Seat!

Lions on their seats

Today was the first day of classes for my youngest son, who is very excited to start fourth grade.  He's already met his teacher and a couple of days ago, we all went to his classroom where he found his assigned seat and got himself all set up with his school supplies.  His teacher went over a couple of things regarding what to expect when you start fourth grade in her classroom.

This is important.  Whether you're starting a new fourth grade class or a new semester in college, making your students comfortable on the first day is important.  They need to know how to find their seat and know that they'll be okay there.  And they need to know what fun they'll have in the classroom.

Most lions and tigers in a circus act go through the same process.

First, a lion is coaxed into the arena. They feel safe in their dens and don't really want to go out and explore. I know we think they just can't wait to escape, but they're usually terrified of getting out of their safe haven.

If the lion doesn't have a good time during their first time in the arena, it will be hard to get them to go back. Luckily, they've already met the teacher.  He or she is the one who has been feeding them, caring for them, spending time with them, and talking to them.  The next thing is show the lion his seat.  That's the pedestal assigned to him (and only him).  Just like in fourth grade.  It's a "home away from home" in this new place.

For lions, we coax them up onto the seat.  A gentle nudge, some soothing verbal coaxing, a tidbit of meat . . . and the lion is on his seat.  We say "Seat!" or "Platz! [place!]" or something like that.  So that the lion gets conditioned to the signal to go to his assigned seat.

Then we coax the lion down from his seat.  Partly so we can then say, "Seat!" and get him back onto his pedestal. Such repetition is needed for learning, right?  But it's partly to get him out exploring his new "classroom."  Just like on fourth-grade back-to-school night when my son and all his classmates were excitedly exploring their new classroom.

Thus, a lion gets comfortable with the arena--both the parts that belong to him and the parts that are shared.

It's also a good opportunity to see what the lion likes to do when he plays.  Is he scared of that big barrel or does he try to get it to roll?  Does he like climbing on props or does he prefer slinking under them?  Does he instead seem to like jumping over them?  This knowledge will be used by the lion tamer to figure out what kind of things each lion will excel at, or at least how to get him interested in learning new behaviors.

Also, we learn what things the lion is kinda scared of.  So we can be more careful with those things that might cause some initial fear.

Likewise, a teacher can get to know a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of new students by chatting with them as they explore their new classroom.

When called back to "Seat!" the lion also learns which behaviors are acceptable while seated and which are not.  Turning around is not good.  The lion tamer needs the attention of each animal pretty much all the time.  Also, turning around to face the audience could be frightening to the circus patrons!  Laying down and snoozing (a favorite pastime of lions): also not good.  Jumping down from the pedestal without being called down by the tamer: really bad.  Distracting the other cats: not acceptable.

Another crucial element during a lion's first experience in the arena is how to get out quickly, safely, and comfortably.  Usually, the command is something like, "Go home!" or "House!" or something along those lines.  Usually, it's accompanied by the additional cue of the exit door rattling.  This is important.  Not only to get everyone out in an orderly way.  But if something bad happens, like a fight or attack or a fire, then all the remaining cats can be evacuated before they get hurt.

So what are some practical applications of these ideas?  Consider these practices to help your students get comfortable right away?

• Be conscious of the fact that nearly all of your students will first enter your course with some hesitation.  
• So making an effort to be particularly soothing and welcoming can be very effective.
  
• At the first opportunity, encourage students to roam around and explore.
• For example, in my biology courses I want students to play with the models and specimens.
• Chat informally with students before the first class and get to what they're excited about and what they're afraid of.  
• The first thing I do, is break my students into small groups and ask them to generate a list of questions they have about my course.
• Then I give them the syllabus and let them explore that and try to find their answers.
• While this is going on, I'm strolling around and informally chatting with them.
  
• Consider meeting your students ahead of time.  
• That way, they're already comfortable before the first day.
• Try getting word out that you want students to drop and introduce themselves before the first class.
• Try hosting an "open house" in your classroom before classes start.
• Post some information about yourself online (your faculty webpage, for example).
  
• Teach them to "Seat!" properly
• You might consider assigned seats, at least to start out.
• If seating is open, then be sure to let them know which behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors are not
• What's your policy on asking/discussing during class?
• Are mobile devices allowed?
• What about bathroom breaks?
• Snacking OK?
• Interrupting or distracting other learners?
  
• Teach them about exiting safely.
• Be courteous and don't loiter in the doorway as classes change.
• Where to go in a fire, tornado, or other emergency?

Getting off to a good start is critical to success throughout the course!

Lion taming team

Assistant letting a lion into the arena

If you've ever seen a lion act, you may not have noticed the men and women in nondescript coveralls along the edges of the ring (sometimes even inside the cage).  You're not supposed to notice them, so don't feel bad if you didn't.  The spotlight is supposed to be on the lion tamer and the lions . . . not the rest of the lion taming team.

Anybody in the entertainment industry knows that the term "solo performer" does not mean that only one person is involved in presenting what you are seeing and hearing.  This is absolutely true in lion taming as well.  One person may take the spotlight, but a coordinated team effort is required to successfully train and present a lion or tiger act.

 During training, assistants inside and outside the practice arena are needed to supply treats (usually bits of fresh meat), position props, and move animals into and out of the arena.  These assistants usually help guide each animal during training and practice, meaning that more than one person is actually training the animals.  Sometimes an assistant guides one animal and the lion tamer another animal as they learn a behavior that requires two animals acting at the same time.

During a performance, sometimes it's the assistant helping to cue a particular animal to leave its seat and move to the middle of the arena, to enter or exit the arena, or stay put on their seat during another animal's time in the center.  The assistants keep watch on the seated animals so that the lion tamer can focus on the animal(s) performing at the moment.  Often, it's the assistants to rush to help diffuse a dangerous situation if it arises.

The best lion tamers are those who know that they alone cannot pull it off.  They are the lion tamers who spend extra time and energy building a team that can effectively work together.

Likewise, the best teachers are those who know how to use the team approach successfully.  

I've known teachers who do not respect other professionals involved in the learning process and fail to involve them in the learning process effectively.  Which often adversely affects the quality of learning in their courses.

For example, do we go out of our way to include library professionals, safety officers, maintenance and housekeeping staff, learning specialists, accessibility teams, and others in our planning and execution of our teaching? 

If we don't develop the habit of including ideas from--and enlisting active cooperation from--our teaching team, then we run the risk of being "eaten alive" when things don't go as planned.

Here are a few ideas to get started in team thinking.

• Library professionals are often eager to assist in researching content updates and new teaching approaches. They're often willing to walk our students through the "how-to" methods of doing research for their class projects. I've had librarians help me keep an eye out for new books and new articles that I'm likely to find interesting or useful.
• Safety officers can help us plan some strategies in  dealing with aggressive students or other potential hazards.  Developing a good relationship with your safety team makes all of you more comfortable and confident as you "perform" your daily work.
• Maintenance and housekeeping staff, when made part of your team, are often willing to assist you in keeping your classroom spaces "just the way you like them" to facilitate teaching and learning.  They often have some great ideas for making your space even better!  By having a working relationship with them, you are more likely to get the help you need--and get it right away--when things go wrong.
• Learning specialists and accessibility staff often have some useful tips and shortcuts, especially when dealing with challenging students and challenging groups.

Like circus-goers, we often let those team members in "nondescript coveralls" become invisible to us.  But it's better to be more like the lion tamer to relies heavily on their help to succeed. 

Sometimes, it's the little things

Distractions

I'll never forget the time that a tiger's claw caught the tendons in my wrist and pulled me to the ground.

I was training a tiger to find his seat and stay there . . . one of the first behaviors any circus cat learns.  I asked him to get on his seat (which he was doing well) and then walking him around the outer edge of the practice arena before asking him to again go to his seat.  Each time he did as he was asked, he got a bit of fresh meat.

The meat was held in a bucket outside the arena by my assistant.  When I needed more treats, she would pass a handful of meat tidbits through the mesh of the arena.  Then she'd wipe the juice from the meat on a towel and stand ready to assist me in other ways. However, that afternoon she carelessly put the towel on the side of the arena, hanging through the mesh, rather than safely outside the arena.

As the I walked the tiger around the arena's edge once more, he sniffed the meat on the towel and lunged for it.  Before we knew it, the towel was now in the tiger's mouth.  It seems that the animal knew he shouldn't swallow the towel. But he wasn't about to give it back to me, either.  I know; I asked him several times to give it back to me.

I couldn't just leave him there until he got tired of it.  First, he'd probably outlast me on that score.  Second, the arena was not secure enough to leave him unattended.  He needed to be leashed and walked back to his den--impossible without him giving up the towel.

So I tried to throw him a treat, then grab the towel as he jumped at the treat.  Not surprisingly, he was a lot faster than me and batted my arm away as I grabbed for the towel.  Ooops.  His claws were out (a reflex when defending his "kill") and one of claws sank into my wrist and hooked around a tendon.  Oops.  If it were a case of him batting me away for any other reason, his claws would not have been out.  But this time, he accidentally got me.

I knew that if I pulled away, I'd have some serious damage.  So I went with his paw as he pulled it back toward him and tried to retract his claws.  Thankfully, the claw retracted and I was left with just a puncture . . . and a perfectly intact tendon.  Whew.  I got up and away safely.  Sure, there was a bit of bleeding and some days of serious infection prevention as the wound healed.  All I have to show for it now is a small scar  . . . and a story.

One of the lessons of that story is that sometimes, it's just a small, seemingly inconsequential, thing that gets in the way of the day's lesson.

For me and my assistant, that towel was a small thing that was not distracting in the least . . . to us.  For my tiger, that towel was the most distracting thing in the universe.  He could not help but go for that unprotected prize.  For all he knew, we were trying to get him to jump for it!

From that day forward, I always inspected every inch of the practice arena before, during, and after every session.  Looking for the little things that could distract a cat and cause a potentially life-threatening problem.

There are so many distractions that can exist in a classroom.  They may not be distracting to us.  At all.  But for a variety of reasons that we cannot possibly fathom, there may be something small in the classroom that one or more students simply cannot ignore.  Telling them to may not work.

For example, I have a college class with three students who sit near the back of the room and chat quietly during class.  I usually cannot hear them.  When I do, I automatically tune them out and focus on the day's lesson.  However, some (not all) of my students simply cannot focus while the quiet chatter is going on.  And if they cannot focus, they cannot learn.

So, like a lion tamer, we teachers need to carefully manage the distractions in our learning environments.  For example, I need to pay more attention to the back-of-the-room chatter and do what I can to stop it.  We need to consider that even though many students should be able to redirect their focus, sometimes they struggle . . . or they simply follow their instincts before they realize they've drifted away.

What if there are little (or big) distractions you cannot manage?  I'll tackle that one in an upcoming post!

Say hello first

Lion tamer greeting
his students

During training sessions, lion tamers are primarily concerned with developing new behaviors or refining existing behaviors.  Likewise, in each class session teachers are primarily concerned with moving on to new concepts.

Lion tamers rarely just "get to it."  They instead take a moment to connect with each animal in the training session.  They literally talk to them and give them a pat or rub.  Lions LOVE rubs! This engages the animal in a way that helps them focus on the trainer and on the training environment.  It also sets a positive, engaging mood in which to begin the "real work" of the session.

Then a lion tamer will ask each animal to repeat a behavior they have recently learned.  Or perhaps an older behavior that relates somehow to the new behavior that will be the focus of that training session.  This gives the animal a sense of success and accomplishment.  Of course, it also brings to their consciousness the whole idea of performing and following directions.  If it's a behavior that relates to the day's lesson, then there's an added benefit . . . it gives them some practice in movements that they'll shortly be asked to do.

Beginning with a positive introduction and a quick review of previous learning is also a useful strategy in the classroom.  

Engaging your students in some friendly banter before the class starts is a smooth way to get their attention focused on you and the learning environment.  And it sure beats an off-putting shout to "sit down and shut up!"  I can't stress this "engagement" concept enough. It enhances classroom discipline and, more importantly, enhances student learning.  Unless and until you can engage your learners, you're going to have a tough time!

A quick review doesn't have to take long.  It could take many forms.  In my anatomy and physiology lectures, I usually start by summarizing the main points of the previous class session.  I may have some extra words about a concept that serves as the foundation for the new topic about to be addressed.  I may even pose a clicker question on a review topic, just to get everyone back in the groove of that previous topic. 

By connecting yourself to your students and recalling a previous topic or two at the beginning of each class, you'll find that your classes work better and that student learning improves!

Don't back a lion into a corner!

In my last post, I explained how lion tamers use chairs to "bounce a lion" and coaxing reactions that will challenge them to move around in different directions in the arena.  I used this process as a metaphor for how good teachers can coax their students to accept challenges in solving problems and learning new skills.  Today, I'd like to apply the metaphor of the lion tamer's chair in a different way, by applying it to classroom behavior and discipline.

Before I jump into things, I want to clarify what I mean when I use the term "classroom."  I mean any learning environment in which teachers interact with students.  That could be in a traditional classroom, or in a lab, or on a field trip, or in an online environment, or . . . well . . . anywhere you can imagine.

As I've stated, the lion tamer's chair is merely a tool that helps coax a lion to move in a particular direction under the direction of the trainer.  Its use requires knowledge of the natural behavior of lions and skill in using that knowledge to manage the behavior of the lions to achieve desired outcomes.  Likewise, knowing something about human behavior allows teachers to develop skills in managing the behavior of people in the  classroom environment.

Applying the chair metaphor, we as teachers can develop skills in stepping through boundaries in ways that promote good classroom discipline and thus enhance the learning environment.  Recall from my previous post that the lion tamer's chair is used to enter the "personal space" of a lion to different degrees, each of which elicits different reactions.  Enter the outer boundary and the lion backs away.  Move past the inner boundary and the cat gets irritated and moves toward us . . . menacingly.

As you can imagine, different lions have different boundaries.  Some lions let you get fairly close before they back away, whereas others back away before you can get close to them.  Lion tamers learn this by interacting cautiously with each lion until they know the boundaries well.  Teachers can also take time to learn the boundaries of their students.  Different students have different personalities and experiences that mold their boundaries, just as lions do.  If we learn some of these boundaries we can more efficiently learn how to apply that knowledge to managing classroom discipline.

For example, some students are very sensitive to the "push" of a teacher who appropriately challenges a class.  When a student who feels threatened, we have crossed a boundary with them.  They may lash out at us, even if only in subtle ways, just as a lion does when it is "bounced."  If we push harder, then it's likely that we will cross another boundary and the situation will escalate into something very negative . . . and perhaps even dangerous.  But if we step back just a bit . . . just outside that boundary we crossed . . . the student will feel less threatened and can be approached again from a different angle.

Lion tamers often puzzle over how best to approach a particular lion.  Some lions can be quite enigmatic in their boundaries and reactions.  But nearly always, sometimes after some failed experiments and consultation with other trainers, a good lion tamer can figure out a way to work with any lion.

Disruptive lions can be dangerous in the arena, just as disruptive students can.  Not only physically dangerous, but also a threat to the learning process for everyone in the classroom.  But if we take the time and effort to learn the boundaries of our students, and their reactions to our crossing those boundaries, then we can tailor our behavior to avoid conflict and instead challenge students in positive ways.