How to Create a Positive Learning Experience

Remember a day when you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, spilled your coffee on your way to work, your students ended up not being the angels you taught the previous day, and it was nowhere close to being Friday.  Can you remember how you approached teaching your students that day?  Were you “on-edge,” grumpy, upset, impatient, irritable, or even lacking compassion towards them?  Don’t forget, YOU’RE HUMAN and this happens because life happens!  My point in bringing this up is to remind you that your students respond to your approach to teaching them; they sense the positivity or negativity you bring to the lesson and will model themselves after their teacher.

Simply put, the KEY ingredients in creating a positive learning experience are...

1. your attitude,
2. your energy,
3. and your vibe.

I believe this information is valuable in teaching, especially when teaching Shurley English, because your attitude/energy/vibe can directly affect student engagement, and by now you know how much student-teacher interaction is incorporated into the curriculum.  Whether you’ve had a sub-par day or you haven’t quite fallen in love with teaching Shurley English yet, your students are still depending on you to deliver the tools they need to become good writers.  If you approach teaching Shurley English with an open mind, some humor, and an intention to have fun while learning, you and your students will be set up to have a positive learning experience.

If you, the teacher, have not been properly trained, have questions or concerns about the curriculum, and have a difficult time trusting the process, your students may be modeling your current viewpoint, which could be resulting in a lack of participation and overall interest in the subject matter.  The K-8th grade Shurley English curriculum is designed for your students to “See It, Hear It, Say It, & Do It!”  All the teacher has to do is approach each lesson with some positive enthusiasm and raise his/her eyebrows every once in a while to get a few smiles and 100% participation.  Don’t hesitate to call our corporate office to get your questions answered, schedule a webinar training, or invest in some on-site training with one of our Certified Consultants; we truly want you to have a successful year teaching Shurley English. 

I previously posted a blog called, The Perfect Shurley Teacher, which might be helpful if you feel like I’m speaking to you.  Also, consider this…when I lead teacher trainings, my goal is to make sure everyone sees and understands the big picture of what Shurley English was created to do while also stressing the importance of consistency and using the curriculum with fidelity to give your students the opportunity to be the best writer they can be.  Shurley English is a treasure chest full of gems waiting for you to bedazzle your classroom, so do what you, personally, need to do to give your students the BEST version of their TEACHER and have an enjoyable Shurley experience!

Helping Parents Understand Shurley English

I love it when parents want to help their children at home. This kind of attention and assistance can make all the difference. But what happens when the parent is not quite sure about your teaching methods, specifically the Shurley English approach to language arts? Not to worry! We have a resource to help parents understand how Shurley English unfolds in the classroom: The Parent Help Booklet.

Here is a step-by-step process to access our Parent Help Booklet from our website:

Step 1:

Go to www.shurley.com.

Step 2:

Click the PRODUCTS AND SERVICES tab.

Step 3:

Scroll to the bottom of the page to the PARENT HELP section.

Click the level desired.

Step 4:

Print the Parent Help Booklet you wish to distribute.

© Shurley Instructional Materials, Inc.

What is Shurley English?

When someone asks me to tell them about Shurley English in a nutshell, I still experience a nanosecond of wondering where to begin.  I mean, hey, it’s no easy task to capture the unique features of the curriculum and explain how they help students make the language arts connection using the fewest possible words!  Besides that, as the senior consultant, my preference is to take at least a full day to expound! 

The best way I can go about sharing Shurley English in a nutshell is to roll out three key points:  1) our purpose, 2) our goal, and 3) the methods we use to accomplish the goal. With that being said, here’s my spiel:

Our Purpose:

As a family-owned U.S.-based company, our mission is to empower ALL students to become competent, confident communicators. That’s our sole purpose, and we take it seriously! 

Our Goal:

The overall goal of our curriculum is to teach abstract language arts concepts in a clear and logical way, using concrete, multi-sensory strategies.  Our experts have organized the curriculum logically, sequentially, and systematically to support all types of learners. 

Our Methods:

The method used to accomplish the overall goal teaches a unique combination of features necessary to build a solid literacy foundation. (Check out our "Making the Connection" wheel.)   The Teacher’s Manual provides step-by-step instructions to teach the knowledge and skills necessary to make the connection.  It also provides ample opportunities for students to practice the knowledge and skills they learn.

When a student understands the eight parts of speech and how they work together to build sentences, they are more capable of writing a good sentence.  Once they can write a good sentence, they can be taught how to organize sentences together to write good paragraphs.  As they learn to write well-structured paragraphs, students can be shown to organize paragraphs into essays properly. The pinnacle of success is when a student can write for all purposes using sentences, paragraphs, and/or essays that exude language arts competence and confidence!

Whew!  That’s what I call Shurley English in a Nutshell! Want to see it in action? We invite you to visit our website at www.shurley.com.

Another Tool to Help Keep Your Students Organized

All of us have students in our class who need a little extra nudge to keep their work area organized. (I have a whole post dedicated to teaching study skills here.) One of THE best tools that I have found to aid in the quest to stay organized is to have student helpers. These student helpers can monitor and politely remind others in their group to keep their area in order. Here's a quick way to utilize your student helpers with The Desk Check.

The Desk Check

1. Initiate a weekly or daily desk check.

2. Train a few students as desk checkers to monitor the organization of each student's work area. 

3. Perform a desk check. You can do this task before school, during the day, or after school. Simply choose whatever works best for you and your students. 

4. If there is a problem with any desk, the checker should call you to do a more thorough check.

Remember, organization is a process. The idea is to identify and support those students that need a little extra nudge. After all, organization is a life-skill that will follow your students into their future college and career endeavors.  Once mastered, these learned abilities will generate guidelines for your students to utilize throughout their home, school, and work environments.