Albany Senior High School/Respectful Relationships

Introduction
Being respectful of all learners, the learning culture and the learning environment as a teacher is a challenging experience. At Albany Senior High School we have a number of guidelines which we aspire to use when developing learning relationships with each other. The following document outlines the different types of respect that are important in these relationships and how we endeavour to maintain respect for each other during interactions.

Respect types
Respect for ourselves There can be times when it's helpful to refer to this in discussions with students. For instance, stating that we're respectful of all students and we require the same in return can sometimes be worth pointing out in discussions around respect or breakdowns in it.

Respect for students  This is easy when students are being respectful but not so easy when they're not.

Respect for the learning culture This is about respecting the necessary conditions for a positive learning culture in a class. These conditions should be made explicit to students and the learning reasons for them being in place.

Respect for the learning community Working in an open plan common means being respectful of other groups and individuals who are learning around us.

Respect for the physical environment Respecting desks, resources, computers and other concrete things around us (although they may not be literally made of concrete.)

It can be helpful to consider the different types of respect in a teaching and learning environment. The different respect types interact in complex ways and the flows of respect between individuals in the dynamic and sometimes unpredictable class environment can be broken or interrupted. Dealing with this is a challenging experience but the outcomes can be positive learning experiences both for teachers and students.

Some examples
Sometimes there can be tensions between the individual respect types. A student might be repetitively breaking the respect flow for the learning culture of the class by interrupting others when they're trying to present so a teacher might decide to remove them. The student may perceive this as being disrespectful towards them.

There could be tension between respect types if a student was consoling another student over a relationship breakup with a friend but they were doing this during class discussion where another student is presenting. Quickly finding a respectful solution for these kinds of problems can be challenging as the student is being respectful of their friend in trying to console them but disrespectful of the learning culture in doing this while other individuals are presenting to the class.

A breakdown in one flow can also lead to a breakdown in another. For example, a student might be being openly disrespectful of another student, the teacher may then explain that this is unacceptable and the student, may in turn, then direct their disrespect toward the teacher.

What's this document all about then?
The rest of this document outlines some techniques that can be used to maintain all five types of these respect and also repair possible breaks in the respect flow from teacher to student, student to teacher, student to culture and a number of possible combinations of these. Restecp to Bill Rogers, Kevin Knight and all the other awesome educators whose expertise and insight indirectly fed into this document. Teachers and students at ASHS will also be contributing to this document as our experiences of how respect works in our school continues to develop.

Roving at the beginning of tasks
This is all about getting round all groups and/or individuals to check they’re OK with starting a task. Conversationally and non-threatentingly checking students have a) the resources and b) the understandings they need to get started. Sometimes, students who desperately want to talk to a teacher can be parked here with something like, “Zachariah, I’ll get to you in a moment, I just need to finish getting round everyone first.”

Validating / acknowledging feelings and perspectives
It's possible to acknowledge someone's feelings and/or perspective without necessarily agreeing with it. Keep the focus on their emotions and acknowledge what you think students are saying. “Ahhh, I can see how that might be frustrating. It’s difficult when someone tells you what to do and you don’t feel like doing it.” or “So it seems like you’re feeling angry, given that Edwardo threw a pen at you,” or even explicitly checking whether your interpretation is correct, “Hmmm, so are you feeling frustrated here because you’re not sure exactly how to complete this task?” Given the "bottom up," approach Nathan Mikaere-Wallis outlined during his visit, it is necessary to help people (teenagers in particular) operate beyond the limbic system, if we want students to engage in reasoning.Generally speaking this will be followed up with some kind of cognitive engagement which might invite the student to empathise or be an explanation of how a respect flow was breached somehow.

State the desired behaviour
Great stuff from Nathan here on this. It’s simply stating what you wish students to do rather than stating what you don’t want them to do. Easy in theory but not so easy in practice. Like any technique though, it can become a habit eventually! Remember, the brain will visualise whatever gets describe, so if you ask a student to "don't punch that window!" then that's exactly what they're brain is visualising.

Sweeps for fast transitions
A sweep is simply stating verbally (loud enough so students can hear) what various students are doing. It is also generally mixing in stating the desired behaviour as well so that students one by one will eventually start to comply and the whole class will hopefully follow suit. It can be used to transition between instructional and working states. This can seem particularly unnatural to do at first but in a well-chunked 100 minute period can really help keep the pace up.

A transition into a working state could be something like, “Ahhh. Horatio is getting out his pen, nice one. Liza is still sitting blankly but looks like she’s about to get her stuff out. Jimbo, make sure you’ve using your book to write in there fella.” etc.

A transition from a working state might often start with a request for students to listen, the go something like this, “Engelebert, looking up here please. Dora is just putting her pen down to listen up, excellent. Alberto’s listening and Odelia is too. Awesome.”

As in the above examples, positive praise and other techniques can be mixed in here.

Avoiding confrontational contexts
Often, confronting students in front of other students has negative outcomes. Students (like adults) find it difficult to be put in situations where they might lose face and teenagers have often begun to discover the various kinds of power open to them and actively exercise and explore these confrontationally with teachers. Where-ever possible, deal with problematic behaviour away from other students! Being roped into an argument with a student in front of other students, or worse still, versing a whole group of students is nearly always a lose, lose. Fishbowl chillouts can be a helpful space here. Ask Nick Wilson for more info!

Demonstrating expectations of compliance
One way to do this in practice is leaving students time to follow through with requests. When asking a student to do something, even if you’re fairly sure they’re not going to do it, walk away and give them space. This has a dual awesomeness factor: 1) It shows you expect your (reasonable) instructions will be carried out and 2) combined with enough “wait and see time” it gives students a chance to save face if there’s been a bit of confrontation involved during the initial request. Standing over a student and repetitively demanding they comply erodes authority in the long term.

Ignoring secondaries
Students will sometimes respond to a request with and inappropriate secondary, EG: Gertrude is asked to put her pen down and she responds with “Freakin rar!” under her breath. It is usually be better to ignore these Students who do this are often looking provoke responses from a teacher and “taking the bait” as it were, shows that you are able to be manipulated into responding. Not responding, on the other hand, can demonstrate that, low-level, immature behaviour isn’t worth acknowledging.



Genuine and specific positive praise
This is super important! Especially for students who are used to receiving the opposite. Without overdoing it, it can be effectively delivered after a student has complied with a request of some kind. Sometimes a simple “thanks Ricardo” will do it too. Keeping it more specific might be something like, “That’s a pretty darned awesome metaphor right there Georgette, nice one.”

Tactical use of personal pronouns
This is a wide ranging technique. When laying out consequences, avoid ascribing them directly to yourself. “Billy, you can either complete this paragraph in the next ten minutes or you’ll need to stay in to talk to me at interval” is better than “Billy, you can either complete this paragraph or I’ll keep you in at interval.” This is a really difficult one to maintain when under stress but can be really helpful for diverting student frustration. See below for a consequence - tactical use of pronouns combo.

Follow-through on consequences
This is a tough one. Old school teaching often uses threats as a way of making students comply, and while this might work in the short-term, in the long-term students learn they can get away with exploiting the differences between stated and real consequences. This can also be a particularly difficult experience for some students who discover there’s a contrast between what happens at home and at school. If they are able to get decisions and stated consequences regularly reversed at home but at school they discover it’s a different story, coming to grips with this difference can take some time. Also, when explaining potential consequences, try to keep “I” out of the sentence. It makes it harder for students to blame the consequence on the teacher.

Avoid rhetorical questions
This is especially important during high-pressure discussions around respect. Questions like: “Why are you so difficult?” and “why don’t you do anything I ask you to?” lead at best to students getting quietly grumpy and at worst to them responding abusively. A video on this technique might demonstrate a difficult, stressful situation, then bad rhetorical questions and some possible alternatives.

The illusion of choice
When aiming to get a student complying with a request, particularly if they’ve already failed to do so earlier, creating the illusion of choice can be effective. Something like, “Jeffrey, you can either switch your phone off OR give it to me.” This should then be combined with a demonstrating an expectation of compliance (see above) by walking away and giving the student a chance to carry out the instruction.



Focusing on the learning
Many requests around work can also be combined with a simple, clear explanation of how the request relates to the learning. “Charlotte, it’s really important that you understanding how the flux capactor oscillations effect the inverted resistance coil. This understanding is essential so you can fully understand the quantum field harmonics of the hyperdrive coolant unit.” This can also be in a social context, “Ruth, if you’re going to get this finished, it’s much more likely you’ll manage it sitting away from Jezebel.”

Clearly identifying desired behaviour and consequences
When promoting pro-social behaviour (as Nathan pointed out) the desired behaviour needs to be stated clearly and specifically (and when things are starting to get funky) the consequence should also be clearly stated. The desired behaviour and consequences may also need to be clearly measurable and time-related. “Butch, you really need to finish this piece of writing if you’re going to master specific detail in scenes. You need to have this page complete in the next fifteen minutes or you’ll need to shift to a different desk on your own.” Note that in the above example, the teacher has also explained the learning-based reasoning behind the request.

System for Managing Respect in Classes
The following diagram illustrates guidelines for teachers around maintaining respect for the learning culture in classes. This system focuses on enabling students to own their own behaviour in these situation and acknowledging their perspectives while maintaining respect for others.