Teaching with Grace and High Expectations: Every Student Every Day

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Tammy H. Pawloski, Francis Marion UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Francis Marion University

First Presenter’s Email Address

tpawloski@fmarion.edu

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Tammy Pawloski has led more than 2000 professional learning events for teachers, school leaders, and stakeholders. She understands the challenges and opportunities of teaching, and has devoted the last twenty years to the study of under-resourced learners—why they struggle and which strategies have the greatest impact. Pawloski is a noted expert because of her breadth of knowledge, however what resonates most with teachers and school leaders is her ability to deliver an uncommon combination of research, practice, and compelling stories from the field that both empower and challenge. Don’t miss this session!

Location

Session One Breakouts

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

This session is relevant for this conference because it focuses squarely on the needs of learners with limited resources and very specific strategies that can lead to powerful outcomes. Conference attendees are the teachers, school leaders, and policy makers who strive, every day, to support the needs of every student every day.. They are the change-makers who are uniquely positioned to seize opportunities to reveal the often-hidden potential of many learners in every school.

Brief Program Description

Teaching with ‘grace’ and high expectations can co-exist! Learn three choices that inform hundreds of teacher moves every day and how those decisions can immediately change the brain and impact the success trajectory for students. Explore high-impact educator moves that matter most, and take away specific, budget-neutral resources to begin this work immediately--either face-to-face or virtually.

Summary

This session will be framed by the idea that, in all decisions related to every practice, educators have three options: we can judge students, we can punish them, or we can teach them. 'Teaching with grace' allows us to view every student through the lens of 'instruction,' rather than 'judgement' or 'punishment.' As example, attendees will be encouraged to consider how teacher moves around motivation look different when we view these as opportunities to 'teach' students how to be motivated, rather than as opportunities to 'judge' or 'punish' students because they arrive with what we perceive to be limited motivation. The range of practices addressed through this lens will be limited only by the length of the presentation. Decisions about motivation, hope, social-emotional and soft skills, high expectations, and even grading practices are among 25 specific best practices that can be considered as time allows. In each case, attendees will be encouraged to consider how educator moves look different when we decide to teach, rather than judge or punish, and how the science of learning, or cognitive neuroscience provides the neurobiological foundation for these types of teacher moves.

‘What if? The Power of Grace and Science' will focus squarely on three teacher choices that will change outcomes for learners with limited resources is designed to center on teacher choices that fundamentally change student success. The phrase ‘what if’ is the working title for a text currently in development, and has been used by this presenter in hundreds of presentations in the last year to set a tone of possibilities.

Attendees will:

1. Define characteristics of 'teaching with grace.'

2. Reflect on three choices educators have every day that reflect their view of 'teaching with grace.'

3. Investigate the impact of grace on the chemical and emotional brain.

4. Explore the impact of teacher mindset on learning and achievement.

5. Learn brain-informed moves that matter most for learning and success.

6. Take away budget-neutral resources for continuing the work with individuals and groups.

Evidence

A neuroscience foundation for common cognitive and socio-emotional areas of struggle will provide a natural foundation for specific strategies and actions designed to activate the brain and neutralize the potentially negative impacts of life with limited resources.

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership Specific actionable strategies that will be shared include a focus on teacher moves that support the development of executive functions, memory trace, and activating background knowledge.

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills Specific actionable strategies that will be shared include a focus on teacher moves that capitalize on the power of relationships, decrease stress, increase status and hope, grow mindsets and motivation.

Attendees will be challenged to consider the potentially negative impact of traditional school practices, including discipline strategies and grading practices, as well as common instructional moves as note-taking, questioning strategies, and others that are not supported by new understandings from the science of learning.

This presentation is based on more than 15 years of original research focused on the impact of poverty and positive mitigating factors. 25 identified high-impact teacher and school moves have their foundation in the work of research leaders in the science and practice of learning, including: Carol Dweck (Mindsets), John Vito (Motivation), Eric Jensen, Judy Willis, Bruce Perry, Karl Alexander, others (Neuroscience), Robert Marzano, John Hattie, Dylan Wiliam, Albert Mehrabian (Pedagogy), Joyce Epstein (Family Engagement), Lorin Anderson (Educational Research). Example implementation strategies for each have been developed for learners at all levels, but, more importantly, a strong research base is offered that empowers teachers, leaders, and stakeholders to examine common practices with an eye for alignment.

An action research-based model for implementation of these strategies has been field tested for seven years, yielding positive outcomes in a variety of qualitative and quantitative impact measures including student and teacher attendance, major and minor behavior referrals, teacher attitudes and beliefs, and student achievement.

Teachers often report that students with limited resources often appear hopeless, disengaged, or unmotivated, and are failing to scratch the surface of their potential. The science of learning offers new insights into why this may be happening and which teacher and school moves matter most. When teachers, school leaders, and stakeholders better understand the neuro-biological reasons for the struggles that many students experience, authentic and strategic brain-based accommodations and interventions can be designed and implemented. And, when a goal-focused model is used to frame those interventions, fewer students will be lost within a system that means well, but has not leveraged what we now know about the structure and function of the brain, including the promise of neural plasticity.

Learning Objective 1

1. Define characteristics of 'teaching with grace' as juxtaposed with high expectations and reflect on their views of both.

Learning Objective 2

2. Investigate the impact of grace and high expectations on the chemical and emotional brain.

Learning Objective 3

3. Explore the impact of teacher mindset on learning and achievement and Learn brain-informed moves that matter most for learning and success.

Keyword Descriptors

poverty, under-resourced, grace, high expectations, neuroscience, brain

Presentation Year

2022

Start Date

3-7-2022 10:15 AM

End Date

3-7-2022 11:30 AM

Recommended Citation

Pawloski, Tammy H., "Teaching with Grace and High Expectations: Every Student Every Day" (2022). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 5.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2022/2022/5