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Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC
Follow Canyon Springs Community School as it works towards Model PLC status through conversations about new and ongoing Professional Learning Community (PLC) practices at the school with the teachers inside the classrooms. Get invested in the student growth and learn the systems and practices that are having the greatest impact on student learning at Canyon Springs.
Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC
Episode 13 - Carolyn Davenport talks Protecting Time for Targeting Essential Behaviors
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On the 13th episode of Canyon Springs: From Promising Practices to Model PLC, listen in on the PLC journey with Canyon Springs as we work to be further recognized as a Solution Tree National Model PLC school. This week, meet Carolyn Davenport, a Canyon Springs 2nd Grade Teacher, member of the Logistics Leadership Team and undoubtedly our school's lead celebrator. Ms. Davenport explains her work in using the blend of adopted social emotional curricular tools to teach the essential academic and social behaviors, how agreed upon core values are changing the site's culture and student learning through direct and targeted behavior instruction, and how it can't happen without planned for and protected time.
References:
PLC 4 Questions Flowchart - W. Richard Smith
Good morning. We hope you are having a very, very good start to your learning day. Welcome to the Canyon Springs from Promising Practices to Model PLC podcast. I am your host and the principal of Canyon Springs Community School, Matt Gilpin. Today, at the end of a very long day, I'm so excited that this teacher reached out and said, Hey, I would like to do this podcast on this topic. I said her name on the last one, so we were previewing it, and I'm so excited for Miss Carolyn Davenport to join us here on the podcast. So Carolyn Davenport has been teaching at Canyon Springs in the primary grades, first, second, and third grade for the last 25 years. She knows Canyon Springs backwards and forwards. Is your name on the wall in the cafeteria? I'm not sure if it is. It's forever. It's so wonderful. Um, she is a member of our logistics leadership team, which is doing some lead work on behavior and carving out some of the work that we're doing to clear out of the way for academics and those essentials. I want to give her credit. She's a little bit sick today. But I'm so grateful you're here. Thank you for being here, Ms. Davenport.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you for that nice introduction.
SPEAKER_01You deserve it. Um, it's absolutely wonderful. And again, thank you for reaching out to be a part of it. You are our first teacher that actually volunteered and said, I want to do this, and I love it. Um, I do want to ask this question. We always ask right off the bat, before we get into the topic where we're gonna talk about um some of the essential behavior work that you've been doing and we've been doing as a school and you've been leading. Um, prior to that, prior to two years ago, what was your experience with a PLC, the phrase PLC?
SPEAKER_00Well, not very much. I feel like um several years ago there was some talk of it. It was like a buzzword kind of thing. Um, and we did have a data data center for a while where we're trying to track and monitor, um, but it was short-lived, and then we got new leadership and it just sort of went out the window, I think.
SPEAKER_01And I think that's probably a lot of people's experience, whether it's Canyon Springs or other places where it is a buzzword. I think we went to a training which said, oh my gosh, I'm gonna misquote. I'm pretty sure it's Dr. Luis Cruz, where he talked about like the 10 most hated words in education and like buzzwords in education. And I think PLC was like number four. So I do I understand it's had that trajectory. And there's an article out there um about the difference between PLC light and PLC right written by um Dr. DeFor. That's a good one. And so I think a lot of people have that. But we're trying to do PLC right the last two years. We're definitely seeing some gains. And so we always go, we start this podcast as well, going to um a poster that's in our training, our meeting room. It's got the four blue questions that's by uh Richard Smith and the five and the bunch of the yellow actions. So we have the four PLC questions. What do we want all students to learn? How will we know they have learned it? How will we respond when learning has not occurred? And how will we respond when learning has already occurred? Ms. Davenport, which one do you think we're gonna talk about today?
SPEAKER_00Well, today we're gonna talk about what do we want all students to learn?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. PLC question one. And if you listened to either of the Polymaker episodes, um she talked about that one being her baby. And we talked, we made a comment the fact that um if we just talk about this question for a long time, we're still doing so right by our kids and gaining clarity. So we're gonna take this a little bit. We're gonna stay move away from academics a little bit and talk more about um essential behaviors and what do we want all students to learn um in regards to academic and social essential behaviors. But underneath that, there are some yellow actions. Um, and I wonder which of those actions underneath PLC question one do you think you're gonna kind of lead us through today?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think we um went through both in our process of um of this. Um we determined the standard or the learning um target, and then we went into deeper understanding of that learning target with our students.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So again, I love it. You kind of reached out to me when it came to like what do we want our students to learn and you learn, and you kind of said, okay, I see us doing such good work. You're on the leadership team that does a lot of this lead work when it comes to essential behaviors, when it comes to some of the other programs that we have, uh, when it comes to capturing kids' heart, social and emotional. Why was that topic rattling around your brain?
SPEAKER_00Um, because I think it's the most important thing we do. I think it's more important than reading, teaching kids to read and and do math.
SPEAKER_01Tell me more. I love this stance.
SPEAKER_00Well, I feel like um I'm I bring some of my own personalness to this. Um, I'm a woman of faith, and for a lot of years working at a public school, I felt like I had to keep that separate. And I still do. I don't teach what I would teach at my Sunday school lesson um to my classroom kids, but I see such a great need in our world, and we want um to bring up the world we want to live in, and there's just such deficits. So it gives me permission to teach my core values to kids that I think are essential.
SPEAKER_01And I think I love that you talked about essential, and I love that you phrase that we are taking our bears, right? We are the Canyon Springs bears, and we say this a lot. Like we not only want to teach them to read, to, to, to, to, I mean, that's the we yes, we want to teach them to read, but and also do all of the the three A's, right? The arithmetic. But at the end of each day, at the end of each school year, we want you to be a better version of yourself than when you started. And on a small scale, like literally at the end of this hour, be a better version. And that comes with gaining academic skills, but it also comes with treating one another and the essential behaviors. And you talked about core values. You have your own personal core values, but we've done a lot to carve out core values as a school. And I and I appreciate that that is a stance that you're taking to clear the work away to get to the academics.
SPEAKER_00Right. I don't think we can teach reading or math without addressing these other things and making the kind of environment that we want where we can actually teach students. It has to be a a place, a family, a community, a safe place to take risks. Um, and all of those things are centered around character traits, feeling safe at school and um being a part of something.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And so because that's a part of you, I want to go to a piece of literature here that we we kind of were talking about beforehand. But because that's a part of you, you do lead with that. And you do, you do approach each part of that. And so I'm gonna read a quote here from the book Um Behavior Solutions. Um, if you have that book in front of you, uh it's page 52. I'd be really random if you were driving around with it. I make that joke every week. I'm waiting for laughter. But on page 52, it's kind of a longer quote, so sit back and buckle up. But at the bottom two paragraphs, it says this essential academic and social behavior standards are as much a part of the school-wide and classroom foundations as essential academic standards are. You just said that. I mean, it just puts words to it. Establishing a tier one foundation of prevention for behavior includes creating school-wide standards for all settings and events of the school, based on school-wide data points and in every classroom every day. Tier one best practices for teaching essential academic and social behavior should be based on grade level and department behavior data trends and needs. As a note of caution, no matter what essential behavior standards the school decides to teach or what method is decided to teach them school-wide, it is critical that all staff understand the why and the relationship between PLCs and RTI. This way, you can avoid misconceptions and pushback. And now I read that to set up the next part of the quote because we had a conversation about this, and it continues on to say this. For example, telling staff it is mandatory to teach social emotional lessons by just providing the curriculum toolkit and then stating every morning someone will be walking through classrooms with a clipboard to monitor that social emotional learning lessons and morning classroom meetings are taking place is not the best approach because they will not understand the purpose, aim, and relationship to the school-wide essential academic and social behavior standards for prevention. So I I read this quote to set up an anecdote that I know, but what does that quote say to you?
SPEAKER_00It says that if we don't have the time scheduled within our weekly plan, then it isn't gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01Hope's not a plan.
SPEAKER_00No, right? Hope is not a plan.
SPEAKER_01And just because I tell you to do something doesn't mean you might do it. You're a very compliant person, and you are very you talk all the time that you're a rule follower, but it's not gonna have the core value momentum behind it. So, Ms. Davenport, I put you on the spot here a little bit. And I hope you remember this story about yourself. We were at a logistics leadership meeting talking about how to teach essential behaviors, talking about how to do it. We use some alternate curriculum in board adopter curriculum for social emotional learning. We use second step. Um, but can you relay a little bit of that conversation? Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I do remember exactly the conversation, but I just know that if you don't have a plan, there's no way you can implement it. And so you have to be really um looking ahead. And I think for for me specifically, I'm looking at what do my students need. So I I'm not married to a certain specific curriculum. I have a lot of tools in my tool belt. Wonderful. Our district has provided us with second step, and I love capturing kids' hearts. And there is so much in there, um so many great ideas and activities you can do and ways to connect with students. But I think the most powerful thing is to see what is it that your kids are struggling with and target those things. And even among my colleagues, we were saying, how can we like double down on this? Can we have different rooms and trade kids and have a different thing happening in each room that is a need that would just give the students exactly what they need, and maybe some extra models in there that would help us help kids with something that's just really specific and targeted.
SPEAKER_01So I love when a conversation comes to me that I didn't know you were having. And what a beautiful moment in that you and your colleagues are talking about different tiers of behavior instruction, similar to academic instruction, when we are sharing students across tier two and tier three to hit targeted, go back to reading, targeted foundational reading skills. But what you're talking about is shifting students based on targeted um academic and social behavioral needs and having the data behind it to kind of back that up and to really go back. Oh my gosh, I I love that this took this turn because I didn't know we were gonna talk about this. And I love trying to figure that out because absolutely you've got 26 individuals in your classroom that are demonstrating 26 different needs, and your tier one prevention behavior lesson is gonna reach 95% of them. That's what we hope, that's what the Hannigans espouse. And that will, but then you've got 4% of students, which, oh my gosh, my math is really bad. I don't know what 4% of 26 or 26 students is, but you've got a couple that will demonstrate different needs. And how can you best support that while then extending some Ms. Davenport? I can't wait to see what you guys are gonna pull off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just think we we have some kids that specifically get mad or sad, or there's specific things that we want to work on that that we could like make into a small group and let it be more targeted.
SPEAKER_01And I and I and I absolutely, I mean, it's that's your reteaching with some of the on-grade level expectations. And to go back to the conversation that we were having at logistics leadership, what we were talking about was I'll be honest with you, coming away from the behavior solutions training and reading through this book, it was the first time I'd ever connected behavior instruction um to a tier one, tier two, tier three process. That's been a huge aha moment for me over the last three, four, five months is to really try to flush out that understanding. And so we were talking about it, and within our master schedule, um, we have these areas that are called purple time. And that's where the stuff that's non-essential is happening. And I had set that out for the staff with a little bit of a hope and a prayer that that's where you're tucking in SEL lessons. And do you remember your response to that?
SPEAKER_00Well, if it's not, if there's nowhere to put it, then it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01It's not if it if you don't deem it essential, it's not gonna happen. And so I loved that. That quote has sat with me for, I mean, I think that was probably six weeks ago, eight weeks ago. You said that. You're like, well, if it's written on the schedule, it happens. If it's within this purple time, that's where I'm catching up all the other stuff that I needed to do, or I didn't quite finish that essential. So if you want me to do it and we deem it essential, it better have a protected time. And we work through that. And so the staff doesn't know this yet, but we're gonna propose some changes to our Wednesdays and protect some carve-out time so that on people's master schedule, it's going to have hey, a once-a-week, here's your tier one preventative social, emotional, or academic and social behavior lesson so that you can teach what your kids need. And I love it. And maybe I'm just throwing this back at you with a brainstorm. That's an the next point of collaboration for your grade level is to say, hey, this is the month we're doing like next month we're doing the to create kind of an annual budget of uh social emotional learning or behavior learning.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I also love the consistency across the school with this because we're all using the same language, and I think that's so important. Um, so that when they leave my class and go to third grade, they're gonna hear the same kinds of things said the same kinds of ways, and that's gonna be um just reinforcing um over and over again, which you know, yeah. Some kids need more reinforcement than others.
SPEAKER_01They do, but also you're saying, I mean, again, I love this conversation. You may think you're sick right now. Your brain is not sick, it is on fire. Uh, but you're talking about vertical alignment when it comes to that and using your high resource tools to create the connective conversation, the connective vocabulary, the connective language. Um, that's wonderful. Okay, so for the audience, we prep a little bit before each lesson, and I'm about to throw a curveball at Miss Davenport because of what she just said. I'm flipping the order of our quotes, and I'm gonna go to the next one, right? Which is from it's the shorter one, it's from a book called You Can Learn: Building Student Ownership, Motivation, and Efficacy with the PLC work process, written by Tim Brown and William Farreter. Um, and the quote on page 19 of that book says Um, to change the culture of an entire school, of oh my gosh, I'm sorry, a phone's ringing in the background, of an entire school, uh, then schools will need to identify strategies to implement systematically across grade levels. Doing so will ensure that students, regardless of the grade level they are in or the teacher they are assigned to, will be exposed repeatedly to the same set of core beliefs and attitudes toward learning. And I feels like that goes right along with what you were just saying. And so, what what is your belief system about if we create that, right? Regardless of the grade level they are in the teacher they are assigned to, what you just talked about. How do you think that could shift the whole culture of the school?
SPEAKER_00I just think they won't go anywhere on this campus without knowing what to do. No matter who they're with, they're gonna the the expectations will be so clear that it will be impossible, even if I'm not their teacher or they're not with their teacher, right? They're w in between places. We're all saying the same thing. We all have the same verbiage, and we're all all having the same high expectation for their behavior.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And we had a version of that today, right? So so the what we talked about for for um listeners is what made this short day long is that it was our first ever um tier one behavior, or we're studying a joke, maybe I'm joking around, and calling them bear havors, because we just love to put bear in front of things. Um, tier one bear havior passport day. Can you summarize a little bit for what today was from a teacher perspective? Because I can say from an organizer perspective, but from a teacher perspective, what did today entail?
SPEAKER_00Um, today was amazing. Um, I'm gonna take us all the way back to logistics. We talked about this um passport day as a a way to go from each station around our campus and really explain to kids again, as if it was the first week of school, what we expect in each of these different zones. And it wasn't just teachers explaining, it was um yard supervisors and um and people that are in the library and office people um telling kids all the same message of what our expectations in each of each of those places. So the task was that the students would move all around the school and hear those different expectations at each place and get a little stamp on their passport, which was adorable. Oh my gosh. I'll link it in the podcast info so you have it. But it was it was so cute. Um anyway, they got a stamp at each place for hearing the little presentation and um remembering some examples and um of what you can do and what you can't do in each of those different places.
SPEAKER_01I loved it. And so at each station, um, we had, I think we had five. We started in the classroom, and then then uh in some way, shape, or order, um, classes visited um the playground to be reminded of the playground rules, the NPR cafeteria, like where they eat, those rules, um, the office or library. We our office is connected to our library, so that kind of public business zone, and then also the bathrooms, right? And so um kind of thing from there, but at each station, Miss Evansport, there was an essential uh guarantee and viable curriculum. Um, and it was our tier one behavior curriculum. Um, do you know it off the top of your head? The big phrasing.
SPEAKER_00Oh, you mean bears? I do mean bears. Okay, so be kind, um, be engaged, be accepting, be respectful, be safe.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And so though I didn't even look at my notes. I swear I was looking at you the whole time.
SPEAKER_00We say this every day over and over again.
SPEAKER_01There was eye contact there. But we are we are trying to be kind, engage, accepting, respectful, and safe. If you're not picking up the first letters that spells bears, write it out for yourself. But um, and then underneath each of them, we developed, we tried to develop success criteria. So I want to take us back to last week's staff meeting, if you can remember this, uh, because that was a wild moment for us, but it was an absolutely wonderful moment for us um in regards to planning the logistics of today, is that um it is that we presented or we I presented like, hey, here's what's gonna happen. You've got your schedule. This is what you will kind of be, these are the success criteria. And it it flopped. Like those success criteria were not there. Um, and I think it flopped. My impression is that it flopped because it had not been collaborated on. It was out of my after all on episode 13 of a podcast about collaboration. I did it all on my own and said, here's what it is. And so can you take us through what we did last staff meeting?
SPEAKER_00So last staff meeting, we were um not allowed to stay with our team, which is always our comfort zone. Um, we were randomly um numbered off and we went to different posters, and um there were two posters for each area that we just talked about um on the campus. And with someone that's not on our team, um we um discussed what the success criteria should be for that that place on on campus. And then we looked at both posters at the end and consolidated to get like a best of what we felt, what we deemed essential behaviors for those areas all around our school.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And I'll link them in the podcast information so you have them as a reference point. But they're not brand new. Other schools have them, and we tried to create a couple of success criteria, and it took us to I'm gonna go to go to the book that we talk to all talk about all the time, Learning by Doing, um, you know, written by by Rich Rich Dr. DeFor and the team. And on page 175 of that book, um, it says this. And I want to lead us into some of the work we did because as we went around through those posters, we were really working to set success criteria. So it goes like this: the quote under there on 175, underneath the phrasing assessment of essential behaviors, it says if a school is committed to ensuring every student masters the behaviors needed for future success, then it must have a timely and systematic process to assess each student's progress on the behaviors the school has identified as essential. Like assessing essential academic behaviors, assessing essential behaviors, I'm sorry, like assessing essential academic standards, assessing essential behaviors includes the following. And then the first bullet point is this common assessments, such as being respectful is a commonly identified essential behavior. Respectfulness cannot be measured with a multiple choice test. It is an outcome that must be observed. Yet different staff members often show significant variance in what they think respectful student behavior looks like. If a school is going to commonly assess behavior, staff must first agree on what respectful behavior looks like in different situations, in the classroom, on the playground, and during a school assembly. So, for example, to create a respect rubric that staff members can use to reach and assess this essential behavior. It feels like what we did. Yeah, exactly. Right? And we turned, so we we deemed being respectful is obviously the R in our bears. Um, but one of the areas of point of data that we were subjectively collecting, but also we do, we are trying to formalize our behavior collection data using our bears reflection sheets. And one of the points that was coming up, and I know you and I've talked about this extensively, was lining up. Um, a lot of our hands-on behaviors, a lot of words in those unstructured moments of lining up. So even this deep into the school year, um, we needed to reteach kids how to line up and really for the purpose of we talked about this being safe. And I would love for you to expand on that. Um, so we created the lining up walking down Olympics. And so, can you, from the teacher perspective, talk a little bit about how that experience was kind of a school wide common assessment and led to some behavior success, or also pointing out who in your class. Maybe you needed some reteaching.
SPEAKER_00So um I always think about behavior and reteaching things as kind of like at the beginning of the year, I'm Mary Poppins and everything is fun and everything's a game and um I'm teaching and I'm so positive. And at the end of the year, I'm Judge Judy. And I expect them to already know how to do this. You've been with me this long, you know what I expect. I shouldn't have to say it again. And I find myself feeling run down and um getting behind it. And so I thought this was an amazing way to get back on the Mary Poppin' side of things, to make it fun, a game, a competition. Um, from day one, I was telling my class, I'm like, the judges are everywhere, you don't know who they are. They might be looking through the library window right now. Are you ready? Are you doing your part? Um, and we did specifically with my class, there was a aha moment, which was a brilliant suggestion that you gave me. I was having trouble specifically um with a few students who just always want to be first. They're gonna be running people over to be first every time, and they want to be the first through the door. And so I was like, maybe I can make that person the gate holder, and that wasn't working. It just no matter what I tried to do, it just wasn't really landing on something that was gonna curtail that student from having a meltdown for not being first or running people over to be first. Um, and you said, I was looking at your class list, your roster. Why don't you just put them in number order? And I've done this in the past. I don't know why I didn't think of it myself, but I'm like, okay, I'll just try that because I don't know what it's like. I'm struggling here, so sure, I'll give anything a try. You tell me try it, I'll try it. And the very, very first day that I tried it, it did eliminate a bunch of problems right off the bat. So that was a huge um feeling of success for us. And so we just kept doing that, but um centering on on things like talking about your spacing, talking about um sometimes kids would just turn around in line and then they wouldn't see when the line goes, and now the line is gone, and now you're running to catch up, and that's not a good line. So just having those conversations about um how we can do this better, how everyone can do their part, um, and just being in the right space um helped eliminate so many um not keeping your hands to yourselves kind of things, or or needing to have that conversation with your friend. I always tell my class, if I was walking with Mr. Davenport, it'd be really hard for me not to, you know, talk to him and I just look at him and he would know what I was saying, and then he'd say a joke back and it would be so hard because he's like he's my BFF. Like we're we're close. So it's hard to be next to your very best friend and just stop talking. Yeah. Um, and so um just letting him know recess is over when the when it's time to line up. And so having that spacing and standing next to the right person and who's gonna hold you accountable and help you, you know, do your best job was so important. And it made a big difference. And not only did it make a difference in the line, because I feel such such pride in my class that they could do it and they did a great job. I felt very proud of them. They were earning, you know, class points toward Friday Fun and things like that. So it was positive and encouraging again. Like I wanna be Mary Poppins. Um, but um, my sick brain just lost the thought that I was gonna say. It was so good too. Hold on.
SPEAKER_01We'll wait.
SPEAKER_00Dang it. That's okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna fill in the silence while you think about it because I wanna I wanna also give you credit though, and I appreciate you saying it was a suggestion. It was about the third strategy. We've been talking about it for a while, and I had previously given you the suggestion of, well, why don't you let this person always be the front? Like there, we were, you know what I mean? It was like this person, this student was struggling to keep their hands in themselves, and it was like, well, why don't you keep them in the front nearest you, proximity? And then that became a negative for others. And so I appreciate the comment. It was like the third strategy. And so, but I what it was was you try and it didn't work. We try and it didn't work, and that just those different, those different strategies. Your finger went up. I think you remember you.
SPEAKER_00I had a light bulb moment, yeah. It came back to me. Um, it made a difference once we got inside. Yeah. I loved not having the conflicts to solve that I would have had on the way. Um, we got in faster, and I was able to be positive and start teaching right away, which is like key, what I always want to do.
SPEAKER_01Isn't it wild how many, if you're if I really think back on my classroom, my classroom teaching career, and I bet you can as well, how many instructional minutes I lost just at the door handling things that happened, not even on the yard, but from when they lined up to when we got in my class. And I know we're really harping on lines. It really isn't harping on lines, it's just giving an example of if we shore up one small thing, one small structure, we actually gain a lot more academic time. And you talked at the very beginning of this conversation about hey, it actually almost means more to me to invest in the instruction around the behaviors and the core values because it opens the door to the rest of it. They they can't contribute to society in the way that I want to train them to, our bears to, right? And what an amazing world our world would be when our bears grow up and go take over it, because we've got some amazing bears. And so, but let's get them those values so that we can move on. And so I love that you went after it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's interesting that having that little bit more focus on the structure gives you exponentially more. And it's a time of year where teachers are wanting to be a little bit looser too. You know what I mean? A little bit more free and a little bit more fun, and you want to have those moments, but it's so much better if you can, you know, choose them on your terms. And having that extra structure piece allows you to do that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. And we there's sometimes, and again, I appreciate what you said earlier that like it's well, you said it just a minute ago too, is it's a time of year when we want to be looser. But you also mentioned earlier it's a time of year where it's on month 10 or I've losed track of months. Like school years are long. And so not only are students and teachers tired from the grind sometimes, it's also a high pressure time, right? We're coming to state testing in a week. Um, but it's there's the last bit of essential learning that we want to make sure everybody is a master before they go home for summer. Like, what are we gonna do? But not only that, losing the minutes because you got some spring fever, that adding in the structure has really, really I I've been appreciative. I've loved watching today. Was again, I don't mean I if you ask me in my classroom, I would have said, like, I'm not really a lines guy. We'll make sure we get from point A to point B. But watching today and the efficiency with which 25 classrooms were moving from those five stations and then culminating in what we call their lining up walking down Olympics, um, with some creative ways they were doing lines, it really was fun to see. And I, even though we spent a couple instructional minutes on it, I'm pretty sure it's gonna open the door to more.
SPEAKER_00Well, and what a message we're telling to kids. You know, we're willing to give up part of our time this morning, which they know we're all about reading and math, right? Like we're we're we're gonna teach them every day, all day, as much as we can. But this is that important. Yeah, it's that important to um be self-directing and to know how to do this and to go over these rules again. It's so important.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so I'm gonna put you on the spot here a little bit. Now that you've invested so much time in the lining of Olympics and the competition behind it, what it like an academic spiral review, what is your strategy or your plan to maintain it? As we go on to the next behavior challenge, what do you you don't want to go to the next one and lose what you just invested in? What do you think you'll do to retain it?
SPEAKER_00Well, I have to say, some of my kids were mad about not winning. I understand. Not everyone can win. I'm so sorry. We had practiced a chant, and our leader who had been practicing this chant with us totally choked. She was, I felt so terrible for her because she's wonderful and she was doing such a great job. And then no one else did a chant. And I think she got inside her head a little bit. Yeah. Which I could relate to that. That's okay. You know, the nerves got to her and she was like, I don't think I should do this. And she didn't. And but then the kids were like, We didn't sing and we practiced. So it wasn't.
SPEAKER_01They even announced at the school that you guys sang. I'm so sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, they they were mad when they walked back and like even in our lines, I I lost a little bit because I like I've been hanging on to this since the beginning. I'm like, there's judges everywhere. Now what am I gonna say? I need new leverage. I'm not sure what it is yet, actually. But um, I do see that such a value in this, and um we'll do everything I can to continue um reinforcing it and rewarding that um behavior that I want to see.
SPEAKER_01I think that challenge, that the chant, not challenge, the chant, I think will help. So it's really a funny conversation that we had, and I'll retell it for you uh because uh you were part of it, but also the multiple teachers came up to me because for so long, and again, I didn't mean to make this a podcast about lines, it just happens to be what our challenge was today. But many I had said, like, yeah, invite a chant, have appropriate noise was the success criteria. Like I walk with appropriate noise. And for so long, schools were like, hey, you're quiet in line because kids are learning inside of buildings. And while I respect that, I challenge back and said, How loud is your line going to be? How loud is your chant that you're going to disrupt learning within brick walls behind closed doors? Probably not that loud. So have some fun with it. If it helps you to letter sounds, letter names, multiplication facts, whatever it may be, if it helps you, do it. If you can extend the classroom while walking into the cafeteria, do it.
SPEAKER_00Sure. We were singing the doubles chant. And we had been practicing all year on a video, but then she was leading it. And they were, they were answering it back, and it was a call and response thing. And it was great practice. So it was a win-win, right? It is a win.
SPEAKER_01So and again, I wanna I wanna kind of get get us to the end here and can and conclude by giving you a compliment in front of the public. Uh, Miss Davenport, you are one of the great celebrators at our campus. I mean, you lead the celebration for the staff in terms of making other people feel welcome. I if I can describe your core value, I would say celebrating people is a core value for you, making them feel valued around and a part of your life. It sets a tone and a culture here. And thank you for that. And that that means a lot. Um, and on top of that, um you said it earlier by setting that safe tone, you know, it allows for people in your classroom to take risks. And I, and you are a great risk taker as well as an educator. I know you often say, like, well, okay, I'm a rule follower. How do we get this? And on the podcast last week, when I used your name, I said you weren't quite ready to share an assessment because it wasn't perfect yet. And so I'm gonna, but again, to come up with you dove right in, right? The risk taking of like, okay, I need a structure. What can I try? And to try and to try and to try. My question to you is this do you intentionally know that about yourself, or is it just happenstance and you're you've always been that way as an educator?
SPEAKER_00Like the ability to take a risk.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, no, I haven't been a risk taker always. And I get nervous about taking a risk. And even initiating this was like, what am I doing? Why was I gonna do that? Like right after I sent the email, I'm like, uh, do I really want to do this?
SPEAKER_01And I'm gonna say, yes, we're there's no way you're gonna know back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I'm practicing what I teach my kids, and I think that's how you grow. So I'm okay taking a risk, even though it does make me feel nervous. Um, I feel like that's where I'm learning the most. And I have a great team of people around me in a really safe place where I feel very valued, and uh and uh we've gone through a lot together. So um in the nitty-gritty of it, I'm in a safe place to take risks, and my team has always got my back, and I appreciate that so much.
SPEAKER_01But what a model for your students, or you say, what a model for your students that like over the course of, and again, we're talking about different behaviors and active papers and reteaching and trying something new to get the result we want once we know the success criteria. What a model for your students to try something and then say, Mm, I didn't get the result I wanted. We're gonna adjust it and try this strategy. I didn't get it. We're gonna adjust it and try this strategy. And I absolutely think it's fantastic. Miss Davenport, thank you so much for this conversation. I absolutely love it. But more than anything, thank you for taking the risk and reaching out and saying I can do it.
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm glad I did, and I'm glad it's over.
SPEAKER_01I know, I told you at the start. You will at the end of it, everyone says they had fun. Yes. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00My pleasure.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Now turn to your PLT for the next steps in your PLC at work journey, and we'll see you out there. You can find more information about this week's episode in the podcast description. The intro and outro music provided courtesy of the Signors of Marseille, and podcast cover art provided care of Joel B.