Although not all Chicagoans are baseball fans, most couldn't help developing an interest in the rapid improvement of the Chicago Cubs during the last few seasons. Many casual fans attributed the turnaround to a few key player acquisitions. Although the Cubs have improved their talent level, it's important to consider the role of Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
Since his arrival in Chicago in April 2015, Maddon has helped develop the team into a winner. Although he has a deserved reputation as a solid baseball tactician, I believe it is Maddon's emphasis on cultivating positive relationships with his players that separates him from his peers.
The same can be said for our strongest teachers. Like Maddon, they work to become experts in their fields, but also bring to their classrooms a tool kit for forging relationships. Such teachers appreciate that the career they have entered is based on working with people. Let's unpack some tools from this relationship-building kit. Using these strategies can make every classroom a winner. You don't even have to be a baseball fan.
Propose a Shared Mission
Joe Maddon began his first press conference as team manager by boldly stating a goal of making the playoffs; he even mentioned winning the World Series. Although the Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908, Maddon's lofty mission caught the attention of his players, many of whom had grown accustomed to losing.
It can be difficult for teachers to simulate a mission on the scale of the World Series, but with a little creativity, it can be done. As an Advanced Placement teacher, the World Series I want my kids to aim for has been clearly established: I want students to sit for and do their best on the Advanced Placement exam in May. To garner student confidence in reaching this lofty goal, I frequently reference our course alumni, explaining that traditionally, most students sit for the exam. I add that despite the high percentage of test takers, our school's results have consistently far out performed state or national averages.
Many successful teachers who work to get buy-in to a substantial goal encourage students to help decide on the mission, which creates student investment.
Creating this shared mission early in the year is an important step in crafting relationships. For instance, students in the radio broadcasting class at suburban Chicago's Homewood-Flossmoor High School have for many years created an hour-long live radio documentary during spring of their sophomore year. The students select a topic and then write, direct, and produce the finished product. Students must accomplish this mission before they can advance to positions of leadership at the school radio station as juniors and seniors.
Create a Safe Environment
Before students will take intellectual risks and push themselves toward the shared mission, they must feel safe. Students will gain that security when they know they're being treated with dignity and as a valued member of the class.
I use in my classes a practice also seen on many ball fields that helps communicate respect and value—I welcome each of my students with a "fist bump" and a friendly greeting as they enter my classroom each day. This gesture lets each student know that he or she is a valuable member of the group and an important part of the upcoming lesson. This routine can also provide opportunities to privately address a student concern. You might quickly mention to a student your question about a missing element of a recent homework assignment, for instance, as you greet him or her. Students will feel safe when their shortcomings and struggles aren't mentioned in front of the class.
Get to Know One Another
If we're going to push students, we must make a genuine effort to get to know them. This tool takes time to develop. The sooner we start, the quicker the dividends come.
Start by simply having students fill out an information card highlighting personal interests, travel experiences, and accomplishments. Elementary and middle school teachers looking to learn more about their students often ask kids to create picture books or brief iMovies about themselves. Once these have been completed, the real test begins, as teachers put what they've learned about students into use, perhaps by referencing accomplishments or facts about specific students that connect to content or a discussion topic.
For example, when my students studied World War II, I used the occasion to point out that one of their classmates had a grandfather who served the U.S. military in liberating France. I also take advantage of unscripted opportunities to learn more about students. If a student answers a question by offering some insight into his interests or talents ("I've actually read a lot about Japanese culture"), seize that opportunity. Give this enthusiastic person a chance to expand.
And don't underestimate the importance of giving kids insight into your life and your passions away from school. This makes the connection complete. I still remember my high school political science instructor Charles Shields sharing stories about traveling to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s to protest American involvement in Vietnam. (Shields eventually became author of the best-selling book Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee.) It wasn't just this teacher's storytelling ability that helped foster relationships; it was also his willingness to share insight into his life. The storytelling took five minutes away from planned activities—and made me more connected with this teacher and his lessons the whole semester.
Challenge Students
Setting high expectations—as when Maddon proclaimed that the Cubs might win the World Series—enriches relationships. Creating a rigorous course might seem counterintuitive at first glance. Inexperienced teachers often reduce rigor in the classroom believing this will make students accept them better, which is a mistake. Students may play along with a teacher who's unwilling to challenge them, but the much-needed respect and true student buy-in won't develop. Amanda Ripley (2013) noted, "Boredom is the specter that haunts children from kindergarten to graduation on every continent." By creating a classroom designed to challenge kids and avoid boredom, teachers demonstrate respect for students and their abilities.
Asking students to take on a challenging course often leads to stress and fatigue. Students will want to know that you're equally invested in the mission, because it will be difficult to accomplish without a teacher's strong support. The exams I give in my Advanced Placement classes along the way to the final standardized exam are difficult, so I offer students opportunities for "test corrections"—before- or after-school sessions that give them extended time to review the results of each exam. Students correct each of their wrong answers and, in doing so, earn back (toward the overall score) a quarter point that they lost for each incorrect answer. I also hold review sessions leading up to the Advanced Placement exam in May. Although these sessions take time, they make clear my support and empathy for students' efforts to reach our shared mission.
There's a catch in supplying the aforementioned supports; teachers who want to do so must listen to students. It's easy to think of our courses in a vacuum, but we need to understand that today's student is busier than historic norms. For example, when students ask to delay an exam because they're scheduled to take a test in a different course, teachers who show some flexibility demonstrate empathy and a commitment to students. Relationships between teachers and their students are living things. It's important that these relationships continue to grow and develop. Often, the teacher-student relationship will strengthen after a period of adversity in which teachers ask their students to stretch.
Develop Rituals
Ritual building has been used for years in the corporate world to enhance culture and develop rapport. The Danish corporation Grundfos holds an annual company "Olympic Games" to encourage teamwork among its employees, who hail from more than 55 nations.
Maddon is known for his use of rituals to build team culture. A month into the 2016 season, he ordered the Cubs to travel to Pittsburgh in their "zaniest suits." The players became centers of attention at the airport, not for their great play, but for their crazy outfits. This ritual came at the perfect time; Maddon understood that the excitement of opening day was now well in the past and his players were feeling the long grind of the season.
Teachers don't need the budget of a major team or international corporation to create their own rituals. Here are two I use with my Advanced Placement European History students.
- Because students are naturally a little tense on exam days, I drop by a bakery on my way to school to pick up doughnuts. The added calories may not improve test scores, but the gesture brings a smile to each of my test takers.
- I have a small contingent of seniors in this course each year, although the majority are sophomores. The seniors serve (unknowingly) as valuable role models for my impressionable sophomores. During the first semester, these seniors are busy with college applications. Our ritual kicks in as seniors begin to let me know about their college decisions. Once each student has made his or her college selection, I ask her or him to bring a copy of the acceptance letter from their chosen school and give it to any sophomore they select. That sophomore then brings in a celebratory treat for everyone. This simple routine creates bonds.
Every teacher struggles to build strong connections with cautious or hesitant students. As they join in culture-building rituals, such students just might begin to feel they belong.
Celebrate Student Success
When teachers challenge students to stretch, students may run into roadblocks. Thus, it's all the more important for teachers to be positive with learners and praise successes formally and informally. As Joe Maddon has said (Shelton, 2006), "It's so easy to be negative, but I don't know of any situation that ever became better without a positive attitude."
Several years ago a few of my students helped create a permanent classroom display titled "European History AP Hall of Fame" to recognize students who completed the course and sat for the AP exam. Each year, a new set of students wants their names added to that display.
I also encourage students to name a "Student of the Unit" for each unit in this European History class. The students in each of my classes help select these student(s). Often, they select a classmate who made outstanding contributions over the course of the unit even if he or she didn't have the highest unit test score.
Inject Humor
Joe Maddon understands that even in professional sports, humor can be effective. During one spring training, he hired a mime to lead the Cubs through the mundane chore of daily stretching. Many teachers also make great use of humor in the classroom to aid students in relaxing—which is important especially for students under pressure.
As a young teacher, I had trouble making light of my own shortcomings and avoided calling attention to them. As I became more confident, I looked at these shortcomings as an opportunity to let students know that even their teachers make mistakes. Taking a few minutes to share a humorous story about your life outside the classroom can help students connect with you.
Of course, we must model appropriate use of humor with students. Always avoid sarcasm in a classroom; too often, sarcasm encourages behavior that does great damage to the classroom climate.
Eighty Percent Is People
Although the Cubs didn't make it to the World Series the first season Maddon led them, they got closer than they had for many seasons. They finished the 2015 season with the third-best record in their division and qualified to play in the National League Championship Series—their first appearance in the NLCS since 2003. Sadly, they didn't do well enough in that series to make it farther, but Cubs attendance for this season increased more than 300,000 from the previous year.
And there is little doubt Maddon has made an impact on his players. Current Cub Davis Ross said of Maddon (on sportswriter Peter Gammons' website), "He spends time getting to know everyone, and how they think, how they deal with all the human insecurities we all deal with beneath the surface. He makes baseball fun the way it was when we were kids" (Gammons, 2016).
Joe Maddon, like all managers today, makes use of modern analytics to prepare his players for each game, just as today's teachers benefit from mountains of data available to them. But Maddon had it right when he asserted, "Eighty percent of managing is people. They're not numbers. … They're people" (Gammons, 2016).
