ln my first few years of teaching, my Principal (Rob Hunter- Yes, Madeline's son) instilled this idea that content should not be the main focus in the first two weeks of school. He not only gave us "permission" to "slow roll" in order to get to know our students, it was an expectation. 20 years later, I have carried that message with me and share it with others. This year, more than ever, this idea still rings true. For the most part, students and teachers have been outside of the "typical" classroom environment for at least a year and a half. We have heard over and over again about the supposed "learning loss" that this has created. But so much more has been lost and needs to be rebuilt before we can even begin to fill any learning gaps. *And as I have said many times before- EVERYONE is in the same boat, EVERYONE is going to need support in filling gaps. It is not a loss, it is a reframing. The idea of #CultureOverCurriculum is that if we do not set the foundation of building culture, trust and relationship with our students, it will be pretty tough to get the curriculum in. The one silver lining from the school shutdowns is that I have heard over and over, from educators all over, that they got to really know their students more than ever before. We need to know them to grow them and that is one of the big learnings that we keep from this crisis. Using this crisis as a catalyst for change, let us not lose sight of how powerful those connections and relationships are. In the last few weeks, I have provided some professional development in different spaces, but they all centered around this idea or #CultureOverCurriciulm. For the most part, people seemed to agree and were excited to take back ideas shared, for the opening of school. But when you put yourself out there, you are open to all kinds of feedback. I received some feedback in one session that just broke my heart. I didn't care about the negative feedback about my session and it's contents. I was more disheartened for the students that will be walking into this teacher's class. It was nice to see this Edutopia article to let me know that I was on the right track. Feedback comment #1: "All those "beginning" "fun" things seem like time wasters. Really" I provided time and space for the participants to actually do some "beginning of the year" activities, so they could see the power in connection. Through these activities, students and the teacher begin to build an understanding of each other. They begin to see commonalities amongst themselves that they may not have found otherwise. When students begin to feel that they belong, their affective filter lowers. When they feel seen and hears, the walls begin to come down. When you learn what makes each student tick, you are better able to support them in their learning. Your students are people, they are children and they have been through a lot. Probably more than we will ever know. But getting to know and understand them does not seem like a waste of time. Once those bonds are formed and students feel safe, they will be more open and engaged and the learning will become more sticky. Beyond the culture and relationship building, the activities that we participated in were not "one and done". These structures and activities could and should be used all throughout the year, by adding in content. Since students are familiar with the protocol, their cognitive energy will be spent on the actual content. (ala #Eduprotocols). Feedback comment #2: "Culture Over Curriculum" I totally disagree. You can create safety in your environment WITH the curriculum. It helps with English, as students can share their life, their opinions, their interests in their writing." I do not disagree that safety can be created WITH the curriculum, but it is difficult. I don't know many students (or adults) that feel comfortable sharing their life, opinions and interests with strangers. I especially don't know many students that would truthfully share those things with their teacher, if the teacher has never taken the time to get to know them. I am not saying don't have students write. On the contrary, they should be writing, speaking, listening from day 1. But it is the content of those writings and discussions that matter. One of the first activities I did with my last class was "Four Corners" where I had them anonymously respond to these 4 questions: What are you excited about? What are you nervous about? What do you want to learn? What is something that you want Ms. Orlando to know? What I learned from that 10 minute exercise was that I had a lot of work to do to build trust with these students. On the chart with "What are you nervous about?" and "What is something that you want Ms. Orlando to Know?" a majority of the post-its were some form of being afraid of being "bad" or "punished" and my heart broke. So we had a spontaneous discussion and to hear how these students felt, was heart wrenching. And I vowed then and there that I was going to make sure that they felt safe and seen in my class. And believe me, it wasn't easy, it wasn't quick and we had many "restarts". I came home crying many nights in those first few months because I just couldn't get the curriculum through those huge walls that they had up. And we, WE worked on it every day. And around month 3, I noticed a shift. I noticed how they treated one another, how they responded to me and we became a family. And it was beautiful. What came from that was increased self confidence, collaboration and empathy. And yes, their learning was off the charts. And I just keep thinking, "What if I had not done that one simple activity with them?". That one activity changed me forever and I hope that it created a change in them. Feedback comment #3: "This would not be done in Finland and Norway, in Korea or Thailand. We would be losing out on quality teaching time with these "cutesy" ideas. Sorry. I can only refer to my responses to the first two pieces of feedback. Would we be losing out on quality teaching time? What is more important, teaching time or learning time? Education isn't about us. We could teach our hearts out, but if students are not learning- isn't that time lost? If we don't create environments for students to do the 4Cs (Critically Thinking, Communicating, Collaborating and Creating), what are we doing? These things need to be built, and again, trust and safety is involved. These are risky things we are asking of our students. Taking the time up front, to lay the foundation will pay back in dividends throughout the year. AND- the culture, trust and relationship building should not stop after those first 2 weeks. It took months for that last class of mine to trust that I was on their side. I had to to prove it through my actions, over and over again. The building of our class family never stopped, it was incorporated into everything we did. That is how they knew they could trust me and each other. So my call to action is this: Take those first two weeks to do a "slow roll". This doesn't mean you do 0 curriculum. It means that your number one focus is not on the curriculum. Find ways to incorporate culture and relationship building in a low stakes fashion. It will be worth it. Session Presentation LinksSmart Start Your School Year
1 Comment
Louise Roberts
8/16/2021 11:18:46 am
I hope you got lots of positive feedback also.
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