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You are now tuned into Virtually I'm Possible presents Lazy Learning Land podcast,
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where we teach teachers how to be lazier, yet more effective to increase student performance,
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but decrease teacher burnout and stress.
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I'm S.Dot, your hostess that always gives you the mostest while doing the least.
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Today's episode is sponsored by Virtually I'm Possible's Teacher Pay Teacher
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Store, where you can get secondary math activities and games that are color
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changing, self-checking, no prep and no grading.
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Visit Virtually I'm Possible on Teachers Pay Teachers for all your lazy secondary
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math teaching tool needs.
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And now for today's episode.
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Hey, hey, hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Lazy Learning Land Podcast.
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This is your girl, S.Dot. I'm just so excited for you guys to be with me today.
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I promise you, we have got an amazing show.
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And I just want you to know, for those of you who this may be your first time,
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I have over 15 years of experience working in the hood schools,
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title one schools, inner city schools, whatever you wanna call it.
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But I pretty much work where most people People don't even want to drive by.
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So I have definitely developed a ton of great strategies that have helped me
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to thrive. I've only taught in the hood schools.
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I love teaching where I am. And I see myself retiring from working with this
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demographic after 30 plus years.
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So let's get right into it. So today we are going to harp on the topic of no
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risk, big reward, and that's the risk-free learning environment.
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Now for me, when it comes down to teaching, I know that working with the lower end students,
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they really don't even like, I teach math and that is like 90% of the world's
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least favorite subject just across the board.
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And so you already have that going against you and then turn around and I'm
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teaching the lower performing students.
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And so it's like, man, I'm just losing on both ends, it seems like.
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And I came up with this idea of a risk-free learning environment.
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No, I'm not the person that copyrighted it, but I definitely have some really
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great strategies and ideas on implementing it that when I share it with teachers
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at my schoolhouse, It really just helps them to transform the culture of their classroom.
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So this whole superpower, being able to read minds, shows up in countless books,
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comic books, movies, television shows.
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It's just like one of those things, right?
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And where this superpower actually fails to show up in real life,
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like how wonderful would it be if as a teacher, we were able to read our students' minds?
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But we can't, you know? But it would be nice because we would know whatever
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devious act they're thinking of doing before they actually do it.
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And we could easily catch our students and lies.
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I mean, come on, the list of possibilities is endless if teachers could actually read minds.
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But most importantly, we would know what our students were thinking to get their answer.
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Like whenever they're answering questions, like we would be able to know how
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that hamster was running on the wheel and what that hamster helped their brain
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to come up with as to why those words came out of their mouth or why that answer
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is on their paper or on their computer.
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Or like we would just have deeper insight into these kids' minds.
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In order for us as educators to best help our students, they gotta show their
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work or they have to be able to verbally or writtenly, I don't even know if writtenly is a word,
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but have to be able to verbalize or write their explanations on how they arrive to their answers.
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Because sometimes it's a thought process error, or not just necessarily your
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answer's wrong. It's not clear, cut and dry or wrong.
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It's there's something faulty in your thought process that contributed to you being wrong.
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And we kind of need to know what that is so we can fix it.
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But it is like really, really, really, really, really
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frustrating to like every teacher ever that has ever taught or tutored a student
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and they either don't show their work or they have this just so such an amazing
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and elaborate explanation of, I just guessed,
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or it just look right. Right.
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Even worse is when we encounter those students who actually just refuse to even
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try to answer the question because their go to response is, oh,
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I mean, I ain't try because I mean, I know how to do it. I know how to start.
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I don't know how to do this. Miss, you ain't never taught me this.
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I don't know what I'm doing. I went here when you taught this.
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I was sick. I stayed home that day. Like whatever.
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But they just blurt, you know, wonderful excuses out like that about,
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you know, why they didn't even try the question.
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And whether it's because they didn't explain or show their work or explain their
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answer or whether they just did not try at all, we still end up in the same spot,
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which is we are unable to effectively do our job if we cannot pinpoint and determine
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where the disconnect is happening for our students.
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So now that we have identified this problem, what's the why behind this?
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Like, why are our students so afraid to try?
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And basically, I've narrowed it down to these two things.
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And yes, there's probably more, but they all seem, our roads seem to lead back
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to these two main pillars or main ideas as to why our students are afraid to try.
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And to me, that first reason is just a pure fear of failure.
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Like one of the most common reasons students avoid attempting questions is that
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they are unsure about is the fear of failing,
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the fear of being wrong, the fear of looking dumb to their peers or even to
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their teachers, sometimes even to their parents.
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Like from this fear of looking dumb or the fear of possibly being called dumb
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or stupid stupid, grows the mindset that if I can just avoid answering altogether.
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I am pretty much 100% guaranteed that I can never be called dumb or labeled
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dumb or teased as being dumb or have to receive a bad grade because I tried and I got it wrong.
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So therefore, a bad grade means I'm dumb.
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So it alleviates all of that just by flat out refusing to answer.
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Or then they can always hold on to wealth.
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I mean, yeah, I failed, but that's because I didn't even try.
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Like, I bet you I could have passed if I would have actually tried.
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But I mean, I just didn't feel like it.
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But they do this repeatedly and then that's why they got these D's and F's.
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That's a whole nother ballgame. But the second reason why students are afraid
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to try is they just lack confidence.
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There is a sheer lack of confidence.
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Man, y'all, confidence just plays a major role in life in general,
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like not even just in the realm of the classroom.
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But, you know, we're adults. We've seen people with low self-esteem and how
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they function inside of society, outside of the classroom. We've seen them in the workplace.
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We've seen them in social settings. Like you can spot the not like the person
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that does not have confidence.
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But a student who lacks confidence does not believe that they actually possess
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the skill set to get the hard questions right. Right now, I got kids.
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If I pull, you know, I teach right now, I'm teaching mostly juniors.
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If I pull out a sixth grade math skill, oh, everybody's hands up because it's
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something that they learned so long ago.
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They've had so much time to practice on it. They just feel so good and confident.
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I got everybody's hand raised.
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But the moment I pull out something that's on grade level, it's like crickets. you can hear a pin drop.
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But often the lack of confidence really can develop from past experiences of
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them actually trying and being unsuccessful, aka failing, where usually where
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there was some sort of negative feedback.
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And there could have been some teasing, there could have been some name calling,
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or there could be some put downs.
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And I'm not just talking about out from peers, I have witnessed adults put down
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students in classrooms because they did not get an answer correct.
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So the teasing, the name calling, the being put down is not isolated to just
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peer to peer interaction.
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It's also student to teacher interactions where this negativity can stem from as well.
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But I do believe that these two factors alone should be enough for most educators
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to consider trying to implement a risk-free learning environment.
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And we're getting ready to get into exactly how to get her done, pal.
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So we are going to move into how I create my risk-free learning environment.
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So I'm just going to open up my playbook to you guys. I'm going to let you in on my playbook.
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The first thing that I do for my students, and keep in mind,
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I do teach math, but all of these skills and concepts, all of these These ideas
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can be tailored for any subject area.
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So I may use more math examples, but again, it can be tailored to any subject
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area and really to any grade level as well.
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But the first thing I do to help create my risk-free learning environment is I give grades on effort.
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Yeah. You know, the participation grades that they say that you can't give for real.
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Well, I give them. I have, you know, a little checklist of criteria for being
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able to earn up to the maximum amount of points, but it really is based on effort.
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So this is what I tell my students.
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I tell my kids at the beginning of the year, I'm talking the first day of school,
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the first week of school,
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and I tell them repeatedly almost every day to the last day of school that the
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only time a wrong answer will count against them in my class is when they are
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taking a quiz or they are taking a test.
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All other problems, all other questions that they do, be it the bell ringers,
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be it class work, homework,
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et cetera, all that stuff are graded on effort and their willingness to fully
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engage in the learning process.
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So for me, for example, students can earn full credit on an assignment for trying,
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showing their work or explaining in writing, making corrections to their paper
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and then doing a one to two sentence reflection after they make the correction.
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And I only give half credit if they try the problem, but they don't actually
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take the time to make corrections and reflect. So.
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That whole process of just rewarding them for being a willing learner,
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for them being willing to engage fully in the learning process,
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that means way more to me than an actual correct answer.
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Because we know that through practice, we are able to pinpoint areas of growth
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for our students and able to address those to be able to build them up to where they need to be.
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But anyway, each student is responsible for their own reflection,
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even if we go over the problem as a class or in a small group,
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because not everybody makes the same mistakes.
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So they need to be able to pinpoint, OK, well, this is where my thought process
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went left when I and I should have went right.
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And when they're able to correct and reflect on it, then they're,
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you know, making new neural pathways in the right direction.
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If they never correct and reflect, then their neural pathways are still stuck
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in the wrong way, going the wrong way, in the wrong thought process.
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And there's very little growth from that.
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So that's why it goes from either 100% credit because you engage in the full
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process all the way through correct and reflect, or you get that 50% and a literal
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50%. Hey, thank you for trying. We're halfway there.
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You can earn these other points on another day when you're ready to do the other
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half of the learning process.
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And that's just how I treat my kids. And I will admit, this is not something that is perfect.
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It does take a few days for students to get used to the idea of a risk-free
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concept and that making mistakes are okay as long as you can learn from them.
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And once they catch on that I'm really only docking points if they did not try
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or if they did not correct and reflect.
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They tend to kind of dive in headfirst and be like, oh, that's easy.
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And they jump on the bandwagon.
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But going back a little bit to.
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The reflection, sometimes the reflection part is not written.
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If I'm doing one-on-one immediate, like real-time feedback with my students
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where I'm walking around the classroom or they're bringing their papers to my
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desk, then sometimes I'll say,
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you know, okay, so tell me what mistake were you making? What error did you see?
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All right, now how should you approach a similar problem the next time?
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And sometimes the reflection piece will be one-on-one verbally with me versus
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being written. But again, that's definitely teacher discretion.
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But I don't want you to think that the reflection always has to be written.
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It can be verbal. And other times, if you're busy, you can't get to every kid.
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So you may have them turn to a neighbor or talk to somebody in their group and
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they discuss, hey, my mistake was this.
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And what I should have done instead was this. So what was your mistake?
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Oh, you know what? I was making that same mistake yesterday.
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But you know what? but I got a little bit better at it. Now today I'm making
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this mistake, but hey, I'm not making the same mistake back to back.
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Go me, go me. So you can have the
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kids also reflect with one another in collaborative conversation as well.
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So there's definitely different ways that you can implement it,
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but try to consider giving grades on the students fully engaging in the learning process.
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Moving right along, number two, number dos. Ghosts give credit for participating
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in games and activities.
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Now, this is different from number one. Number one is they're doing a worksheet.
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They're doing an assignment. They're doing bell work. They're working on their
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homework in class, whatever.
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Like that's what number one is for. Number two is for actual activities,
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whether it's a collaboration activity or it's an individual activity,
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however it goes, but some sort of activity or game that they are participating
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in, you're giving them participation points.
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But again, almost checklist style.
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Here we go. So definitely one of my favorite things to do in a risk-free learning
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environment is to make learning fun.
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Matter of fact, I pride myself on tricking my students into learning.
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And as long as my students are on task, on topic and engaging in the growth
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mindset of perseverance.
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Hey, my rule of thumb is they get an A for the day.
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So my kids know if it's game day, it's an activity day. all I got to do is try
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the whole period and not give up. And I get an A.
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Even if I get every question wrong, as long as I keep trying and keep making
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these little corrections until I keep, so I can keep making progress, I get an A.
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They be baffled by it at first, but they learn to appreciate it.
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Now they get to have fun and they get an A. Win-win.
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But keeping a positive mindset, set, not shutting down and remaining persistent
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while they make multiple sets of corrections is definitely worth a grade in my opinion.
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Like that is taxing. We have our periods are about 50 minutes where I am.
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And if we start the activity within the first five to 10 minutes of class,
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well, you've got at least 40 minutes of engagement with the content.
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And it can be mentally and sometimes emotionally tedious to just keep persevering.
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But I reward them with an A for the day when they do that.
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Now, I do take off points if they are off task, off topic, playing around,
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just sitting there, not using their time wisely.
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So there's ways to lose that A, lose points from that A.
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But if you're on it and you're giving me your best, you get an A for the day.
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But for more tips on how to create highly engaging lessons or how to effortlessly
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use small group games in your classroom flawlessly,
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then you can check out some of my previous posts that I have already listed.
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But again, don't touch that dial until you finish this episode.
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Moving into the third way that I create a risk-free learning environment for
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my classroom is quality over quantity.
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I said at the beginning, I work in the hood. I also work with the lowest 25
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percentile of math students.
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So I'm talking about the bottom of the barrel. I'm talking about the social promotion kids.
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I'm talking about they got D's and F's in middle school in math.
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And they probably got two math classes right now because they failed the math class the year before.
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I'm talking about those kiddos. Okay.
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And the majority of my years has been with this demographic of kids on my campus.
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But I really learned early on that getting students who struggle to successfully
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complete two to three strategic problems is worth way more than trying to force
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that same kid or those same kids to try to complete 10 questions.
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Questions I get more out of them by giving them quality questions that hit on misconceptions.
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That are scaffolded and kind of build up like I get more out of them in those
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three questions than I ever would in trying to force them to do 10 questions
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and it's kind of like a Jedi mind trick they're like oh all I gotta do is three
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problems and you're like yep but you put 10 problems in in front of them and
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they shut down because they're like, man,
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I barely even know how to do the first question. How am I supposed to get through 10 of these?
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So it also helps them to build up their willingness to try and help to build
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up their confidence because I might not be able to get through 10 questions,
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but I could do these three and they're more willing to engage.
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But again, I ensure that those problems are definitely more enriching that they
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hit on misconceptions from the get-go.
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That way it allows the students to more practice with them because you know
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on standardized tests, on unit tests, they're going to throw those misconceptions in anyway.
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So why not allow your lower performing students to practice those misconceptions,
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problems with those misconceptions in them and those quality problems so that
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they get more practice and the
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misconception to them really isn't a misconception, it's a normalception.
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So my English people, please don't look that word up.
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And I do apologize in advance if I offended you because normalception is not a word.
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It is a Carterism, but I think I'm going to coin that.
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But again, pro tip, pro tip, pro tip, pro tip.
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Leave the higher volume for your honors and more advanced students.
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Feel free to add on more questions for your lower performing students after
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they master the essential ones.
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So you know they may start off
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not really getting it but once they hit the ground running then yeah give them
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three more questions but again build them up to it and celebrate it if they
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only get to two out of the three oh my gosh make a big deal out of it promise
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you you'll get way more out of your kids if you're able to do that.
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00:21:06,393
So this one right here, y'all, this one right here is my fourth one.
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And I feel like some people gonna want to fight me on this one.
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Like, I just feel like some people, somebody in the audience is gonna want to
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leave a comment going toe to toe about why this one right here just don't make any sense.
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00:21:26,833
And the fourth way that I create a risk-free learning environment is everything
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is open notes except for tests.
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I repeat, yeah, I said it, everything in my classroom, every assignment,
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every practice problem,
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everything, including a quiz is open notes except for test.
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So let me just kind of break this down. What I mean is I make sure to quiz my
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students like twice on the same content.
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Content so the first time I give
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my kids like a quiz or something I use it as data it is strictly informational
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it is a formative I keep it short it's you know anywhere between one to three
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questions just depending and I use that data to determine what medicine each of my students needs,
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so bell work I use that as formative data
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to see where you know what misconceptions they have homework same
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deal you know I just that's that's
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what I do if I give a quiz the first time I quiz them on that topic it's still
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00:22:37,093
formative data I'm still trying to figure out how can I help you where do you
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need help how can I meet you where you are and I figure out what interventions
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the kids need based off of the mistakes that they're making based off the answers they're giving.
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What medicine do they need in order to be more successful?
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And I usually do what's called a medicine day using quotations because I tell them, I'm like, hey.
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You know, you took a quiz and we saw some mistakes.
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So your brain, you know, is a little sick. Your brain's got a little cough.
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Your brain's got the hiccups. Your brain's sneezing. Your brain's got the flu.
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Your brain's got something going on. We need to give your brain some medicine
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so that you are able to be more successful on this content.
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So what I'm giving you on medicine day is what you as an individual actually needs.
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It's tailored to your actual areas, growth or areas of weakness,
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however you like to, you know, whichever way your pendulum swings when you're
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talking to your students.
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But after the medicine day, I then re-quiz them and I use that second quiz as
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a grade that goes into the grade book.
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And what students like about this approach is that it takes the anxiety out of being wrong.
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They know the quiz is only being
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given to help them since deep down most
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of our kiddos really just want to be successful when
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I give them these open note quizzes these open note bell works open note class
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works like they literally throw up on the paper because they know I'm just using
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00:24:19,074
this to help them so it circles back to the only time a wrong answer will count
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against you is on a quiz or a test for my kids.
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No, not the first quiz, but after I've given you your medicine and you should
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be stronger, now I'm gonna count that quiz as a great. It's still open note though.
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And it just, it allows them to do whatever they think is best to answer the question.
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And then it gives us as the teacher, the best type of feedback that we need
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to be able to better help them and to give our kids the right medicine in and
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the right dosage to help move them,
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progress them in the content.
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I want to cycle back a little bit in this point of everything is open notes except for tests.
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And part of the rationale behind that is kids will be more engaged in your lecture
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days when they know that their notes mean something, when they know that they
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have the opportunity to use them again.
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And it's not just busy work. Their notes actually have meaning.
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You're going to have a lot more engagement when you are doing your lecture days.
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00:25:30,086
And by allowing your students to go back and forth between their notes and the
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activity, the notes and the quiz, the notes and the bell work,
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they are doing that multiple exposures.
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It is causing them to have to re-engage with your notes multiple times,
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which is in a way a form of helping them to study and just be able to recognize certain things.
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And a pro tip a pro tip when
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it comes down to parents when you can
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tell a parent that you let their kid use their
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00:26:04,106
notes on everything except for a test do you understand how much more that parent
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is on your side when their child is failing because they're like so what are
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00:26:10,666
you doing how do you get to use your notes and everything and you still have
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an f that means you're not trying or that means you're not taking good notes
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it just really helps to just kind of smooth things out
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with the parent when they find out that their child is being not so responsible
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when they get the opportunity to actually use their notes on everything but test.
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And I'm going to be fully open and transparent with you guys.
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I totally, my ADD kicked in when I was recording and I was supposed to have five points.
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And number four was everything is open notes except for test.
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Test number five was supposed to be first quiz is the medicine.
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Second quiz is the grade.
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And when I was looking at my outline, my eyes jumped. I said everything is open notes except for tests.
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00:27:03,626
But then my eyeballs jumped down to my outline about the first quiz being the medicine.
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And so I ended up having to merge the two.
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So technically, I'm supposed to be giving out five tips on how to create a risk-free
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learning environment. Again, number four is everything is open notes except for test.
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00:27:20,546
Number five is the first quiz is the medicine. Second quiz is the grade.
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00:27:25,986
So I kind of merged the two. But, you know, that's what ADD will do for you
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00:27:28,506
sometimes. And, you know, I'm human.
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00:27:33,506
And the way my time is set up is I'm not going to re-record this.
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But, you know, I'm hoping that you guys are able to decipher and split the two for yourself.
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And I appreciate y'all's understanding and you allowing me to just be human.
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Thank you for allowing me to be human. In conclusion, for creating a risk-free
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00:27:57,253
learning environment, the moral of this entire story is to reward your students
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00:28:00,413
for their willingness to engage in the learning process, y'all.
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00:28:06,173
Reward them for being risk takers. Reward them for giving whatever you put in front of them a try.
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00:28:10,933
Reward them for being persistent. reward them for making corrections until they
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get the correct process or they get the correct answer.
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I'm going to just keep it real. A risk-free learning environment allows students to just say, F it.
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I'm going to give it my best shot. Good, bad, ugly, right, wrong.
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00:28:31,673
When your students are in this mindset, it allows us as educators to collect
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the necessary data we need to truly individualized, to differentiate,
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and to meet our students where they are.
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00:28:43,913
I get the most out of my students when they comprehend and understand that my
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ultimate goal is to help them on whatever level they show me they are at.
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And when they understand that, they are willing to show me they're at a level zero.
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They're willing to show me they're at a level red. Because they say,
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no matter where I am, my teacher is going to help me get better.
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00:29:04,493
There is less shame for those babies.
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00:29:10,033
Every kid gets some type of medicine. Even my higher performing students, they get medicine.
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00:29:13,253
Sometimes it's more challenging questions.
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00:29:17,073
Sometimes I move them on to a different topic.
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00:29:20,953
Sometimes it's the same type of problems, but maybe it's work problems.
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00:29:27,333
Like I find a way to give every kid their medicine to just take them up a notch or two notches.
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00:29:31,153
It's great medicine. It's great for intervention.
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And your students will appreciate you a whole lot more when they feel like you see them.
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Simply because every kid is getting what they need, they have no shame in it.
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00:29:48,256
But if you happen to be looking for risk-free secondary math activities,
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00:29:51,996
again, check out Virtually Unpossible's Teacher Pay Teacher Store.
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00:29:56,536
And this is going to wrap up our episode for today.
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I want to thank you guys for tuning in to today's episode of Virtually Unpossible Presents sense.
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Lazy Learning Land podcast.
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00:30:13,956
Comment below your thoughts on creating a risk-free learning environment.
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00:30:19,196
Which of my four five-ish tips resonated with you?
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00:30:23,116
Which ones are you like, hey, I never really thought about that,
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00:30:24,836
but I think I'm going to give that a try.
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00:30:29,456
And which of these risk-free learning environment tips are you already a rock
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00:30:33,296
star at? Hey, maybe you know more than I do.
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00:30:38,436
Feel free to comment below on what you're doing that I might not have even mentioned.
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00:30:49,016
And since there is strength in lazy, be sure to like, follow and subscribe to this podcast,
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00:30:55,416
my blog on virtuallyimpossible.net and our social media platforms,
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Pinterest and Instagram.
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00:31:06,436
You can find us on Instagram at virtually underscore I'm underscore possible, no apostrophe.
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00:31:10,556
So you can feel more at home among other lazy learners.
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00:31:15,236
This is your girl S.Dot signing off. And until next episode,
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00:31:21,156
remember to live long and lazy and never, ever work too hard.
