The Blueprint: A School Leader's Starter Kit To Crack the Code on Student Disengagement

[00:01] Announcer:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, helping you build capacity for instructional leadership. Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center, Dr. Justin Bader. Welcome, everyone, to Principal Center Radio.

[00:13] SPEAKER_00:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to welcome to the program Michelle Singh. Michelle is a National Board Certified Teacher, founder of The Restful Teacher, and CEO of LCTE Learning Solutions. With over two decades of education experience, including over 20 years serving Miami-Dade County Public Schools as a teacher, district leader, and consultant, and over 10 years as an adjunct professor of teacher education, Michelle is committed to fostering equity and inclusivity in education. Her journey began as a nine-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, where she developed a passion for cultural understanding and empathy that has shaped her path to becoming an award-winning educator. As the leader of LCTE Learning Solutions, Michelle is on a mission to level the playing field in education by tackling the disengagement of students and teachers. And she is the author of The Blueprint, a school leader's starter kit to crack the code on student disengagement.

[01:04] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[01:07] SPEAKER_00:

Michelle, welcome to Principal Center Radio.

[01:09] SPEAKER_01:

All right. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited about our conversation today.

[01:14] SPEAKER_00:

Likewise, because I feel like disengagement is a universal problem. It's a problem we're all aware of. There are students in every school who are disengaged and we don't necessarily have a great solution to that. How do you understand the concept of disengagement? What does that mean to you?

[01:30] SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's funny you ask because the concept of disengagement when I was a classroom teacher, it simply meant that students were not participating and students were not performing and they weren't involved in the teaching. in the curriculum and in doing research and in doing professional development for other teachers and in observing students in various settings, not only in my school district, but in other school district, I started paying more attention to the reasons why students were disengaged, what was the environment, what it felt like, what it looked like, what the school felt like, what the school looked like. And I'm writing my dissertation right now about student disengagement. I'm a former, I like to say I'm a forever English language arts teacher, right? I taught secondary English language arts.

[02:21]

And so I'm doing my dissertation on the disengagement of Black students in secondary English language arts classrooms. And just in the studies I've read and the research I've done, disengagement has so many levels, so many considerations that we cannot see clearly. It's more than just a behavioral problem, which is usually the first thing that we go to. There's emotional disengagement, right? There's, you know, where students are exhibiting certain emotional responses and behaviors that are not even tied to the school environment, but goes back to home and community and even childhood traumas and things like that. There's behavioral disengagement in which that affects the way students are responding in that environment.

[03:12]

There's cognitive disengagement. And so there's all of these different levels and different types of disengagement, and In doing the research, a lot of it focuses on individual characteristics of students in classrooms. Like I said, behavior is a major factor of that, but we really have to pay attention to the whole picture. Everything about the student and the what, the why, and the how about their disengagement to really, really uproot what it is.

[03:45] SPEAKER_00:

A lot of different facets to it. And I'm thinking back to my experience as a science teacher. And sometimes the first sign that I had a student who was not engaged at the moment would be more obvious. If a student has their head down on the desk, if they have some sort of visible agitation or just visible disengagement. that might be a sign. If I don't get their paper back at all, or I do get a paper and it's full of IDKs and the student hasn't really engaged with the work, that might be my sign.

[04:14]

As educators, how attuned should we be to things like that? Because there's a huge range of what we see on a day-to-day basis. And as you said, many different types of disengagement. What are some of the starting points for classroom teachers to recognize and maybe start to think about their students' engagement?

[04:33] SPEAKER_01:

Honestly, it really boils down to relationships and trust. That's just the answer. Relationships for me are the answer to everything in terms of If you wanna get students to respond to you, if you want students to trust you, you have to have a relationship with them and you have to create a classroom climate that embraces certain characteristics that the students are gonna respond to in an engaging way. And so I often think back on, there's just this one particular student. This was actually my last year in the classroom before I moved up into leadership. And I had a student who was an average student, right?

[05:12]

He definitely tried in class and he did the best that he could. And I noticed that he was starting to fall off. And if I did not have a relationship to pull the kid or talk to the kid or have the kids stay during lunch, I would have never found out that this student, when he started to fall off in his grades and even in his demeanor in class, and he was just always very tired. This, the student told me one day during lunch, he stayed after class. And he told me that his house burned down and he saved his sister. But unfortunately, he could not save his grandmother.

[05:46]

I mean, my heart broke. And this is the weight that students are carrying. And if they don't trust you, if you don't have a relationship with them where they feel safe, you will never know. You will never know what's happening. And there was so much under the behavior of that student just putting his head down, not raising his hand when called on. There was so much more to it that I think we just have to focus on relationship building at a classroom level, at an administration level.

[06:20]

I mean, it works the same for leader and teacher as well. If the teachers don't trust the leaders, they're not going to share the things that are affecting how they're performing as a teacher as well and what their needs are and what their strengths are.

[06:36] SPEAKER_00:

One of the most important pieces of advice I ever got and one of the most important practices that I used as a teacher was to greet students as they arrived, every period. Secondary school, six or seven periods a day, lots of students coming and going, and honestly, not a lot of time to build relationships and still teach a class. But I found that the beginning and end of the period were a time when I could at least speak individually to each student very briefly. Maybe they could share something. Sometimes I'd ask them a question. They'd have an opportunity to say something.

[07:05]

What are some of your ideas on that time challenge, especially for secondary teachers? Because elementary teachers have the luxury of time with their students. They're with them the majority of the day and have a little bit more opportunity to build relationships. But so many secondary teachers have 120, 150, 180, 200 students. and wonder, I think legitimately, when do I do that? How do I do that?

[07:28]

How do I make the time to get to know my students, to connect with them, and build that relationship? Because it just feels like the numbers are working against us.

[07:39] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, of course. I mean, when you have standards to reach, when you have those accountability measures to strive for, it does feel like you only have time to teach certain things, right? but I like to think of ourselves as teachers. I like to think of us as architects in our environment, in our learning environment, where we can carve out, we can create, we can design, and we can stretch the time in how we are creating this learning environment with the instructional activities to give students an opportunity not just to get to know us and trust us, but to also get to know each other when we create that classroom climate, when we create a classroom climate where failure is not seen as a shame, but it's like a culture of embracing failure as an opportunity for growth.

[08:31]

That's building a relationship. That's building trust, right? When we create a culture where empathy is valued, that's creating trust and that's building relationships. And so we have to be those architects and bring in those resources and give those learning opportunities where we have those core values that will help our students to trust us and trust the learning environment. And that's when we can see those relationships flourish to be quite honest.

[09:04] SPEAKER_00:

I know in the book you have both a school culture audit and an inclusivity checklist. What are some of the most important items in those that indicate how our culture is doing, how our classroom environment is doing in terms of inclusivity?

[09:21] SPEAKER_01:

Just in thinking about the school culture audit, one of the things that is at the forefront is, are the students' voices recognized? Do the students have a chance to share their voice in the environment? That doesn't mean like you ask a question and wait for everybody to answer. That means providing a space through your activities where you can give students an opportunity to share their perspectives. It could just be a simple turn and talk or think pair share or, you know, a gallery walk, things like that, that will allow the students to share their thoughts and their learning. And it may not be to you one-on-one, but in the environment, are you incorporating activities like that so that your students can share their voice?

[10:06]

Not only that, in terms of creating that culture and ensuring that cultures are seen and valued and heard, Sure, we have curriculum that we have to teach and we already know that our prescribed textbooks and curriculum many times don't align with cultural perspectives that are cultural perspectives because certain cultures are historically excluded groups are often seen as marginalized, are often seen as victims and stereotypes. So we have a responsibility as architects of our learning environments to bring in resources that emphasizes these historically excluded groups in a positive, in a resilient light. That could be through a guest speaker, that could be through a video, that could be through an excerpt from something else, a biography, if you're teaching math or science, I mean,

[11:05]

You have to be able to supplement, supplement so that you can highlight the diverse voices and stories of individuals who are historically excluded and who are often seen as a stereotype or a victim.

[11:24] SPEAKER_00:

I think that's so powerful to have guest speakers, to have role models, to have, I think, points of connection with the curriculum. Because if we're not intentional about it, it's very easy for the curriculum to be our thing. You know, for students to see the curriculum as the weird thing that we're imposing on them. Like, you're that weird person who likes math or that weird person who likes...

[11:44]

ancient civilizations and like, why should I care about that? And seeing other adults, I think is powerful. Seeing adults who developed an interest, who pursued a passion, who pursued a career, I think can be just incredibly powerful. I'm also thinking about experiences outside of school and, you know, just the field trips that I recall from childhood as being formative experiences and getting to hear from people who have learned the stuff that we're trying to learn now and have done something with it can be so powerful.

[12:14] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I have stories about field trips. I actually talk about one of my teachers in my TED talk because of those authentic experiences that she provided for us with field trips and guest speakers and how that taught me to bring those things into the classroom as well, whether it was virtually or in real life.

[12:34] SPEAKER_00:

I have to put a plug in for field trips because I feel like they're one of the first things that we tend to cut when we're short on money, or maybe it just feels like a lot to organize, or maybe, you know, kids feel a little bit squirrely and I'm like, oh, I don't, I don't know if I can manage out in the community, but I feel like they're so powerful. And, you know, what we remember from our own school experience often was those special days when we got to do something, to see something and be out in the community.

[12:58] SPEAKER_01:

And here's the thing too, there are a lot of resources out there. It doesn't have to be a live field trip. It could be a video to a location. Google has resources. Microsoft has resources. There's so many resources that are free and available where you can pull in those quick videos and quick virtual experiences to just show the student what it looks like outside of the pages of the textbook and even get them to hear from someone that may look like them otherwise.

[13:27]

And you also mentioned something that I thought is important that I also mentioned in my TED talk is talking about experiences that are authentic experiences, like actual, what characteristics is this person who's speaking to your classroom? This guest speaker, what characteristic are they showcasing that the resilience, the creativity, the innovation? A lot of times when we bring in guest speakers, we're looking at their resumes and what their job roles are rather than what their lived experiences are and how that lived experience can be something that those students who are coming from the same background, can also learn from those lived experiences. So when you think of guest speakers and field trips, it's really more than just, I achieved a career, or I have this accolade, or I have this job title.

[14:24]

What is the lived experience that the student can learn from?

[14:28] SPEAKER_00:

And Michelle, speaking of guest speakers, I know we have another guest with us on the call today, is that right?

[14:33] SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So I am dog sitting. My aunt brought over her doggy to my house. My aunt lives like 90 seconds away from me. That's just how we are. In Jamaica, our families all live in the same neighborhood.

[14:47]

And so I am dog sitting. My niece doggy, Mika, she's a Husky. And so you might hear her trying to get my attention because apparently Huskies are very needy, very, very needy doggies.

[15:02] SPEAKER_00:

I don't have any specific questions for her, but she's welcome to chime in.

[15:05] SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

[15:08] SPEAKER_00:

I wanted to ask Michelle about the particular challenge of secondary teachers who see themselves as content people and have trouble thinking about how to connect with students, how to engage students. And I'll put myself in that basket a little bit. I became a teacher not because I was super passionate about working with kids, but because I was interested in the subject and thought it would be interesting to teach. And I think it really is a learned skill for a lot of people to figure out how to connect with students and not just show up and teach a subject every day, but actually show up to teach students every day. So for school leaders who might be thinking about some people on their staff who, boy, that's a really good math person or that's a really good science person or a really good social studies person, but I need them to also connect with their students in a way that is not obvious to them, is not natural to them. Any advice there?

[15:58] SPEAKER_01:

Yes. My biggest advice, and this comes from me being a classroom teacher, a leader in my district. It comes from me being a college professor for 10 years. And actually, in the college environment, you get to experience that a lot, where you have brilliant people in their content, but they are not education backgrounds. And so their knowledge of pedagogy and and even other learning theories are very limited, but they are brilliant and passionate in their content area. And I say that there has to be a balance between the two, a balance between your content and your passion, but also in terms of K through 12, your pedagogical knowledge.

[16:46]

And I often refer when I'm teaching my students, because I teach in teacher education, I often refer to the map of pedagogical knowledge, which kind of maps out what a skilled teacher, you know, what does a good teacher look like? What does a good teacher have? And the qualities of a good teacher starts with these foundational beliefs and these foundational values of, that ultimately influence the curriculum and the planning, right? It influences the instructional strategies that are used. It influences the motivation piece, which is like the classroom climate. And it influences how they manage the classrooms, like the behaviors and the routines that they put in place.

[17:26]

So what are the core values of the human beings who are the teachers in your school? Are they aware of what their strengths and their opportunities for growth are? And do they understand how their strengths and opportunities for growth influence those four or five things that I just mentioned? how their core values are at the base of this idea of what a skilled teacher is and it directly influences. So I struggled, still struggle with perfectionism. And as a person who now recognizes the damage that perfectionism can cause, if I didn't acknowledge that, I would not be able to Embrace a culture where failure is an opportunity for growth as myself individually, but create that opportunity for students.

[18:17]

Right. And so for school leaders, you have to address the human first. They have to be aware of their values, their core values and how that influences everything else. And I think you just, you have to start there. You have to provide like those learning experience, professional learning experiences where the teachers can go deep and dive into self.

[18:40] SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, very well said. And I appreciate the point about tapping into what someone's core values are, because it can be easy to look at someone who is not doing what we want them to do or not thinking in the way that we think they should be thinking and think they just don't have any core values. There's just nothing there. And there is something there. We might need to build a little bit of a bridge to get the job done, but it's not that there's nothing there.

[19:04] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's it. We have to build on what they have. So some of the teachers I teach are teachers who are entering the field of education, who come from other countries and they were prior careers. um retired who want to go into teaching and so one of the first things i do in my class with them because they take my class as like an introduction into teaching that because they're getting ready to actually become full-time teachers so one of the first things i do with that class is a strengths assessment because i want them to see that they have strengths from their previous life their previous experiences their previous careers that can be a bridge into them as a teacher How can they pull on those strengths and those opportunities for growth to help them to become a skilled teacher? And then once they can see those strengths and then be aware of where they need to grow, now you provide the tools and resources that they need for that support to get to that path of being a skilled teacher.

[20:08] SPEAKER_00:

And you're modeling there, too. You're modeling what you want them to do with their students, not just see their students as people who do math to varying extents, but as whole people who bring a lot, who are complex, who can be engaged in a lot of different ways.

[20:24] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you bring in those instructional strategies that they'll need to model, like you said, how can you now incorporate these strategies that can help you to reach your students now that you understand your strength as a learner and what your core values are. So if you value innovation and you value creativity, here are some strategies that can complement that in your classroom with your subject area.

[20:52] SPEAKER_00:

Michelle, do you want to tell us a little bit more about the work that this book came out of? Because you put together quite a toolkit for leaders, and I know this is rooted in work that you've been doing for many years.

[21:03] SPEAKER_01:

So the ideas that are in the blueprint stemmed from, I like to call it my life's work. So in my educational career, when I first started teaching, you know, my undergraduate degree was in English education. That's why I call myself a forever ELA teacher because I absolutely love literacy, teaching English. But I was also challenged in teaching when I was given a gifted class and that made me pursue a gifted degree. And then my gifted students challenged me with technology and I pursued a technology degree. and then curriculum and instruction just it really is my heart and i have a degree in that and so i i say all of that not just to list the fact that i have the degrees but to list the areas that i have expertise in because all of that came together finally i never understood how they how do you go from gifted to technology to english and how it finally came together

[22:06]

was when I was just putting together the research as well as putting together a course, a program for new teachers and for teachers to learn about empathetic education, teaching in excellence. and equitable teaching practices, because those are the things that I valued so much as a learner, being an immigrant student in this humongous country, in a vast school district that was often, as a student from another country, as someone who was culturally diverse myself, and just being in an environment where I didn't feel accepted and I didn't feel like I belonged and I didn't feel safe, those few teachers who showed me empathy and who challenged me were the ones who I remembered and the ones who I have a relationship with, right?

[22:59]

Still to this day, I can call on my elementary school teacher. In fact, I did. I needed a recommendation and I texted her and she wrote it for me. So...

[23:10]

The areas that this is broken down, I call it the equal methodology, which is really a framework that I use now in my business when I'm doing trainings, because I feel like those five areas, the culture, evaluating the culture, ensuring that you're qualifying the teacher practices, right? You're uplifting the student skill sets, you're activating stakeholder relationships, and you're leveraging equitable assessments, right? When those five areas work together, it can create magic for students and for stakeholders in the learning environment, because those were things that I saw, that I used. Those were things that I observed in other teachers. Those were things that are backed by evidence. And these are all, you know, as an architect of learning, because that's what I like to call us as teachers, all of those things work together to create a foundation for teaching that all students can benefit from.

[24:09] SPEAKER_00:

Michelle, if people want to learn more about your work and maybe get in touch with you, where's the best place for them to go online?

[24:14] SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So my website is lctelearning.com and you can go there and you can connect with me. We can get on a call to chat so I can learn about you. And you can also find information about the work, the books and things that I have.

[24:33] SPEAKER_00:

Wonderful. Michelle Singh, thank you so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio.

[24:36] SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for having me. Great chatting.

[24:39] Announcer:

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