EdTalk – given at the CA Teachers Summit 2015 on July 31st at Brandman University, Roseville, CA.

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Today I would like to talk to you about the growing value being placed on the noncognitive skills and abilities of our students.  Changes in academic attitudes and behaviors, such the desire to learn or the willingness to think critically cannot be demanded from a student.  Students must find a reason to learn, and that reason is very often the passion that you have for learning and your relationship with the students.

First, a little about how I came to be here today:  I grew up on a small farm in Northern Florida (show map), the oldest of 4 boys.  Neither of my parents had graduated from high school and college was a foreign word to my family.  Although I had always worked in the fields for my family, my father apprenticed me when I was 12 years old to a local tobacco farmer.  I also picked peaches, bell peppers, cabbage and much more.  I eventually made it out of the fields and got a job as a meatcutter at an IGA grocery store.  I gave every other paycheck to my parents, which wouldn’t have been too bad if my mom hadn’t always started crying right there in the store.

I was very fortunate that I had teachers who believed in what I could become.  They encouraged me and helped me see a future that was foreign to me, a future that I could not connect with my life to that point.  I had faith in them, so I sought out that future.

When Mr. Cooper, my math teacher, gave me a C on my report card (the first C I ever made), he told me that I could do better, and he expected me to do better, I believed him.  And I did better.  I graduated Valedictorian and I credit Mr. Cooper with helping get there.

When my instructor at City College told me that I would need a 98% on the Calculus final to get an A in the class, and that no one had ever gotten that on his final, Mr. Cooper was there with me when I my score came back as a 99%.

In 2013, I was nominated for Elk Grove District Teacher of the Year.  I have never been the kind of person to desire the spotlight, but I felt that my school deserved some positive attention.  After 8 months of interviews and classroom visitations, I received a call from the California Superintendent of Schools’ office.  I had been selected as a California Teacher of the Year, and that I was chosen to represent California at the national level.  Dozens of students gathered around me to celebrate.  At that moment, seeing their joy and pride, I knew that I had done the right thing.

I teach at Florin High School where 100% of the students are on free lunch.  We have 19 different primary languages at our school, and many of the students know the feel of poverty as I did.  Many don’t see education as a path to a better life.  So it is left up to the teachers to show them.  Dewey and Friere and many others have said that the best learning takes place in the context of the life experiences of the students.  With 19 different cultures at our school, trying to relate to the life experiences of our students is challenging at best.  The relationships that our teachers develop help overcome the cultural differences of our students. For example, the advisor for the Indian club is Latino.  And I was the advisor for the Muslim Club for two years.  We very often step out of our comfort zone to learn about our students’ cultures and build relationships with them.  This is even more imperative now that we have the Common Core State Standards.

After giving Common Core a try for the last couple of years, I think I have figured out how to teach it.  I have this new magic wand here (don’t mind the duct tape).  You see, the way I figure it is that if I have to teach Perseverance, grit, tenacity, abstract reasoning, critical thinking, and how to communicate with others, I might as well whip out a little magic for it.  After all, how in the world am I going to get a student to persevere when they don’t want to.  For that matter, what the heck is grit anyway?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today to tell you that there is no magic wand that will get students to reason abstractly or be tenacious.

During one of my evaluations as a student-teacher many years ago, my mentor said to me that my delivery of the content and the structure of my lessons were as good as he had ever seen, but I seem to be missing something… something he called “with-it-ness.”  I was upset.  What is “with-it-ness” and how did I miss learning it?

Over the years, I have noticed the same absence of “with-it-ness” with the student-teachers I have worked with.  That “with-it-ness” is the relationship side of teaching.  The student-teachers were all very knowledgeable in math content, but when it came to establishing relationships with students, most seemed very inexperienced.

I believe that it has always been critical for teachers to learn to establish relationships early on in their careers, but now it their jobs depend on it.  Two aspects of learning that are finally getting more attention are the non-cognitive skills and the social-emotional skills.  Both are heavily dependent on student-teacher relationships and administrators are trying to find ways to measure them.

What I mean by non-cognitive and social-emotional skills are the things that are not content knowledge or core academic skills, but matters for academic success.

• Professionalism
• Grit
• Motivation
• Persistence
• Tenacity
• Confidence

In order for us, as teachers, to change and foster these skills, we must gain the trust and respect of the students.

Some teachers say that they have learned a lot from instructors who were cold and uncaring, but great in their content knowledge.  Would those instructors have been able to inspire confidence and persistence in a student that did not have it?  Did those instructors reach every student?

When the students come to my classroom for the first time, I don’t expect their trust or demand the respect.  I have a wooden stool in the front of my classroom.  I pull that stool closer to them and I tell them that “For the next 180 or so days (and perhaps much longer), I will be like a father to you.  I will give you every bit of me that I possibly can, but I will expect the same from you.  I hope that over the next few weeks that you will recognize how much I care for each and every one of you.”

And then I live up to it.  There is no “almost” in fulfilling a promise like that.  You do it or don’t say it. If a student needs me, then I am there.  No matter how lousy my day is going, I am honestly glad to see them when they walk through the door.  I have water and granola bars when they are hungry.  When RT is late, which is often, I allow them to eat breakfast in my room.

I sponsor one or two Seniors every year for their Senior activities.  I help pay for their AP exams, college applications, calculators and computers.  My wife has sewn buttons on sweaters and taught students how to cook for themselves and I have fixed up bicycles for them to ride.

A few years ago, one of my Seniors told me that she was going to have surgery in the Fall and that her mom was unemployed.  She was not going to be able to attend any of the Senior year events.  I offered to sponsor her for the Senior picnic, the Senior ball and graduation.  It did not cost as much as you may think.  Well her surgery did not go well and she missed over a month of school.  I went to all of her teachers and worked out a schedule to help her stay up on her work. She recovered, passed her classes, and had a wonderful time at Senior ball.  On the last day of school, after all the students had gone home, the student and her mom walked into my room with dish after dish of cookies and desserts.  The student then said that after the surgery had gone wrong, she had considered suicide.  She said that my unconditional caring for her had helped her to come back and enjoy life again.  We were all mopping the tears out of our eyes by that time.

A teacher does not have to go to those extremes to establish relationships.  If you try too hard, which I often see in new teachers, it seems fake and the students recognize it immediately.

Subtle signs that you care are a sincere greeting at the door, stopping by their desks to ask how their day is going, a Hershey’s Hug (DON’T GIVE KISSES) when it’s obvious they are having a bad day.  Sometimes a gentle pat on the shoulder as you walk by.  Each teacher has a unique personality.  Be sincere and let students know you care in your own way.

And if you are comfortable with telling jokes to your students, do it.  I was told when I got my credential not to smile until December.  But students need to see you smile.  They need to see you laugh.

I recently told my Algebra 1 class about an incident in the attendance office.  A young man came to school late and asked the attendance clerk, Ms. Rae, for a pass.  She looked up and said “Young man, is that a lizard on your shoulder?”  And he said “No Ma’am, it’s a NEWT and his name is Tiny.”  Ms. Rae asked “Why is his name Tiny?” and the student said “Because he is my newt (minute)!”

Well, not a single person in the whole Algebra 1 class laughed.   Not one.  So I said “Do you get it?  My newt… minute?”  Still nothing.  So I walked over to the board and I wrote MY NEWT and MINUTE.  I said “My newt and minute.”  One student said “Mr. Smith, that spells minute.”  I said it can also be pronounced minute.  Meaning tiny.  They said “Why didn’t you tell us in the first place?”  I said “Forget it, let’s go on with the lesson.”  About then, one student named Aleyna, who sat near me, leaned over and said “Tell it to us again, Mr. Smith, it will be funny this time.”

The value of those relationships that you develop is going to grow significantly over the next few years.  Studies are emerging that the grades that students receive in your classes are greater indicators of success than single event assessments, like AP exams and SAT’s. (Kurlaender, Reardon, & Jackson, 2008; Neild & Balfanz, 2001; Zau & Betts, 2008)

A 2009 study by Bowen, Chingos, and McPherson revealed that high school grades were a much better predictor of college graduation that ACT’s or SAT’s largely due to the fact that high school grades tended to capture those noncognitive skills that are so important for success later in life.

In the near future we’ll see a greater acceptance of noncognitive education among administrators and politicians.  For now, we must help develop ways to measure the noncognitive growth of our students and ways to help new teachers learn to feel comfortable enough to develop sincere student-teacher relationships.

I’m about out of time, so I’d like to highlight what I’ve presented today.

• Student-teacher relationships are not learned in a credential program, but are essential early in a teacher’s career.
• Student-teacher relationships open the door to change in noncognitive skills and abilities by creating a safe and interesting learning environment.
• Common Core State Standards emphasize noncognitive skills particularly in the areas of persistence, communication, and critical thinking.
• Research is adding weight to the value of grades and GPA’s versus single event testing because of the noncognitive skills that grades often measure.

This presentation and Powerpoint is available at CATeach2014.com.

Thank you for being such a wonderful group to speak to today.

References

Bowen, W.G., Chingos, M.M., and McPherson, M.S. (2009) Crossing the finish line: Completing college at America’s public universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Farrington, C. A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T. S., Johnson, D. W., & Beechum, N. O. (2012). Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance–A Critical Literature Review. Consortium on Chicago School Research. 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.