Every Student, Every Day. Kristyn Klei Borrero

with their students, including the following.

      

No-Nonsense Nurturers build life-altering relationships with students, which enable them to academically challenge students beyond what negative, controlling, or enabling teachers can.

      

No-Nonsense Nurturers establish mutually respectful, academically achieving, equitable classroom cultures that empower students to take risks and learn at high levels (Delpit, 2012; Ross, Bondy, Gallingane, & Hambacher, 2008).

      

No-Nonsense Nurturers consistently support students to put forth their best efforts, resulting in high academic achievement and confidence (for teachers and students).

      

No-Nonsense Nurturers have positive, life-altering experiences that result from the relationships they develop with students. Many of these teachers report being better people because of these relationships (Klei Borrero & Canter, 2018). Their students teach these teachers about situations and factors they would not normally consider. Their students help them build a better lens and sense of reality of what is happening in the communities where they teach. No-Nonsense Nurturers recognize any bias they may bring to their teaching and reflect on it to ensure it doesn’t impact their ability to effectively reach all students.

      

No-Nonsense Nurturers enjoy their work as educators and have long, fruitful careers, impacting thousands of students’ lives because of the empowered mindsets they have about their students and their own abilities as educators. These teachers report loving their jobs despite the constant demands of standardized testing and the politics among the adults in many schools.

Empowering Mindsets of No-Nonsense Nurturers

      The empowering mindsets of No-Nonsense Nurturers center on holding high expectations for 100 percent of their students, 100 percent of the time, and developing positive, life-altering relationships with students and their families. Consider the following.

      “I Get Into My Students’ Hearing”

      When managing the success of twenty-five or more students in a classroom, clear, concise, and often direct communication is important so you can get into your students’ hearing and they follow your directions. What does get into your students’ hearing mean? As teachers, we may use language conventions that are confusing to students or miscommunicate our expectations. For example, a teacher might ask, “Students, can you please put away your materials?” when he or she really means, “Students, it is time to put away your materials.” The difference in your tone and intonation can determine whether students perceive your words as a question—giving them a choice in the situation—or understand that you are stating an expectation. Getting into your students’ hearing means you recognize that there is a difference in your communication style and the communication style your students are used to. Some teachers struggle with getting into their students’ hearing because they are afraid that by being direct, they sound mean. However, for many students, using clear, concise, and direct language when setting expectations shows students a confident teacher with expectations everyone must follow and high confidence in each student’s ability to be successful.

      If teachers are unsuccessful in communicating expectations with students, there is a risk of students misinterpreting what the teachers want. This can result in teachers feeling certain students are noncompliant and, as a result, they may become frustrated. All this could be happening while students think they are following directions, which can lead to consequences for both teachers and students.

      Following are two scenarios that illustrate this point.

      Scenario One

      Unintended enabler: “Students, I think we’ve spent enough time reading. Let’s put away your reading books. Take out your journals and get started on your writing lesson for the day.”

      What students might hear: “The teacher thinks we’ve spent enough time on our reading, and when we are ready, she would like us to take out our journals.”

      So, some students feel they can choose what to do. Some students continue reading, while others begin writing, to the consternation of the teacher.

      Scenario Two

      No-Nonsense Nurturer: “Students, we have spent twenty minutes reading. Silently put away your reading books and take out your journals. We will begin our writing lesson in thirty seconds.”

      What students hear: “The teacher expects me to put my reading book away and take out my journal now.”

      A firm, clear tone sends a message students understand clearly and, as a result, they are more likely to follow the directions in a timely manner.