Abby Diamond

Spring 2015
Teach Like a Champion Strategy Journal Entries

ENTRY #1
Technique # 3 Circulate
Description: This is a technique for moving strategically around the room during all
parts of the lesson. Getting near students is important to making sure students are
keeping on track. This technique involves moving around the room at random times
throughout the class time to establish that you are the teacher and that you dont
just get up when a student misbehaves. I agree that if a teacher is constantly
moving around, this allows her to monitor student behavior in a less threatening
way and without having to single out students. This technique also emphasizes
moving around in a unpredictable pattern and always engaging while you circulate. I
think that although many times its easier to just sit in your seat, it is extremely
beneficial for teachers to move around because it helps establish power and that
the teacher is always aware of what is going on.
Observation/Implementation: I decided to try this out on my own. I did this while I
was teaching a math graphing lesson. During the opportunity for practice, I had the
students work in groups and make their own graphs with M&Ms and then answer
questions about them. While they were working, I walked around the room and
looked at the graphs they were making and gave comments or asked questions
about their graphs. One group was not quite on the right track with the scale of the
graph so I asked them intentional questions to get them thinking about it. During
another time of the lesson I had the students talk about what they thought graphs
were and while they were talking amongst each other, I walked around them room
and listened to their conversations. I asked higher lever thinking questions to
encourage them to really think about what graphs are.
Technique # 22 Cold Call
Description: This technique involves calling on students regardless of whether or not
they had their hand up. It basically just means asking a question and then choosing
who you want to answer it. The purpose of this technique is to keep all students
engaged and set the expectation that you could call on any student. It also allows
the teacher to check for understanding, cut down time, and push students to offer
their thoughts or ideas who might normally keep quiet.
Observations/Implementation: I tried this one out on my own as well. During my
graphing lesson, I called on students who didnt normally have their hand raised. I

noticed that not all students would raise their hand when I asked a question so I
called on students who didnt always raise their hand. Once, I called on a student
who was not paying attention in an effort to keep them engaged in the lesson.
When we were reviewing the parts of the graph, I also called on a quiet student who
didnt talk much, but who I could tell was understanding the lesson. I think it is
really important to call on students when they might not have their hand raised
because it keeps students engages and allows the students to know that they could
always be called on and should be engaged.
ENTRY #2
Technique Change of Pace
Description: This technique involves using a variety of activities to accomplish your
objective and moving from one to the other throughout the course of the lesson.
This means changing the format of work every ten to fifteen minutes while you are
on the same topic. The main purpose of this technique is making lessons full of
variety. This means incorporating games, songs, lecture, discussion, worksheets,
etc, but not just doing one thing for 30 minutes. Its really important to think about
changing the pace of activities in a lesson between active and passive as well.
Observation/Implementation: I put this into place during my clouds lesson. For my
lesson, we started out talking about what we knew about clouds. Students
discussed this in groups. Then we watched a short video about clouds and talked
about what we observed. Next, I went through a powerpoint on each of the types of
clouds while students were taking notes in a graphic organizer. Then, we made
cloud flipbooks with cotton balls. This was a good kinesthetic activity to have the
students do after they had been sitting and more passively listening for awhile.
Lastly, they completed story problems on their own. To wrap everything up, we
talked about the weather outside and then went through some review problems all
together as a class.
Technique Clear and Concise
Description: The technique has to do with asking the right kind of questions. A lot of
times the problem with a wrong answer is not the answer but with the question.
Sometimes we have to change our questions to make them easier for students to
understand and to promotes students to really think about what they just read,
heard, discussed, etc. One of the most important things is to always start with a
question word like why, what, how, where, and also to make sure your questions are
short and not too lengthy. Another important thing is to write them in advance if you
really have good questions to ask students.
Observation/Implementation: I implemented this into the lesson I taught on clouds.
To help teach about each cloud type, I read a poem that described each type of
cloud. After reading each poem, I asked the students specific questions about the

poem. I made sure that my questions always started with a question word and I also
tried to ask questions that assumed the answer. For example, I asked the questions
How did the author describe cumulus clouds in this poem? and What specific
things did he compare the clouds to? These were specific questions that were
thought out and not just So what stood out to you? I wrote out these questions
ahead of time so that I did not forget them on the spot. This was very helpful
because I asked better questions to the students that were not just yes or no
answer questions. As a teacher, I see the importance of having questions prepared
and really thinking through the type of questions you will ask students and how you
will word them instead of just asking them on the spot.

ENTRY #3
Technique # 25 Wait Time
Description: This is a technique that has to do with waiting a couple of seconds after
the teacher asks a question and before the teacher asks a student to start
answering it. When students are given extra time to think about a question before
they answer it increases the quality of the answer, the length and correctness of
student responses, the number of students to volunteer, and the use of evidence in
answers. It is important to count three to five seconds before an answer is given. In
addition, teachers can use the time in between a question and answer to ask good,
probing questions and tell the students why they are waiting. This helps to incent
and reinforce the specific behaviors that will be most productive to their students.
Observation/Implementation: I put this into practice in all of the lessons I have
taught. Instead of immediately taking answers after I ask a question, I have told
students to think about the questions for 30 sec or a minute. I will purposely wait
and give them time to collect their thoughts so that their answer isnt just the first
thing that pops into their head. This leads to better answers and forces students to
think deeper. The students were not used to this however, because they all wanted
to immediately answer the questions I asked. In one of my lessons, I had the
students think for a minute and then share with their partner and then I called on
pairs to answer the question. This is called Think-Pair-Share and it was very effective
because it allowed students to first think about their answer before they talked with
their partner. I also think that it is important to tell students what you are waiting
on.
Technique # 42 Tight Transitions
Description: This is critical part of a highly effective classroom because it has to do
with the times when students have to move from one activity to another. Transitions
are necessary multiple times during the day but poor transitions can waste precious
teaching time. Transitions done effectively minimize time lost and ensure that

teachers dont have to end lessons early just to go to P.E, for example. I totally
agree that every student should know and understand procedures of how to line up
and move from place to place. It is important to teach transitions the first week of
school and to scaffold each step.
Observation/Implementation: I observed this technique by my teacher in the
classroom. She has a very good system in place for when her students leave the
room. When it is time to go to lunch or P.E or to the bathroom, her students know to
get up quickly and quietly and to form a line. They know to walk quietly in a straight
line without talking. My teacher also did a good job of teaching them to walk and
then stop at certain points in the hallway. The students then know exactly what to
walk to and where to walk every day on their way to lunch or P.E. This is called point
to point movement and she did a good job of this. Overall, this is a valuable
technique that teachers should stress in the beginning of the year. Students should
be taught procedures and transitions in the first couple weeks of school so that
classroom time and instruction can be maximized.

ENTRY #4
Technique #33 On Your Mark
Description: This technique has to do with thinking about students always coming
into the classroom prepared with books out, paper and pencil in hand, etc. This
should be a clear expectation every day, all the time. On Your Mark shows students
the importance of being prepared and ready to go before class starts so that there
is no wasted time. The main ways to ensure that students are on their marks when
they come to class is as the teacher, to be explicit in what you want students to do
when they start class or a new subject. Having a small, standard consequence can
also be helpful that the teacher can give without hesitation when students are not
ready and prepared to do their work before the teacher starts instruction is
important.
Observation/Implementation: This is something that I put into place during a lesson
that I taught. One of the lessons I taught I noticed that students got distracted
because they did not have their desks cleared before the lesson started so a couple
of the students in the back were playing and fidgeting with things on their desk. In
addition, in the middle of the lesson when the students needed to fill something out,
a couple of them did not have sharpened pencils so this took away time from the
lesson. So for the next lesson I taught, I made sure that before I started my lesson I
told all of the students to clear their desks out completely and have nothing on their
desks. I also told them to get out one sharpened pencil. If they did not have a
sharpened pencil, they switched it out before I started teaching. This was extremely
helpful because it maximized the time during the lesson and they stayed more on
task.

Technique #29 Do Now

Description: This technique has to do with providing an activity for students to do as
they walk into the classroom; something that they know to do on their own every
day without you having to tell them anything. Students should never have to ask
themselves what they should be doing when they enter a classroom. They should
always know what to do and how to do it. This is normally a short activity that the
teacher has written on the board or is waiting at their desks before they enter; it is
always something that students complete on their own. Doing the same routine and
having a similar activity every day emphasizes consistency, which is really
important for elementary students to have in the daily classroom routine.
Observation/Implementation: This technique I observed in the classroom. Every
morning, my teacher had the same routine for the students. They were to come in,
put their backpack on their hook, get the things out of their backpack that they
needed, then come sit quietly at their desk. Every morning they watched the
morning news and while it was playing in the background, the teacher had some
kind of review sheet up on the projector and students would write the answers in
their journal. Once the news was over and the students had finished completing the
review sheet, the teacher went over the sheet all together as a class. This was a
pretty effective morning routine which allowed the teacher not to have to nag or
instruct the students what to do every day because they already knew exactly what
to do for the first 30 minutes of class. I realize that this is an important routine that I
need to put in place in my classroom one day.

ENTRY #5
Technique #20 Exit Ticket
Description: This is a technique that is used to wrap up a lesson. It is a question or
short sequence of problems for students to complete at the close of the lesson. By
collecting this from students at the end of the lesson, this makes it an exit ticket.
Exit tickets help teachers check for understanding from students in a way that
provides for strong data and critical insights. This is great feedback for teachers
because it allows teachers to see what students didnt understand, if there were
holes in their lesson, and which students specifically struggled with the material.
They are always really quick and shouldnt be more than one to three questions.
Observation/Implementation: This is one that I decided to try out on my own. For
the math lesson that I taught on bar graphs, I had the students complete an exit
ticket at the end of the lesson. For this lesson, this was a half of a page that had the
word bar graphs are at the top of the page and then three boxes under the words

are, have and look like. This was a way for students to tell me, in their own
words, what they learned about bar graphs that day. It was a little more fun than
just having one question for them to answer because it allowed for the students to
interpret what they thought and learned about bar graphs that day. They also got to
draw a picture, and anytime visuals are involved it is good. This was very helpful for
me to see what the students grasped from my lesson. By looking at the student
responses on the exit tickets, I could determine what students grasped from the
lesson that day and plan accordingly.

Technique #17 Ratio

Description: This technique has to do with putting the main proportion of the
cognitive work on the students in the classroom, instead of the teacher. A successful
lesson is rarely marked by a teachers getting a good intellectual workout at the
front of the room. Ratio is getting students involved every step of the way in the
lesson with the goal to give them as much practice as possible, to apply what they
know as much as they can, and for them to do all the work in the sample or practice
problems. There are different methods to ratio that apply during more teacher-led
instruction of information versus discussion. Overall, this is an extremely important
technique because students will gain a lot more information and learn a lot more if
they are actively involved in the process instead of just the teacher.
Observation/Implementation: I put this into practice in my math bar graphing
lesson. Through the lesson, I tried to ask students questions as much as possible
and get them to tell me the information without me just always telling them. When
we were reviewing graphs, I asked them questions about the know. When we made
a bar graph together as a class using the students favorite ice cream flavors that I
had collected, I had them tell me what the title should be and what I should label
the x and y axis. I then asked the students what I should do next. They replied that I
should make a scale. I asked what the scale should be, and asked them why they
thought that should be the scale. This made them prove why the scale should be 1
and not 5. One thing I realized after the lesson was that it is easier, as the teacher,
to just tell students the information and answer while they just listen. It is not as
natural to constantly ask students questions and get them to do the cognitive
work; however, it is way more effective for students to learn.