Executive Functions for Every Classroom with Mitch Weathers — Strategies to Create Safe and Predictable Learning Environments
Executive Functions for Every Classroom with Mitch Weathers — Strategies to Create Safe and Predictable Learning Environments
Ross Romano: [00:00:00] Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Authority Podcast here on the Be Podcast Network. Thanks as always for being with us and today's discussion we're really going to get Into some deep discussion around classroom instruction, teaching and learning and particularly executive functioning.
So my guest today is Mitch Weathers. Mitch is a teacher and the founder of Organized Binder, and he is the author of a new book, Executive Functions for Every Classroom, Creating Safe and Predictable Learning Environments in Grades 3 to 12. It's published by Corwin. It's brand new. Mitch, welcome to the show.
Mitch Weathers: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here with you, Russ. Appreciate it. The
Ross Romano: Yeah, absolutely. So, big picture, Mitch. What is [00:01:00] the big idea behind this book?
Mitch Weathers: big idea behind this book, that's a great question and a great place to start. I would say that when we look at the skills and habits known as executive functioning, and we can first maybe even back up a little bit and define that term or phrase that it really is kind of an umbrella term. And, and if you will, there's different kind of verticals categories underneath that.
And when we look at specifically teaching and learning process there's a set of skills that some schools we work with call student ness. Kind of think of it as like all the things you need to be able to do to really be successful. At engaging in, sticking with, and whatever it is I'm trying to learn.
And historically these skills have really been kind of left up to chance. Like, we hope students and young people just kind of pick them up as they're making their way through life. That's not always the case, but most of the time for me, if I'm [00:02:00] in a A room with educators. And I asked the question just take one of these skills, for example, like time and task management, who, who in the room has ever had someone when you were young, a caring adult, show you how a model for you, how do you keep a calendar?
What's that look like? And, and there's different ways to do that. And most of the time, it's like, no, I just kind of figured that stuff out as I've went through life, or as I made my way through school. And we know now that skills formally learned by students on their own, we really have to teach and model those for kids.
And, And that's, that's where the dilemma is. And that's what I try to unpack in this book is One, you're not going to find a teacher on the planet that has some spare time to just also teach executive functioning skills. And the other thing is something I call the zone of genius, where just may not be my expertise.
You know, my mom taught second grade her whole career, and we've all had this experience. You walk [00:03:00] into a classroom, and you're like, this is there. Zone of genius, like they just got it. And it may not be teaching and modeling these skills. So the, the big picture of this book is trying to make the point or the argument that executive functioning skills, teaching students executive functioning skills is really primary or foundational work.
And what we teach the curriculum, the content, how we assess that, et cetera, is secondary and it's not. It's not an order of importance. It's just kind of an order of operations, and we can no longer, and if there's one silver lining, at least for this work that the pandemic has highlighted is that we're seeing from interrupted learning, however you want to describe the impacts of the pandemic on students, there's some gaps there, some that existed before, some that have Widened some that were created, but the way to, to really [00:04:00] kind of address that is equipping students with executive functioning skills.
Ross Romano: Excellent. And I think in this conversation, we'll likely be digging a little bit more into the strategies for teaching executive functioning skills broadly more than necessarily what each of the specific skills are. But I do think for our listeners, especially those who are newer to this, we'll That highlighting a few or a handful of the specific executive functioning skills would be helpful to contextualize what we're what we're talking about as we go through here.
Could you choose some of the ones that are worth kind of highlighting and surfacing as examples?
Mitch Weathers: Just to keep it really simple, the book outlines six specific executive functioning skills. There are more. The six that I talk about, the reason it's those six is they also inform some of those others, if you will, but it's working [00:05:00] memory time and task management, goal setting, organizational skills, self regulation. And now you got me missing the sixth one. I should know that.
Ross Romano: No, that's no
Mitch Weathers: Accountability. There it is. Accountability.
Ross Romano: Perfect. Yeah, I mean, that's I think that gives a great. You know, sense of what some of these key skills are, and you know, as, as maybe a teacher is thinking, maybe thinking about this for the first time, right? As you mentioned earlier there are challenges to incorporating instruction around executive functioning and figuring out ways to make it where it's not another thing and also in integrating it.
But I guess there's a couple of questions around that. The first is are there other challenges to be aware of with getting started with teaching executive functioning and challenges that are going to need to be navigated? And then, I guess, how might a teacher start to get the signs [00:06:00] of the baseline, like what, where are there signs of executive dysfunction or you know, what does that kind of look like as I'm getting started and first.
Surveying my classroom, surveying my student population and thinking about, okay, where, what's maybe the starting point for where they stand?
Mitch Weathers: Good questions, man. The first, I mean, I would say it's not so much a challenge, but I believe a misconception, and here I am talking about teaching executive functions. They're not actually taught in the traditional sense of the word. What I like to say is they're best learned by students when they see them modeled and they get Routine practice employing them in a no stakes learning environment.
So in other words, it's not going to negatively impact my course performance or my tested performance as I'm practicing these skills that I'm seeing modeled. And we can get into those three keys a little bit later, but I think that is one, [00:07:00] one misunderstanding and that's one reason why, you know.
curriculums that promise to teach executive functions. Where do you fit them in? First of all it's not going to be in a, in a grade level or subject area class because there is already that time crunch. We know that. So oftentimes these kinds of programs or curriculums are embedded into like a homeroom or an advisory class or advocacy class.
And, and just to be honest and Blunt. Oftentimes students perceive those is not real classes or not real school. And so the curriculum already is kind of seen differently by students from the get go. And to be honest, you know. Learning about the importance of organization and strategies for getting yourself organized are different than practicing those within the context of what I'm learning.
Right? So, so that's 1 point that they're not actually taught. They're [00:08:00] best learned when I get practice with them. But within the context of what I'm learning and the baseline assessment. That's a great. That's a great question. Because I have had schools over the years. Like, hey, do you have like a scorecard or a a quiz kind of thing that we could give our students informal assessment that could measure their executive functioning and.
What I always reply is like, well, if, if you're looking around the room, are students struggling organizationally, are they stuffing papers in their book bags and their desks? Is there stuff on there? Like, there's some very quick, like, snapshots you can take and go like, yeah, there's some executive dysfunction in this classroom and, and starting there as a way to get students.
I mean, you can even just look at organization. I mean, that's one, right, that. Something that many, every teacher has students in their classroom probably that struggle organizationally. And if we can really start with that particular executive [00:09:00] functioning skill, it can have a profound impact on my ability to start to hone the others,
Ross Romano: Yeah, I mean, it would seem that, kind of going back to the challenges part, that practicing the executive functioning skills in the context of learning is not only one more effective way of learning, but also a more practical way of making sure it gets done within a time crunched environment.
Right. And saying like We need to do this for multiple reasons to ensure that we actually are able to focus on these skills and students are, are learning them in an environment in which they will last. And also another term that comes up in the book close to you know, the description of dysfunction is disengagement and which is.
important to highlight because it does feel like there are instances relatively frequently where [00:10:00] student engagement is discussed as a separate Enterprise out apart from executive functioning, teaching and learning, right? Retention of information, et cetera. And and it is, it's an independent objective and independent goal.
However, it's clear how disengagement would result from executive dysfunction, right? And that it couldn't be. Artificially kind of reclaimed or reinstated if a student is still experiencing challenges with their executive functioning. It's not, I mean, how, how could they. Possibly be engaged in their learning,
Mitch Weathers: Yeah, and if they've had that experience year after year after year, there's a narrative that starts to form and it's really, one, fun and, and powerful when you, when you start to see that narrative shift and students who've struggled. academically for whatever reason, [00:11:00] start to develop a sense of agency.
And I like to use the word dexterity in their learning, which only comes from my experience with the honing of these skills. Like I got this right. And I don't mean I got this, like I've got 100 percent on the content of this particular subject or this class or grade level, but this just kind of sense of agency that like, I know how to approach, I know how to adjust the What I'm learning, how I'm learning, regardless of, of what that is.
And that there's a, there's an empowerment and an engagement in that for sure.
Ross Romano: you know, so you referenced a couple of times the idea of getting organized around learning and that it's not necessarily the entirety of this, but that it kind of is it certainly is part of it and foundational. And so I wanted to dig into that a little more and just you know, make sure we have a clear understanding of what that means.
And [00:12:00] also being organized versus being disorganized or, or partially organized, right? Our former guest here and mutual friend, Patrice Bain wrote the foreword to the book. And there was something that stood out to me from her foreword. And she wrote that this was a statement that you made.
It stops her in her tracks around the call to action really around this as teachers, if we are aware that our students are partially organized, and we do nothing about it, then we are complicit in their failure. So, clearly one, there's a clear call to action there, that this is something we need to be doing, or else.
We're not doing what we need to do to ensure that students are succeeding. But two, it's getting into the definition of what that means around organized, partially organized. What are we identifying there to, to understand what needs to be done?
Mitch Weathers: Right. Yeah. And if, if I'm. Lucky enough to be working with educators and that, that's one of the first questions that will come up at where do I start? You've [00:13:00] already alluded to this and I, I this is my belief that of the six executive functioning skills outlined in this book and that are inherent to organized binder and all this organization is I think it's critical one because it's very tangible and obvious.
Like you're saying, you can see it. either completely disorganized, partially organized, organized, and I try to You know, in the book, the hope is, as an educator or anybody who reads this, there's tangible, practical strategies and takeaways that tomorrow in my class, I can go do this, right? And when we look at organization that modeling piece is so key.
There's nobody who knows me or has even heard of My company and the work I do that, that I really believe in a simple three ring binder as a powerful education technology. Right? Not all EdTech needs to have a screen or an app or anything in my opinion. [00:14:00] Right? So it's this tool that can be used to model and teach executive functioning.
And we'll get into that. I hope a little bit more, but the modeling piece of that. So the three keys, which I'm. I'm sure we'll get into clarity, routine, and modeling. When I can It's keeping in the organization lens right now. If I have a class sample of whatever it is that I'm using to organize our curriculum and content, my effort in this class or grade level, then periodically what I can say is, Hey, we're going to have a scheduled, prearranged scheduled check, let's just say every four weeks, and we're just going to stop everything.
For as long as that takes, which is usually, if you read this book, you can get that done 10 or 15 minutes, probably at the most, but saying we need to just make sure that your portfolio, and in this case, I'll just talk about a binder, looks exactly like the class sample binder, organizationally, so [00:15:00] I'm, I'm constantly modeling that for students, and when, when I can do that, it's not, it's different than in some of the stories, and, and by the way, Ross, I should say, like, This book is really me trying to unpack the last 20 years of my experience doing this work.
So it's throughout the, the, the book, as you saw, like there's stories after stories Corwin took out a bunch of my stories. I had so many stories I wanted to share, but some of them were well intentioned educators who either like went and bought binders or portfolios with their own money, right?
And give them to the kids. And they were like, That's where it ended. Like, I just expected them to somehow magically figure out how to be organized. So, modeling is key. And once a student is organized you know, one, we just feel better when we're organized. I don't care if you're a kid or an adult, what you do, when you have that sense of organization, There's there's a foundation [00:16:00] to that.
And so starting there one, like I said, practical, simple. Pretty simple. We can hold students accountable, which brings in some of the other skills and habits that I mentioned earlier. I think self regulation is impacted when students are organized. I mean, there's just a lot there that it makes it for the kind of ideal starting point.
And let's take it another step further. When a student gets organized, their grade improves, because how many times do students find work that they've completed or partially complete? They've done all that, right? And it's in their book bag, it's in a folder, it's in their desk, it's in their locker, whatever it might be.
When we say, no, this, this is one of my sayings, is if everything has a place where it lives, then it's more likely to find its way home. And so my class model is saying, look, this is what it looks like to be organized. Period. So you're either organized or you're not. There's no gray area. So we're painting that gray area black [00:17:00] and white.
And, and what's good does it do? If you read this book, you'll see, like, you get all the way doing all this work to equip students with executive functioning skills, and then we allow you to be partially organized. Like, oh, right. So that, that's where my saying comes from. You know, if we allow students to be partially organized and we're complicit in their failure, I really believe that.
Ross Romano: Yeah, I mean, in such a way, it's kind of, it's a completion of the cycle, right? To, to not only ensure that they know how to do what they need to be able to do, but that they know how to prove and demonstrate and deliver on. What they need to have done. So it, it's the full cycle of an assignment or a skill or and when you think about taking it forward into their years beyond school that they need to continue to be able to, to complete the task, so to speak [00:18:00] you know, that if you do the work and then it gets, it gets lost along the way that you haven't, that people can't just take you at your word.
Mitch Weathers: Yeah. I mean, even think about it as a a parent, if anyone listening as a parent and their student is of school age, how frustrating it can be to try to help your kid with homework they can't find their stuff from class that day like, Hey, we're working on this particular concept or whatever.
Like, do you have any notes or any, is there anything that you have that can help me help you? Yeah. And they're like digging through their book bag or trying to find something and precious minutes are lost. How students perceive themselves as like capable learners is impacted and all of it shouldn't even be happening if we are developing executive functioning, right?
So,
Ross Romano: Totally. So, yeah. Onto the three keys, right? You've referenced these a couple of times and they're [00:19:00] key, right? So there's the conversation, but clarity, routine modeling in clarity first and then the others in the new order I'm thinking maybe we just tackle them one by one and you kind of talk through what they're all about and why why they are the three,
Mitch Weathers: yeah, yeah. Well, we'll try to tackle them one on one, but of course know that they're all interrelated, but clarity, routine, and modeling. Really, the way we bring about clarity around executive functioning skills is through a daily, predictable daily routine and and modeling them, as I mentioned. So, the clarity piece where this really struck me Lisa Delpit.
wrote a book many years ago now called Other People's Children, and in reading that as a newer teacher, This is not, I'm definitely paraphrasing kind of the thesis of her book, but what I would say is that which is [00:20:00] implied or that which is implicit in a classroom, we need to make explicit for students.
And it was I, as an early teacher, a new teacher. And most of my career for that matter, I've always worked with multi language learners and I talk a lot about this in the book. There's a certain amount of cognitive load or just mental calories, let's say, that students use navigating the school day or navigating the class period because everything, right, that I'm hearing and seeing and I'm translating that constantly.
And so for me, making things hyper explicit what I tried to do things like you know, if, how can I communicate my expectations without using words, because if I can do that, right, if I can communicate this daily routine, if I can communicate what it looks like to be organized, what it means to be on time or ready to engage with the learning community, all these things that I'm going to reduce the cognitive load for those students, they're going to have more bandwidth to actually, Okay.[00:21:00]
Put those mental calories into what they're trying to learn, and I'm trying to teach them. So that clarity piece came from that kind of thinking. Um, the, the second, of course, one way to bring about clarity is modeling. And I've mentioned that with having a class sample. It's not enough just to say, here's how you get organized, or here's how, like, actually having a model for them.
And then the, the daily routine piece I am a firm believer in. Predictable learning routines that are consistently implemented every day of the school year. That could be in a virtual environment, that could be in a brick and mortar, but that predictability is, it creates for safer learning environments and we can never forget that for many of the students we are serving or working with, life outside of school is anything but predictable and it might even [00:22:00] skew towards chaotic and when I can create a reprieve from that for students.
And even if that's not the case outside of school for them, having that predictability, that there's agency in that as well. Like I know what to do. You have to be ready to engage before I even arrive to this class or the school day. Like it's the same routine every day. Now here's my thesis or kind of the, if I could distill the whole book down into two.
One or two sentences here, it would be that by virtue of engaging in the predictable learning routine that's outlined in this book, by virtue of participating in that routine, students get daily practice with executive functioning skills. So they're never being taught. There's no lesson or unit on goal setting or organization, kind of some of the stuff we've been talking about.
By virtue of [00:23:00] engaging in this routine. And if the portfolio is used in that routine, and that's what you'll see throughout the book, that each step of that daily routine, the portfolio or the binder with OrganizedBinder is used. That's why if you're new to OrganizedBinder, head on over to the website and take a look around because it's this color coded, tactile, tangible object that students have, this binder in their hands.
But each step of the routine, it's actually a different part of that binder. So even the color coding, that's all that visual cuing for students making things explicit. So by virtue of engaging in this routine with this portfolio, I get practice with these executive functioning skills within the context of the grade level or the subject that I'm learning.
I hope that I'm distilling that down enough to make sense. I think I do it more more articulate in the book, but it's because it's, it's overwhelming. And I've, [00:24:00] I've had this conversation with. Many, many, many educators over the years, like I said before, like, hey, this may not be like my expertise and where am I going to find the time?
That's always the biggest one. And it's like, no, how about we create a routine, predictable routine, and simply by virtue of engaging or participating in that routine, which students are held accountable for, they're going to see modeled and get practiced with these executive functioning skills every day.
And if I can experience that same routine. In an elementary school from grade level to grade level, there's power and agency in that. And when I make that quantum leap to middle school, I was speaking at this Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Symposium in Chicago or Evanston, North Chicago Last year and I happened it was a district wide symposium and where I was speaking was at a middle school and I'll never forget [00:25:00] because I was just kind of prepping for my talk and I looked over and there was a bell schedule on the wall and this was a 678 school and they had 10 class periods that were like 38 minutes each and I started asking staff members of the school like is that you guys have 10 class periods and think about that.
Let me talk a lot about this in the book. Like last year in fifth grade, I had one teacher all year and that's been my experience up until now, right? And now I find myself with 10 different teachers and 10 different subjects with 10 different expectations and 10 different routines, if they even have. So.
If those teachers all share that same expectation or that same routine, wow, talk about reducing cognitive load and increasing predictability. And if I get practice organizing myself in each of these different learning contexts, right, there's more power in that. If I get practice goal setting in each of the[00:26:00] so there's, there's, it increases the repetition that I get in practicing these executive functioning skills.
Does that make sense?
Ross Romano: it does yeah. And then a couple of the other things that come out from that are You know, one, creating an infrastructure in which, again, the executive functioning skills are practiced and developed organically because they're happening within a an organized environment, right, back to the challenge of, okay, how do we incorporate this?
How do we use the time that we have wisely? Another being Logic and it's like logical, right? That executive functioning skills when, when well developed would sort of correspond with students ability to extrapolate on logical thinking and and, and, but that requires the school and the educator to implement a logic to.
the way the routines are set up, right? And that's predictability, right? [00:27:00] Okay, I know when this thing happens that this will come next and this and vice versa. You know, contrasted with what you described, maybe that leap year over year from one teacher to 10 being sort of an illogical progression, right?
And saying, okay, does this, is this going to make sense to a student given their you know, their prior experience and the way that they would be Considering their environment, is this is this something that is going to help them be able to kind of make sense of their surroundings and their learning progression, or is it too much of a leap, and we need to kind of think about, right, what's more predictable, and the predictability of course you've mentioned a bunch, and it is a theme in the book, and it is in the subtitle, creating safe and predictable learning environments, and I think it's worthy of more discussion.
Because it really stood out to me as a valuable. focus on a valuable word, not one that we necessarily hear all the time, I [00:28:00] don't think, in my experience anyway, and one that also you know, often maybe correlates with a negative connotation around predictability being boring or being not creative or, or lacking in new ideas, which of course is not what you're talking about here and, and I think the way that you write about it. focuses on or relates to some ideas that I've explored around leadership and the role of a leader in a different organization. And in this case the, the teacher being the leader of that classroom environment and leader of learning That I had these, these three, I call them the three cons of leadership around conscientiousness, consistency, and constancy, right, basically meaning ethical, but all the thoughtfulness, the predictability and consistency of actions, and the [00:29:00] demeanor that I bring daily.
And am I creating an environment whereby people can be successful because they know what to expect, they know there's clarity around that, and it all falls under the umbrella of communication as well. Do we say what's going to happen? Do we follow through on that? Do we follow through on it?
happily and willingly, right? And, and does it make sense? And does it align to our goals and our values? And all of those things coalesce routinely every single day. And similar here, right? You want to create a classroom learning environment where Students really know what's expected of them. They know what success looks like.
They know how they're doing with respect to their goals and what they want to be achieving. They know based on what occurs, what is going to [00:30:00] come next, and there's a progression to that. But yeah, can you expand more on that term predictable, but why, why it is such a critical theme that carries through everything you're doing here?
(ad here)
Mitch Weathers: I do want to say one thing like that I I want every teacher to hear, or every educator who is considering reading this book, let's acknowledge that telling a teacher to, this, this happens all the time around best practices, and I would say having a predictable, consistently predictable learning routine for your classroom is one of those best practices that, that's needed.
Just saying that. Can be so overwhelming. It's like, I know. Well, how do I do that? No one talked about that graduate school or my credential program. And like, do I the, this book is written in a way to say. Here's why, here's the research, here's the need, blah, blah, blah, blah, [00:31:00] and then you could do it this way.
You could iterate on that as well, but you, again, you can start this tomorrow. So I really want to express that I, I feel and empathize with something as simple as having a very clear starting routine. That's part of the overall predictable learning routine. Even that can be overwhelming. Like, okay, so what does that mean?
Do I. What do I actually do? And, oh, by the way, I still got a lesson planned for tomorrow, and I have all these papers to grade, and I got to do that other stuff. Like, that's that time crunch piece. Like, I know I, I can't tell you, Ross, over the years, how many teachers, veteran and new alike, have come up to me and like, Oh, I know this is all the stuff I need to be doing, and I just, I've never gotten around to doing it.
And now I can, right? And that's, that's kind of the emphasis of the work. So, I just want to, Put that out there into the world that I get it. It can feel quite overwhelming because that's, that's not what we're hired to do. We're not hired to teach executive functioning skills. [00:32:00] We're hired to teach content and curriculum, grade levels and subjects.
So, student engagement is it just can't be understated or overstated. I mean, like, like, it's. Yeah. It's huge. And in particular for students who have never really felt that sense of like, I got this. I know what to do.
It's, it's profound. And I, and I mean that, I really mean that word because I've seen it happen and change students lives, both my own and then now the privilege of visiting other classrooms. It's, it's really powerful. And everything we're talking about has an impact on. academic success in terms of a curriculum or grade level.
That's not what we're, we're talking about. And there's something else with that said that a predictable routine, what it does for students or can afford them the opportunity, right? If, if, if a [00:33:00] teacher implements a consistent daily routine, this is how we begin. This is, and this is how simple when I talk about it, this is how we begin.
This is how we transition. This is where our stuff goes, the organization. This is how we conclude, like, just that basic kind of rhythm to borrow from the Waldorf community, the rhythm and routine of the day. Like, it's just, I don't, I just know it. Right. And. When students, by virtue of that routine, get practiced with these executive functioning skills, then obviously their agency and their, their success starts to increase.
But what it can afford teachers, and I unpack this in the book quite a bit, is what I call celebrated victories. And if I have a very explicit, very clear starting routine, and I have an expectation or I hold students accountable for that, Well, when they are ready, and in [00:34:00] Organized Binder, it's as simple as being in my assigned seat or lab table or station, whatever the learning environment is, with my Organized Binder open to what we call the weekly lifeline.
That happens to be white. The goal setting, which is in front of it, is gold. The calendar behind it is green. And so, I can glance around the room and see who's ready to go before we even begin, and I can be walking around celebrating, usually kind of privately, these little victories, and who doesn't like to be celebrated, right?
One of my sayings is that we need to find ways as teachers to pack as many celebrated victories into the first two minutes of class as humanly possible. Like, how do you just load that up with opportunities, allow students to just feel? Good, right? That's why I advocate never, I argue, like do not start class with a quiz that does one of two things.
The kids who get it right feel good about themselves and they're more [00:35:00] engaged and the kids who fail feel badly about themselves most likely and I get to try to re engage them the rest of the class and what if that's me every time because I happen to be struggling with this particular subject. So now I walk the class with a sense of Apprehension as opposed to a sense of like, I know I got to do, right?
And so if I can shift that narrative and I, I'm celebrating these minor victories and you'll see some of the stories in the book are as simple as like, wow, you are in your assigned seat with your binder. I'm just gonna. I'm going to add a boy way to go. Girl, you got like, and there's, there's a shift that can start to happen.
So what I mean by that is holding students accountable for participating in this routine, holding students accountable for getting and staying organized gives me the opportunity, within my context for students to have victories that aren't tied to content mastery. [00:36:00] And too often in the modern classroom, success is entirely tied to how I'm doing with what I'm learning.
And that, that's hard if I'm struggling with what I'm learning, right? And so we gotta have that, that shift to I can be held accountable for actively participating in this class, this learning community, this routine, and simultaneously be struggling potentially with the content of the curriculum of this lesson or this unit or this subject.
Does that make sense?
Ross Romano: That makes yeah, it makes total sense. And you know, particularly I, I like the correspondence between predictability and accountability, right? I mean, how, how can we really. Hold students accountable for adhering to our protocols. If we're not creating an environment that's predictable for them, and it's constantly shifting around.
Right. And they're having to [00:37:00] try to apply what they know to be maybe norms and expectations in an ever shifting environment. And then we're trying to create an environment. And also it speaks to, I mean, the reality of creating a. A learning environment that's working for everyone because if the results are all that matter, you could have certainly a students that are super disruptive, right?
Okay. So, okay. Well, these students are getting good grades, so we can't really say anything to them, but they're creating an environment where our other students can't focus or so that that these things not only does it create opportunities for wins, for growth, for learning, for skill development for students, regardless of where they currently are falling on their content mastery, but it's also looking at the whole that whole kind of organism.
And as you mentioned, right, with not starting class with a quiz, there's objectives here around. Reducing [00:38:00] anxiety, stress, the flight response you know, other strains on mental bandwidth. This came up in one of the book quotes from Justin Bader of the Principal Center, who another former guest on this podcast.
When I say that, listeners, that means go check out those episodes, right? But, but he writes
Mitch Weathers: Justin's amazing. Yeah.
Ross Romano: He writes that the book makes the case for universal classroom routines that free up students mental bandwidth to focus on learning. That's a huge part about this is I don't have to come in every day and figure out, okay, how are things operating today?
What are we doing here? What kind of what mood is my teacher in? What's what's, what's the order of operation, all these kinds of things that I'm having to worry about and I can just focus on. Okay. There's a predictable set of routines here, so I'm concentrating in on the subject matter, the content that I want to master.
Much more realistic expectation for students to do that versus if we're throwing all this other stuff [00:39:00] at them.
Mitch Weathers: Absolutely. And you touched on something there. You mentioned accountability and. One of the things you'll see in the book, people reading the chapter on accountability, looking at the portfolio. Now, see if I can unpack this. The portfolio is the binder, let's say, is the tool to participate or engage in the routine that you and I are discussing.
So a byproduct of that is this manifestation of all of my effort. all of my learning, all of my reflections, what we've done, what I've created. It all is housed and captured as an evidence portfolio, a data portfolio. There's different states, call these things different things. And it just manifests out of the steps of the routine, which has a very, very small time footprint, if any, in the classroom.
So [00:40:00] take it all the way to the end, and we say, hey, well, I'm going to hold you accountable organizationally, which means I'm going to make sure. periodically that your portfolio looks identical to the class sample. And by doing so, I'm actually holding you accountable for participating in the routine, right?
Because the building of the portfolio is a byproduct of the routine, engaging in the routine. So, holding you accountable, which we know is two things. It's something that adults do for children, hold them accountable, and something that young people learn to do after practice with holding themselves accountable, right?
If I hold you accountable for getting and staying organized, I'm actually holding you accountable for participating in the collective predictable community routine. And if by virtue of participating in that routine, you get practice with these executive functioning skills, holding you accountable organizationally is actually an [00:41:00] expression and a care for the student, like a Yeah, I'm holding you accountable to develop and hone your executive functioning skills, right?
It's, it's, again, I'm, I hope I'm far more articulate in the book than I am right now, but there's that accountability piece is so key to all of this, but it's not like an authoritarian accountability. Right?
Ross Romano: Right. Yeah, that's I mean, and that's consistent I know with with previous discussions of accountability on this podcast the, I call it the upside of accountability, but you know, the accountability showing that I care about how you're doing. I care about your progress. I'm, I'm also invested in it.
So I'm paying attention to it and I'm going to hold you to that standard, right? That. If students don't feel like anybody really is interested in how they're doing, there can be a total lack of accountability and, and again, accountability, especially in education for various reasons has a [00:42:00] certain connotation around it.
You know, but in this case saying, look, I, I have taken the time and effort to pay attention to the standards and goals that we set, to pay attention to the progress you're making, to check in on that, right? And all of those things that show me that somebody else has invested in my success other than just me.
Mitch you know, one. The point I wanted to make before we kind of wrap up the discussion is that family involvement is also an important part of this. Right. And so that's something that I don't, I don't want to skip past. What, what are the kind of the top you know, strategies or ideas for getting families involved and the approach to that?
Mitch Weathers: Right? I'm so glad you brought that up because this really, this work around executive functioning, it really is an MTSS or RTI Tier 1, it's a universal Tier 1 resource or program or intervention, however you want to say it, for a [00:43:00] school, and therefore, A great way, if you're thinking about something as a tier one, that's for all kids, that's for all students, and therefore we have a way to kind of holistically and equitably engage all families and as a starting place, Ross, what I like to say to you know, schools is like, what parent, I mean, just at a minimum, what parent doesn't want their kid to get organized?
I mean, to know how to, I mean, walk into their bedroom, right? Get and stay organized, or You'll find me a parent who doesn't want to their students setting goals or learning to manage time and all these so the cell if you will to families is quite easy, and they tend to just absolutely love it.
And here's a key. So this, a lot of these things I talk about in the book, they're not part of the book, but with Organized Binder we have, or in the US, we have a bilingual family guide that goes home. So every time a student gets there, [00:44:00] we call it the student bundle, which is their Organized Binder and all the stuff that's in it.
There's also a bilingual family guide. It reads Spanish, English, depending on which way you read it. It's kind of like a flip book, and it basically explains to families or parents each step of this predictable daily routine. So it's bringing clarity home and asking them. Like it's, it's providing them with specific prompts to engage with their student, their kid around the goals they set their daily reflections, their, their calendar or what we call the agenda.
Organizationally, are you looking at their table of contents to see that they're organized? So it's, they're holding students accountable or supporting the students from home. Which that piece I mentioned earlier around just trying to help your kid with homework and it's like, where's your stuff? Like, it's, it's gonna be so frustrating for both both parties involved in a massive waste of time.[00:45:00]
It brings clarity to all of that. Like our goal setting template that when I explain and unpack in the book, you know. Every students every quarter have an actionable daily task. What parent doesn't want to know that? Like, even if it's in, if that back to that middle school, if they're using this in five of their classes, like, I want to know that so that I can check in and support you and hold you accountable and, and, and whatnot.
But the big. piece that I believe family engagement, and I want to say this loud and clear, is it affords schools and districts the opportunity to engage families in a way that's not tied to content or content understanding. And that becomes more critical the older students get, right? We know this, right, that students get older, coursework gets Quote, unquote harder, if you will, but we are also expecting and hoping that young people become more independent learners, right?
You have to be an independent learner. If [00:46:00] you're going to 10 different classes and last year, you were in 1. Thank you. There's a certain amount of right? So we've partnered with districts over the years that report that at a certain. Grade level, they can't necessarily rely on content or homework support from home, right?
I'm just going to make this up. But if I was a AP. physics teacher in high school, I may not be able to send something home and expect mom or dad to be able to, like, troubleshoot with the kid, right? That's kind of an extreme case, but there's lots of reasons why you may not be able to rely on that support from home, and we could, if we had time, I would Love to get in a whole conversation and invite Jethro on and talk about homework and how we use it.
And it is not a formative assessment, but that aside, it's just, it's a very simple way to engage families with the learning community, the school, the larger learning community and the classroom learning community in a way that's not tied to [00:47:00] the content and families love it. I mean, it's They just absolutely appreciate when a teacher is taking time to develop their child as a learner and as a human and not only focusing on the content.
And again, back to where we started. Not to say content and curriculum is not important. It's just an order of operations. So the family engagement pieces is wonderful around executive functioning.
Ross Romano: Yeah, it's very important. Listeners, Executive Functions for Every Classroom is the name of the book. It's published by Corwin. It is available now. You can learn more at Mitch's website, organizedbinder. com forward slash book or you can search for it in other places as well. But Mitch, is there anything else listeners should check out?
Mitch Weathers: No, I just throw out, I mean, you kind of just nailed it. If you want to learn more about organized binder and, and, and how that's a tool for executive functioning just head over to the website. If you want to pick up a copy of the book, I'd be [00:48:00] honored. The book really is written in a way to say, how do I implement all of these strategies?
It's not a, it's not an organized binder manual by any means. So they're kind of two separate things. And you can find me through the contact form at the website. Most of our social handles are at Organized Binder, but I'm Mitch. at OrganizedBinder. com. And if this is resonating with you, I'd love to hear from you.
It would be great to have a conversation and I'll help you however I can.
Ross Romano: Right. So yeah, the listeners check all that out. We'll put the link below to the website where you can learn about the book. Also social media handles and all that information will make it easy for you. So just check that down in the show notes, click through please do also subscribe to the authority for more author interviews coming.
every single week and subscribe to my other new show, Sideline Sessions. If you are a coach at the youth level or scholastic level, high school or any other level, or you have[00:49:00] kids who are playing sports at those levels it's a great show for you. I have conversations on there again every week. this winter into the spring with coaches at all levels from the NFL and NBA to NCAA to high schools to the Olympics.
So check that out if you're looking to learn more about supporting the student athletes in your life. But until then, until next time, we'll see you here next week and Mitch, thanks so much for being on the show.
Mitch Weathers: Thanks again for having me. Pleasure.
Creators and Guests
