Ep 47: Increasing Buy-In From Your Team to Start Building Thinking Classrooms

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So I look across the room at my instructional assistant and I'm like, not us standing in the middle of the room with nothing to do two weeks into kindergarten because all of these kids are on task working together and problem solving.

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Hello and welcome to making number sense makes sense a podcast for elementary teachers specifically early elementary teachers looking to really make an impact in the number sense of their students.

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Today's episode is about buy in from team members or teachers who might not be into building thinking classrooms.

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Maybe they're not convinced yet or just not sure how to implement it in their classroom and you're getting some resistance.

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The inspiration for today's episode was from a listener who sent me an email.

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Side note, you can always send me an email if there's something you want to know more about follow up about.

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I always answer and I'm happy to do episodes specifically dedicated to something that might be able to help you.

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So this email and they're doing a book study on building thinking classrooms and their teachers are just not quite convinced.

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And I have to say I had the same experience not that my team members were unwilling to give this a try,

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but I'm definitely a jump in with both feet ask permission or forgiveness later kind of person and not everybody's like that and I completely understand that.

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So they were very much wanting me to give it a try kind of work out some of the kinks and then bring it back to them.

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And I was absolutely fine with that.

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I found that I was in that position a lot on my team, mainly because I was in the unique position of not teaching reading at all.

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Since I was a Spanish immersion teacher, when the students were with me, I was teaching the math and science in Spanish.

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And then in the afternoon, my partner teacher would take my students and do language arts and social studies with them.

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And I would take her students and do math and science again.

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So I got to teach each lesson twice, which was so helpful to kind of correct in the moment and then try again with a new group of students to kind of work out all of the kinks.

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So in that sense, I was very lucky that I was able to kind of refine my teaching in the moment to make it work better for my next class.

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Or see two completely different groups of kids approach tasks so differently was really interesting to see.

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And that's kind of one of the first things I would say when you're wanting to get some buy in from teachers who might be a little bit hesitant,

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not only have them actually give it a try, but also just invite them into your classroom with students to observe what is going on,

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the way that you might present a task, the way that students are handling it and kind of the routines and systems that you have in place

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that might be causing a block for some other teachers who you want to join you in your building thinking classrooms journey.

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And they are not about it yet. I'd read the building thinking classrooms book.

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I was ready to dive in. My school had just been renovated. So every wall in my classroom was giant whiteboards.

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It was a perfect setting to start something new in my county.

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Each kindergarten teacher has a full time instructional assistant or paraprofessional that's with them all of the time.

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So I explained my idea, how excited I was to my instructional assistant.

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And she looked at me kind of like, I'm not sure about what you're telling me, but technically we work together.

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And you're the teacher. So we're going to give it a try.

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She wasn't opposed to it, but she was not thrilled.

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So you do have some experience kind of bringing someone along.

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So I explained kind of what I wanted to do and just see what was going on.

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And it was really great to have a think partner in the room with you to reflect on what was going well and what wasn't going well.

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So my first few tasks and I say tasks with quotation marks because it was more like setting up the routine than actual tasks to start with.

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I had my students just pick a card, find their partner based on the card and get to the right place.

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Really, that was my only goal in giving them one marker.

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So they had to figure out how to find their partner, get to the right place and share a marker for however long I tried.

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And I tried the timer. You have two minutes, you have two minutes.

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And it was a lot for me to manage having that timer go off every two minutes.

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And it just felt really cumbersome. That wasn't something I enjoyed, but I'm sure that it can work for someone else.

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So if that is a hang up, just getting them through the routine is something to celebrate.

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More so than that, if you're starting right at the beginning of the year, you're not deep into curriculum yet.

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You're really about learning the routines of how to be in school. And this is just another routine that your students can learn if you're starting at the beginning of the year.

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If you're not starting at the beginning of the year, chances are your kids know a lot of routines.

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They're used to learning routines. So if you think of it as another routine that your students are engaging in, it becomes less overwhelming.

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Like this new thing that you have to do exactly perfect, because that is definitely not the case.

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It does not have to be perfect at all the first time.

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I don't even think it's perfect the 50th time. It's always a learning curve and a journey that you and your students are going through together.

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And if they trust you enough to lead them through that journey, it is going to work out. I promise.

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So bringing it back, my instructional assistant was not overly thrilled, but she was like, if you want to do it, let's do it and gave it a try by our fourth task.

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So my first task, getting to the right place and using and sharing the marker.

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My next task was, OK, now you're going to get to the right place. Use the marker, but create something together.

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So it was a drawing, whatever it was, they needed to create it together.

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My third task was get to the right spot. There are some blocks there.

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You and your partner need to build the tallest tower that you can.

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And really, it's just about getting your kids to the right place in the routine and working on something together to get them used to the feeling of like,

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this is what it feels like to work with a partner towards a common goal and achieve that goal.

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Those are my first. My fourth task was the three princes task.

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And this is where it kind of clicked for my instructional assistant and I that like this is something different.

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Like this might actually work better than we thought it would.

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And these kids are five. They were in kindergarten.

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This is some of them their first ever experience two weeks into school working out.

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So the task that I gave them is called the three princes task.

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And now I love to tell a story and I definitely wanted that buy in from the kids.

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So I definitely started it like like I'm about to tell you a story.

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Like once upon a time, there were these three princes, the red prince, the blue prince and the green prince.

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And these princes each wanted to be the line leader.

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They wanted to be the first one in line.

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But then they thought about it and thought, it's not fair if just one person is the line leader all the time.

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What can we do about that?

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So the kids gave suggestions. Oh, well, they could take turns.

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It's like they can take turns.

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So their task was to figure out how each prince or each color could be first in line, second in line and third in line.

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And I gave them connecting cubes, a recording sheet and three crayons and sent them on their way.

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So I explained the task. Then they picked their cards, found their partner, made their way to their space and just started working.

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So they colored in red, yellow, red, green and blue, if that was their first one.

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And they were talking to each other about trying to make it different.

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How could they make a different order so that everybody gets a turn?

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So kind of brought the task to light for them.

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They were imagining these princes in their head.

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And that's when my assistant and I looked at each other because this is the second week of school.

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We're 15 minutes in and these students are still working together without any input from my instructional assistant and I.

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And if they were getting stuck, they were asking a partner, they were checking their own work, asking other people in the classroom.

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And we were like, whoa, something might actually be going on here.

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And for the students who finished it, we threw a little wrench in it.

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That was our first that was my first attempt at a thin slice.

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I said, OK, now we have these brothers, the three princes, but they also have a sister, the yellow princess, and she wants a turn to do each one, too.

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So they flipped over their recording sheet and they had four squares that represented the four people instead of three.

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And they kept going that way. And he had to stop them because we ran out of time for them to finish.

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And that's when, like I said, we looked at each other.

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We're like, well, not us standing in the middle of the room with nothing to do.

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And they're problem solving like this really worked for us.

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So not only did my instructional assistant start to buy in when she actually saw it working,

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but I was able to share some of the work that my students were doing with my teammates.

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And that also kind of gave my co-workers pause.

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They're like, wait a minute, your kids were able to do that two weeks into school?

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And I was like, yeah, it was really incredible.

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They were so into it. And I feel like I want to keep trying this.

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And it kind of piqued their interest.

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I wasn't pushing anything, offered the materials.

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I had quick launch slides in the recording sheet that was really simple to make,

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offered them the materials. If you want it, here it is.

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If you don't want it, that's fine.

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And so little by little, I just continued sharing different tasks that I was doing,

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showing my students work to my co-workers so they could kind of see what they were doing

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and eventually invited them into the classroom so they could see it play out in front of them,

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which was really helpful in getting buy-in from other teachers.

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So first, invite people in and show them student work.

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At this point, a personal hang up might be, but how does this connect to the curriculum?

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And starting off with your non-curricular tasks, it might not.

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It might kind of graze math or touch math a little bit.

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But really, the idea is them getting involved in a story and working together.

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And finding tasks can be the most fatiguing part for me.

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And why I didn't do it more often, sometimes the creative juices were not flowing.

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I just could not think of a task to do or I didn't have enough time to prepare it the way that I would have wanted.

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So if you're looking for tasks for the whole year for kindergarten, first grade and second grade,

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I have links to those in the show notes just to get some ideas.

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But beyond that, there is a Facebook group that is that I'm not affiliated with at all.

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I don't run it. I'm not an admin of it.

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But there are some amazing ideas from teachers all over the world in that group who are always willing to help.

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So I will link that as well so that you can go and get some ideas if that is your hang up.

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Not sure what tasks to do or even how they connect to the curriculum.

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There are some great ideas there.

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Another struggle you might hear is you just don't have the time.

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Like how often are you supposed to be doing this?

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And is it taking the place of traditional instruction?

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And to each their own, everybody can do what works for them.

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But especially if you have coworkers who are not willing to jump in or don't want to completely change,

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because change is difficult.

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And I wouldn't say I did this all the time either.

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I still had many lessons.

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I still had my students in stations.

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I still had them doing other more traditional math activities to help them.

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Because while problem solving is great, we still need to practice how to write our numbers and building

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thinking classrooms. Problem solving might not be the best way to actually get the repetition and the practice in that they need.

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So making sure that your teammates are aware that it's not all or nothing.

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You can start in slowly, maybe just once a week and the rest do what you normally do and go from there.

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The last thing I would say is to be curious about what their holdups are.

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So maybe ask them to vocalize what their misgivings are, what they're not sure about, what gives them pause.

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And after they answer, dig a little deeper.

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Ask them to explain more about what they're thinking, asking how you can support.

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Or if they're just completely not into it, letting it drop for a bit and maybe bringing it up later.

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So that they can really feel heard in their doubts because there are a lot of changes happening all the time.

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And it always feels like there is a new thing that you have to be trying.

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And this is the only way.

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And everything is going to work out if you just do this thing.

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And it can be completely exhausting.

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Like just one more thing that you have to do.

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And as a teacher, that was definitely the last thing I wanted to hear.

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I do not want to hear just do this.

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It's only going to take this.

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I was not into it.

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So you really have to kind of let it settle.

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Bring it up and be curious about what their holdups are.

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So kind of a recap.

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Invite your teammates to see building thinking classrooms in action.

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Share student work.

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Come with tasks that they can do that align to the curriculum or tasks that might be quick and easy ones.

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They can put in 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there.

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So it's not a giant time commitment.

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And finally, be curious and ask them what is going on in their head.

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What is holding them back so that you can work together to find a solution?

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This is going to be perfect.

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No.

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And there's always going to be someone who just doesn't want to do it.

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And you have to be OK with that.

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But just kind of letting it simmer can definitely help if you have coworkers who might not want to try something completely new.

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Like I said earlier, you can always send me an email.

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Lara at making number since makes sense.com.

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I will leave that in the show notes as well.

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If you have any questions, any follow up, I am happy to help.

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And I will see you next time.