Today’s post is a handout for a teacher training conducted by my wife and I entitled, “KEYS TO TEACHING SUCCESS.” This training is based off the research from my wife’s dissertation entitled, “Exposing Star Teachers of Children in Poverty.” The abstract for this study is found at the conclusion of this post.

E.NGAGE 

• GREETING – Shake hands at the door and welcome each person and have everyone fill out a nametag.
• POEM – I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. – Haim G. Ginott

X-PLORE 

• GOOD THINGS…
• THINK/ PAIR/ SHARE – Tell me something good about an important teacher in your life!

C.OMMUNICATE

1) COLLABORATION 

• The goal of a classroom is for everyone to be learning together. The role of teacher and student can be interchangeable and should be.
• What do you want to learn today?
• Parking lot strategy
• SEVEN NORMS OF COLLABORATION 

2) POSITIVE RAPPORT

• The Handshake
• Social contract
• Praise reports – HIGH/LOW ACTIVITY

3) CLASSROOM ROUTINES AND PROCEDURES 

• What works for you?
• Time out sign
• Thumbs up sign
• ABC’s OF LEARNING

4) HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS 

• Play the Limbo – You can achieve wherever you set the bar. If you set it low for the limbo, you can achieve that. If you set the bar as the pole vault, with practice and coaching, you can reach that as well.
• ACTIVITY: Give all participants a popsicle stick. On one side write an expectation you have for your STUDENTS.

5) HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR SELF 

• You must believe that your students can learn and that you as the teacher have the skills and strategies to make it happen.
• Persistence on steroids!!!
• How do you increase your efficacy?
• EXAMPLE- through training and prayer
• ACTIVITY: On the other side of the popsicle stick write an expectation you have for YOURSELF.

6) LEADERSHIP POSITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM

• What are ways you can involve the students in leadership roles?
• Examples– pass out/ collect supplies, help clean up, team leader, teach a portion of the lesson, creating and monitoring the social contract

7) ROLE MODELING

• To/With/By

E.MPOWER

• We will have a time of Q&A to over the materiel we covered in the session. ONE WORD – We will have everyone go around the room and state ONE WORD that shows your biggest takeaway from the session.

L.AUNCH

I AM A TEACHER PLEDGE – Jon Gordon

I pledge to be a positive teacher and positive influence
on my fellow educators, students and school.

I promise to be positively contagious and share more smiles, laughter, encouragement and joy with those around me.

I vow to stay positive in the face of negativity. When I am surrounded by pessimism I will choose optimism.

When I feel fear I will choose faith.

When I want to hate I will choose love.

When I want to be bitter I will choose to get better.

When I experience a challenge I will look for opportunity to learn and grow and help others grow.
When faced with adversity I will find strength.

When I experience a set-back I will be resilient. When I meet failure I will fail forward and create a future success.

With vision, hope, and faith, I will never give up
and will always find ways to make a difference.

I believe my best days are ahead of me, not behind me.

I believe I’m here for a reason and
my purpose is greater than my challenges.

I believe that being positive not only makes me better,
it makes my students better.

So today and every day I will be positive and strive to make a positive impact on my students, school and the world.

This training has been conducted at:

• Living Faith Tabernacle – Everett, WA – Pastor: Travis Miller
• The Calvary Church – Cincinnati, OH – Pastor: Tom Ellis, Norm Paslay II
• Abundant Faith – Evansville, IN – Pastor: James Maroney 
• Apostolic Faith Tabernacle – Ferndale, MI – Pastor: David McCool