4 Reasons Why Affirming Students Is The Most Important Goal for Back to School [episode 73]

Emily
Hey there, thanks for joining us today. In today’s episode, we’re discussing why affirming should be your number one goal at back to school and sharing a teacher approved tip for learning students names.

Heidi
We start our episodes with a morning message just like we used to do at morning meeting in our classrooms. This week’s morning message is what is a misconception about teaching that you had before becoming a teacher? Emily, what misconceptions did you have to lose?

Emily
Oh so many! Well, I definitely thought that there would be so much time for all the fun ideas that you see out there for your classroom. You know, the school day seemed so long to me that surely you’d have tons of time for all that fun stuff.

Emily
But it turns out that every minute of your day is jam packed with content that you need to teach. Plus, I highly overestimated how much energy I’d have for pulling off those amazing ideas.

Heidi
Oh, no joke, like the energy factor is just like off the charts.

Emily
Yeah. How about you, Heidi?

Heidi
I think my biggest misconception well, maybe not the biggest but one of the biggest was I just thought that like anything I did, the kids would just be like, oh this is amazing, I’m learning so much. I think it was too much watching of Anna Green Gables when she’s watching like Miss Stacy.

Heidi
She’s just like, Oh, my lovely teacher. Oh, she’s teaching us poetry. And we’re walking in the woods. Like you wanted a second grade. Oh, Captain, My Captain. Really? We would not tell her desk because that’s highly unsafe, of course. Oh, well.

Emily
Well we have some awesome responses from our community to this question. Natalie said that you would ever say anything just once. Christine said I didn’t know I would be teaching grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. how to help kids learn.

Heidi
Oh yeah. The adult education aspect.

Emily
Stacy said that I make enough money to have a house, a car and pay my school loans. Oh, that’s a sad one. But it’s realistic. Roberta said I thought it was just eight to four.

Heidi
Oh, that might have in the first one I had to lose.

Emily
Yeah. And Teresa’s goes right along with that, because she said that my brain would turn off when I drove out of the parking lot worrying about this or that prep and planning extracurricular, etc, is 24/7. And Wendy said that summers were off, hilarious. You’re just not paid for all the work you’re going to do in the summer.

Emily
Janet said that if I was kind, the kids would love me and behave nicely in class. But it’s true. That does help. It does. Kathy said that I could get everything I plan taught. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And Maggie said that the way you decorated your room was all you needed to worry about for the first day, which is exactly the sort of thing we’re going to be talking about in the upcoming episodes because we all know there is lot more than that you need to worry about.

Emily
But when you’re a new teacher, you kind of don’t know that. I definitely spent a lot of time of my very limited time this summer before my first year working on classroom decorations for my camping theme.

Heidi
I think we all did that. Because that was like the one thing you could control.

Emily
We’d love to have you join the conversation over in our teacher approved Facebook group, or on Instagram @2ndstorywindow and that is with a two.

Emily
One thing we’ve learned over the years is that before you start planning anything for the classroom, you need to begin with the end in mind.

Heidi
Yeah, we are much more effective as teachers if we choose activities with an outcome in mind, rather than just choosing something because it looks fun, even if that is sometimes fun.

Emily
As we get ready to dive into more back to school related topics here on the podcast this summer, we knew we needed to start with a foundation: your goals. So today we are talking about the four most important back to school goals. And the reasons why we think affirming should be the most important.

Heidi
But don’t worry if you are deep in the mode of I don’t want to talk about school yet. These goals I think are abstract enough to give you something to think about while you relax at the pool. Without making you feel like you’ve got to immediately tackle your whole to do list.

Emily
Yes. But if you are itching to dive into that to do list, these four goals will give you the framework to identify what’s most important to you and how you can get started working on that. Heidi, why don’t you tell us how you identify these goals as the key to back to school success?

Heidi
I would be happy to. So like with most great ideas in life, these goals are the result of shower thoughts.

Emily
Somehow when you’re in the shower, suddenly all the mysteries of the world become clearer.

Heidi
Yeah, that was definitely the case here. I was washing my hair, mulling over how to be intentional with my first week of school plans.

Emily
Yeah, as you do in the shower.

Heidi
As you do, what else did you think about? And there are so many fun back to school ideas out there. But like, obviously, I couldn’t do them all. So I wanted a way to be certain that I was really focusing on what truly mattered most. Obviously, I needed to be teaching.

Heidi
And there are all of the assessments to give. Setting up procedures and routines are also a huge part of starting the year. But it kind of felt like there was a missing piece of my plan. So after a little more thought, I guess, like was rinse and shampoo, I realized that I needed to include relationship building or connection. Ding!

Heidi
And that felt like I had four really solid goals. So I wanted an easy way to remember them because you know, I’m don’t have any paper in the shower. So the beginning of the year already has that acronym of BOY, boy, right. So I started playing around with that. And I quickly realized that if I changed connecting to affirming, I had attaboy.

Emily
And I think affirming is a better word for it anyway.

Heidi
So my four goals became affirming, training, teaching and assessing, at the beginning of the year.

Emily
ATTABoy so good. If you’re wondering the kind of stuff we get excited about its acronyms and lists.

Heidi
What else do you need? I knew that almost any activity that I could choose to start the school year would naturally fall into one of those categories. They’re pretty broad categories.

Heidi
So instead of choosing an activity, and then trying to see what goal it supported, I wanted to flip that. I wanted to plan with a purpose. So I looked at the blank spaces in my schedule and decided which ATTA BOY goal fit my students needs most at that time. And then I would choose an activity in support of that goal.

Emily
Yes, so we’re beginning with the end in mind. Let’s look at those goals a little deeper. So the first A in ATTA is affirming. Affirming is creating a space that safe and welcoming and nurtures a feeling of community. And obviously we’re going to talk more about that in just a minute. But what’s up next in the acronym?

Heidi
So then we have the first T, which stands for training. Training means having a clear picture of how the class should run, and a plan to explicitly teach how things should be done. This also means dedicating a significant amount of time at the beginning of the year to train kids on procedures and routines everyone’s favorite.

Emily
The second T is the actual teaching that needs to happen. At the beginning of the year, teaching is more about reviewing content from the previous year, and easing into the years curriculum content.

Heidi
And we’re also teaching when we start to introduce the academic routines like number of the day that we will be using all year.

Emily
Yeah, totally. And the last A is for assessing. Assessing looks like making informal observational assessments of academic and social strengths and struggles. It means monitoring how well students are able to meet expectations. And of course, there are some formal assessment that has to happen at the beginning of the year, too.

Heidi
I didn’t always have the goals in this order. My first instinct was to lead off with assessing and teaching. Even after so many first days of school, I’m still just itching to get things up and running. I just want to start diving into my units and making headway with the curriculum.

Emily
Yeah, I think we can all relate to that feeling.

Heidi
But really having all of those first days of school also helped remind me that academics are not the most important part of starting the year. As vital as training, teaching and assessing are they will not be as effective as they could be if I neglect the relationship building that comes with affirming.

Emily
Yeah, it goes back to that old saying your students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Heidi
Yeah, and that’s why I rearranged the letter so that affirming is leading the pack.

Emily
Excellent. So today we’re going to talk about what affirming is, why it’s so important, and how to implement it at the start of the school year.

Heidi
So, what do we mean when we say affirming? We touched on that a little bit a few minutes ago, but for our back to school purposes, affirming means intentionally creating a peaceful classroom that safe and welcoming to students.

Heidi
It’s looking for opportunities to give students ownership and choice. It striving to recognize each student as a unique individual who contribute to our classroom community in valuable ways. And of course, it’s also providing time for fun and community building activities.

Emily
Okay, Heidi, so why is affirming so important?

Heidi
Well, there are a few very compelling reasons to make it your main priority. First of all affirming builds connection. When we focus on affirming our students, we are investing in a relationship with each student, and teaching them the skills to build relationships with each other. And that’s, that’s really powerful.

Emily
Yeah. Another reason affirming is so important is that it helps you create a safe space for your students. We want our classrooms to feel like a haven from whatever else is going on in their lives, a place where they feel completely safe and accepted just as they are. Focusing on affirming our students is how we create that safe space.

Heidi
And, you know, we know that the clock is ticking, that pressure is real, only 140 or so math lessons stand between you and that end of your testing.

Emily
But when that pressure starts to creep in, remind yourself that creating a sense of belonging isn’t just about a feeling, it actually has a direct impact on learning. And that’s the next reason why affirming is so important. When students feel accepted and included, improves their academic performance. Mind blown, right?

Heidi
Kids who feel valued are willing to keep trying when things get hard. They learn to see themselves as capable and they are more willing to contribute to the classroom.

Emily
And there’s yet another reason why we think you should focus on affirming at the beginning of the year, and that is increased engagement. When students feel like they’re valued members of the class, they’re more willing to participate and put an effort in their work, which leads to greater achievement and understanding.

Heidi
And students who feel included in an affirming classroom community are more likely to behave positively. They’re more willing to follow the rules, and they understand how to work through problems. Yeah, and

Emily
Yeah, and our favorite tool for managing behavior problems is to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place. And taking time to build connections is the foundation to that success.

Heidi
Yes, students who are engaged are way less likely to be creating classroom management problems.

Emily
Overall, creating an affirming classroom promotes academic growth, emotional well being and social development. And it makes teaching easier and more enjoyable by increasing student engagement and minimizing potential behavior problems.

Heidi
So have we convinced you yet? Affirming is definitely the most important goal for back to school? So how do we make it happen? It might surprise you to learn that affirming is actually one of the few things you can do for your students before they even arrive at school.

Emily
That is so crazy, but you’re totally right. If you have enough time between getting your class list and the first day of school, you really can start the affirming with some kind of home contact before school starts.

Heidi
I actually talked with a co worker who made home visits to each of her students before school started. Like it was epic, but I was not that dedicated.

Emily
Well also we’re introverts so that sounds really hard.

Heidi
But I mailed a letter to each student. And it was a printed letter, it wasn’t even handwritten. But for a kid to get a letter in the mail, even if it’s a form letter is still exciting.

Emily
Yeah, a couple of my kids have had letters come from their teachers during the summer. And one even had a teacher that came to our house actually started. And that really did impress me and made my child so excited to start school.

Heidi
And with technology, there’s so much you can do now, you could do a welcome to our classroom call or upload a video tour of the new classroom to a private YouTube account.

Emily
My kids teachers have done that one too. We’d get to watch a video of their teacher and get a peek at what’s waiting for them when they arrive. It’s a great way to help calm any new school year anxiety. And it’s especially exciting for kids if they see their names somewhere in the room already.

Heidi
Yeah, names are so important. I don’t think we can underestimate that. I think for simplicity sake, a lot of teachers use student numbers to label things and that’s fine. But each student’s name should be visible somewhere in the room. Even if that’s just on the door.

Emily
Yes, name should be on the door or at the very least just outside the door. That could be a cute door decoration or just a list of names posted next to the room number. That way it’s immediately clear to your students that they’re in the right place and there’s a spot save just for them.

Emily
Honestly, even as an adult I have frequently gone to some event and paused outside thinking Wait, is this supposed to be you know that feeling?

Heidi
Oh, I do that all the time.

Emily
We want those kids who arrive and know immediately this is my classroom. There is a place for me here.

Heidi
I always try to do a memorable door display. Even though decorating my classroom wasn’t my favorite task or my strength, let’s be honest, but by second grade classroom was not near the first grade classrooms, and so my new kiddos would sometimes get turned around trying to navigate the school. So I really wanted a bold doorway to serve as a landmark to any of my last little lambs.

Emily
Beyond home connection during the summer, and displaying student names, there are a lot of activities that you’re probably already doing the support the goal of affirming. For example, and you get to know you activities help kids see that they are a significant part of their new community.

Heidi
And when you give kids a tour of the classroom or of the school, you’re showing kids that they belong here, assigning class jobs, creating a class cheer, making an effort to learn kids names, all communicates that we’re in this together, and it wouldn’t be the same without you.

Emily
Yes, and we want them all to have the sense of how important they are to our community. We also want to help kids develop relationships with each other. So providing partner and small group activities at the start of the year, helps them start to get to know each other. It also gives you the chance to set clear expectations about cooperating and listening from the get go.

Heidi
It’s always nice to have the chance to teach kids how to effectively work together with something low stakes before you want them working together on an academic activity. And we want that groundwork laid from the start that says in this classroom, we work together and treat each other with respect. So Emily, what else can we do to focus on affirming?

Emily
We’re not going to dive into it today. But morning meeting is one of our favorite tools for affirming students and building that classroom community. We’ve got some episodes about this that you can check out and we’ll link those in the show notes.

Emily
And also just don’t forget that having fun together is also a great way to affirm students. And if your principal pushes back, point out that you’ve got science on your side. Social activities like talking and laughing trigger the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that helps us bond with others. Positive social bonds are what foster a sense of psychological safety.

Heidi
And it’s when students feel psychologically safe, that they are more likely to actively participate in discussions, ask questions, push through challenging assignments and communicate properly.

Emily
I hope these days most principals wouldn’t even question time spent on this at the beginning of the year. But it’s good to be prepared if you aren’t so lucky in the admin department.

Heidi
That’s rough. Another aspect of affirming is clearly setting expectations. And that might not be the most obvious choice. But understanding what’s expected of you is what allows you to feel safe in a new place.

Emily
Sometimes I think teachers are reluctant to jump into discussing rules and procedures because they don’t want to bring down the vibe so to speak.

Heidi
But really the opposite is true. Being upfront with our expectations, actually makes kids feel safer. They don’t have to worry that they’re making a mistake.

Emily
I’ve actually become like really passionate about this, that this is actually one of the nicest things you can do for your students is to make it clear upfront.

Emily
Because much like I’ve had that experience of feeling unsure if I was in the right place, I also know what it feels like to feel uneasy somewhere because I don’t know what to expect. It’s a gift to your students to let them know from the start exactly what they can expect in your classroom.

Heidi
Plus, if you are clear about your expectations from the get go, they don’t have to wonder what kind of teacher they have. One of the things that I always taught early on was how to walk in the hallway. And by early on, I mean, like the morning of the first day. Yeah, and this served a lot of purposes. It got the kids up and moving after sitting for a while it taught the procedures.

Heidi
But I think it also gave them a good insight into their teacher. So I had a huge pet peeve about classes walking past my room and causing a distraction. So I refuse to let my students be the ones distracting other classes.

Emily
Yeah. And this is straight out of the Fred Jones book Tools for Teaching, which I think is out of print, but it’s very much worth tracking down. It’s our favorite book to give to new teachers. He recommends that when your class isn’t meeting your expectations of hallway behavior, you stop, turn them around and have them walk back and try again.

Heidi
So that is just what I did. On the first day, I made sure my students got several experiences turning around and trying again. I did this partly because I wanted them to know that I was serious about holding them to a high standard.

Heidi
But I also wanted them to know that I was okay with mistakes. I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t flustered. I was just always completely calm. I wasn’t blaming them. I just wanted them to know, hey, you’re gonna miss out sometimes that’s okay. We can fix it together.

Emily
Showing your students what they can expect from your classroom and from you as a teacher really is a great way to affirm your students to make them feel more comfortable.

Heidi
So as you start planning your new school year, even if that’s just like in the back of your brain at the pool, use the ATTA BOY framework to help you be intentional.

Emily
Start by thinking about the outcome you want in that particular area, then consider what part of the attaboy framework might best apply to the situation. Affirming, training, teaching and assessing. Then with one of those areas in mind, decide how best to specifically meet your goal.

Heidi
And don’t underestimate the importance of affirming. Not only is it essential to creating a positive classroom climate, but it does make your other goals of training, teaching and assessing more effective too.

Emily
We’d love to hear your ideas for building an affirming classroom community. Come join the conversation in our teacher approved Facebook group, or connect with us at Instagram @2ndstorywindow. And that’s what the two.

Emily
Now let’s talk about this week’s teacher approved tip. Each week, we leave you with a small actionable tip that you can apply in your classroom today. This week’s teacher approved tip is learn how to pronounce your students names correctly. Heidi tell us more about this.

Heidi
So names are just so important to who we are as people. They’re one of the first positions we have they matter a lot. And I think it’s pretty common that we have at least one new student on our class list who has a name that might be unfamiliar to us.

Heidi
And that is a call to make the effort to learn how to say that name correctly. So Jasmine Bradshaw at @firstnamebasis on Instagram, shared five ways to sensitively learn to say a name that’s unfamiliar to you. And I just thought that these tips were so good, I thought we should pass them along.

Emily
So tip number one is to ask them to repeat it. You could say something like, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Could you repeat your name for me? Tip two is to ask for some guidance by saying something like, could you pronounce your name for me?

Heidi
Tip three is to ask what would you like to be called? And that can be useful for even names that are already familiar to you. So you might have an Elizabeth on your class list. And you don’t know if she prefers Elizabeth. I taught Elizabeth who is straight up and Elizabeth. Or maybe she likes to be Lizzie or Beth.

Emily
I’ve got one in my neighborhood. That’s Elizabeth, but she goes by Libby. Oh yeah, and I would not have guessed that. And that brings us to tip four don’t give someone a nickname they didn’t ask for.

Emily
Sometimes we might do that out of affection, like calling Nate Nate the great looking at you Ted. Sometimes it’s less affectionate, like I can’t pronounce Vincenzo. So I’m going to just call you Vince. Either way, the expectation is that they have to be okay with whatever you decide to call them. And that is just rude to place that burden on them.

Heidi
And tip five is to make sure they know that you are willing to make an effort. Sometimes a student might give you a nickname to call them. And if you think that they might be doing that because they don’t want to cause a problem. They don’t want to make a scene.

Heidi
It’s okay to ask something like, Are you sure I’m happy to learn your name, I want to call you what you want to be called. And I have had that happen several times with students so be on the guard for that.

Emily
We all want to be respectful. So those tips are useful for anytime we meet someone and not just for the students in our class. If you want more tips like that on Instagram, you can check out firstname.basis, or listen to the First Name Basis podcast and we’ll link to her in the show notes. She is a great resource.

Heidi
To wrap up the show we are sharing what we’re giving extra credit to this week. Emily, what get your extra credit.

Emily
While I’m giving extra credit to the teacher per Facebook group. We have assembled the coolest bunch of teachers that are so supportive, helpful, creative and funny. They always make me laugh. Every time someone asks a question in the group I get so excited to see what ideas our group members will have for them.

Emily
It’s just a happy place to be so if you’re not in the teacher approved Facebook group yet please come join us. We’d love to have you. Yes, we’ve been waiting for you. We have a spot save just for you. Sorry, we didn’t put your name on. Yeah. Heidi, what what gets your extra credit?

Heidi
Okay, well this is a hard topic today. We’re doing a while. My Extra Credit goes to nampon. Okay, yeah, big swing, which is basically what it sounds like. But for your nose.

Emily
I can’t even make fun of you for this because I’m the one that gave you the idea..

Heidi
So like, about a year and a half ago, I had like an epic nosebleed the kind where it’s like I probably should go to the hospital level.

Emily
No, seriously, like she’s not exaggerating. I really was like, Oh my gosh, like I think maybe I need to take you to the hospital.

Heidi
I called Emily over anyway, I survived spoiler alert. And Emily did mention that she had seen this product so I ordered some and thankfully I have not had a need for it until the allergies got the better of me a few weeks ago. Now it does not look like how you would imagine based on the name.

Heidi
Good. We’re all relieved there. It is a white foam oblong and actually it kind of looks like one of those Fun Dip candy sticks. And you just put it in your nose and pinch it in place. Easy peasy. But unlike toilet paper or other products that you might use, it doesn’t stick to the wound. So when you take it out, you’re not causing more problem.

Emily
Sorry. Whoever needs to hear it, you probably really appreciate it everyone else we sincerely apologize.

Heidi
It also has like special clotting agent to stop the bleeding. I’ve just used the one so far, but it really did work as advertised. Stop the bleeding really fast. The only problem I found was needing two hands to get the package open. Well, one of my hands was trying to pinch my nose. So that was tricky.

Emily
Have to see if you can come up with a good method for that.

Heidi
So if you were like a sports mom and your kids are getting bloody noses all the time, or I could see these being really useful in the classroom, but I would definitely get an okay from the principal first, because you don’t want to get in trouble for administering medication, even if it is just a foam stick.

Emily
Yeah, always double check.

Heidi
That’s it for today’s episode. Be intentional about planning lots of time for affirming at the start of the school year. And don’t forget our teacher approved tip to learn how to correctly pronounce your students names.