Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
This year, I have been gifted the opportunity to do something so outside my realm of expertise. TBH, I may not even have a realm of expertise but I feel I’m pretty darn good at teaching French to children with LDs. This new bit is a passion, something that I feel sits deep in me and that doesn’t need a lot of work to bring to the surface. Having said that, I feel like a complete imposter!
I am researching what student wellbeing looks like and trying to describe the HOW of building connected relationships. It’s really tricky to articulate this grey area but I feel strongly that it is the backbone to delivering the curriculum. When asked how I run my classroom, I struggle to pinpoint the aspects outside of the norm (get them talking, keep them talking, praise the baby steps…) and often respond with “I just do what I do, I dunno…”
I am using this year to look deeply at what is happening at our school from both the students’ and the teachers’ point of view. I hope to be able to put in writing pointers for educators to help them reflect and shift their approach so that relationships are the priority.
What’s happening at your school? How do you reach out to your students? How do you let each one feel that they are worth your time and effort? How do monitor yourself when triggered by a student/situation or particular behaviour? I’d love your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas!
AND…GO!
Hi @estewart! Connecting with each student has been a goal of mine since I started teaching 7 years ago. I am lucky to work in the Library, which puts me in a great position to connect with each and every student at my school. This is incredibly daunting, but I look at this challenge as never-ending. Ultimately, I try and connect each of my students with a book – but not just any book. A book where they come back to me and tell me how much they loved it. A book where they ask me for the next in the series with great anticipation and excitement. A book that helps develop their love of reading. By making this connection, my hope is that the student feels known and cared for. I then track who I’ve connected with in a spreadsheet that I keep year after year and add to as I go.
I also coach throughout the entire school year. It allows me to get the know the students in a different environment. It can also shift the perspective the students have toward me “Why are you in the gym? Why aren’t you in the library?” I can have various conversations with students that aren’t “school/academics” related.
I’m not sure if that’s what you were looking for, but its what came to mind when I read your post. I’m looking forward to what others can contribute!
Hi Nicole and thank you for your comment!
Hi Emma, I think this is such a cool idea! When I was reading this it made me think of a leadership book I was given called ‘Dare to Lead’ and when she mentioned this one phrase that really really stuck in my head that I use for reaching out to students is the question ‘What does me helping you look like?’
It sounds like a simple question but the answers vary so much from student to student and it really allows them to think about what that relationship looks like. It can be phrased a lot of different ways, ‘what does a good relationship look like?’
It really struck me and I’ve tried it in my class and loved it. Let me know what you think!
Thanks Robin! I will add that to the next stage of my research that involves talking to small groups of students and teasing out their beliefs and what they are picking up from the adults. Love me some good Brene Brown!
What a great provocation: “I am researching what student wellbeing looks like and trying to describe the HOW of building connected relationships. ” Taking on the role of educator-as-researcher is not one to be taken lightly. I am so excited for your work!
There are a lot of great resources to connect to through the Cohort. Check out the work of @aharding and “Flourishing” which has grown at Ridley to become a whole school program. Check out the work of @kcarlson and @cschindler who have action plans that speak to something like this.
If you’re looking for great tips and ideas for being an educator-as-researcher, you can reach out to @tjagdeo and @ljensen too. I’ve had a couple of great conversations with them about this very topic.
See you soon,
Garth.
Wealth of knowledge you are!!
I’m making a checklist and will be moving through it.
@estewart,
Wellbeing is the “be-and-end-all” of education. There is nothing else. Nothing. Without healthy social-emotional-learning, there is no learning. So this is noble and necessary work and will no doubt usher you into new and exciting realms of expertise.
Keep up the great work,
Eric
I love the idea @estewart. Relational learning is so important. I feel one of my favourite parts of the day is being with my advisory group. We get a group of 8-12 students in Grade 8. We then stay with those students until they graduate Grade 12. I actually graduated my first group 2 years ago and it was so rewarding. I am currently with my new group who is in grade 9. Outside of advisory one of my goals was to send meaningful and positive emails/phone calls to all of my students (I am still working on this as it is a difficult task). I feel our kids parents often only get negative emails or calls about misbehaviour or not completing work. This creates a negative impression in their minds about the school possibly. I want to try to create as many positive experiences as possible. Keep up the great work.