It's No Joke

Competency 2.8: Create a safe and positive classroom environment in a culture of respect and collaboration

This past week a teacher sent me a great—and timely—article from the editorial pages of the New York Times on the links between childhood trauma and adult outcomes.  If you get a chance, click on the following link and read the short editorial and focus on the significance of a safe and positive classroom to a student who has had any type of trauma as a child: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/opinion/brooks-the-psych-approach.html?hp 

Here is the kicker: I contend that sitting in all of our classrooms, whether we know it are not, are students who fit this description.  For these students, a safe and positive classroom is not just a good idea; it is essential for them to learn.

What does a safe and positive classroom actually look like?  What would an observer see and be able to document in a room that has a culture of respect and collaboration?  These are the questions that must be answered in order to score this competency.

I have intentionally stayed away from the “Improvement Necessary” and “Ineffective” indicators during these emails about the Teacher Effectiveness Rubric, but today I am going to make an exception.  I want to make two points, one focusing on the negative and one focusing on the positive.  Then I will end with the indicators for this competency.  I am very interested in hearing your feedback on this topic, so let me know what you think after you have finished reading.

The Negative: Sarcasm

One of the indicators in the “Ineffective” category speaks directly to sarcasm, and many of the others refer to respect and collaboration, or rather lack thereof.  I will deal with collaboration and respect in the next section, but I want to make one point about sarcasm.  The longer I am in education, the more convinced I am that sarcasm has no place in school.  I want to state that as clearly as I can because I recognize that some of you may disagree. 

Sarcasm is so prevalent, so ubiquitous, in mass and social media that we may find it easy to overlook the dangers.  Sarcasm takes the format of a joke, and it gets laughs, so it seems harmless.  The reality is, however, that sarcasm only “works” if it embarrasses someone.  Furthermore, it has tremendous potential to be misunderstood because it always contains a “hidden message.”  The students most likely to misunderstand the intent of the sarcastic statement are those students who process information slowly, have different language or cultural backgrounds, or have trouble inferring (such as a student on the autism spectrum). 

Even if a student isn’t the direct target of the sarcasm, many students will internalize the embarrassment and will choose to avoid risks.  All of us have experienced times where we hoped someone was joking but we weren’t sure.  What we are most likely to do in a case like this is to shut down and avoid drawing attention to our lack of understanding, which is the last thing we want to happen with students in our classes. 

I am aware of the counter-arguments, and you may be able to convince me that sarcasm between two equals is appropriate.  The problem is, of course, that teachers and students are not equals.  For good reason, there is an imbalance of power.  So I have come to the conclusion that when sarcasm is used in school two things happen: First, if you choose to use it, it will, eventually and inevitably be misunderstood and come back to bite you.  Second, it will hurt students you least suspect and in ways you can’t guess. 

Okay, I will now step off my soapbox….

The Positive: Respect and Collaboration

Not long into my teaching career, I came to the unsettling realization that as a teacher I cannot make students do anything.  (By the way, I learned this lesson again when I became an administrator.) It was a bit of a shock, but it did change my perspective.  Certainly, I can encourage, nudge, create consequences, and influence choices, but the bottom line is that everyone, including students, has free will.  This is not to say that we should lower our expectations, but rather emphasizes that we will have much better results with the positive approach that keeps students with us and does not create an adversarial relationship

Creating a safe and positive classroom environment is all about intentionally being in the learning process with the students.  One of the catch phrases in education right now is Professional Learning Communities.  The phrase may be overused, but the concept is absolutely correct.  Southeastern High School is and should be a learning community—for students and teachers.  This competency is about creating the feeling of community in your classroom.  When you make known that your room is a place where the students and the teacher live and work together, and it is a good place to be, you are trending up on the rubric.  The brain research is crystal clear and reinforced by the Times editorial mentioned earlier: If students do not feel safe, they learn less.  Creating a feeling of safety must be a top priority for all of us.

What do you do to make your classroom feel like a community, a place where you are on the learning journey with and for each other?  Look at the indicators below.  Focus on the key words and phrases: respect, collaboration, rapport, genuine interest, invested. As an experienced observer, I can tell you that it is relatively easy to see and document mutual respect in a classroom.  It is clear by comments and actions when students are invested in the success of their peers, and it is obvious when a teacher is genuinely interested and likes his or her students.

Here are the Indicators for 2.8:

Effective

·         Teacher creates and maintains a safe and positive classroom environment that is conducive to learning.

·         Students are respectful of their teacher and peers.

·         Students are given the opportunities to collaborate and support each other in the learning process.

·         Teacher reinforces positive character and behavior and uses consequences appropriately to discourage negative behavior.

·         Teacher has a good rapport with students, and shows genuine interest in their thoughts and opinions.

·         Teacher demonstrates a genuine interest in student academic goals and activities outside of school.

Highly Effective

·         Teacher models respect and demonstrates positive character traits.

·         Students are invested in the academic success of their peers as evidenced by unprompted collaboration and assistance.

·         Students reinforce positive character and behavior and discourage negative behavior amongst themselves.

Send me your responses, Southeastern.  Sarcastic or otherwise, I am interested to hear your thoughts to both the positive and negative sections above.

Have a great week.

Phil