It's all about Relationships!

As teachers, we instinctively know this.  We understand that learning takes place best in an environment that is emotionally and physically safe.  One of the best ways to ensure a positive classroom environment is to develop healthy relationships with students and then help them build healthy relationships with each other.  

Although it sounds simple, this can be hard to do when the pressure to get kids to perform well on high stakes tests is so great and teachers are reluctant to take time away from curriculum to facilitate the community building activities that foster positive relationships.

But the quote above says it all.  Not matter how engaging the lessons are, or how hard teachers try to push students to achieve at high levels, if the relationships that form the foundation for a healthy and positive classroom environment are not established and nurtured, the likelihood of academic success is diminished.

Check out the article below about the Madison School district in Wisconsin.  This district is asking teachers to build deeper relationships not only between themselves and their students, but between students as well using strategies they call trust generators:  

• Selective vulnerability
• Familiarity
• Similarity of interests
• Concern
• Competence

Teachers focus on building better relationships with and between students.

Kindness Matters

It all comes down to this.  

The impact we have on others is what is important to them.  It makes a difference.  And it is what feeds our own souls.

As parents we try to model kindness and encourage our children to be kind to others.  But the world often works against us, and at this moment in time many of our political leaders and POTUS 45 are anything but models of kindness; they often behave in ways we teach our children not to behave by name-calling and bullying.

That doesn't mean we stop!  That doesn't mean we let their actions be the model for our own children and the children entrusted to our care in classrooms.  No - we work harder to embrace and spread kindness because  with kindness we make the world better!

Check out this article by Linda Flanagan: How Making Kindness a Priority Benefits Students.  How do you help children develop a kindness habit?  How do you help your students or our own children realize that we all do better when WE ALL do better? 

I love this verse from Micah (6:8):

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you?  But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.

No matter what faith tradition you follow, who could argue with the encouragement to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly?  I couldn't.  

Imagine if everyone lived life that way!  I'm proud of my own children for being kind and caring human beings.  I'm happy indeed to think that children I've taught over the years have grown up to be kind people too.

Kindness matters.

UPDATE (1/3/17):

Here is a link to another article: 3 Ways Practicing Kindness Enhances the Learning Process.  In it you will find out how engaging in acts of kindness will improve concentration, alleviate stress and encourage collaboration.

What Do Grades Really Mean Anyway?

How often have we given a grade (or gotten) one and wondered if it accurately represented learning?  

I can't remember when it happened exactly, but I totally stopped using the term "give" when it came to grades because I wanted to be sure that my students understood that they earned their grades, these letters were not magically or randomly bestowed on them.

Matt Weyers, in his article Going Gradeless: Student Self-Assessment in PBL offers insights about how he partners with students and transformed the way he and they understand grading.  Relationships, conferencing, and a purposeful approach to the metacognitive process are critical components of a growth mindset-based system that has shown positive results.  

What is stopping more teachers and schools from going gradeless?  In what ways could you integrate some of Weyers' methods into your own instruction and assessment?