to her... Restless students asking to go to the bathroom or to "get something from their locker". Students watching YouTube Videos in the back of the room, or students starting conversations with each other from across the room... The noise slowly gets louder and louder and then... Chaos.. With that image the teacher knew that her plan wouldn't work. This is when she starts questioning her career. "Why couldn't I have chosen a job where I can just call out sick and that's it! A job where I wouldn't have to create substitute plans when I don't feel well. A job where I wouldn't be getting text messages from colleagues asking me questions concerning my my students or my substitute plans!" She knew there was only one option that would solve all these options... Going to work. And so she did. This beautiful and passionate teacher went to bed early, woke up feeling worse that the night before, but put herself together and went to work. This sickness lasted weeks instead of going away because this wonderful teacher never took that day off to help herself feel better, because let's face it, that was too much work. This teacher lived Sickly Ever After... The End!"

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Let' face it, we've all been there. Too sick to go to work, yet too sick to put together good substitute plans to take the day off. It becomes an endless cycle of never being able to take care of yourself. That is what it was like for me for my first years until I made one of the best teaching decisions I've ever made: creating permanent substitute plans. I won't lie and say it didn't take a lot of my energy trying to think of something that would work. How do you create substitute plans that will work at a moments notice that are not off topic? As a history teacher this was a challenge to come up with, but eventually I solved the mystery and I came up with my World History History Substitute Plans and my United States History Substitute Plans. I keep both of these plans behind my desk in a folder holder labeled "Emergency Substitute Plans." My assistant principal knows that if I call in sick he should go to these folders and he will find the plans for my different history classes. What's wonderful is that if I am too sick to give him a specific plan from it to use he can choose at random and it will still be related to my content. If I feel well enough I can choose something specific for him to give to my substitute for my students to work on.

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Included in both of these plans is 11 different activities I can choose from including many different essay options, geography activities and crossword puzzles, all related to history! In the plan is even a letter to my substitute explaining the different activities. The best part is that I don't have to worry! I know that if I am out, even for multiple days, my students are in good hands with activities that I created that are content focused. I know that the substitute will not face a challenge keeping my students focused because they will be working for the whole class period, which means I won't be getting text messages from my colleagues. The cherry on top of all of it is: I can sleep away my sick day, worry free, and actually take care of myself. As a teacher that is rare, but a true blessing. Never again will I leave myself without Emergency Lesson Plans in my classroom. I've lived that tale one too many times and as a historian I have know one thing to be true: Learn from history so you never have to repeat it!

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Teaching AP History Skills: DBQ

Teaching an Advanced Placement class comes with different expectations than a regular class. You will, normally, be given students that have a strong desire to learn. You will have students that have a good understanding of the topic at hand and generally will do their homework. In addition,  one of the most fun but challenging differences, you will have students that will challenge what you know because they have a strong passion for the topic and want to share what they know and argue their beliefs. When I first moved from teaching regular classes to AP it was exactly what I expected but not at all at the same time. Teaching regular classes had its advantages because you could expand fun topics over a few days because you had time to play with. Unfortunately, AP classes are on more of a tight schedule because of the extensive curriculum you have to get through. One of the most important things I've learned through my experience teaching AP classes is that you need to teach them the skills to do well in an AP class and can't expect that they already know them.

One of the most important skills to teach as an AP History teacher is how to analyze documents and write a good DBQ Essay. College Board changed the design of the AP history tests because they wanted the tests to reflect the skills that AP students should have prior to going to college. If students do well on AP history exams they will, most of the time, receive college credit, and go straight to a 200 level history course. Therefore, it is necessary for these students to have the skills learned in a 100 level history class taught to them in our AP classes so they are prepared for those 200 level history classes. The skills these students need are:
1) Research Skills

2) Time Management Skills 

3) Critical Thinking and Analysis Writing Skills

4) Deep Reading Analysis 

5) History Vocabulary 

5) Ability to Identify Change Over Time 

6) Geographical Awareness 

7) Historical Perspective

8) Evaluation of Evidence

9) Attentive to Subtleties

10) Understanding of Historiography  

The new AP tests reflect these skills and therefore tests them to ensure that only the students that have these skills get a good score. 

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One of the skills I noticed my students did not have prior to entering my AP classes was organizing a DBQ Essay. They had the basic understanding of how to read documents and how to group them, but analyzing them was not one of their strengths. This is why I created my product AP World History DBQ: The Black Death. This DBQ packets helps students build the skill of analyzing documents and gives them step-by-step directions on how to write a DBQ essay that hits all the points on the new DBQ rubric. The first thing I have them do in the packet is learn how to "source" the documents. Around each document I put four boxes that students must fill in with information about the document: context, audience, purpose and point of view. By having students practice this on every document they get a good understanding of the document and can look back at their boxes to help them use the document in the essay. The next thing I have them do is write a thesis that answers the question through the use of a "grouping documents" chart. Once they have their thesis I layout how to write the essay and what to include in each paragraph. 

My students DBQ Essay scores drastically improved after this packet. They understood the steps to take to write a good essay by developing an approach to the documents and the essay. It is skills like these that are essential for AP students to not only help them get a good score on the AP exam but to also give them the skill-set to do well in college. 

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Why Do I Teach?

"Ms. Cuomo, why did you choose to become a teacher?", asked Luke, a student in my study hall who I had yet to have in my class. Before I got the chance to respond he continued, "Is it because of the money?" Laughing to myself, while taken aback by the random question, I responded, "I enjoy making history fun and connecting it to real life. I want to have an impact on students' lives. Plus, it can't possibly be for the money Luke, teachers do not make much." Luke laughed to himself and said "I know you don't. That's why I thought it would be funny to ask."

Luke, now a student in my World History class, asked me that question a year ago during my first year of teaching. He was simply trying to be funny and make conversation during a study hall, not realizing I asked myself that same question almost every day that year and continue to every day.

I love teaching, that is the true answer to the question. I enjoy helping advanced students push themselves harder than they thought possible. I enjoy help struggling students learn how to learn and become confident in their abilities when no other teacher believed in them. Who wouldn't love that? Then why was I constantly asking myself why I was teaching if I knew the answer. The reason is because teaching is HARD. Educators tell you that when you are studying to be a teacher, but it is impossible to fully understand it until you are on your own trying to figure it out. Your first year you have to build your materials, learn classroom management, learn the ways of the school and occasionally sleep. In addition you are playing the role of counselor, mentor, role model, advocator, advise giver, coach, club mentor and more. You come to the school to teach a lesson you put hours into but leave wondering if your student's father will kick her out of the house again and make her walk the streets. You wonder if your strategic seating chart helped the girl who was bullied in her old school make a friend in this one. You want to know if your quiet student made the soccer team, if the actor in your class had a good audition for that commercial, if the surgery of your student with a tumor went well, and how on earth he can deal with that without telling another soul at school. You go home with a list of things to do, papers to grade and lessons to plan, but wondering why you became a teacher if there are more important things for your students to learn than when the Roman Empire fell or what led to the rise of the Renaissance.

It is after going home with those worries in your head for months on end that you finally figure out what your job is. Yes, you may have to teach your students the history of the world, how to write an essay and how to analyze documents, but that is not your real job. Your real job is to teach them the life skills to survive, to become good people and most importantly, to realize their full potential. It is then that you beginning designing your lessons around life skills that are taught through content. You ask them to analyze why history is important then ask them to reflect on whether knowing their personal history makes people better understand them. You ask them if one person can make a difference in the world when you analyze Julius Caesar. You make them have meaningful conversation with their classmates when learning about the Black Plague and reflect on how lives can change in the blink of the eye. You make them analyze their personal life journey when learning about the journey people went on in the times of the Silk Road (Silk Road Project). You make them work in teams to know what it's like to work together and you make them fail as a team to teach them how to go down as one and rise up as one. You make them question themselves and everything they know, constantly asking them what history they are making and if they are making a difference. You teach them responsibility, perseverance and hard work. Yes, you are teaching them content, but it is so much more than that.

Why did I become a teacher? I wanted to make history fun. Why am I still a teacher? I want my students to have the life skills to make it in the world and I want to see them succeed. I want them to walk out of my classroom better than they walked in and at the end of every class I ask myself if I have done that.

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