Executive Functions for Every Classroom: Creating Safe & Predictable Learning Environments Grades 3-12

[00:01] SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.

[00:06] Announcer:

Here's your host, director of the Principal Center and champion of high performance instructional leadership, Justin Bader.

[00:13] SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio. I'm your host, Justin Bader, and my guest today is Mitch Weathers, founder of Organized Binder. Mitch is a science teacher, a high school science teacher in California, and has put together an incredible system for teachers to use with their students.

[00:33] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[00:35] SPEAKER_02:

Mitch, welcome to Principal Center Radio, and I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about what got you started down this path. What prompted you to create Organized Binder?

[00:46] SPEAKER_01:

Definitely. First of all, Justin, thanks for having me on. It's an honor to be here. Organized Binder came about really just trying to solve problems in my personal classroom. As a newer teacher in my first couple years, I entered the classroom later than some. I spent a few years as a director in the nonprofit space before entering the classroom.

[01:11]

And I had worked with at-risk high school kids and middle school kids through this nonprofit work. And when I entered the classroom, it became very clear to me that there was something I wasn't doing. I didn't know what that was. And what I did know is basically what I had learned in grad school and ed school about what I really think focused on content and the delivery of content and accessing modalities and all really good stuff. No matter how hard I worked and how long I planned, I still had a fairly significant number of students that were not achieving academically. And oddly, there were kids who came every day.

[01:52]

And so I set out to really kind of figure out what it was that I wasn't doing. It was just kind of haunting me that I knew these kids could achieve and succeed, but there was just something we were missing. And from that work, kind of from that place, that was kind of the genesis, if you will, of designing a system that really, after a couple years, answered that question and solved those problems for students.

[02:20] SPEAKER_02:

So essentially, you were setting out to answer the question of, how can I set up my students for success in my classroom?

[02:26] SPEAKER_01:

Yes, absolutely. And convinced that they could succeed and that there was really something... that I wasn't doing. And it was really, to be honest, it was kind of fun.

[02:39]

It was painful to see kids struggle, and I wish I could have just snapped my fingers, but it really was a process over a year or two. But it was really interesting to start to uncover areas in the classroom that just no one had talked to me about before. And now, years later, having the pleasure of working with schools all over the country and internationally. I think most people are in the same boat. I think that's changing a little bit now, which is great. But yeah, it's really about trying to find a way to help my students succeed in the classroom.

[03:13] SPEAKER_02:

Fabulous. Well, and I think we can all resonate with that sense of professional commitment that we have. You know, we want to take some responsibility for ensuring that our students are learning. And yet at the same time, there are things that feel like they are up to the individual student a little bit. So it sounds like you've really created a system that places responsibility with the student, but sets them up as well as possible for success. Is that a fair way to put it?

[03:39] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think that's a very fair way to put it, absolutely.

[03:43] SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's get right into it then. Can you tell us what is organized binder? What does a binder look like when it's organized, and how does this work in your classroom?

[03:52] SPEAKER_01:

So I'll start with by saying it is, in terms of the paper version of the system, is a three ring binder. Very simple, very tangible. One of the things that became clear to me was that, and Lisa Delpit says it very well, that making that which is implicit in the classroom explicit. Yes. And this system makes what's happening in the classroom and what is required, what is expected of students, crystal clear. There's just no way to not know what's happening in the class.

[04:30]

And let me try to explain. So it is, it's a very simple system in a three-ring binder. And what it does, without being able to actually sit there and show it to you, it offers a few different things to the classroom so the first is the way in which the class runs so there's a very very clear starting routine to the classroom which people may call question of the day do now bell rung seat work all of that and with this system we call it a kickoff question but it's it's done in a way that builds in a resource so what i typically see in a classroom is that there is some type of starter, some type of catalyst to get the classroom going, to get class started. But that strategy as well as others are kind of these individual pieces to the classroom, and they're not all tied together.

[05:24]

So one of the things this system does is it does allow for a very clear starting routine as well as an ending routine. And it's on a page that we call the weekly lifeline. such that at the end of a traditional schedule, end of a week, if we see kids five days a week, students will have written five standards-based prompts with their response. And depending on the subject, there may or may not be a quote-unquote right answer. But I say that, that that's a little bit different than just taking out a scratch piece of paper, writing a prompt, and responding to it in the classroom. What we're building at the end of, say, a three-week unit, they now have 15 prompts that they can look back on to study for the exam.

[06:04]

At the end of an 18-week semester, that's 90 on a traditional schedule, 90 of these prompts. And so you're kind of doing twofold. You're creating a very predictable classroom environment.

[06:15] SPEAKER_02:

Right.

[06:15] SPEAKER_01:

And yet you're at the same time, simultaneously, and largely unknown to students at first, creating these tools that they can use to learn to, for example, study for an exam or whatever it might be. One of the things it's going to do is set up a very clear kind of flow or routine. We like to call it a ritual. One of the things this system does is it ritualizes the classroom in a way that a student on their way to a classroom that uses Organized Binder they know what to do before they even arrive. Let me try to explain. I work at a school with about 75% second language learners.

[06:58]

And if you've ever worked with kids for whom English is a second language, there's a certain fatigue on their face by the end of the day that was not on their face at the beginning of the day. And I don't think that just comes from how much they're learning. There's a significant amount of friction in a school where that kid goes to seven different classes that all function differently, how they begin is different, how they end is different. So there's this whole process of I'm getting 50 or 60 or 70 percent of the language that's being said and that much of what I'm reading and yet I'm trying to figure out where I'm at and what I'm supposed to be doing because it's different everywhere we go. One of the kind of trademarks is in with a classroom with this is it's just absolutely clear and so what's projected or presented in the classroom is actually identical to what students have in their binder that the templates if you will match and so that's reducing that friction like I sit down and it doesn't matter who I am I know what to do when I arrive and so

[07:57]

You know, what Krashen says about trying to reduce or lower the effective filter. It's really about trying to do that. Like, how do I make this so predictable or explicit for a student that they just know what to do, that they're spending more of their cognitive energy on the content that we're trying so hard to learn? And that I'm trying to deliver just by simply making the classroom predictable. And there's an additional layer to that is what the system, this other strand, what the system really does is it develops what Paul Tuff calls non-cognitive skills. Some call executive functioning.

[08:35]

Some schools are calling it now student-ness skills. But it's this whole other skill set, this whole other host of skills that we now see and know that students need to be successful, and yet they're very rarely taught in the classroom the same way or as deliberately as content is delivered. And so one of the things this system is doing, besides... kind of setting up this ritual or these routines, is it's developing in kids the non-cognitive skills as they're learning the content.

[09:05]

And I say that because if you follow Dweck's work out here at Stanford, my school is kind of a stone's throw from the campus. And the idea of a growth mindset is so important for students who have struggled academically, the kind of historic academic failure. And that's what really started happening when I developed the system. I didn't have that language for it yet. But what I saw was that students were beginning to believe that they could achieve. And that made all the difference.

[09:37]

They had convinced themselves, or maybe it was the system that had convinced them that it wasn't for them, that they weren't successful. But that all of a sudden, students began to see themselves as scholars, as students. And as I began to reflect on that, what I realized is that students in my class are having victories or success in the classroom that's not tied to entirely to content mastery. And too often in the classroom, content mastery is the only way we define success, if you get this or not. And ultimately, of course, that's the goal of whatever course you're taking is learning the content. But along the way, depending on who the learners are in the room, if they're not experiencing these victories, which develop in them a growth mindset, which I would even argue then if you look at Duckworth's work around grit and her expression, we need grittier students.

[10:34]

Grit comes from... a growth mindset and the way to develop a growth mindset is to have these experiences of victories or successes in the classroom while I may be struggling with whatever content I'm trying to learn. So let me see if I can wrap this up for you but a student is coming into class and let's say I'm a math teacher and I'm learning to add fractions and this kid may be struggling with that concept and learning that however at the same time they can start class with the kickoff and be successful with that as we start class and then we turn to an agenda and we really go over and make explicit the skill of using a calendar and time management And then we update a table of contents and we create these unit packets that are these robust study tools at the end of the unit. And all of those things every kid is experiencing as we go through, even if they are at the same time struggling with the content.

[11:30]

And what I've seen, when you put that all together, they start to develop this skill set because of these routines or rituals. And they start to feel better about themselves in the academic space, which then is this mindset which allows them to withstand or keep trying, which is this gritty piece in the face of even failure.

[11:52] SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. And it seems like it's all about developing habits that lead to kind of a predictability for students when they show up. A lot like Harry Wong has talked about for years in his book, The First Days of School. And I think I've heard from several people who've had this experience. And I wonder if you've ever had something like this happen with students. one of the teachers you've worked with or maybe in your own classroom where the substitute doesn't show up and despite that students have such a clear set of expectations or students know so well what they need to do that the class is actually able to function without the teacher present because students have those routines in place and they know where to find things and they know what processes to go through and they're not waiting on specific instructions for every little thing.

[12:42] SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. I can't even count how many teachers tell me of all the things the system has helped them do, one of the top is when I have a sub, class can actually run if I'm there or not. And on the substitute side of it, when I'm out, a sub will leave a note like, oh my gosh, this was such a pleasure. Students just knew what to do. And that's true of the admin piece. A story from last school year, about this time last year, a superintendent from a neighboring district here in the Bay Area came to my classroom and just wanted to watch, was interested in bringing Organized Binder to the district, and sat in the back of the room and there was an open chair next to a student and so he decided he would just sit down at that lab table next to the student and he sat there all class period it was great we just went through the whole thing and he kept kind of chatting to her and I'd see her talking about the binder I had no idea what they were talking about and at the end of class he came up and he said I want this at every school in my district and he said for no other reason than

[13:50]

And again, this is towards the end of the year, so students knew the system well, but just said, you never even had to verbally prompt students. They just all knew what to do throughout the entire class period. There was this sense of empowerment and self-reliance that the system had built in students. And of the things he talked about with me and that student, that one alone was just this idea of, I know how to be a student Which frees me up when I, for example, when I'm handing out papers or we're creating something, students in a class that are using Organized Minder say, well, what assignment number is this? Because every piece of paper has a very clear, explicit place that it goes. And it just becomes the norm that...

[14:36]

Well, you wouldn't give me something that isn't of value and have a place that I can access it when I need to, rather than being in a classroom where we can't find stuff from last week or two weeks ago. And all of this is kind of from through the admin lens carrying on with that story is it's significantly more powerful when students are seeing these same rituals from class to class to class. So the empowerment becomes my way of being at school and not just in one classroom, and it can really help change a school culture if it's needed, where students really in every class are seeing themselves differently and also being held accountable to do so.

[15:18] SPEAKER_02:

Well, and it seems huge for equity. And back to something you said earlier, the idea that we shouldn't just have these kind of unstated expectations for students. We need to be very explicit about what students need to do, about what we expect of them, about what the routines are, what the instructions are, so that that doesn't create a gap between students who are kind of good at school and everyone else.

[15:40] SPEAKER_01:

Very well said. One of the things I'm most proud of is that when you stand in the back of a room that has implemented Organized Binder as it's intended, in that moment, when the bell rings, you cannot tell who are the quote-unquote, you know, A, smart kids, achieving students, and those students who need help. At that moment, and this happens, and this is a really important concept, is that in that moment, everybody looks the same, is acting the same, and not some authoritarian way, like you've got to do this, but in a community way, that this is a learning community, and I can have access to this community regardless of my ability or inability to master the content at this moment. And oftentimes, if I can't master it, then I can't be a part of what the community is doing.

[16:34]

And so when you stand in the back of this room, you could make a... The one guess you might be able to make is who the EL students are, but you could be wrong. I tell people that all the time. And you might be able to figure that out, maybe based on ethnicity or something, but you could be wrong.

[16:50]

And I've sat in many classrooms where the class begins. In a classroom that's using Organized Minder, one of the things that's... It creates also a very safe classroom because what we know from research is that bullying in the classroom happens in what I call the gray areas. And the gray area is defined as these times or these spaces in our lesson plan that are left undefined.

[17:13]

Oftentimes, the beginning and end of class are defined. the most underutilized time in class. And this system, if I could sit down and show you, it really is about exploiting or maximizing those times that are historically underutilized For example, the first two or three minutes of class. We ask every school we work with, on average, how long does it take for a class to become academic once class starts? And then again, not in an OCD or an authoritarian way, but in a way of saying, every minute counts. And how do we maximize this in a way that's going to empower students rather than missing these two or three minutes?

[17:52]

And in those two or three minutes is that gray area that can be really unsafe for many students. And so in an Organized Binder classroom, it's literally like two or three seconds and we're engaged academically. And it really is what modeling equity and this kind of sense of community in a classroom can be really powerful.

[18:13] SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So let's go through the initial understanding of Organized Binder. When someone first hears about Organized Binder and says, oh yeah, I want to do that in my classroom, or I want to make sure that that's in place in every classroom in my school, What do you see as some of the big misconceptions that people get stuck on? Or maybe if they hear about it, but they don't really look into it enough and don't kind of get the full perspective, what are some of the places where those misconceptions can lead people astray?

[18:47] SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Great question, by the way. The leading misconception, and the name of the system doesn't help this at all, but the people hear organized binder and they go oh it's just a binder system i have binders and it's really not just a binder it is it will it will very coherently organize paper in a way that is far better than the kind of historical or traditional way of organizing where you get a binder and you get some dividers and you, based on the type of assignment, you put it in the right section and that just ends up being a mess. And so that's true, it does organize paper, But there's the building of non-cognitive skills. There's this idea of making the classroom predictable and safe and time management and classroom management.

[19:38]

I mean, I am completely convinced, and not in every circumstance but in most, That classroom management is more about clarity than it is about authority. And so back to this explicitness, when I make my classroom crystal clear, again, not as like overbearing, but in a way that's like, I know what to do. So I'm more likely to do it. It's when I don't know what I'm doing. and I don't feel good about myself, then it lends itself to off-task behavior. So there is this idea that it's just a binder and people just kind of give it a glance and move on.

[20:13]

And I get that. We've actually considered other names and our users kind of protest loudly because there's a whole community that really likes the name. But there's something to be said for that, that it's just a binder. Other misconceptions, I don't know if this falls into the category, but there is a school of thought that students should figure out this stuff on their own, that content is king when you consider standardized testing. You look at schools and how they're measured, and I totally, completely understand that, this idea of content. When I was in grad school, I remember an interesting class one night.

[20:51]

We were mixed in with elementary school teachers, and the professor made a point to just randomly ask a question and asked questions. high school and middle school teachers what they taught, and certainly high school teachers, and we all responded with a subject. I teach bio. I teach history and math. And you ask elementary school teachers what they teach, and they say, I teach students. And it's just a different shift that in certain areas in the K-12 space, this idea of content and that my job is to deliver that content supersedes the idea of, because it does at times when you're implementing a new system, it's going to take some class time.

[21:31]

And I think that's class time that's well used in doing so. So there is this idea that students need to figure it out on their own. Fortunately, we have research that suggests that historically students may have, but that they aren't for whatever reason now, and that it's our job to teach these skills alongside the content. I would say those are probably the two major misconceptions. And then maybe if I could just add one more might be just the idea of time. You know, teachers, we never have enough time, nor do administrators.

[22:06]

So just the sheer notion for some of doing something else or that might take two minutes at the start of my class, it just seems like... an impossibility and yet in fact it actually causes teachers to use time more effectively and get through more because it tightens up their transitions, lost papers, etc.

[22:29] SPEAKER_02:

And it seems to me that if we're concerned about kind of overly paternalistic teaching, if we're concerned that we are, as educators, doing too much for students, the determinant of that would be whether students walk away with skills that they can use after high school. You know, if they walk in to a college class and they think, well, I know how to set up a binder because all my teachers had me do that for every class. And I have kind of a knucklehead professor who doesn't give me any kind of guidance or help at all. Well, I already know what to do because I've been using this system for years. And it's those taught habits that I'm hearing you say are so powerful.

[23:07] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and to clarify maybe what I said before, one of the key points of the system is that the learning of those skills by the student is not through a didactic model in the classroom. And so I'm not necessarily up there quote-unquote, teaching these skills. It's through experience every single day. So there's this hands-on, literally hands-on, tangible aspect of the system. And each day we're going through this. We're figuring out that there's a very strong metacognitive piece to the beginning of this kickoff question at the start of class.

[23:45]

And we know from research that the more time students spend thinking about their thinking, even if they still are struggling for content mastery, the more time they think about their thinking, the more likely they are to retain it. And with a higher frequency, you revisit that which you've learned within a 24-hour period, you're also more likely to retain it. And so some of those things are built into the system, this kind of metacognitive aspect, certainly at the beginning and end of class. that students are realizing that the idea of reflecting and writing about what I'm learning, that there's value there, that they can employ that at the college level. And we work with some universities as well, and one of the key factors that's missing is just basic time management and the ability to keep a calendar. So one of the things we do is, if you think about it, whoever taught you how to use your calendar?

[24:40] SPEAKER_00:

Nope.

[24:40] SPEAKER_01:

Nobody, and that's probably one of the clearest ways to get at this idea of a non-cognitive skill or an executive function, these skills I need to make it through life, and yet so many of us just had to kind of figure it out. Well, if I can't just figure it out for whatever reason, and yet I have the ability to do it, what a great opportunity in the K-12 space to start to build those in just through experience, like let's use the calendar. And by the end of this year, you will be proficient at using a calendar. And so when you do, as you say, get into a classroom, at the university level, the big rub is, okay, you've gone from this fairly kind of...

[25:19]

curated experience in the K-12 space to this, here's an 18-week syllabus, you have to be ready on week 16, and that's the last time I'm gonna talk about it, here we go. And then reaching back and employing those skills is huge. And we've had, we actually have a university version of the system for higher ed students who are in a classroom where there is no structure and nothing's going on other than lecture that they can use as more of a student tool. And that came about from kids graduating, going to university, community college, and contacting us back and saying, hey, can you send me those templates because I really need to use them in this class or whatnot. So we evolved the system for them.

[26:04] SPEAKER_02:

Very cool to see that connection between high school and higher ed. Mitch, if people would like to connect with you and find out more about bringing Organized Binder to their classroom or school or district, where can they find you online?

[26:17] SPEAKER_01:

Easiest place is organizedbinder.com. That's organized, past tense, binder.com. And you can get at me personally, Mitch at OrganizedBinder, and that will drop into my inbox.

[26:32] SPEAKER_02:

Fabulous. Well, thank you so much. It has been a true privilege to speak with you today, and I really appreciate your time.

[26:38] SPEAKER_01:

Likewise, Justin. I appreciate it.

[26:39] SPEAKER_00:

It's an honor to be on. And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.

[26:45] SPEAKER_02:

So, high-performance instructional leaders, one of my big takeaways from the interview with Mitch was this idea that we need to set people up for success. And I think Mitch did a great job of sharing his system for setting students up for academic success by taking those expectations that we have that may be implicit and making them really clear and really explicit for students. So everyone knows what's expected, everyone knows what to do, and everyone can succeed. What I want to encourage you to do as a school leader is to do the same thing with your staff. Now, you probably have staff members that you're frustrated with, that you feel like aren't getting the job done on a day-to-day basis and just really aren't performing the way they should be in order to do what needs to be done on behalf of kids. And you've probably taken some steps to remedy that situation.

[27:35]

You've probably provided some coaching. You've probably stated some expectations. But I want to encourage you to go back and take a deeper look. Are there things that you're expecting teachers to do that you haven't actually told them? And sometimes we think, well, I don't really need to do that. They're professionals, they've been trained, they should know how to do these kinds of things.

[27:55]

But there are lots of different ways to approach teaching or just about any situation that educators encounter. There are multiple different perspectives and approaches. And if you want something done a certain way and you're frustrated that it's not happening that way, be clear with people. W. Edwards Deming said that 85% of an individual's performance is based not on their individual contribution, but on the system that they're working within. So if you have teachers who aren't being successful, take 85% of the responsibility for that and take the perspective that Mitch took in his journey of developing an organized binder and say, what can I do to set people up for success?

[28:34]

I'm Justin Bader. Thanks for joining me for Principal Center Radio.

[28:40] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.