Episode 231 Transcript

The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, Episode 231

Jennifer Gonzalez, Host

GONZALEZ: Most of my teaching experience was in middle schools, so I spent a lot of time with kids who were going through one of the most tumultuous transitions of their lives. As they moved from an environment where adults structured every moment to one with much more autonomy, quite a few of our students struggled to manage their time, their attention, their belongings, and their energy in a way that helped them do school successfully. They would forget to do assignments. Lose whole notebooks. Show up to class empty-handed. Every day after they rushed out at the end of the school day, the halls were littered with abandoned pencils, folders, calculators, books, and papers … so many papers. 

And while many of them managed to figure this stuff out eventually, we always had a group who didn’t, who accumulated a series of blank spaces in the gradebook, whose lockers and backpacks were pure chaos, and whose performance on assignments and assessments regularly put them at the very bottom of the class. We would have meetings with these students where we urged them to “get organized” and “keep up with their work.” Sometimes we’d help them clean out their lockers or set up a system where they had to write down their homework in their assignment book and get it checked by every teacher throughout the day, and sometimes those interventions worked for a while, but looking back, I don’t remember any of it being particularly effective. 

I also remember something else: Collectively, as teachers, we could be pretty judgy about those kids. When we discussed their issues, you’d hear things like “That kid is a mess” and “She just doesn’t keep up with her things,” or even “He doesn’t care about school” or “She’s not motivated.” The underlying belief, whether we realized it or not, seemed to be that if these kids wanted to do better, they would.

Back then we didn’t know the term executive functions, which is a set of skills we all use to control our attention, initiate tasks, manage time, and keep ourselves organized. Some of us pick up these skills from the people around us, some of us develop them naturally, and some of us really struggle with them. Fortunately, educators are becoming much more aware that whether or not a person has mastered executive functions has nothing to do with their character, and that in fact, these skills can be and should be taught, not only with students who demonstrate a need for them, but with all students. 

The challenge with teaching these skills, however, is time. Teachers already have enough to do without adding more to their plate, so a whole separate curriculum on executive functions wouldn’t be realistic. That’s where my guest today comes in. Mitch Weathers has developed a system for embedding executive functions into any teacher’s regular schedule. It doesn’t take a lot of time, it’s not particularly difficult to learn, it leaves plenty of room for teaching your regular lessons as planned, and rather than being “one more thing,” it should make it more likely for students to absorb your material and do well in your class. He shares this system in his new book, Executive Functions for Every Class, and I have to say, after reading it, I’m a big fan. As I was reading, the thought that kept occurring to me was Man, if everyone did this, so many kids would do so much better in school, and they’d enjoy it more too.

In today’s episode, Mitch is going to give us an overview of how his system works.

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Now here’s my conversation with Mitch Weathers about his process for building executive functions into every classroom, every day.

GONZALEZ: Hey, Mitch. Welcome to the podcast. 

WEATHERS: Thank you very much, Jennifer. I’m excited to be here and chat with you. This is a real honor. 

GONZALEZ: Tell us a little bit about your background and how you ended up at this place where you decided to write a book about executive functions. 

WEATHERS: Sure. I’ll just start after college, after undergrad. I moved into, started working in the nonprofit space, working with kind of at-risk, if you will, middle school and high school aged kids, and was the executive director of a nonprofit for a couple years and quickly realized I want to work with kids, but I don’t want to be a director of the, of an organization and all that comes with that. And I went back to grad school and did a master’s degree and found my way into the classroom in my late 20s. But I mention that, Jennifer, because I think, I figured it out in reflecting on it, when I entered the classroom and later, you know, some people undergrad credentials and they’re in the classroom at like 22, 23 years old. I was older than that. I had had all this kid time, kid experience. And so the idea of interfacing with what I think some people experience is like an alien species: young people. And in my case, like, adolescence. I’ve learned in supporting new teachers over the last few decades that that can take some time to figure out, how do I do that? Like I know my grade level content or my curriculum or the standards, but how do you do this with all these people in the room? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And for me it was just like, that was my wheelhouse. And I believe that it gave me the, the kind of bandwidth, if you will, to just focus on, so back up a little bit. My first job where I taught for 18 years was a large Title I comprehensive public high school, and almost all of my students, if not all at times, were multi-language kiddos. And so I just, who, who even some who were U.S.-born but still in classes for multi-language learners. And I just, in terms of managing the classroom, doing all that, like I said, it was kind of, I had that skill set and developing relationships, my thesis, master’s for my thesis is the impact of student-teacher relationships on learning and success. So that whole part I think I had, and I didn’t have any expertise, but it allowed me the capacity to just, like what is going on? You’re entirely capable, but you’re not being successful. And I just kept coming back — something’s missing here. And nobody talked about it at graduate school. So it was kind of from that place where my career started, and I’ve just stayed on that track. 

GONZALEZ: Explain to us what Organized Binder is, because that is, like, that’s kind of like where your email is and everything like that. So this is a separate entity prior to the book? 

WEATHERS: Yeah, yeah. So Organized Binder is a program that I designed in my classroom. I had no intention of ever sharing it. It was trying to answer that question, like the singular question we all ask. Right? Like, how do we help students be successful? And environment matters, right, so that’s an evolving and changing conversation or, you know, approach. But if I can figure out that, let’s just focus and do the things that help students succeed and let’s not do the stuff that doesn’t. And let’s see what happens. And so in that, trying to answer that question over probably a two-year time, I just kept iterating and iterating and trying to figure this out. And there were things that helped. Like, I had a horrible tardy problem. What’s it mean to have a really explicit starting routine and help students understand what it looks like to be ready. What I landed on was this program that’s now called Organized Binder only because all of my students were organized and they had a binder and they, “Look at my Organized Binder.” And it just kind of, that name stuck. But instead of going into all the details on that, I can tell you that within a very short time, my colleagues started showing up who were also working with the ninth-graders that I was working with, and they were saying like, “Hey, what’s going on in here?” Because the kids are, it was the students who were talking, not me. They were really excited and felt successful in your class, and they’re talking about this binder. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And what is it? So Organized Binder is, it is a physical, color-coded tactile binder, and we’ll get into some of that with the book. But it’s the tool that students need to engage in this predictable learning routine, the subtitle of my book. And I really believe that for students to make executive functioning skills their own, it’s clarity, routine, and modeling. And that modeling piece is that binder. And so with that binder, each step of this predictable routine, which I know we’ll probably jump into, is in a different part of this color-coded binder. So it’s really trying, because I was working with, you know, multi-language kiddos. I became kind of, really convinced that I can’t rely on verbal communication alone. And as I started to reflect as a new teacher, I was pretty much entirely communicating verbally, right? 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: It’s just kind of how the main modality, and so for me, and I really started to analyze this, Jennifer. It was interesting at the end of the school day, and I write about this in the book, you could just see a fatigue that my students were carrying that they didn’t at the beginning of the day. And when you compare that and come through an equity lens with their English-speaking peers, you know, there’s a significant cognitive load to just navigating the school day if I’m using a significant number of mental calories just trying to translate everything I’m learning, and now I’m in this class. So for me a high school, you know, going class to class to class with different expectations, different routines, different curriculum. You’re just, that bandwidth is diminished, and so what’s left for me that I have, right? That typical scenario. And so I think what happened was it was an ah-ha moment, and I don’t want to say it was like a lightning strike, but it was, it was significant enough that people started coming around. And I was like, hey, I’m doing this, and here’s this routine. And I just of course started sharing it with all of my colleagues, and the next school year, ninth grade-wide my school, not my choice, adopted it school-wide. And so I got to see it in the context of a shared routine. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Like, this is how we do this here, and really had an impact on cognitive load for those kiddos. 

GONZALEZ: And that, that is repeated over and over in your book. You know, you’re talking about the routine and sharing it, and then you’re regularly adding, this would work even better if it was shared across a grade-level or a school or, you know, school-wide. Then it just becomes this automatic thing, which I can absolutely see now that I know what this routine is. I could see how that could just make it an automatic thing. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. 

GONZALEZ: So before we get into, you know, the specifics. First, let’s have you give us your definition of what executive function is because this is definitely a term that’s getting batted around in education circles quite a bit over the last decade or so, which I think is great. I’d never heard this term once when I was a teacher, but I left the classroom like 15, 20 years ago. 

WEATHERS: Okay. 

GONZALEZ: So we just called kids disorganized back then. 

WEATHERS: There you go. 

GONZALEZ: Or we said, oh, they have ADHD, what are you going to do? 

WEATHERS: Yeah. 

GONZALEZ: And no one used that term. So what, what is your definition for executive functions? 

WEATHERS: I like to use a term that a school that we work with — when I say “we,” if I ever say “we” I’m talking about Organized Binder. But we’ve worked with them for years now, I mean well, well, well over a decade. And they coined a term when we started working together called studentness. And what I used to use, the way I explained it, and so I’m trying to go lo-fi on the definition. There’s lots of like super technical, research-y, you know — 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: — terminology around executive function, and it is kind of this umbrella term. And what my work, and what I’ve really been passionate about is okay, not the whole umbrella, but what’s really impacting this student’s success and learning and that whole thing that we all do? But they coined the term studentness to describe what I used to tell my students. It’s like oh, this is all the stuff you need to be able to do in and around whatever it is you’re trying to learn or whatever it is you’re trying to do but nobody ever teaches you. And we kind of historically have hoped you pick it up as you go through life, and sometimes you do. You clearly did. Successful, functioning adult, right, for the most part, all of us. 

GONZALEZ: It’s funny because when I think about this, I think the way that — I hate to say it — but I think the way that many of the teachers that I worked with would have labeled this would have been in the category of a character trait or a character flaw. Either the kid was organized or not. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: And it was almost one of those like, this was before growth mindset was a thing, but it was, we never really, I mean there was sometimes a teacher would sit down with a student and say, let’s clean out your locker or let’s get your binders organized. But there was never any kind of like a system, and there was never a name for what we were doing. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: So yeah. 

WEATHERS: And you, you nailed that. I love how you said it was like this character trait, which is like, oh, look at, you know. That’s a good thing. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Or a character flaw, which is a deficit lens, right? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. Yes. 

WEATHERS: And if you have not yet, and a lot of it comes down to just lived experience. There are other factors that can influence a student’s ability to learn these, but if I hadn’t been lucky enough to have that one teacher who sat down and showed me how to clean out my locker, how I keep a calendar, how I set goals, whatever it could be, or my family life or whatever, I’m viewed, this is a character flaw. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: You don’t have this. And so for me, you know, my students’ lived experience early on was very different than my own. And I started to really look at that, and as a side note, at that point in my teaching career, my first two or three years, I was on like a deep Freire-ian dive. So I got really into critical pedagogy and read everything translated into English. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Because those were my students. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And his whole thing, liberating education, is about acts of cognition. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Not transferals of information. Well, acts of cognition, that’s all executive function stuff. Right? 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: So that’s how I describe it is studentness. What is it that I need, these skills and habits I need to do to be successful and we’ll piggyback on you. You mentioned organization, you’re just disorganized. That one factor, like there’s a great quote, I forget who said it, but talking about the powers of zeroes. How many times have students completed something or partially completed something or haven’t yet completed it and it’s stuffed in the book bag, it’s stuffed in the locker, it’s decorating horizontal surfaces in the classroom or home. And if we just take a moment, not one time, to help students get organized, what we want is, and I mention this in the book, get and stay organized, which means now that skill is becoming mine, and that only happens through repetition. Anything we want to learn to try again and again and again. And that’s where this whole, this Organized Binder program is a daily routine. It’s not a curriculum. It’s not content. We can get into that. 

GONZALEZ: Yes, okay. Well yeah. And like, let’s get into it. And so I’ve got, there was a graphic that appears multiple times in the book, and this is, I’m going to say to you a description, kind of an overview of it. You tell me if I’ve got it right. There is an opening routine, and there’s a few things that happen in the first few minutes of class that also come with sort of a binder of sorts, a portfolio. Then the middle is whatever the teacher wants to do with that class, whatever they have planned, and then there is a closing routine. And so what you sort of start within the book is to say many of us do not have the time to set up separate lessons just to teach executive function skills. What we need is a daily routine that can just be layered on top of what we’re already doing in our classes, and then it’s just, it’s this habitual thing that it’s, everybody does it, and you teach your class however you want to in the middle, and what I think, and I think you might say this directly, but I think it’s going to also help your kids do better in that middle part anyway. They’re going to get the lesson better, they’re going to have the assignments done because of this beginning and ending system. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: So, so why don’t we, let’s just kind of get into it now and like walk us through the steps, yeah. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. Let’s unpack real quick that time piece because one of the things I explore in the book because I’ve given it so much thought is I’ve never met a teacher, an educator, a school leader, a parent who doesn’t see the value in students developing their executive functioning skills. And so, and I pose the question, so why aren’t we doing anything about it? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, yep. 

WEATHERS: And I think, you know, something teachers never have enough of is time, right. And so that, and that graphic that’s in the book and every Organized Binder training anyone could ever go to, that is like front and center because all of us have been through professional learning experiences and that it might even be good and relevant and excite us, but they either take too much time or they require us to completely reconfigure everything we do, and we just don’t have the bandwidth. It ends up on the shelf, right? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And so the point I try to make, this is about routine and modeling. It has a very small-time footprint on your class. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And that’s important because you’re hired to teach fourth grade, not executive functioning skills. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: I was hired to teach ninth grade math or science. And even if I want my students to do this, I don’t have enough time to get through what I’m tasked with teaching in the first place. I don’t even get to choose when I go to the bathroom most days. Where am I going to fit this in? And that is why I want everybody to hear it as loud and clear, this work is not a curriculum. It’s not a content. Because if it is, teachers can’t, they’re not going to be able to fit it in and so therefore I’ll ask you a question. You’re the one asking all the questions. Therefore, where do those types of curriculums get embedded? In what types of classes? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, in like advisory classes and extra things or they only get taught to a subset of the students. Because I have seen this kind of thing with my kids who go to, like, a resource class. 

WEATHERS: Yep. 

GONZALEZ: And those teachers who, they have it on their 504 plan that they check in. So, but this is for everybody. This is not just for the kids who struggle organizational.

WEATHERS: It’s Tier 1. 

GONZALEZ: It’s for everybody, yes. Let’s do that. Explain that Tier 1 piece because I think a lot of people listening are familiar with the multi-tiered stuff and behavior —

WEATHERS: Yeah, yeah. 

GONZALEZ: But yeah. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. So the curriculum piece can oftentimes be put in a class, and let’s just admit it, students may not see those as quote/unquote real classes. 

GONZALEZ: Real classes, yeah. 

WEATHERS: A little bit of a disadvantage even if it is, you know, helpful. And the other thing is, and I talk about this in the book. Like a curriculum around executive functioning skills, let’s just look at goal setting. Learning about goal setting and why it’s important and can help you in your life as opposed to setting goals within the context of what I’m trying to learn, the curriculum is just boring on the kids. 

GONZALEZ: Too abstract, yeah. 

WEATHERS: Okay. I’m going to learn this, you know, same thing with any of these skills. And so when you, when you establish it as a routine and you’re modeling it for students, then you can really make it a Tier 1 MTSS or RTI intervention or protocol. And like you, I’ve visited lots of schools and lots of districts around the country and internationally. And what I’ve observed is we tend to, not always, we tend to do Tier 2 and Tier 3 really well. You just mentioned it. You said these kids, a subset, get to go here to this because it’s in their 504, their IEP and it’s targeted and it’s great. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: But Tier 1? A universal Tier 1 just means all kids, everybody gets exposure to this. That’s, it’s just harder to do. But if we, and I talk about this in the book a lot. Like, establishing a routine and then we collectively share and implement that routine, regardless of my grade level or subject area, it’s not going to influence that, it makes for collective teacher efficacy to become a reality on campus. And if you follow any of the research and effect size, John Hattie’s work of visible learning and others, collective teacher efficacy is like consistently at the top of what has the greatest impact on student success. What can we all be collective about? Well this is a very realistic way to do that. Not that there’s not others. I’m not saying that. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm, yeah. 

WEATHERS: And so a good friend of mine, a superintendent in Delaware, says you can’t Tier 2 yourself out of a Tier 1 problem. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Right? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: You can’t run everything up the pyramid because it just overtaxes the system. But my belief is that a true Tier 1 needs to not only identify areas of concern or need but at times and when possible address or mitigate those. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: So when students, we’ll go to your example of organization. When students actually get practice and see it modeled and they learn to get and stay organized, like they know how to do it —

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: — well, if disorganization was one of those red flags for me, maybe I can start through routine and practice and accountability, learn to hone that skill, right? Accountability is an important part there. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: But if it’s persistent, now maybe I have a more authentic Tier 2 need. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: Does that make sense? So that’s why. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. I mean what’s coming to mind too is every, when I taught there would always be this small handful of kids who were not succeeding in class but then I would be told by my peers no, they don’t qualify to test for any kind of special services. And it’s like they’re just in this no man’s land. They get no extra help, and they’re clearly not doing well, and they were like, well, what are you going to do? And I thought, that’s dumb, that’s a dumb system if we can’t do anything to help these kids where this kind of a thing would have probably made a big difference. 

WEATHERS: Absolutely. 

GONZALEZ: And so this is for all kids. This is not something — 

WEATHERS: All kids. 

GONZALEZ: — that we’re implementing for some classes or some kids. This is everybody, every day. Okay. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. And with that said, it could be one teacher that’s doing it. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: I’m not, and I don’t want to one individual teacher to feel like, oh gosh, this thing needs to be —

GONZALEZ: No, right. It’s just ideally it would be the more the better. 

WEATHERS: There’s more power in it. I mean let’s just think real quickly about those multi-language kiddos. And I know now right because I’ve known so many of them over the years and seen them at other schools. I now have, I wrote about this as well, teachers that went to schools that they were Organized Binder schools, but that’s the routine and modeling and stuff that’s in the book. They went to a school where they used it and are now teaching, and they’re reflecting back and realizing the impact it had on them. 

GONZALEZ: Wow. 

WEATHERS: And seeing their kiddos who now need it, and that says one of two things that wow, this had a significant impact, and I’m getting old because now there’s kids that are teachers. 

GONZALEZ: Right? Now you’ve got grandchildren, yes, exactly. 

WEATHERS: Right. But when you think about these, these kids going from class to class to class, yes, it’s a different culture. Every learning environment is, and it should be. And yes, the content and curriculum, the stuff we’re learning is changing. There’s different people in the rooms, different teacher. All of that is good and should not be changed, but like I mentioned earlier, I like to refer to cognitive load as just mental calories. We only have so many. And if I just don’t have to use as many because I know what to do to be successful or successfully engaged in this learning environment, wow, I mean that’s profound. And as a byproduct, so here’s kind of my thesis. As a byproduct of participating in this learning routine, these are just steps, how we start, how we transition, we’ll get there. As a byproduct in participating in this daily predictable learning routine with my peers, collectively, literally as a byproduct, I get practice with and see modeled these executive functioning skills. So not only do I have this sense of, like, I know what to do here, right, and a big part of Organized Binders is all the nonverbal visual cueing. So I know what to do to participate and look like everyone else in the class and I’m engaged, right. That feels good, there’s no doubt. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But as I’m honing those skills, there starts to, the mashup of those two, there’s an agency, I like to use the word dexterity in that. Like, the kind of like, I got this, in a way. And what I love for us to remember is we’re not talking about grades or test scores or content or curriculum, the stuff we’re learning. It’s about developing learners, their capacity and laying that foundation. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. Yeah, yep. 

WEATHERS: Shall we get to the routine? We keep like —

GONZALEZ: Yeah, yeah. Let’s hear, what’s the, what is the, what is the first part, what is the first step? 

WEATHERS: First step of the routine. We, and I’ll just, you had asked about Organized Binder, and what everyone will see is, and I hope you pick up a copy of the book, so for many years, people were like you got to write this down, you got to write this down, you got to write a book. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: I’m like, I don’t want to write a book. I want to work with teachers and schools and, you know, all this stuff I get to do. But obviously a couple of years ago I buckled down and the real impetus for me was we don’t, at Organized Binder, because there’s a materials component, we don’t sell that to individual teachers. Like, you’re not going to buy a class set even if you just have 20 kids. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And it’s not an astronomical amount of money. I just morally, I don’t think that’s how it should happen. So we mostly interface with schools and districts and counties and colleges and whatnot. But at night it’s been pulling at my heartstrings for a long time like well, when someone does write in or make contact, how do we serve them and support them and help them implement this? And so the idea of the book is how do you bring clarity and routine and modeling to your classroom even if you don’t have that Organized Binder class set and our training and support? So the first step, and I’m just going to say that because I’m going to use some Organized Binder vernacular here. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And you can ask me questions about other things we could call it. But the first step, we call it a kickoff. And there’s a thousand names for this: the bell rung, do now, question-of-the-day catalyst. I’ve heard all kinds of things. Name aside, doesn’t matter. We call it a kickoff because when I was first designing this all of my students played soccer, and I played competitive soccer up through college, and I was in one of those scenarios where like I was lucky if kids brought something from the previous day or if they showed up with a pencil. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Although that started to fester with me. What was a bigger deal is like, oh, you’re not making any connections like what we did yesterday is related to and connected to what we’re learning today and where we’re going tomorrow. And like I need there to be some continuity here, and just barking at you for being tardy is not, is not doing it. And so I came up with this analogy of the kickoff. I said look, you don’t just take to the pitch when you show up to the match. Like, you have a soccer game. You don’t just, when you get there, run out on the field and start playing. That’s nuts, right. Like, you get there, you get your gear on, you warm up, you find your position, the other team’s doing that. The officials show up. There’s this whole song and dance that you don’t even think about anymore because you’ve done it so many times. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But if you didn’t do that, you wouldn’t be ready for the game, and you’d let your team down. So I started, I told them, we’re no longer a class. We’re a team. This is a team. Everyone, we need everybody on the team to be ready when the whistle blows. And I need to make it like hyper-explicit, like Lisa Delpit explicit. This is what it looks like to be ready to learn and engage with your peers when the bell rings or when the whistle blows. And so in that, that’s the modeling and routine piece. The basics, that’s why I called it a kickoff, and I could say, here’s exactly what it looks like to be ready to go in my class. And I would grab a kid’s binder, and I’d walk out of the room, and I’d come back in, I’d find an empty seat, I’d sit down, and I’d open it up, and I know you don’t have an Organized Binder in front of you but where it would begin it’s called the weekly life plan and it’s white. The goal settings in front of it, it’s gold. The agenda behind it’s green. So not only is that projected ideally for students to see, so there’s that nonverbal visual cueing. What’s in front of them is exactly what I have in my binder, but as other classmates start to get ready, I have all of these visual cues about what I need to do to engage with everybody. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And then we jump in and what I encourage is that teachers take a moment, at any grade level, to revisit and reteach previously learned concepts or standards, whether that be last time we met or further back, something called spacing. And with a couple of goals, of course to clear up misconceptions and answer any questions and kind of make connections with where we’re going, but all of that does a couple things. First and foremost, it involves retrieval practice, which is a simple act of going back, retrieving that which I’ve learned or experienced and kind of holding it in cognitive space. That’s where our working memory kind of comes in. But holding it long enough to kind of interact and do something with it. What better and really simplistic way than me prompting you to respond to or interact with what we learned previously. And research is also clear that the more explicit or the more clarity teachers bring to the point of every lesson, whether that be a standard or a goal, the more likely students are to get it. So can I take that standard or objective and distill it down into a prompt that allows us just to engage with that material again. It’s not about getting it right. It’s not about getting it wrong. I do not advocate for starting school or the class period with a quiz. This is about going back and interacting, so I’m using retrieval practice and I’m also increasing the number of exposures or interactions students get with what they’re learning. And Marzano and a bunch of others have made it very clear that the more times we interact with what we’re learning, that repetition, it increases retention. It’s moving things into long-term memory, which has to do with retrieval practice. So this very simple routine, and it’s very simple, and like low stakes, no stakes. You can get it wrong. It’s like hey, this is about what does it look like to be ready to learn. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: I like to say we’re flexing our working memory because it’s involving retrieval practice with a goal of bringing clarity back around these conceptions before we move on. 

GONZALEZ: So they come into the room, they have a thing, they have a binder, whether it’s yours or something that’s kind of like yours that has sort of certain sections. Which the way those sections are organized is important. We’re going to get into that in a minute. And then there is a prompt. Now, anyone listening who is not familiar with your system is going to hear that, and they’re going to say, I do that. I have bell ringers where the students come in and they have to answer a question. Really important distinction between the way that you do what we could call a bell ringer and the way bell ringers are typically executed in a lot of classrooms, mine included. We used to have like a grammar exercise that they would do when they first walked in. And when I read it, it resonated so much with me. So what’s, what is the problem with most bell ringers and the way they’re handled. 

WEATHERS: So what I would encourage anybody who’s already doing this, and a lot of people are. What dawned on me, and I’ve seen it now in classes everywhere. This thing that’s considered a best practice, all the stuff we’re talking about, and it is a best practice. What I typically see is that prompt, whatever it might be, at whatever grade level is available for students the moment they enter the learning space. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: Whatever that learning environment is. Let’s just keep it in the traditional classroom context for right now. And it makes perfect sense, right? You’re here and I want to engage you the moment you walk in. And what I started to recognize is one, I would have students that would show up early or earlier, you know, during the passing period, as a ninth-grade teacher. And once this routine is in place and they know it, I mean they love, they kind of fall in love with it, so they would just like get to my class and start and try to get to, like, the next step of the routine. And I’d have to, like, hide that part and all this stuff. But then there were students who maybe were coming from a further part of the campus, and they had to go to the bathroom or had, and they were still on time or maybe even kids who showed up tardy, and I created this environment where one, students I could tell felt like they were already behind, and class hadn’t started. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: More importantly, when the class period or the school day actually did begin, I had created a scenario, had nothing to do with the students, where everyone, because we all arrive at different times and maybe I had to sharpen my pencil or check in with me or I’m chatting with a friend or something, all these different, we’re all in different places and responding to this prompt — 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: — and class just started, right. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And so now I’m going to wait one to two to three plus minutes, I’ve seen much longer routinely wasted, and there’s a few things that are problematic there. And let’s just admit. For a lot of students, many students, that undefined time, which you’ve, I’ve called our gray areas in our lesson where there’s ambiguity. Like, what, what are we doing right now? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: For some kids, that’s no big deal. Some students can kind of roll through there. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But if we want to talk about our multi-language kiddos, if we want to talk about students with learning differences or whatever it might be, those can be times where we lose kids. They can feel not as safe. Like, what’s actually happening here? What’s —

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: — let’s have those conversations. I do the math in the book, and at one point I realized, okay. School year is like 180 days, and I have this routine where it takes me one minute, I waste one minute every day getting going. And I only get this bank of minutes for the school year. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And I’m trying to squeeze everything I can out of that. Well if I routinely waste one minute, and there’s 180 days, I’ve just lost three hours of teaching and learning time. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And if it’s three minutes, that’s nine hours of teaching. So it’s the same cueing, but what I want everyone to hear is how, and that’s why this, and I showed, there’s images of it in the book. You can see it. That weekly lifeline. It’s the same cueing, it’s just, and here’s, you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down because I think it’s that important. Engage students when they show up but engage them in the work of getting ready to learn as opposed to the work of learning. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: They’re both important and if I have it up there and you’re supposed to, you know, think about the kid who shows up and the prompt’s up there, and they don’t know the response.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Like, what do they do? And there’s all kinds of things we can unpack, but it’s just as important to say what does it look like to be ready to go? I want you to engage in that. And for an Organized Binder class, it’s take that out of your book bag, or if it’s stored in the class and get to this page, and do you have something to write with. I mean there’s all that work and then when I start, instead of one to two to three plus minutes, it’s one to two to three plus seconds, and we’re all engaged collectively in this no stakes prompt. And I’m walking around because I’m pretty strategic about who might be the kid who doesn’t know or is struggling, and I can give them tips. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Or maybe I could make it a pair share, but now we’re being more collective. 

GONZALEZ: So everybody starts together. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. 

GONZALEZ: That first prompt, that is a little bit of retrieval practice from the day before, the week before, some sort of spiral possibly. We’re re-engaging in the curriculum, but everybody starts it at the same time as opposed to trickling in and having this issue of early finishers and people that show up late. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. 

GONZALEZ: Let’s address, before we move on, the question of bell-to-bell instruction. 

WEATHERS: Yeah. Hot topic. 

GONZALEZ: One of my closest friends Angela Watson, I know a lot of people that listen to this podcast also listen to her. She published something a little while back about bell-to-bell instruction and how this is hammered a lot down on teachers and saying that actually the research does not support it. It’s a little bit different from what you’re talking about though in terms of pushback. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: And I think what she’s talking about is sort of more of that rigidity of sort of like taking kids and immediately giving them curriculum the second they walk in and insisting that they do nothing but engage in content until that last bell rings, and it’s a lot of pressure on teachers, and it’s draining for students. 

WEATHERS: Totally. 

GONZALEZ: That’s not what you’re talking about here. You’re talking about, you know, there was one teacher that you sort of profiled that you observed several times to see if it was actually a pattern where I think you calculated a good solid 20 minutes of every class period was just this gray area. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: Which I see this in high schools a lot. When I go past high school classes, I’m like what are they doing? 

WEATHERS: What’s going on? 

GONZALEZ: It just always looks like kind of like a yearbook class or something where everybody’s just kind of got their own thing. And there’s a lot. 

WEATHERS: That’s funny. 

GONZALEZ: I’ve seen that, and I think sometimes kids say that they like classes like that. They’re like, we don’t do anything in that guy’s class. But I do think in general, it’s not the most secure feeling that kids have when it’s just like, it’s kind of a waste of time. We don’t really learn anything. 

WEATHERS: Right. And I write about that too, just students’ stories, like real, like case studies.

GONZALEZ: There’s like bullying that happens in these cases too. 

WEATHERS: Stuff that happens, yeah.

GONZALEZ: In that dead time. 

WEATHERS: Yeah, yeah. So let me start by saying Angela, if you’re listening, I completely agree with you. I do not think bell to bell instruction should be, and what I write too in my book is the idea of brain breaks. Another way to say, I think of bell-to-bell instruction as a teacher who’s honed their craft in a way that they’re going to use Steve Farr of TFA, you know, talks about needing to maximize everything for learning. But that means you understand how we learn, the cognitive science. And we should call that like the firehose strategy. That, I think of bell-to-bell instruction as more of a, an artful use of every minute of the lesson, and not having these big gaps of ambiguity. 

GONZALEZ: Maybe it’s just a question of intentionality, like intentionally using all the time versus it just being vague. 

WEATHERS: That’s a great way to say it. Right. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And having this kind of ebb and flow to it. You can’t possibly engage and have something scripted and have it be authentic. Because what we do when it all goes down to the roots it’s this human-to-human interaction, and that by default is messy. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: And wonderful. And to not recognize, like for me, I can clearly remember when I was in the classroom for, I taught middle school, 40-, 50-, or 100-minute classes. That’s like a modified block. On my 100-minute classes, we had multiple times, and maybe I could even have used my breaks better. I would just be like drop, whatever we’re doing, we’re going outside. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And we would just walk around and get outside and sometimes do nothing. Just sit around and talk. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: Just to like, okay, have these breaks. I think there’s definitely more strategic ways to offer brain breaks, but when I say bell to bell instruction, you mentioned that observing a teacher with 20 minutes. What I’ve seen, and this is more critical in an environment where it’s bell to bell. If I have you in a self-contained setting, whether it be elementary or, in any rate, if I have you all day, the first couple of minutes and the last couple of minutes, I’m not sure it’s quite as critical. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But if I have you for 37 minutes, it matters. Now again, that’s not like I need to mount the firehose to your head and jam as much information as I can in there. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: It’s not about that. I mean if you read the book, it’s more about getting information out than in. It’s about being mindful of the first few moments and the last few moments. And Jennifer, like you said, that graphic that says Teach Your Class. Like trying to protect that. Like, this is an important time. But from my observations, those first few moments, and oftentimes, like oh, we’re just kind of getting going. I’m like yeah but one, two, three, four minutes, there’s a lot we could do with that. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And then how do you, if you’re a middle school teacher, like, nail your lessons so that you don’t have two or three or four minutes at the end, right? 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: Those are the times, when I say bell to bell instruction, you know, when you write something and then it’s published and then you’re like, “Hmm — 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: — I should have used a different phrase maybe.” Because it has different connotations. But I’m really talking about exploiting those times which historically I’ve seen are kind of under-utilized at times, and how do we maximize what we’re doing for teaching and learning. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Does that, does that clarify? 

GONZALEZ: Yes, absolutely. So we’ve got the beginning routine where, that you’re prompting their working memory. The next step in this thing says agenda. What is the agenda? 

WEATHERS: A moment to introduce what we’re doing today. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: The subtitle “Creating Safe and Predictable Learning Environments” I think we have to keep front and center that not, certainly not all, but for many students, life outside of school or life outside of my class is anything but predictable, and it can even skew towards chaotic. And so the more predictability I can bring for those kiddos in particular —

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: — the better. It has a profound impact. So just taking a moment to introduce the lesson and students are creating a log of that. It helps students who are absent know exactly what we did, and there’s another piece there. Every teacher at the beginning needs a little bit of time for business.

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: Like you, you might have to put your attendance in or hand a paper back or check in. That has to happen. It just does. But the kickoff is not that. I’m on, I’m teaching, I’m answering your questions. We’re doing that whole thing. The agenda kind of serves two roles there. Yeah, predictability, yeah creating this very basic log, and I can also be kind of multitasking as a teacher. And then if you were to look at it in the book you can see how it’s laid out in an Organized Binder. It’s two weeks on the front and two weeks on the back of this agenda sheet. It’s basically one month. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: And what I’m encouraging teachers to do is on occasion take a moment and show and model the skill of keeping a calendar. Like hey, this is going to be due in two weeks and it’s really important, so let’s write it in our agenda because that’s what people do who keep a calendar. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And I can tell you, I’ve asked thousands of teachers this same question when I get to that part in a talk or a training. Raise your hand if a caring adult when you were young sat you down and showed you how to keep a calendar. And on occasion there’ll be one or two people in a giant room of educators. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And so it just brings, to me it’s always evidence. Let’s just show it, and then let’s talk about when you get to college. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: You’re supposed to be able to go on Week 15, and the professor’s not going to talk about it anymore. Well that’s not that hard to do, but if I’ve never done it, and no one’s ever shown me. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: So that’s step two. It’s very simple. Kickoff, clear up, you know, misconceptions, retrieval practice. And then the third step is we gotta get organized. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: And that’s it. That’s our table of contents. Anything you’re going to create, anything I’m going to give you, anything you’ve stuffed in your book bag, and not just on occasion, every single day we take a moment or two to update a table of contents and put the stuff where it belongs. 

GONZALEZ: So in the way that you’ve got these portfolios or binders organized is unlike many of us who have kept our own binders or whatever where we’ll have like, you know, handouts and then assignments that I got back or whatever it is in different sections, you’ve actually got things organized chronologically by unit. 

WEATHERS: Correct. 

GONZALEZ: And then the table of contents is what they update at the front of that so that they can find everything, everything goes in there from that unit. And then when they’re done, it gets stapled, removed, and they start fresh. Am I understanding it right? 

WEATHERS: I’m, you’re making me so happy. That means I clearly explained it in the book. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And let’s just, I’ll unpack it real quick. What you will never find in an Organized Binder — or a binder or portfolio that’s using this routine — is a section for notes or homework or quizzes, or whatever category of assignment or work that might be. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Really, those oftentimes are categories in a grade book, right? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: How we define. That’s great, and I think it’s actually really important. Like, what goes into, like, participation and what has more weight and why? Those are, those are really important conversations. It’s not an organizational schema. And what I, what dawned on me was, you know, in my own practice, and I did that at first.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: You know, my first year, I had a binder from the beginning. I guess I was just wired that way. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But I’d get to the end of like a unit, and we’d have our summative assessment or project due date or something, and all of this stuff was, like, disjointed. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And I was like, there’s no, like, cohesion here. But I’m working really hard for that cohesive nature of this unit of curriculum, right. 

GONZALEZ: There’s a sequence in the unit, so there should be a sequence in the — 

WEATHERS: And it matters. 

GONZALEZ: — right, yes.

WEATHERS: Right. And you get better at that sequencing the longer you teach because repetition and reflection, right. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: And so what I wanted to do is capture that sequencing. So I went with a table of content and just said, you know, the only lens here is this has to do with this unit of curriculum. And every teacher at every grade level I’ve ever met, including into college, teaches through some type of thematic unit of curriculum. 

GONZALEZ: Yep. 

WEATHERS: Well why not offer a framework for the teacher to just structure that chronologically for students. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And now they become, like, acutely aware if something’s missing. It just has a number, and it gets assigned to the table of contents. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: It actually dovetails really nicely to translate some of these executive function skills into the digital space. We’re not going to talk about that right now. But if anyone is interested, reach me because it’s a fun conversation. But as we’re going through, what I like to say is it’s very simple, but everything has a place where it lives. And when it does, it’s more likely to find its way home and every day. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. And everyone’s is the same, right? 

WEATHERS: It’s the same. 

GONZALEZ: Everyone in the room has the same numbered assignments. 

WEATHERS: Right. 

GONZALEZ: And so if somebody’s missing, you talked about this too about sometimes when a teacher doesn’t return an assignment in a timely manner —

WEATHERS: Yep. 

GONZALEZ: — you can be like missing No. 4 in your —

WEATHERS: Yeah. And students will be acutely aware of that, and I think that’s something to be celebrated. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. Right. 

WEATHERS: Like hey, where’s my assignment No. 4? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Oh, I haven’t gotten that back to you yet. It happens all the time. But the cool thing there is like, wow, you’re like in this, right. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, paying attention. 

WEATHERS: Right. And then for the Organized Binder, and I mention it in the book, all of that can be supported at home, and bringing executive functioning work into your classroom is a really unique way to engage families that’s not tied to content and content understanding. And at lower level, you know, grade levels, maybe that’s not quite as critical. But if I was teaching AP bio to juniors, I may or may not be able to rely on content support from home, but does that mean that those families don’t want to be engaged? No. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: What parent, back to what I said, they can support that organizational work at home. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: It’s a really cool part to this work. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: So, so this is the way that they’re actually organizing this stuff. They’ve got this table of contents that goes in front of all these things that are collected. Everything gets a number. So that is part of the daily routine as well. 

WEATHERS: It’s the third step. 

GONZALEZ: We started with this working memory prompt. We’ve got an agenda. Here’s what we’re doing today, and then they update their table of contents for what is going to be given to them that day or what they’re going to be working on that day. 

WEATHERS: Or they create, yeah. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Teacher could give it for the next couple days. I mean it’s totally up to the teacher. 

GONZALEZ: Okay, but that’s time for that table of contents, yeah? 

WEATHERS: It’s just that clarity, yeah. Just a moment. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: And it couples with that agenda where I’m kind of doing my business stuff, and maybe I’m handing this back. This is No. 4. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: You turned it in yesterday. Let’s all put it there, and you know. Just taking a moment to model all of this. 

GONZALEZ: And part of that modeling is that you also have a sample portfolio that is supposed, it’s the same as what the kids should all have also so that if anybody is absent, and this is a chronic problem for all teachers, what do I do for absent students? And there’s all kinds of systems out there. This serves that purpose. 

WEATHERS: One hundred percent. 

GONZALEZ: They can go to the sample portfolio, look at it. All of their peers have the same one too. And so there’s a lot of places they can sort of check on, what did we do yesterday? What am I missing? 

WEATHERS: Yep. 

GONZALEZ: You know, and what should I have now to update that? 

WEATHERS: Yeah, absolute clarity. So there’s always a class sample, a class model. That’s that clarity of routine and modeling. I can’t model it unless I have a model. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And let’s be honest, some teachers struggle with executive dysfunction. 

GONZALEZ: Yes, absolutely. Yep. 

WEATHERS: I unpack that a little bit in the book. It’s just, and again, all of this is a byproduct of routine. We just start this way. I introduce the lesson. I do this. And then after that table of contents, on occasion we’ll jump into the toolkit, which is anything I don’t want trapped in those unit chunks, those unit packets. So I want kids to be able to access it immediately throughout the school year. So I could be in April and say hey, turn to this thing in your tool kit, and it’s something they created in September or took notes on in September, I handed them in September, and it’s not in that Unit 1 or Unit 2. 

GONZALEZ: Is that also in their notebooks? Is it just a separate section? 

WEATHERS: Yeah, that’s in an Organized Binder, that’s Tab, that’s Tab F. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. So it’s, and that’s a permanent collection of things that they’re going to reference for their subject and, okay. 

WEATHERS: Yep, and it is. It tends to be very subject-specific or grade-level specific, but it elicits really good conversations with, like, departments. I was chair of my department for many years, and the conversation was what are the tools that science teachers that were equipping and modeling and teaching students in ninth grade that we build on in 10th grade, that we built — totally different subjects. Like, you’re teaching physics, I’m teaching earth science. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But there’s things that you need to do and be, kind of scientific executive, whatever it might be, what the subject is. Those all end up in the toolkit. 

GONZALEZ: Okay, so. They come in, working memory prompt, agenda, here’s what we’re doing today. Let’s update our table of contents, and then when you say academic toolkit is a step, what does that mean? You’re just telling them these are the things you’re going to need today? 

WEATHERS: Nope, no. What I mean by it’s a step is that on occasion I might be handing them a new tool. 

GONZALEZ: I got you. 

WEATHERS: We might talk, right? Very rarely. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: Most of the time, and this is back to that time footprint, right. Teachers don’t have enough time. Kickoff, I get to clear up misconceptions, flex your working memory, quick introduction and get organized, jump into your lesson. Do what you do. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: And then at the end, we come back to reflection once again. But instead of it being flexing our working memory and retrieval practice, all that with what we’ve done previously, now we’re going to have just a few moments to do the same but with what we’ve learned or experienced today. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: So how do I start to digest that? And then how do I articulate and learn to articulate what I’ve learned, what was confusing, what do I need help with? Right? And, and in between those bookends, Jennifer, teach your class. 

GONZALEZ: Whatever, yes. 

WEATHERS: Do your thing. When this is implemented, and it’s not hard, this is simple, and it’s modeled. So again, we keep saying, clarity, routine and modeling. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: And even if it’s shared, that’s another big piece. Teachers report back that they find that they have even more time for teaching and learning. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. Because they’re not, it’s not gobbled up with all of this. Yeah, about how much time, in classes where it’s under way and they’ve got momentum, about how long does this whole thing take, like beginning and then the end part? 

WEATHERS: You know, it’s a good question, and it, it does, it depends on a few factors. How much time do I have overall? We talk about this in our trainings. Like, if you have 30, I keep saying 37, 38 because I spoke at this school that had crazy, crazy short class periods. You can’t spend 15 minutes or 10 minutes. Like, you have to be more efficient. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But let’s say you have a little bit more time. You have to consider the overall time, and then what or how you’re prompting. If it’s taking too long, the agenda and table of contents, those like organizational time management pieces, those are quick, those are quick. Because you’re not going to have, like we’re going to create 15 assignments today, so you need to write —

GONZALEZ: Right, yeah. 

WEATHERS: It’s usually one or two things. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: If I’m asking a prompt, and it’s taking a God-awful way too long, it’s usually me. 

GONZALEZ: It’s the prompt, yeah. 

WEATHERS: I’m using it in the wrong way, right. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: Or it takes way longer than I thought because there were misconceptions and we needed to have that time. 

GONZALEZ: And that’s a teaching moment, yeah. 

WEATHERS: The concluding routine is a few, once that’s in place, that’s a few minutes for students to reflect. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. How is that concluding routine different from a typical exit ticket? Because we talked a little bit about that. 

WEATHERS: I take a little bit of aim at the exit ticket in the book. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: The only problem I have with the exit ticket is that I just don’t think it’s realistic for a teacher to collect those every day and meaningfully read them. 

GONZALEZ: Mhmm. 

WEATHERS: I also have a problem with the fact of how do I respond back kind of privately, because you’re writing to me about what you’re learning or maybe what’s confusing you. And then what happens to the exit ticket after I’ve read it? So it really becomes this one-way conversation, and I tried those at first, and as a high school teacher there were days where I’m like, I don’t have time to read 160 little scrap pieces of paper. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Or I just don’t want to, right. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: I’m just tired. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: But I still want that formative feedback. There is no more powerful formative feedback than communication with a student one on one. And we, how we sell it to students is this is a private one on one conversation between you and I. And if you need help, this is where you can tell me. You can come and tell me anytime, but if maybe you don’t have that voice yet, and I’ve experienced that and lots of teachers have. So what I created was on the same document, it’s just one piece of paper where we kick things off, there’s a box just to reflect at the end of class period or school day. And at the end of the week, that’s turned to the teacher, returned to me, and I can read them and hand them back the following week. Just like I said, where do you find the time for the exit ticket? People say, where do you find the time to read learning blocks? It’s a valid, valid. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: And therefore, it’s the only place I dare teachers to try it, meaning it is so worthwhile and it will so inform your instruction. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: It’s like showing up on Monday with a pulse on every kid in the room in a way that I can promise you teachers out there, homework will never give you this information. So how do you make it sustainable? Now you could read that learning log everyday if you have that kind of capacity or your structure. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: But you could collect it at the end of the week, and just, this is what I encourage teachers in our Organized Binder trainings, just collect one less of something else, just replace. Don’t add to your load, right. This doesn’t need to be, even if it’s great. I don’t want to be the, the idea that breaks camel’s back kind of thing. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: But if I just don’t grade that, maybe, maybe you could stamp that for completion. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: Maybe you could just not assign it, right. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, yeah. 

WEATHERS: Maybe you can go, like, wild and not give homework for like three weeks. 

GONZALEZ: Right. Maybe just one less assignment, yes. 

WEATHERS: Just collect these. And just see what it does for your practice and take it from there. So that’s how it’s different from your traditional, that’s it.

GONZALEZ: I’m also wondering, like, would it make sense too during the opening routine and during the closing routine for the teacher to be sort of circulating anyway and kind of glancing at the accumulated stuff over the course of the week just to see is there anything in here. Like, if I can only grade 15 of these or look at only 15, can I kind of flag in my head the ones that I definitely need to look like because I can see there’s some stuff on there that I probably need to read. 

WEATHERS: One hundred percent. Proximity is everything, and you know those kids. You’re like I need to check in with Jennifer. 

GONZALEZ: Yes. 

WEATHERS: Right? And it might be, and having a learning environment and a relationship with students where it’s like, hey, if you really, really are like acutely struggling, please come see me at whatever time that is where we can privately discuss. 

GONZALEZ: Right. 

WEATHERS: But you can unpack here, and I’ll tell you what. When a teacher commits to reading these and making little comments or little stamps, it’s an interaction. It’s a conversation. It’s very different than grading homework from a student’s perception. Like, what does it mean when a caring adult takes time out of their busy life to read what I have to say, like where I’m at? 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, yeah. 

WEATHERS: It means that I care about you. And I would tell all of my students, like, I rely on this more than anything else because what I don’t want to do is get to the end of that unit only to find out that you understood 60 percent of what we’re learning. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah. 

WEATHERS: Because I’ve been grading your homework, and I’ve been teaching, and you’re engaged in class. I don’t have that formative pulse, and that’s what we need to meet students where they are. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah, yeah. The book is called “Executive Functions for Every Classroom.” We are going to have a, a link to it over on the site. And if people want to find you online, where should they go? 

WEATHERS: I am on social channels usually at Organized Binder or Mitch Weathers on LinkedIn. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. 

WEATHERS: Just quick caveat: I’m not super active on social because —

GONZALEZ: Me neither. 

WEATHERS: — I just find it kind of boring. But I am there. You can find me. But just go to the last page, page, hold on, page 100 if you get the book. I’m joking, Jennifer, but I really want to hear from everyone who’s listening. Page 168. The last sentence of the book besides my little sign-off, I invite you with my email which is mitch@organizedbinder.com. Pretty simple. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. And then there is also a whole website, organizedbinder.com. 

WEATHERS: Just go to organizedbinder.com and hit the contact link. 

GONZALEZ: And it looks like you’ve got a course that people can take too. Is that an online course? 

WEATHERS: Yeah. Full self-paced kind of deep dive into teaching executive functions. 

GONZALEZ: Okay. And I do want to say that you and I have, there’s a lot more that we haven’t been able to get into detail wise. 

WEATHERS: Yeah, for sure. 

GONZALEZ: I think if anyone is listening to this and thinking, ugh, there’s nothing new here, because like, that’s probably, when I get negative feedback from people, it’s a lot of times people saying, this is nothing new. I, I get where people could say that, but when I read it, and I asked myself did I ever see anybody doing anything this systematically? No, not in the middle school that I taught, and we had a ton of kids who could not get their act together in terms of just managing all this stuff. And when I think about if they had had a system like this implemented in our school. And I think all the teachers would have loved it if we had done it. So you’re positioning it in a way and structuring it in a way that has worked, and you’ve got testimonials in the book from kids that — really sweet stories — of kids that really, there’s an affect that is different about them once they have been in this kind of system. They feel smarter. They feel more in control. They, and that’s fantastic, that’s what we want all of our kids to feel like. 

WEATHERS: Right, right. 

GONZALEZ: Yeah.

WEATHERS: Well I appreciate that. 

GONZALEZ: Well, thank you, and yeah, I appreciate the, the conversation and thanks for writing this book. 

WEATHERS: Well, wow. Well, thank you for saying that, and thank you for all my friends and colleagues who pushed me over the years to do it. But more than anything, thanks for having me on your show. I mean I, it’s, I really mean it. This is a huge honor for me. I have a ton of respect for you and the work you do. So thank you. 

GONZALEZ: Thanks, Mitch.

For links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, including Mitch’s book, visit cultofpedagogy.com, click Podcast, and choose episode 231. To get a bimonthly email from me about my newest blog posts, podcast episodes, courses and products, sign up for my mailing list at cultofpedagogy.com/subscribe. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day.