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"We must strive to create not just a sense, but an experience of belonging for the very young. ...When you truly belong, you experience it in your core and it shapes the way you learn and behave."

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By: Audrey O'Clair

As educators, we go to great lengths to create a sense of belonging for all learners yet I struggle with the phrase "sense of belonging" as one can have a false sense of something. We must strive to create not just a sense, but an experience of belonging for the very young. When you truly belong, there is no misinterpreting the way that experience feels. When you truly belong, you experience it in your core and it shapes the way you learn and behave.

People and relationships are the key factors in building these experiences. It is my hope, not to create a sense of belonging for youngsters but rather to provide the undeniable experience of belonging. I believe the formula for this involves a cohesive partnership between a learner's home, school, and community that must begin very early in our educational journey. When a commitment has been shown to create feelings and experiences, we better prepare all learners to cope with adversity and understand that no matter which direction they turn, there are people invested in them and willing to play a role in their learning.

While there are certainly early childhood education programs that have figured out how to engage families and community members to create a culture of belonging, the professionals I have supported and talked with have repeatedly shared their frustration with finding meaningful ways to involve children's first and best teachers in their early education.

When considering what matters most in an early learning environment that puts children at the heart of our work, we must presume good intentions to create an inclusive environment that values each connection and the impact that such connections may have on future learning and success.

What if many of the obstacles we face in public and private education exist due to a disconnect between home, school, and community? You may have heard or even said things like "if only this child's family behaved this way..." or "if my child's teacher behaved in this way" or "clearly school isn't teaching this skill" or "if this new employee had been taught this skill or raised in a certain way." Perhaps the answer isn't in fixing one group but in connecting all three in an effort to create empathy and understanding of the intricacies involved in each.

If a youngster's family is welcomed and encouraged to participate, in their early learning experiences, they may be more likely to support the goals of the program. If early learning professionals feel as if their knowledge and experiences are valuable and worthy of sharing with the family and the world, they will be more likely to seek opportunities for continued learning and growth. If community members get involved and stay involved in the education process, they will be more likely to support initiatives to build an innovative workforce that has meaningful skills.

"There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." - Denis Waitley

By creating the conditions for belonging in its truest form, we can lead learners to reach their potential. When we take simple steps to involve each group of this triad we create a village that is circled tightly around the very members of our society who need to understand that they truly belong to a family, truly belong to their school, and truly belong to their community.

For more ideas about creating a culture of belonging, see this collection of resources.

This post is an excerpt from an article at www.audreyoclair.com
Audrey O'Clair, is an educational consultant specializing in literacy, special education, technology, and innovation. She is the co-creator of KJS Early Literacy Initiative, an intervention for children that screen as at risk for reading struggles. Audrey is an Education Ambassador at , a Social Media Fellow for , and an evangelist for ReadyRosie, an organization focused on increasing family engagement through video. Follow Audrey on Twitter @audreyoclair

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Belonging Early: Fostering Strong Connections Between Family, School, and Community in Early...

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By: Audrey O'Clair As educators, we go to great lengths to create a sense of belonging for all learners yet I struggle with the phrase "sense of belonging" as one can have a false sense of something. We must strive to create not just a sense, but an experience of belonging for the very young.

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Accept the #SpreadTheLove Mini Challenge and stay connected with Sevenzo! Take the challenge at SevenzoMiniChallenge.org

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Family Engagement in the Digital Age by Chip Donohue

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We're not taking away from play, but finding ways to teach through play

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We're not taking away from play, but finding ways to teach through play

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-Erica Peterson

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We have enjoyed using SeeSaw to communicate with families

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School & District -Subscriptions | Seesaw

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Seesaw is the best interactive learning platform for PreK-5. Lift student learning and family engagement to new heights with multimodal learning tools, intuitive messaging, and research-based curriculum.

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How can we move from informing families to involving families?

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How can we move from informing families to involving families?

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-Bonnie Blagojevic

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Accept the status quo so you can work to change it; communicate with word, action, and listening above all else; trust others and your self

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Accept the status quo so you can work to change it; communicate with word, action, and listening above all else; trust others and your self

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-Dan Ryder

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When meeting with parents, I always share questions to ask on chalk boards or on the tables. "Tell me more about this" instead of "what is that"
- Erica Peterson

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Flamboyan Foundation for family engagement research & programs in Washington, DC

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Flamboyan is constantly learning and improving its work by incorporating national research, proven best practices, and the insights and perspectives of the educators and families we serve. Flamboyan synthesizes and refines these findings in order to offer inspiring, results-driven training, tools, and resources to improve family engagement.

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Science Tots in Pittsburgh, PA founded by participant Erica Peterson

Our mission is to connect families and educators with the instruction, tools, and resources to power early S.T.E.A.M. learning.

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Located in Pittsburgh, Science Tots provides families and educators with the tools to engage children in activities that support S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) learning.

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How can an improv mindset help educators try low-risk practices that have potential for impact? H/T Dan Ryder

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It isn't about being funny.

Having directed, performed, and studied improv comedy for the past ten-plus years, with both the young and the old(er), I developed an improv philosophy that serves me well: accept, communicate, trust. I've written about ACT before and delivered workshops and keynotes on its effectiveness as a problem solving framework.

It occurs to me, as my first week of the 2015-16 school year comes to a close, ACT builds climate and culture just as well. It isn't about being funny. It is about accepting the moment as given, communicating intention and listening with empathy, and trusting yourself and those around you that everything is going to be all right.

Accepting these conditions does not mean we are thrilled about them or endorse them, though it certainly means we devote less energy to grousing about them. It means we can shift our energies to addressing the needs before us and celebrating the opportunities that lay ahead.

Acceptance. We must accept the present, the given, the status quo, as delivered, if we then want to grow it, evolve it, change it. The students who come through our doors are the students who come through our doors. Some may carry the weight of endless struggle and others may walk with the freedom of lives unfettered. Some may have tremendous abilities beyond our expectations while others may cause us to scratch our heads and marvel at their resiliency and resourcefulness in getting this far. We may have thirty-five students packed into a box like cord wood and we may also wonder why seventy-five percent of the class dropped and only two remain.

Accepting these conditions does not mean we are thrilled about them or endorse them, though it certainly means we devote less energy to grousing about them. It means we can shift our energies to addressing the needs before us and celebrating the opportunities that lay ahead.

And when we extend this notion of face-value acceptance to a greater degree of tolerance for multiple points of view and beliefs, our culture's propensity for co-existence multiplies. (I hope to soon share a story of a student, the Confederate flag, and my internal pivot from hackles to how might we's.)

We must listen with all of our senses; hear more, voice less.

Communication. We communicate in both word and deed, and even then, we are only as successful in doing so as we are in listening to our audience. We must listen with all of our senses; hear more, voice less.

After a recent exchange on Twitter about the risks and benefits of sharing syllabi and calendars, guidelines and expectations, classroom rules and grading policies on the first day of school, I stuck to my tradition: save it for next week.

Instead, a series of activities and experiences showed students what to expect in class this year and seemed to do an admirable job of imparting my pedagogical approach. Hall pass policies were explained on a case by case basis, so classes could focus on demonstrating their summer experiences in LEGO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7s8M6vqq08
Discussion norms were raised in the moment, the campus code - Be Here, Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful - was explained as it proved relevant, so our limited lecture time could be devoted to explaining the Judaic roots of Superman.

And in providing opportunities for students to make and create, to explore and uncover in those first days, I found myself circulating and documenting, taking photos and video, asking questions and hearing their depth of reasoning and understanding. I heard students already getting into big ideas and making epic league connections. Also, I realized just how poorly I delivered a set of instructions, how severely I was shoving some students out of their comfort zones, and how this weekend would benefit from an hour or so of designing some more experiences for my more introverted students to access their strengths.

When we listen, we learn.

I have a long ways to go to build the layers of trust necessary for real authentic learning to take place

Trust. I would like to think that even at the end of week one, some of my students now trust me. Through acts of doing and discussing, they have learned something about what I value and what I respect, what excites me and what confounds me. And I have been able to provide them critical feedback, to ask questions and encourage new iterations, and to see that not everything worth doing needs grading.

They have heard my range of tone, experiencing my sarcasm in a lightweight moment and my sincerity in a most serious pause. They know 85 degrees and no air conditioning frustration and they know riffs on the exceptionalism of Pepsi Max and Coke Zero.

I have a long ways to go to build the layers of trust necessary for real authentic learning to take place. This week, a great deal of foundation was laid and perhaps, more importantly, my intentions for the week prevented unnecessary cracks and fissures in this as-of-yet-unsettled firmament.

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Accept, Communicate, Trust: Building School Culture Through Improv

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It isn't about being funny. Having directed, performed, and studied improv comedy for the past ten-plus years, with both the young and the old(er), I developed an improv philosophy that serves me well: accept, communicate, trust. I've written about ACT before and delivered workshops and keynotes on its effectiveness as a problem solving framework.

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A resource from the design thinking space for engaging & understanding families' needs

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Comienza en Casa / Mano en Mano: a family engagement program for farmworkers & immigrants in Maine. http://www.manomaine.org/

Ana Blagojevic & Juana Rodriguez-Vazquez shared their experience working with this great organization. We loved Juana's story of starting as a parent in the program and now helping run it!

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Innovators Compass

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People dedicated to making "unstuck" accessible for every person and moment; the 5-question tool that's emerged; and resources and stories to share.

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ReadyRosie uses video modeling & mobile technology to build partnerships between families & educators to promote school readiness. Using peer-to-peer modeling & two-way communication, we empower parents to support their child's learning and schools to scale their family engagement efforts.

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Many more resources on family engagement & early childhood from chat host Audrey O'Clair