Chasing Down The C. A. T.
Creating Culture and Tone in classrooms to support behavior and improve student achievement How effective teachers think
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1 What is Culture and Tone
Have you ever walked into a place, not just a school, and sensed something that made you feel good? Initially it may be something in the physical environment. As you meet the people who are there, they have a way about them that makes you feel comfortable, at ease. In the end it is a place that you love to go to because there is an energy that draws you in, inspires you and makes you want to be a part of it. Could you describe your school that way? Is it a place that inspires you? Does it inspire your students? What about your classroom if not your school? Is your classroom a place of inspiration or only a place of perspiration? Do you find yourself at the bottom of the mountain each morning despite any progress you made the day before? It is important to remember that you control those outcomes. You are responsible for the culture and tone that you have created or unknowingly allowed to develop with out any conscious thought. Chances are, if you just let the culture and tone develop without any planning, it is neither a very nurturing or inspiring place nor one that many even like. Rather, they are showing up day after day because they are required to do so. Building Awareness The good news is that it can be fixed, first by gaining awareness and then by acquiring knowledge. That new found level of awareness along with your newly acquired knowledge will enable you to develop a specific plan to create the culture and tone you desire. The freedom it will give you and the opportunities it will uncover will astound you. Suddenly you will find your students on a different level in their interactions with one another, with regard to their level of respect for their classmates, as well as to you, their work, their school and life in general. You will discover that as you establish what you desire, you will have a new problem: an unfamiliar amount of time to actually teach. And the more you are able to teach, the more you are able to draw them in and connect with them. Another outcome you can expect is that you will be pushed to find more challenging lessons as you move through the days of the school year with a greater ease. The time you previously had been spending dealing with student to student or teacher to student problems or ignoring them or being overwhelmed by them, suddenly becomes teaching time.
You will discover that as you establish what you desire, you will have a new problem: an unfamiliar amount of time to actually teach. Consciously shaping the culture and tone of your given environment offers emotional benefits. You will no longer come home to recover from your day by crashing on the couch, sleeping it off for a few hours and then pacifying yourself with your favorite ice cream. You will find that the “I can’t wait for this vacation to get here” syndrome greatly suppressed. No more forcing your self up in the morning after sleeping through the snooze button for the fifth time. No more hoping for a snow day for the rest of the year. You will awake each morning with excitement and vigor for the day.
Finding Culture and Tone
Culture and tone exists at all levels of schooling. It is imperative to keep this point in mind. No school setting is exempt from culture and tone. Its existence is present in Pre- k programs through graduate school. There is always a culture and tone.
It should be clear in your mind culture and tone, are always present.
The culture and tone in your classroom or school may not have been given any thought. Perhaps it has been chipped away at by constant organizational turnover. Maybe it has just slowly strayed from its original intent and now is drifting aimlessly. Cheer up, if you fall into the aforementioned Culture and Tone models, it is possible to redirect or correct anyone of them. A conscious or specifically designed approach to culture and tone when starting out or redirecting existing efforts is optimal. Let’s look at a school that may have fallen into any one of these examples. Waiting Until The Student Is Ready
Let’s suppose for a moment that the thinking in “School X” was to not address culture and tone until the kids were a "bit older". In this K – 8 program, a practice slowly developed into a belief, which was to wait until students were “old enough” to understand. Thinking had developed around the idea that at a younger age they are just too young to "get it", rationalizing that they are just “little kids”. This practice/belief simultaneously developed and was likely perpetuated by the "more challenging behavior" of older students. This is a good example of how culture and tone can begin to shift and drift to a point of change or unconscious development of practice without anyone noticing. Conversely how would the behavior of the older students be impacted if behavioral expectations were clear and established from the first day they entered the school? Children reflect what they are shown or given. For instance you might have a kindergarten child who arrives at school that is extremely articulate for their age in contrast to their tablemate. Upon meeting the parents of both students it is obvious that the articulate child has been exposed to deeper, richer adult language, while the classmate s parent are still using “baby talk” with their child. Again children reflect what they are shown or given. Remember all behavior is learned.
Back to our school, so the policy, somewhat official, but more likely just the way it has always been done, is to begin to teach them formally about these expectations, say around
third grade.
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About the Book
Struggling with student behavior? Want to improve student achievement?
In Chasing Down The C.A.T. Arthur Tobia unlocks some doorways to understanding the often-overlooked bigger picture around student behavior. Taking you on a journey like a personal guide, he will provoke you thinking around your development of Culture And Tone in your classroom.
You will learn how to foster effective relationships with students, encouraging desirable behavior and improving student achievement. Through clarifying Culture And Tone’s influence on the outcomes of student behavior you will gain a broader understanding of what actually impacts the behavioral, social and academic aspects of the day.
Tobia lends his insights of 25 years of experience through stories and anecdotes about students, teachers and schools. He shares successes as well as challenges, that all off er a lesson. He will guide you through your communication process and daily interactions. As you delve into your belief system you will develop understanding as to how you contribute to the behavior of your students. He will even help you find your purpose!
Chasing Down The C.A.T. will get you into the mindset of successful teachers. You will learn how to apply their habits and make them your own. You will learn to more consciously create your classroom Culture and Tone to improve achievement by increasing teaching and learning time, while simultaneously improving the quality of life for students and teachers alike. Become more connected and capable with your students as Arthur coaches you through the pages...
Chasing Down the C.A.T.!
About the Author
For 25 years Arthur Tobia has practiced what he preaches. Having the benefit of multiple simultaneous roles over those years, he synthesizes his school based experience, his time teaching graduate courses and his work outside of education to bring it all together in a simple everyday language for the reader. His passion to learn, grow and to share with others is evident, as his experiential voice guides you through developing an understanding of behavior and improving student achievement. Arthur presents the #1 C.A.T. expert guide for teachers and schools.