Relationships that ARE Learner Centered

Building Relationships

I remember it like it was yesterday. Chris, the guidance secretary, asked me if I had a minute to talk when I  made my usual check in on the way to lunch. She pulled me aside to let me that one of my students stopped by most days after PE class and was sad. You see, I let kids pick their own partners! What I thought was a great way to give the kids choice and explore sometimes challenging new skills with someone they were comfortable, turned out to leave this young learner alone. She didn’t have friends in this class and often found herself waiting at the fringe to get a partner, that probably felt rejected, too.

** Why did she go to the guidance secretary and not me?
** Maybe she was right - I didn’t even notice?
** Why would she trust me?
** How can she really learn from me if she doesn’t feel safe and valued?

This lesson, one of isolating a student who wanted to be engaged, has stayed with me now for 25 years! I am thankful for Chris, who had the courage to listen to the learner and to tell me the truth! As a teacher and leader I have the power to make the classrooms and schools I work in more welcoming places. It is a must if you want to be radically learner centered!

Becoming Learner Centered and Welcoming

To begin, making a classroom or school experience welcoming and learner centered is more than just a reaction to one incident in a career, AND it is one that made me really think about the value of every child feeling like they belong and matter. Today, in the World of Learning we start by working with our teachers to help them make each student welcome and to set the stage that all students want to learn.

** So how do we start at the World of Learning #IU08WOL?

Professional Learning

We model being welcoming for our teachers. We get to know them and how they learn best. We try to be responsive to their needs and support them when they are trying something new. By working with our teachers and getting to know them, we show that their hard work is valued and that we see their passion for teaching. In turn our teachers learn to do the same with their learners.

Word matter! In Anita’s post, she talks about something as simple as hello! A personal hello. Not a hollow, Hi, how are you!? Or generic feedback. Neither help us connect with people. As a teacher we want to build that relationship. If I just say ‘nice job’ without reference to the many hours of work a teacher puts into providing specific feedback, she may not think I have seen her grade book. But when asking how someone did at their game or concert, or by saying what difference I see when a teacher take the extra time to tell a student to dot their ‘i’ and cross there ‘t’ - I make it known that I saw and noticed the hard work and passion it took to make the extra effort to connect to the learner.

Teachers Connecting

Our teachers use surveys and games to get to know students or create assignments that ask learners to describe what they care about and are interested in. These interactions help to focus our class presentations so they are relevant and engaging. You can see one good practice, saying hello, leads down the path of building relationships that make student feel like they are known, that they can trust us. Isn’t that where the learning starts?

Happy learners thanking their teacher for an awesome experience in the World of Learning!

Connections Matter

Connections! Relationships! Being able to count on each other. Starting with ‘hello’. Greeting students when they come into your class, answering emails when they are still relevant, connecting with the support staff, giving feedback when a grade is attached to an assignment. Helping parents understand how to help their child succeed. Without getting to ‘scholarly’ I am talking about ‘dependent relationships’. The ones we have with each other in schools and communities. They are embedded in the brief exchanges. The tone of an email. Picking up the phone and calling when a text would seem impersonal. The little things. Making time to meet a student outside the regular class time, looking at an assignment a second time. Understanding that life gets in the way. Setting high standards. Reaching out when you haven’t heard from a student in a while.

We are dependent on each other in the World of Learning. To get it right we talk to each other, to the leaders in the districts we work with, we fix things in our courses that may not make sense for a school population, we fix grammatical mistakes that we miss. We say we are sorry when we make a mistake and try not to make the same one again (something I learned 25 years ago when I left a student out). We hear what our teachers, learners and colleagues have to say. We do these little things because they create a big thing called trust. Trust makes us feel safe, when we feel safe we stretch our wings and try hard things. Sometimes we fail, but when we create this atmosphere we learn from those mistakes challenge ourselves and each other to be better.

No the geeky stuff! Bryk and Schneider say, “Regardless of how much formal power any given role has in a school community, all participants remain dependent on others to achieve desired outcomes and feel empowered by their efforts.” Relationships are integral to learning. It is true! Our teacher do it well. We are here to help.

Read More....
The Language of Choice and Support - Edutopia
What is Relational Trust - Bryk and Schneider
Trust in Schools - Bryk and Schneider