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What program did we put in place to address our school’s needs?

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What program did we put in place to address our school’s needs?

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Amongst our 700 students at Maybeury Elementary School, we recognized that there were some students that were well known by many staff members and some that were unknown by any.  When we thought of what it meant to be "known" we thought about the staff knowing more than just sort of grades the student earned, but what did the staff know about this child, their family, their likes and dislikes, their history outside of the school building.  We put every child's name on a list and as a staff put a star next to students that we felt we could confidently talk about their identities for more than three or four minutes.  We found that of the 700 students, there were about 45 students that were not truly known.  We each committed to "adopting" one or two of these students and starting deciding when we would write them notes, meet them before or after school, during lunch, or throughout the day, just to know them better.  In Edutopia's (2019) video, Cultivating Trust with One-on-One Time inspired us to help foster positive relationships with adults with the understanding that as students' stress levels decrease and as they feel they have a sense of belonging, they can focus more on the learning and will demonstrate academic growth.

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Knowing Every Child Through Index Card Rosters

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By regularly reviewing students' behavior and learning as a team, teachers can ensure that every student is seen, supported, and celebrated.

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What theme or slogan did we create for this program?

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What theme or slogan did we create for this program?

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The slogan we chose for this program was "Mallards Fly Together" because our mascot is the mallard and we truly feel that if one of us is not flying with the rest of us, we aren't a cohesive group of mallards!

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What school system policies did we follow when working with community organizations?

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What school system policies did we follow when working with community organizations?

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Because we were not implementing a new academic, safety, or financial plan, we did not have to consider any school system policies when developing this plan.  We as an administrative team have to let the central office staff know that for one of the professional development days they had planned, we would be doing our own professional development and submit our plans for how they would best serve our educators and student population.

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Why was it important to follow these policies?

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Why was it important to follow these policies?

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While some might feel as though it is extra paperwork to justify the work that one knows is right for students and to empower staff to build relationships with students, it is important to keep the school system in the loop in case there are questions about the work that is being done and they need to back us up.  It is also important in the event that they want to support the work and have resources that perhaps the school did not consider on their own. The central office staff should be seen as partners, not the enemy.

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What goals helped our school meet its needs?

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What goals helped our school meet its needs?

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After each quarter (nine weeks), we revisited our list of students and did the same activity and asked if there were any different ways we needed to support or "adopt" certain or new students.

We also asked each grade-level team to consistently be discussing students who might benefit from coming in or out of the program and how we could improve it throughout the year.  We felt like there is never a point where you are content with relationship and belonging, as both are constantly evolving, so we felt as though this program is a new part of who we are.  This is highlighted in The Power of Relationships in Schools from Edutopia (2019).  It is a commitment we are making to our students, the community, and ourselves.

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Research shows that students who feel safe and supported by adults at school are better able to learn.

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How did we communicate your needs and goals to our community?

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How did we communicate your needs and goals to our community?

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We reached out to the parents to share with us any insight students noticed as teachers started spending more one-on-one and small group time with students in non-instructional time throughout the day.  We sent a survey in which parents of all students were invited to voluntarily share their feedback after asking their children about any differences they noticed about the way they or other students felt about their teachers or their school in general.

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How did we determine financial and volunteer support we would seek from community organizations?

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How did we determine financial and volunteer support we would seek from community organizations?

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There was no need for financial support for the program at school as the only support that was put into place was the support of emotional-support and time from building faculty.  Once we extended our program into the community with families, the PTA decided to designate funds for fliers, t-shirts for canvassers, and other various items to help support their community-building projects.  We offered help in ideas, but did not ask for financial support for our work with the students.

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How did we invite our community into our school?

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How did we invite our community into our school?

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Because Maybeury has traditionally been a strongly parent-supported school, we wanted to consider ways that whole families might not feel connected to the school.  The administrative team and two one teacher from each grade level met with interested families to create a "Maybeury Families Fly Together" group which would canvass neighborhoods of typically low-attending families before Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, events, or community functions to answer questions, personally invite, or just let them know that they are welcome and wanted!

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How do we plan to communicate our school’s ongoing progress?

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How do we plan to communicate our school’s ongoing progress?

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To communicate our school's ongoing process, we will be sharing a survey with the students involved in this process, gathering the growth in reading and math testing data, analyzing the data, and sharing the synthesized results with the district assistant superintendent and ultimately the school board.  We hope that other schools and their students would be able to benefit from the gains we have seen at Maybeury.

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                                            References

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                                            References

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Edutopia. (2019, Jan 19). Cultivating trust with one-on-one time. [Video file].

Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/video/cultivating-trust-one-

one-time

Edutopia. (2019, Jan 14). Knowing every child through index card rosters. [Video

file]. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/video/knowing-every-

child-through-index-card-rosters

Edutopia. (2019, Jan 14). The power of relationships in schools. [Video file].

Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/video/power-relationships-

schools