WEBVTT 00:00:13.076 --> 00:00:14.506 [Elder to students:] Good Morning! 00:00:14.506 --> 00:00:17.986 How is everyone this morning? 00:00:17.986 --> 00:00:18.856 Well, great! 00:00:18.856 --> 00:00:19.816 Great! 00:00:20.016 --> 00:00:21.386 [Elder:] My name is Natalie Elder. 00:00:21.386 --> 00:00:24.586 I am the principal at Hardy Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 00:00:24.686 --> 00:00:34.936 When I came to Hardy, my first impression of the school was not a great feeling. 00:00:35.796 --> 00:00:42.086 I was concerned about the climate of the building, 00:00:42.086 --> 00:00:48.476 and I say climate because the students were not under the control that I 00:00:48.476 --> 00:00:50.876 like for a building to be under control. 00:00:50.876 --> 00:00:54.166 It wasn't organized the way I would like for it to have been. 00:00:54.556 --> 00:01:01.076 But I saw true potential in the students, and I felt like the community deserved an opportunity 00:01:01.076 --> 00:01:03.006 to see their children at their best. 00:01:03.546 --> 00:01:10.496 So my first quest was to gain control of the building. 00:01:11.296 --> 00:01:19.246 We sat down and met with the teachers, and we had to get them in a new mind-frame. 00:01:19.466 --> 00:01:23.596 We had to look at what were the things that were keeping our students from learning, 00:01:23.956 --> 00:01:30.896 and what was our responsibility in making sure that they were able to reach those goals. 00:01:31.926 --> 00:01:37.246 We started with the McGraw-Hill series for reading, which was adopted by our district, 00:01:37.746 --> 00:01:43.696 but what we found out-the easy book wasn't easy enough because our kids were very low. 00:01:45.176 --> 00:01:46.476 So we had to look at that. 00:01:46.866 --> 00:01:56.286 We started morning interventions for our students, we had what you call an Early Bird Reading 00:01:56.286 --> 00:02:01.796 and Math that starts at 6:30 in the morning, and parents were sending the kids in the morning. 00:02:01.796 --> 00:02:04.796 I was surprised, but it worked. 00:02:04.796 --> 00:02:12.226 6:30 to 7:30 we have reading and math, and the teachers would come and work with the students. 00:02:12.636 --> 00:02:17.126 And the kids, it helped them get focused on just school. 00:02:17.626 --> 00:02:19.856 So when they walked in, we want them focused on school. 00:02:21.046 --> 00:02:25.516 One thing that we did establish in our building was transitioning kids from home 00:02:25.916 --> 00:02:31.516 into the school, greeting them at the door, and I don't mean at the front door of the school. 00:02:31.846 --> 00:02:32.996 I mean at the car door. 00:02:32.996 --> 00:02:37.896 We will open the door for the parents and say good morning to the parents, and we'll tell them, 00:02:38.156 --> 00:02:41.196 "Let us have your babies for a minute so we can enrich them." 00:02:41.196 --> 00:02:44.476 And I've asked all teachers, "Always smile at parents. 00:02:44.476 --> 00:02:50.676 Let them know when they drop their kids off, they are so precious even to us." 00:02:50.676 --> 00:02:54.816 And we're greeting them at the door; they will come into the multipurpose room. 00:02:55.376 --> 00:02:58.106 We have a set of teachers who work in the multipurpose room, 00:02:58.496 --> 00:03:01.666 and a lot of times we do different activities with them. 00:03:02.116 --> 00:03:05.846 They can range from doing a character ed piece, 00:03:05.846 --> 00:03:10.206 which we do every single day-we do a character ed piece in which we focus 00:03:10.206 --> 00:03:13.836 on particular trait for the month. 00:03:13.836 --> 00:03:18.926 For example, if we were doing caring, they would see a board that says, 00:03:19.436 --> 00:03:21.596 "The character ed trait for the month is caring." 00:03:22.026 --> 00:03:25.756 After they look at the character ed trait, we have different words to go with those traits 00:03:26.086 --> 00:03:28.486 because we are still trying to increase the vocabulary. 00:03:28.776 --> 00:03:34.256 And the kids get very involved, and we do incentives for kids who come in 00:03:34.256 --> 00:03:37.206 and they really engage in that activity with us. 00:03:37.206 --> 00:03:42.166 The teachers sometimes allow the kids to come to the stage and read because we want 00:03:42.166 --> 00:03:43.876 to increase our students' writing, 00:03:43.876 --> 00:03:47.936 but we want them to read a piece that they have written not a piece from the book. 00:03:48.236 --> 00:03:52.776 Even now and then we use textbooks, but we would like for them to read pieces to us. 00:03:52.776 --> 00:03:56.376 And we have had kids write cute short stories, and we would clap, 00:03:56.376 --> 00:04:00.306 and we would talk about the main idea so we're still focusing on the school. 00:04:00.736 --> 00:04:04.046 The kids are just enjoying themselves because they are on the stage, 00:04:04.326 --> 00:04:07.776 they have a mic in front of them, and they are allowed to express themselves 00:04:07.886 --> 00:04:11.546 because we want them to have a voice in what they are doing. 00:04:11.546 --> 00:04:14.966 And the reason why we started that, 00:04:15.456 --> 00:04:23.136 I wanted the students to understand once you leave home everything here is about educating you, 00:04:23.136 --> 00:04:26.586 and we are going to start it from the minute you walk in the door. 00:04:27.076 --> 00:04:28.956 [Students:] Good, better, best. 00:04:28.956 --> 00:04:31.436 Never let it rest. 00:04:31.416 --> 00:04:37.416 When you're good, get better, and when you're better, best. 00:04:37.416 --> 00:04:42.156 [Elder:] Another thing we had to do was teach kids how to take ownership. 00:04:42.156 --> 00:04:48.576 One thing about poverty, kids sometimes have a tendency to be reactive. 00:04:49.506 --> 00:04:52.506 And that's just a missing resource that they haven't learned. 00:04:52.866 --> 00:04:54.706 Not all kids are like that, some kids. 00:04:55.086 --> 00:05:00.156 So I am not saying all kids, I want to make that clear, some kids are. 00:05:00.296 --> 00:05:01.936 Elder to students: Let me see you traveling. 00:05:01.936 --> 00:05:05.246 [Elder:] So one thing to counteract that: we travel, 00:05:05.416 --> 00:05:07.666 and I call it travel when we are moving through the halls. 00:05:07.966 --> 00:05:10.196 We are traveling, and the kids like that. 00:05:10.196 --> 00:05:13.566 And we fold our arms like this in a traveling position, 00:05:13.566 --> 00:05:17.686 and that means that they are keeping their hands and their arms to themselves. 00:05:18.176 --> 00:05:21.806 The other key thing we have to do is make sure that our top and bottom lips are touching 00:05:22.296 --> 00:05:24.306 because if they are touching, we are not talking. 00:05:26.926 --> 00:05:28.656 My expectations are high. 00:05:28.976 --> 00:05:32.046 Every single morning when we are in the multipurpose room, 00:05:32.346 --> 00:05:38.196 before we walk out of the multipurpose room, I always say to them, "We are a school of what?" 00:05:38.196 --> 00:05:42.616 And they always say excellence because I told them we are going 00:05:42.616 --> 00:05:44.846 to be excellent in everything that we do. 00:05:46.286 --> 00:05:52.276 From the moment we walk out the multipurpose room down the hallway to the moment we get 00:05:52.276 --> 00:05:55.166 into the classroom, we are going to have our paper and pencil. 00:05:55.486 --> 00:05:57.916 We are going to be ready to go to work.