Ever wished you could inspire success in every student that walks into your classroom? You're in the right place! This enlightening episode is a masterclass in igniting student success, with our esteemed guest, Glendaliz Almonte, National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. We delve into the art of teaching reading, nurturing self-efficacy, and fostering a sense of trust and belonging that empowers your students.
We also unravel the less-discussed, yet profound aspect of teaching - dressing for success. Yes, your wardrobe choice can create a significant impact on your classroom environment! Find out how to blend your passion for teaching with the right attire and emerge as a 'warm demander'- balancing high expectations with ample love for your students. Top it off with gratitude for your students and their eagerness to learn. This episode promises to inspire, equip, and transform you into the extraordinary educator you aspire to be. Don't forget to follow us, leave reviews, and join us in our mission to spread the incredible journey of extraordinary education.
Read Glendaliz's Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog/reach-reluctant-learners
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Ever wished you could inspire success in every student that walks into your classroom? You're in the right place! This enlightening episode is a masterclass in igniting student success, with our esteemed guest, Glendaliz Almonte, National Director of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. We delve into the art of teaching reading, nurturing self-efficacy, and fostering a sense of trust and belonging that empowers your students.
We also unravel the less-discussed, yet profound aspect of teaching - dressing for success. Yes, your wardrobe choice can create a significant impact on your classroom environment! Find out how to blend your passion for teaching with the right attire and emerge as a 'warm demander'- balancing high expectations with ample love for your students. Top it off with gratitude for your students and their eagerness to learn. This episode promises to inspire, equip, and transform you into the extraordinary educator you aspire to be. Don't forget to follow us, leave reviews, and join us in our mission to spread the incredible journey of extraordinary education.
Read Glendaliz's Blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog/reach-reluctant-learners
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Curriculum Associates presents the Extraordinary Educators podcast, with hosts Danielle Sullivan and Sarah Loveris here tips, best practices and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We're here for you. Hi everyone. It's Sarah. Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educators podcast. Danielle is out, so I am flying solo this week, joined by the amazing Glenda-Lise Almonte. She is one of my fabulous colleagues at Curriculum Associates, a national director of content and implementation, and this week we sat down to talk about just what's on Glenda-Lise's mind in terms of reading and teaching, reading and how to really start with the foundation of trust and belonging and building relationships with your students. So here's my conversation with Glenda-Lise. Hey, glenda-lise, so great to see you. Thank you for coming back on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Hi Sarah, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here. I love talking to you all. Awesome, well, us too.
Speaker 1:So, just to start off, tell us what is on your mind lately. What have you been thinking about? We know you've been traveling a lot, seeing a lot of educators. What's going on?
Speaker 2:So this summer it was really interesting. I was asked to present at Extraordinary Educators and I was like what am I going to present to a bunch of Extraordinary Educators? Right, Because you get nervous, I got nervous.
Speaker 1:I was like what do?
Speaker 2:you mean these people should be teaching me, and I've been looking at a lot of the research, obviously around reading. We know that students are below grade level in reading and I think teachers when I was thinking about just from the highest level view, about what teachers would want to hear from me I thought this should really be focused on how to give students an opportunity to see success, like what does that look like? How do I communicate that? How do we talk about it in a space where I'm in front of a bunch of people? And I came across in my research because you know I'm always doing that I came across Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory and I mean it's pretty simple, right, like if we do something successful or successfully, we're successful at it and we're like, oh yes, I can do that. Like if I pick up a book today and I read this book, then I'm going to feel like I accomplished something and now I can go on and read more books. Right, like that's a mastery experience in that theory. But I think that from a teaching perspective, just drawing the lens into how we can blend that with cultural responsiveness to give students the most autonomy and the most opportunity to be successful in the classroom and what that looks like, and how that might look different per student, given how they show up, how they speak, what they're reading, what we're trying to teach them and, at the end of the day, of course, align that to teaching reading. I mean, that really was what I was thinking about. These are the things that I felt like I had to task myself with.
Speaker 2:Really exciting stuff came out of that, because what I realized is that when you look at what students are doing, what we're asking them to engage with, what teachers have to do in order to feel successful themselves. So how do we help teachers find their self-efficacy in the process of helping students achieve that is fascinating to me, because everybody needs to feel like they've accomplished something, and I think that the last couple of years has been really hard on educators because students are struggling and it's not because educators haven't been trying. So I was like, ok, we have that part, I have the theory part. How do I put that into practice? And anybody who's using iReady? I was like, well, let me tie this into some of the reports that teachers are seeing on a daily basis so that they can measure self-efficacy in a way that's tangible. And that's pretty much what I came up with.
Speaker 1:That was the work. That's awesome and that's also a lot, I think, too. The part that sticks out to me is, obviously it's much easier said than done. I would say that generally, teachers probably want all of their students to always have their aha moments. They want them to feel successful. But you're teaching one lesson to 30 students. It's almost impossible, and that can also be draining and exhausting. So where do you begin in thinking about this? If there's a teacher listening to this who really wants to ensure that their students are getting that sense of success, so then they can continue to cycle of OK, now I'm going to read more, I'm going to try again. How do they begin to think about that on the day to day?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it really depends on where students are. If you have a student who isn't able to identify letters yet, how you teach that particular student and we don't know what grade level that student is in Obviously we hope that child is in kindergarten. That child might be a third grader who's not able to identify letters yet. So to me it's where's the student? If we have a student who doesn't have the ability to identify letters yet or doesn't know what sounds are related to letters, and we're able to incubate a space in the classroom where a student is able to practice that, to be taught that, to be taught some sort of strategy to apply sound to letters, right, so now they are able to identify a sound that's related to a letter or they're able to read a word, that in and of itself, for a student who has not achieved one of those things, is an experience, a mastery experience for them. And, honestly, there are other parts of that theory that apply right. So, yes, mastery experiences are important, but vicarious ones are important too. So if I'm in a classroom with someone and I recognize that me and this other student are essentially on the same reading level and say, Sarri, that's you and I see you achieve that thing. I'm like, wait a minute, if Sarri can do it, I can do it too, and that is that's a part of that theory.
Speaker 2:It also goes into how social influences can either disrupt or engage a student in learning. So if a student hears a teacher say, oh, you can do it, and is encouraging and has high expectations, this is where culturally responsive teaching comes in. That student's going to be like you know what Ms Almonte really thinks that I can do this. So I'm going to, I'm going to work toward that right. Teachers set the expectations in the classrooms that we want the students to to achieve. But if, if students over here teachers saying negative things about them or hear them say, oh, the student can't do something, that student is likely to internalize that and become the thing that the teacher is saying they are.
Speaker 2:So, you know, emotional states matter for students. How they feel matters, what's going on in their daily experiences matter when it comes to learning, and we want to create spaces in the in, in a classroom environment or even in a school environment, where students feel seen and heard and they feel valued and they feel safe, so that when they get into that space, they take risks. They take learning risks and they're not afraid to take those risks, and that's where we see the most learning. And I think that, like for teachers, it really is a matter of building trust, and if they can start there, then I think you know having the trust of your students. I really do think that that's that's the greatest place to start from, because then students are willing to do whatever you ask them to do in the classroom, even if they don't say a why.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, it's true, we talk a lot about that on this podcast building relationships, building stress, and that has to be the foundation because that's how you're going to get them to take risks and be comfortable. And just thinking about what you said earlier, it's so important. Like you know, it's hard to kind of undo habits, but when you, if you are a teacher and you're continuously saying low group or kids in the red, and then you have to think about from the student's perspective, like if they're overhearing that, what does that say to themselves and how is that going to impact? Because the mindset matters the most, right, because if they're going into it knowing I'm going to be challenged but I can do it, and my teacher believes in me and my friends are there to support me, it just makes it a lot easier to and almost happens naturally to engage them and have them take those risks right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was in high school I was in nurse occupations and I was getting my CNA to become a certified nurse assistant and one of the things that used to drill in our head is watch how you talk around the patients, Watch, you know, watch yourself and make sure that you're not calling the patient by the illness that they have.
Speaker 2:Or I go to find them by. Oh, this is the stroke in room four, right? So we have to be really careful about the words that we use when we're describing kids like the red kids, right? Because kids here you know they're listening, they're paying attention to the things that we say and that you know. I'm not saying to any teacher that they have to be perfect. Look, I'm a mom, I am imperfect and I have to be very careful about the things that I say to my son, because he listens to every single word that comes out of my mouth. So it really is a practice that you have to, that you have to do sort of like you know, people meditate. You have to practice it to get good at it. You have to practice being thoughtful and approaching education from an asset based perspective. That has to be practiced and you have to practice it on a daily basis to get better. Otherwise it's something that is not going to necessarily come natural to most people in a learning place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really, really, really hard. And you're right, no one is perfect, and I get it. It's almost as important the things you say to them and then the things you say in their presence, but not to them, because that's almost when they're listening, Right Well, from having toddlers. So, before we close out Glendalees, is there any other you know last bits of advice or wisdom you want to impart on our listeners as we head into? You know the new year coming up soon and winter break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. So. When I was in college, I had a professor may he rest in peace. He's passed away since, but my professor I remember he sat me down. This is when I was going to graduate school.
Speaker 2:He was an undergrad professor and he said to me you know, glendalees, when you show up in your classroom to teach, everyone is looking at you. You're setting the example. And one of the things he would tell me is don't ever show up I mean, he was old school, so don't ever show up at work with open toe shoes. That was like what he would tell me. So he was always like make sure you dress for the job. You know so, like in my head, it's like make sure you dress for the job.
Speaker 2:What I'm trying to get at is we want to make sure that when we step into the classroom, we're dressing for the job, we're ready for the job, we are in there for the right reasons, and when the students feel that an educator wants to be in that space with them, they tend to respond to that. You know, energy feeds energy. So you know, get in the classroom and give the kids the support they need. Be warm demanders, as I always say, to ensure that you're holding kids to high expectations, but showing them all the love that you can, because they're going to want to work for you. If you do that, that's all I have. You know we're in the seizing of Thanksgiving, so give thanks for the kids that are in the space and give thanks for their willingness to learn, and hopefully you'll get that back from them.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thank you so much as always for your time and expertise. Always great chatting with you. Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on Twitter, at curriculumasocial, and on Instagram at my iReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducatorsatcainccom. Subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators like you, join the conversation, please leave a review.
Speaker 3:And remember, be you be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Editing by Whiteboard Geeks, social media by Atstee Hannon, guest booking by Sarri Laveris, production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is copyright, material and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.