INV 1: Building a Culture of Achievement

INV 1:Building a Culture of Achievement

INV 1: Session Objectives Welcome to INVEST 1! By the end of our session today, CMs will… • have a vision of an exemplary Culture of Achievement, be able to describe the student actions, habits, and mindsets that exist in this culture, and believe in the potential, importance, and urgency of building this culture in order to put students on a different life path. • be equipped and believe they can effectively invest summer school students through planning to effectively –and authentically– implement select Investment strategies that inspire and motivate students to work hard to achieve academic goals WHY?

I. Introduction: The Power of Investment Key Point 1: To have a truly life changing impact on our students, we need them to do more than just master rigorous content, they also need to feel deeply invested and empowered so they continue to achieve success long after leaving our classrooms.

I. Introduction: The Power of Investment Key Point 2: When a classroom has a Culture of Achievement, we see students who are passionate, urgent, joyful, caring, and “on a mission” towards a destination that matters to them.

INV 1: The Path to a Culture of Achievement

Handout 1:

II. Building Vision: What does a Culture of Achievement look like? Video Clip: Exemplary Culture of Achievement Note: Please use Handout 1 to take notes as you watch Group Discussion: • Do you believe that students are likely to emerge from this classroom on a path of expanded opportunities due to being part of this classroom culture? • If so, what are the students saying, doing, or believing in this classroom that makes you think this? • What purpose does this discussion of Taylor’s classroom serve? • Never lower our expectations • Motivating vision

II. Building Vision: What does a Culture of Achievement look like? Key Point 3: Building a Culture of Achievement is challenging work and it takes time to fully realize, but we must start the journey of developing this culture because every step closer will have a significant impact on our students right now.

II. Building Vision: What does a Culture of Achievement look like? Handout 2: Culture of Achievement Pathway (5 min) • Can you think of classrooms from your own educational experience that align to any of these descriptions • Summer Goals: • 100% of all classrooms will at least be “Compliant and on-task.” • A challenge goal to push as many classrooms as possible to “interested and hard working.” • Partner Discussion: • Why is it important that we get as many classrooms as possible to “interested and hard-working”? • What impact will achieving this goal have on your students this summer? In the fall?

II. Building Vision: What does a Culture of Achievement look like? Video Clip: Meet Mr. Pierce Note: Please use Handout 1 to take notes as you watch Handout 3: Student Surveys Group Discussion: Do you believe that students are likely to emerge from this classroom on a path of expanded opportunities due to being part of this classroom culture? If so, what are the students saying, doing, or believing in this classroom that makes you think this?

Investor Profile Quiz: Question #1 • When a close friend is feeling down about a problem that seems • relatively insignificant to you, your response would most resemble: • Being extra-cheerful yourself, cracking jokes and making so much fun of the situation that your friend has no choice but to laugh, and making your friend go out to a fun dinner with you (during which you tell the waitress it’s your friend’s birthday –when it’s not – so the whole restaurant sings to him/her). • Listening, empathizing, sharing a time you felt similarly, and cheering them up through remembering some fun time you’ve had together. • C. Sharing stories of people who have it much worse, telling them to ‘get over it’ (which is what they need to hear!), and arranging for the two of you to spend the afternoon volunteering at a food bank.

Investor Profile Quiz: Question #2 • How would your 9-year-old neighbor (if you had one) be most apt to • describe you? • “He gave me a funny nickname, and we also have a secret handshake that’s just for us. He’s really funny and cool and kinda crazy sometimes.” • “He’s nice and asks me a lot of questions and listens to me talk. It’s cool how he sometimes brings me stuff I really like – like when I was really into Harry Potter he brought me a trivia book he found and then quizzed me on stuff.” • C. “He’s pretty serious, always talking to me about responsibility & stuff…but I kinda like how he treats me more like a grown-up and doesn’t really talk to me like a baby.”

Investor Profile Quiz: Question #3 • In High School, if you had been voted a superlative, it would most likely • have been: • Most entertaining • Most compassionate • C. Most direct

Investor Profile Quiz: Question #4 • Which vacation-experience in a foreign country most appeals to you? • One in which you are actually leading a small team of friends on an expedition that involves daily challenges with three other teams. Your team successfully wins each competition and you are declared the champions. • B. One with lots of relaxed time for interacting with and learning from the locals. Getting invited over for an authentic meal in someone’s home would be a dream come true! • C. Getting off the beaten path – seeing and experiencing the ‘real’ country. It would be quite satisfying to visit some schools and some real neighborhoods, and then go home and dispel the tourist-based misconceptions about the country.

Investor Profile Quiz: Question #5 • Which do you think ‘sealed the deal’ in your getting accepted into Teach For America? • Presenting a particularly engaging lesson in which all the other interviewees – and even your interviewers – were smiling and cheerfully participating (a few people even applauded at the end of your 5-minute sample teaching time). • Working exceptionally well with your fellow interviewees during the Group Activity, and really connecting with your interviewer during the one-on-one conversation in the afternoon. • C. Articulating with passion your personal commitment to ending the injustice of the achievement gap, and your deep belief that all children can learn, want to learn, and need to be held to high expectations.

III. Path to a Culture of Achievement: Best Practices Investor Profile Quiz Results • A = Showmanship • B = Building Relationships • C = Straight Talk & Tough Love Handout 4: Investor Profiles (read - 3 min.)  Which profile do you most relate to and why? (2 min.)

IV. Path to a Culture of Achievement: Planning for this summer Key Point 4: In order to get on the path to a Culture of Achievement, you need to execute proven investment strategies in a way that is authentic to you and your students. At institute this requires that you: • build relationships with your students • leverage your student tracking information • reach out and communicate with students’ families • strategically plan and execute strategies and mini-lessons to explicitly build investment

IV. Path to a Culture of Achievement: Planning for this summer • Handout 5: Exemplar Investment Plan • 8 minutes to read • Questions? • Individual work time: *Note: You can find the INVEST Plan Template & aligned Toolkits on your CM CD • Work to answer the first questions you must answer individually • If you finish early, begin brainstorming the rest of the Investment plan. You will need to work with the rest of your team to finalize later this week.

IV. Path to a Culture of Achievement: Planning for this summer Key Point 5: Investment strategies are critical, but they alone aren’t enough to build a Culture of Achievement; it also requires strategically leveraging all other TAL actions towards this end.

Closing "I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized." Dr. Hiam Ginott On a sticky note, write one or two sentences connecting this quote to the things you are taking away from the session we just had. Put the note on the poster by the door as you leave. Thank you for a wonderful day!

INV 1: Building a Culture of Achievement