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During Summer Institute, Ardora worked in a classroom with a ‘challenging student’. The current teachers, even the other students, told her to watch out because this one particular student was always troubled and didn’t want to learn. So, she sat with him, she asked him questions and she involved him in the class. By the second day, he was helping other groups of students with their assignments and was so happy to come to school because he felt seen and felt like he was valued for who he was.

-Ardora Haskuka, Teacher.

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I am inspired a lot by the work of Dr. Moses Coady who said as a teacher we want students to be “masters of their own destiny”. Taking that goal and designing a lesson plan is like one of the most epic things you can do! #teachersmatter
- Maggie

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Taught Science to secondary students and found that for weaker students, it’s important to give time and space.

Bring in an object/experiment and talk about the concepts.

Students will be able to share where they’ve seen those concepts in their everyday life.

- Joyce

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Whether your students are organized in rows, clusters, pods, pairs or in a semi-circle, the seating arrangement you choose for your classroom will have a considerable effect on the classroom dynamic. With the start of the new term, some teachers might decide to forego traditional rows and try something innovative to engage their class when it comes to seating. The new arrangement may provide opportunities for better classroom management, but not without some obstacles. Check out these three common classroom seating arrangements and some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
1. Groups, Clusters, and Pods
Although clusters or tables with ample seating prove easier for group work-and for you to navigate about the classroom-one problem sure to arise is the fact that not all students will be able to face you, leading to "side talking." To combat this distraction, it's important to establish a set of ground rules at the outset, such as no side conversations; that all students must face you when you are speaking; and that each group is responsible for keeping their cluster clean and organized. Assigning each cluster a team name and organizing a hierarchy of leadership can also be beneficial, creating a sense of unity and increased accountability among the group.
2. The Semi-Circle
The semi-circle, or u-shape arrangement, eliminates the biggest challenge of cluster seating-teaching to your students' backs. You'll still have the ability to move freely about the classroom-and experience less side talking-but the group dynamic may be lost, especially in classes with a lot of students. Plus, it may take a considerable amount of time to organize into and out of small groups. If you have ample space in the classroom, try a variation made up of two small semi-circles. When it's time to form into small groups, the inner circle can turn and match up with partners from the outer circle.
3. Pairs with Rows
Keeping the traditional row lay out intact, but pairing students together within a row, allows students to work easily with a partner, but with less distraction than in clustered groups. You may lose some of your ability to move around the classroom, but when the need for small groups of four to six students arises, students can quickly turn to another pair of desks and form a group. One thing to keep in mind, teachers, especially for those of you teaching multiple classes, is that while one seating arrangement may prove successful for one class, it might not provide the same benefits for another class. The advantages and disadvantages are not universal. What seating arrangements do you find work the best? Share your suggestions in the comments.

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The Pros and Cons of 3 Common Classroom Seating Arrangements | Teach For America

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Whether your students are organized in rows, clusters, pods, pairs or in a semi-circle, the seating arrangement you choose for your classroom will have a considerable effect on the classroom dynamic. With the start of the new term, some teachers might decide to forego traditional rows and try something innovative to engage their class when it comes to seating.

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#LeverageLearningTheory
Language barriers, students who are not exposed and can’t speak basic English.

Challenges in rigorous learning:

Normalizing mistake-making.

Recognize ‘trying’.

Strategies:

Expose them to things that are going on in the real world to teach respect, boundaries, media literacy.

Documentary films e.g. influence of social media.

Focus on actionable steps that they can do.

- Joshua

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WE HAVE 5 SENSES - let’s use them!! Think of and utilize ALL the SENSES!!. Is there a way you can breath life into idea/ concepts that you are teaching/ learning about that engage them beyond the audio? For example - is there a way to bring in smell to a class? Is there a way to bring sometime visual or with texture to the class. Can you incorporate movement? Maybe this sounds strict - I’ll give an example. I used to teacher a course in the history of women’s sport in the Canadian context. To bring it to life, or to allow students to “feel” their assigned readings - we would spend one of our classes adressing in uniforms similar to the ones  that women used to have to wear while playing (long shorts or dresses for example) , and actually playing by their rules. For example - women and girls could not run the whole length of the basketball court in early basketball days because they thought their bodies were too weak and they also wanted to encourage passing and sharing of the ball. We could even - before tip off - play a breakthrough hit of that time era. Or examine some art at that time that showed how women’s bodies or athletic accomplishments were portrayed. These sessions were always the most “memorable’ for the students (and me too!) I think when we teach to all the sense it is more possible to remember  - visual, kinaesthetic (touch), audio, smell (I know - hard to capture -but so worth a try!) and taste (this can be delicious for everyone involved!!).  - Maggie

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#ValueLearnerVariability
https://musicounts.ca/en/posts/darren-hamilton-is-the-2022-musicounts-teacher-of-the-year/

A Canadian music teacher who asked students what they wanted to learn and created it for them.

-Maggie

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CLASS SET UP/ SEATING ARRANGEMENT

CLASS SET UP: the physical set up of your class will create pros and cons that are worth noting and being aware of. Find a set up that works for your style, classroom dynamic and goals. Here are some quick thoughts:

ROW SEATS: if the seats are in lines like traditional classrooms this has some advantages - it is easy to move around - so be an active teacher walking around. Create proximity. It can also eliminate some distractions amongst students as all eyes are on the front.

GROUP TABLES/ HUBS/ PODS:: Setting up your class in some group settings with seating space around multiple tables for example - can encourage more student collaboration, more group work, they might not also be as focused on the teacher when it comes to giving directions, their backs may be facing you for example. The classroom noise level may be also higher because there is so much discussion which can also be distracting or may need some management.

- Maggie

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Alongside “plan backwards" - I would also like to mention that sometimes I “planned wide openly”. As in I planned a community-based project with my students - but based upon the fact that it would have organic life - it could grow in so many unexpected ways! I guess in this sense that goals were for the students to be “active citizens” or “project managers” for example by creating a once a week community kitchen project. But by allowing the project to live in the community - give it the freedom to grow beyond what you can expect or imagine. Maybe it doesn’t just give hungry folks a meal or teaching cooking skills  - but ends up recruiting new youth to come back to school because it created a safe linkage between the school and the community. - Maggie

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#PlanBackwards TOOLS FOR PROGRAM DESIGNERS

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#PlanBackwards TOOLS FOR PROGRAM DESIGNERS

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Exploring the implications of different visions

Self-diagnosis on vision

Reflections on how different visions lead to different choices in institute

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Part of Learner variability / Ownership comes from getting to know your students. This probably overlaps with the BLUE (love and connect) strategies. But once you know them better - you can design to teach them better. The problem is - how do you get to know them - fast enough - to connect. Here is one super simple - no prep way - that when used consistently - can totally help get kids TALKING spontaneously / organically - and then YOU get little insights which inform your teaching

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Zero Prep Team Building in the Classroom

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MOVEMENT IS MEDICINE ;)

STATIONS! MOVEMENT! I love being in a class where there are stations of activities that small groups of students move around to. For example - 5 groups of 5 students are working on 5 different stations. Each “station” has a information with CLEAR instructions. It could be a math problem, or looking for metaphors in poetry - the content is up to you! I use a timer and, for example, groups work at each station for 10/15 minutes than everyone switches. I find the actual movement of students really helps! Within the group there can also be group roles - like “note taker”, or “time manager” or “team lead”.

Maggie

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#ExpectHigherOrderThinking

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#ExpectHigherOrderThinking
DELIBERATELY SHARE WHY YOU TEACH A CERTAIN WAY

Explain to students why you are teaching thing in a certain way. This can help get their buy in, or even feedback when going off track! Here is a great article to unpack what that can look like - even in terms of the language you use!
- Maggie

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Explaining the intentions behind a lesson plan can boost engagement and help students get back on track when something isn't working.

monkeybusinessimages / iStock

Routine reflection on practice is a hallmark of effective teaching, but often this reflection is considered a solitary endeavor-or at most, a discussion among adults in a professional learning community or collaborative team. Students don't always realize that reflection is part of a teacher's job.

An early-career lesson flop taught me this. A class discussion about To Kill a Mockingbird sidetracked into a dialogue comparing Atticus Finch to Adolf Hitler. No matter how politely, or forcefully, I redirected the conversation, students were excited about (and ultimately successful at) locating text evidence to support that conclusion.

As we wrapped up, I let out a deep sigh and announced, "That didn't go how I envisioned it."

Surprised, my students asked, "You planned for us to do this?"

I explained that yes, I had planned to help them learn to use text evidence to support claims (which they did), but I had not considered how important it would be to focus on the quality of the claim-in focusing them on evidence, I'd neglected claims.

It was a strange revelation to them, I suppose, that the things we did together might have been curated, created, and cobbled together with a specific purpose in mind. I could tell by the looks on their faces that many of them had never considered that a teacher might puzzle over such things.

This moment prompted a shift in my practice. I learned that when I share my intentional lesson design and decision-making with students, they better understand what I expect from them and engage more readily because they can see how the work of the moment fits purposefully into a bigger design.

Sharing our planning might seem like excess noise in an already busy classroom, but I've found three key actions I can take in any lesson to reveal to students that not only am I asking them to think but that I've put plenty of thought into what we're doing as well. These actions can be adapted to any learning environment.

3 Ways to Share Our Planning With Students

1. I explain the reasoning behind the daily targets, rather than just write or recite them. In my district, it's a standard operating procedure to have daily learning targets and to communicate them with students. When I introduce them, I incorporate phrases such as "This is the next step for us because yesterday we _____," or "This is our focus today because in a few days we will _____."

It's even better if I can specifically connect the learning targets to my observations of student progress. For example, "Yesterday I noticed that we were really struggling with _____, so our target today is to focus on _____," or "You all rocked _____ yesterday, so we're going to push to the next level with _____ today." When students know that an activity is not a random event but is based on my observations of them and their learning, they tend to engage more readily and purposefully.

It isn't a magic pill, but it creates more buy-in from my struggling students who might otherwise hide behind "Why are we even doing this?" The why being front and center at all times enables us to dig into the other reasons why students might be struggling to participate-perhaps my directions were unclear, or they need help with foundational skills, or they're tired or hungry or not in the right mental state at the moment.

2. I explain why I chose or created the materials we are using. My evenings and weekends are spent one of two ways: sifting through articles, poems, short stories, or images to use in class, or creating handouts, worksheets, or online experiences kids can use to engage with their learning. It's time-consuming and is the downside of not having a district-provided curriculum beyond a shortlist of purchased novels.

When I tell students something as simple as, "I looked through a bunch of poems for today, but I felt like this was one you'd connect with and appreciate," it shows both my regard for them as partners in learning and my intentionality about our work. Simply saying "I chose this for you" or "I designed this with you in mind" sparks more engagement from kids than if they are left to assume that what we're doing is arbitrary or disconnected.

3. I interrupt the flow to identify what is working (or not working). No matter the lesson, I always stop what my students are doing to note what I observe about their work. For example, during small-group discussions, I'll pause the whole class and share what questions I hear that point in the right direction, what interactions I notice that match what I'm looking for, or conversely, what I see or hear that doesn't match my intention for the lesson design. If I say, "I'm noticing lots of groups writing only a few simple words for each answer," this can work as a formative assessment and elicit a conversation about what's getting in the way. Is the task too easy? Too complicated? Are the expectations too vague? Do we need to do more foundation-building for this activity?

Importantly, I invite the students to problem-solve with me. If they know my goal and why I made the choices I made, and things aren't working, we can collaborate to find a better path.

I've noticed a clear relationship between sharing my own intentional design decisions and how engaged even my most reluctant students are. Not only is the why clearer, but they realize that while I demand hard work and good thinking from them, I'm thinking just as much and working just as hard to facilitate their learning. When they continually hear about the intentionality behind my practice, it inspires them to take their efforts in my classroom more seriously.

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The Benefits of Sharing Our Planning With Students

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Explaining the intentions behind a lesson plan can boost engagement and help students get back on track when something isn't working. monkeybusinessimages / iStock Routine reflection on practice is a hallmark of effective teaching, but often this reflection is considered a solitary endeavor-or at most, a discussion among adults in a professional learning community or collaborative team.

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Do you have a TALENT?

Hey teacher - can you play the guitar? The acordian? Juggle? Draw like a Disney animator? Have an amazing ‘narrator voice over’ ability? *IF* you are one of these “party trick” teachers - USE IT!! I have watched so many musical teachers bring a guitar into their class and find small but innovative ways to use it. And I am so JEALOUS of that! The kids will almost always love it. And somehow it brings this humanity of yours as a teacher into the class and I think it amplifies your teaching. So juggle with balls with history time periods on them or math applications. Begin every class with a doodle on the board. Occasionally sounds like a radio broadcaster! I tell you - this stuff hits HOMERUNS!

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Take the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI) directly from the person who co-created it:
Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann. All his many articles, books, blogs, videos, courses, and TKI certification are available on this website.

Dr. Kenneth W. Thomas and Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann (August 2015):
"The Joy of Having Created the TKI Assessment!"
AN OVERVIEW OF THE
TKI ASSESSMENT TOOL

Because no two individuals have exactly the same expectations and desires, conflict is a natural part of our interactions with others. The TKI is an online assessment that takes about fifteen minutes to complete. Interpretation and feedback materials help you learn about the most appropriate uses for each conflict-handling mode.

PLEASE NOTE: Although Dr. Ralph Kilmann has always referred to his TKI as an "instrument" or as an "assessment tool" (to emphasize its neutral, non-judgmental intentions, since there are no right or wrong answers as such), the TKI assessment is, nevertheless, also referred to as the "TKI test" or the "TKI questionnaire" or, more generally, the "TKI Conflict Model."

The Thomas-Kilmann Instrument has been the leader in conflict resolution assessment for more than forty years. This instrument requires no special qualifications for administration. It is used by Human Resources (HR) and Organizational Development (OD) consultants as a catalyst to open discussions on difficult issues and facilitate learning about how conflict-handling modes affect personal, group, and organizational dynamics. The TKI is also extensively used by mediators, negotiators, and many practitioners in the coaching profession (executive coaches, career coaches, business coaches, life coaches, etc.).

More than 8,000,000 copies of the TKI have been published since 1974. Besides its native English language, the TKI is also available in several other languges: Spanish (European and Latin American), French, Portuguese (Brazilian), Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Russian, German, Italian, and Chinese (traditional and simplified).

The Thomas-Kilmann Instrument is designed to measure a person's behavior in conflict situations. "Conflict situations" are those in which the concerns of two people appear to be incompatible.

In such conflict situations, we can describe an individual's behavior along two dimensions: (1) assertiveness, the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy his own concerns, and (2) cooperativeness, the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy the other person's concerns.
These two underlying dimensions of human behavior (assertiveness and cooperativeness) can then be used to define five different modes for responding to conflict situations:

1. Competing is assertive and uncooperative-an individual pursues his own concerns at the other person's expense. This is a power-oriented mode in which you use whatever power seems appropriate to win your own position-your ability to argue, your rank, or economic sanctions. Competing means "standing up for your rights," defending a position which you believe is correct, or simply trying to win.

2. Accommodating is unassertive and cooperative-the complete opposite of competing. When accommodating, the individual neglects his own concerns to satisfy the concerns of the other person; there is an element of self-sacrifice in this mode. Accommodating might take the form of selfless generosity or charity, obeying another person's order when you would prefer not to, or yielding to another's point of view.

3. Avoiding is unassertive and uncooperative-the person neither pursues his own concerns nor those of the other individual. Thus he does not deal with the conflict. Avoiding might take the form of diplomatically sidestepping an issue, postponing an issue until a better time, or simply withdrawing from a threatening situation.

4. Collaborating is both assertive and cooperative-the complete opposite of avoiding. Collaborating involves an attempt to work with others to find some solution that fully satisfies their concerns. It means digging into an issue to pinpoint the underlying needs and wants of the two individuals. Collaborating between two persons might take the form of exploring a disagreement to learn from each other's insights or trying to find a creative solution to an interpersonal problem.

5. Compromising is moderate in both assertiveness and cooperativeness. The objective is to find some expedient, mutually acceptable solution that partially satisfies both parties. It falls intermediate between competing and accommodating. Compromising gives up more than competing but less than accommodating. Likewise, it addresses an issue more directly than avoiding, but does not explore it in as much depth as collaborating. In some situations, compromising might mean splitting the difference between the two positions, exchanging concessions, or seeking a quick middle-ground solution.

Each of us is capable of using all five conflict-handling modes. None of us can be characterized as having a single style of dealing with conflict. But certain people use some modes better than others and, therefore, tend to rely on those modes more heavily than others-whether because of temperament or practice.

Your conflict behavior in the workplace is therefore a result of both your personal predispositions and the requirements of the situation in which you find yourself. The Thomas-Kilmann Instrument is designed to measure your use of conflict-handling modes across a wide variety of group and organizational settings.

THE KILMANN
ORGANIZATIONAL
CONFLICT INSTRUMENT

Directly below, see Dr. Kilmann's 12-minute video presentation that summarizes his latest assessment tool: The Kilmann Organizational Conflict Instrument. This diagnostic instrument has been designed to identify an organization's systems and processes that are significantly undermining-hence, misdirecting-members' use of those five conflict modes inside their organization or work unit, so the most troublesome "systems conflicts" can then be transformed to actively support the effective use of all five conflict modes in the workplace. In essence, the Kilmann Organizational Conflict Instrument fully appreciates that an organization's systems and processes affect at least 80% of how conflict is addressed and resolved in the workplace, while individual preferences for using certain conflict modes affect, at most, about 20% of the observable conflict-handling behavior and results.

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Take the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument | Improve How You Resolve Conflict

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Purchase and take the Thomas-Kilmann Instrument (TKI assessment tool) directly from the person who co-created it: Dr. Ralph H. Kilmann.

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#ExpectHigherOrderThinking

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World’s Best School Prizes: Bonuan Buquig National High School, Philippines

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The Body Scanner! Mindfulness for Children

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-Maggie

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#ValueLearnerVariability

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The Science of Attention: How To Capture And Hold The Attention of Eas

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Discover the science behind capturing and holding the attention of easily distracted students with Open Colleges. Enhance your teaching skills today.

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#Learn&Unlearn
We open about the academic gap of the students at our school and diversify the approach to this gap in the design of sessions and learning experiences. We did this by co-design with all elementary teachers and creating resources for every grade, that way as a sixth-grade teacher I also had access to first, second, third, etc grade.

- Ale

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"It's not how good you are now; it's how good you're going to be that really matters,"

—Atul Gawande, Surgeon and Author

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‘Awareness creates choice. Practice creates capacity.’ Amanda Palmer

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“Gay and Kirkland (2003), identify three barriers that emerge when pre-service teachers are introduced to issues of social justice and equity in their training. Firstly, instead of “reflecting critically on the race-related and culturally diverse situations presented, they merely offer descriptions, evaluations, or justifications for actions taken or predicted” (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). Secondly, when asked to critically reflect and participate, they may choose silence or profess an inability to engage having no prior experience. Thirdly, the issue of this newfound awareness leading to adoption of a new lexicon but little change or examination of one’s own position or professional behaviors’.”

Anton Luis Sevilla, Education and Empty Relationality: Thoughts on Education and the Kyoto School of Philosophy

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#FlexiblyAdjustCourse
Teachers who are autonomy supportive (in contrast to controlling) catalyze in their students greater intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and desire for challenge.

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Support students to develop intrinsic motivation. This requires ensuring they feel competent to engage; that they feel a strong sense of relatedness; and that they have a sense of autonomy.

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#FlexiblyAdjustCourse
I, as a teacher today, don’t just tell the learners things, I make them live what I tell them. The best thing is to allow the learners to discover their own knowledge.  - Willem Meus, Teacher Leader

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“It is traditional teaching of knowledge, not progressive ‘discovery learning’ that fosters a child’s self- esteem. Discovery learning is precisely the thing that disengages a child and makes him give up on learning…. Teachers are often told that children should be left to discover things themselves. Whatever you do, don’t give them the answer! This is precisely the opposite of what we should be doing. The progressive way of teaching befuddles children, encourages them to misbehave, and makes them switch off, because they don’t know the answer. Then they feel stupid… Discovery learning prevents children from poor backgrounds from succeeding in part because it doesn’t impart knowledge and in part because it kills the motivation to learn.” Katharine Birbalsingh, Head teacher & Chair of Social Mobility Commission (Essay 4, in this collection)

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“THE GOLDEN CIRCLE”

In one of the most popular TED talks of all time, Simon Sinek describes how great leaders lead with the WHY, and let the WHAT and HOW follow from that focus on the WHY.

For teachers, that means clarifying our purpose, as teachers, for the year, or for a lesson, and then adjusting process as needed to stay true to that purpose.  Too often, we become blindly committed to a plan, even as we start to get signals that changes in context mean that plan will not actually reach the goal we designed it for.

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#FosterCollectiveDiscovery
Look Up

It’s easy to get caught up in our own thinking, and lose touch with what’s happening in the class. Just taking a moment to assess how engaged students are, what the energy is like, whether there are questions people had that you didn’t really go into with much detail, potential connections to draw to students lives and interests, etc, can really help create the conditions to adjust course.

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Loosen Your Grip

if you’re focussed on getting through your plan, and hold it too tightly, you’ll lose touch with what’s going on in the classroom and opportunities to change course to maximise the potential of a particular learning moment.

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“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

—President Dwight D. Eisenhower

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MODEL FAILURE AND RECOVERY

When a lesson plan was not going well - in the moment - or the next day - I would acknowledge that and say something like “I’m sorry folks. That was problem not the best way to learn that. Lets try again. I appreciate you giving me a second chance”. I think there are a few things going on here - including students also seeing you as human, fallible, and also how you recover from a mistake, get back on track, that going “off path” is normal and pivots are to be expected.

-Maggie

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https://vimeo.com/channels/networklearning/153137108

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Engaging across lines of difference 1. 'Shared histories, different narratives'

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Engaging across lines of difference 2. 'The opportunity to listen is a gift, not an entitlement'

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Una visión compartida: Building a vision with students and their community (ENSEÑAPERÚ)

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Watch more like this here: https://vimeo.com/channels/networklearning

What are the expectations, needs and strengths that exist within the community? How can these inform your vision for your students?

¿Cuáles son las expectativas, necesidades y fortalezas que existen dentro de la comunidad? ¿Cómo pueden éstas formar su visión para los estudiantes?

Instead of focusing only on the contextual challenges facing the remote district of Orcopampa, Miguel Nique Morales and Lali Zevallos (both Enseña Peru '13) started to focus on the opportunities it provided. They realised the importance of investing themselves, their students and the community around a shared vision - one that capitalized on the strengths of the community as a strategy towards addressing the needs of the community. 

En vez de solamente centrarse en los desafíos contextuales a los que se enfrenta el distrito de Orcopampa, Miguel Nique Morales y Lali Zevallos (ambos de Enseña Perú '13) empezaron a centrarse en las oportunidades que esto provee. Se dieron cuenta de la importancia de invertir ellos mismos, a sus estudiantes y a la comunidad entorno a una visión compartida-- que le saque provecho a la fuerza de la comunidad como estrategia para cumplir con las necesidades de la comunidad.

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Sometimes our job is just to turn up and be there, to be present, to listen. These moments are becoming more and more precious. Create a sense that you are not alone in this. Protect fellows and this time. This can be in tension with the idea of urgency, setting projects. How are we showing up to a conversation? What can we do as organizations to make this a part of our culture? (Ulf Matysiak, CEO Teach First Deutschland)

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How do I let go of that, and embrace myself: 'I am whole, I am complete and I am powerful.'' What are the ways in which we as educators and our teams might unintentionally communicate they are not enough and need to change to be worthy? What would be different about our organizations and selves if our most important goal was that every child leaves feeling seen, affirmed and loved in that moment?  We need lots of hands working together. There is nothing more powerful than pursuing a mission collaboratively (Tomas Recart, Founder & CEO, Teach For Chile)

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“We centre our core purpose around an ambitious and contextually relevant student vision. From this vision comes everything — our organizational goals, priorities, and strategy. We didn’t create this vision from within the walls of our office. Instead, we engaged our Fellows, teachers, students, parents, and community members from 85 of our partner communities. We know that the only way to facilitate real change in public education is by empowering the voices of the communities we serve, and ensuring that they are at the forefront of creating this change.” Larisa Hovannisian, founder and CEO of Teach For Armenia  “When I describe co-creation to the fellows, it is basically slowing everything down. It starts with something you really want. I drew a diagram for the fellows – a stick figure with a speech bubble. This is you in your school. But then there are two other stick figures, and they have their own speech bubbles. So your task is to not just go towards your own speech bubble, but to understand what is the Venn diagram of those different people. How can you go forward with the other people. And what we experience is that it’s immensely difficult for the fellows. It’s immensely difficult to give up what you want to create something together with other people.” (Kristi, CEO Noored Kooli)  Vishal Talreja (Dream A Dream, India) - "The reductionist approach to success has led to an economic and ecological crisis that we are experiencing today. What would it mean for us to see ourselves as custodians of life, custodians of this planet and move from an EGO-CENTRIC definition to an ECO-CENTRIC definition of success"  Ulf Matysiak, CEO Teach First Deutschland  Chan Soon Seng, CEO of Teach For Malaysia, put it this way: “As a result of COVID-19, many more students are dropping out of school, and the idea of memorizing more content for exams is not convincing them to come back. Instead, we see students energized by being able to do something to make a difference for themselves and their communities—now. The great opportunity we have in front of us is to reshape education from a process of depositing knowledge into children, into a process that develops leaders who will lead themselves, and us all, towards a sustainable and equitable future.”

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Charles Obore - The colonial roots of inequity & the need for culturally relevant, community centered education

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Teach For Uganda Alumnus, Charles Obore, reflects on the the colonial roots of inequity in Uganda and the need for culturally relevant education and community centered leadership. https://vimeo.com/channels/networklearning

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#CollectivelyEnvisionSuccess

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El método Lean Startup - Por Eric Ries - Resumen animado

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AYNI 2017: Comunidad que actúa e inspira.

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#BroadenPerspectives Listen to the silence

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#BroadenPerspectives Listen to the silence

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A senator once told me to ‘listen to the silences’. For example, in the Canadian Inuit context it is easier to talk about challenges like the housing crisis or food insecurity. It is much more delicate and takes much more relationship and trust building to talk about gender-based violence, childhood sexual abuse or the stigma of suicide. Also, some of these ‘taboo” subjects can only be talked about in “safe spaces” - so be congnisant of the group make up (gender, class, youth, adult, faith, traumas, etc.) - Maggie

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#BroadenPerspectives
Some communities are tired of explaining themselves to “well-intentioned but transient outsiders”. Recognize that and understand it. So, it may take more time, relationship building and patience for students/ parents/ community members to want to enter a dialogue with you. Sometimes this pace may seem frustrating as you believe your intentions are well aligned but remember that (pending context/history/positionality) this is a very normal reaction by community members.

-          Maggie

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#CollectivelyEnvisionSucess

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College student Elijah Miles of Baltimore, US sparks an important conversation about identity, culture, community and the importance of how we define success. Elijah challenges us to consider how we define success for our students, for ourselves and for our communities. As you watch, consider: What…

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What is the purpose of education? And who gets to decide? For too long, we at Teach For All, and many others working in education, have assumed answers to these questions. Those assumptions have led us to incomplete or incorrect visions of student success that are being imposed on students, families, and communities rather than co–constructed with students, families, and communities. This must change.

All partners across the Teach For All network share a commitment to equity: we believe that demography should not be destiny, that we should remove the predictability of failure or success based on background. Yet we know that there has never been a time and place where this has been a reality. Given this, it seems highly unlikely that if we keep operating in the same ways we have in the past, that we will achieve our goals. If we let the inertia of the current system drive us, we are likely to repeat the patterns of the past. If we want to change the flow, we will need a different kind of energy and approach.

Visions allow us to concretely declare what we want to be true for our children, which allows us to confidently determine how to align our individual and collective actions towards achieving them. Collective visions are respectful of, and responsive to, the local context of people, place and time, which make them effective in generating sustainable collective action towards making them a reality.

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#CollectivelyEnvisionSuccess
Vision enables us to change the tide.

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#BroadenPerspectives
FIND LOCAL SOLUTIONS

Many outsiders who are in a new context that is facing challenges, may at first only see the challenges. But what may be “invisible” to you at the time is the local solutions, efforts, what sometimes I refer to as “shadow work” that is already existing to tackle or attempt to tackle these issues. Sometimes these issues may be facing barriers as well, or need some resources to pivo/grow, or should be amplified. They to understand these local solutions too, then also focus on complimenting or growing that as well.  - Maggie

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#FosterBelonging
In my context, there was poor attendance which eventually led to large dropout numbers. Often a student would miss 2 or 3 days or even a week or two of school - and when they came back, I would hear teachers saying things in an angry tone such as “Where have you been? Now you will be so far behind” I think teachers were sometimes angrier at the additional work they were going to have to do to catch this student up or perhaps didn’t want to deal with this students’ behaviors - or were projecting their own frustrations. To counter this - as I was taking a lens that students who are not coming are prob overcoming some serious challenges (e.g. depression, lack of self-confidence, difficulties at home life, even knew students who didn’t want to come to school until a black eye had healed for example). So, I deliberately decided to greet/welcome all my students very excitedly when they came. I would purposely say something like “I am so glad you are here”. “It is GREAT to see you today”. “Oh my! We missed you all last week. I am so glad you are back. The team needs you - it is better when you are here.”. Or even validate/acknowledge them. “I know it takes A LOT to get her every day - and I am really proud of you for making that choice”. - MAGGIE

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#FosterBelonging
In my context where trauma and manifesting behaviors was the number one issue to deal with - many of our primary teachers used a program called ZONES of REGULATION. Basically, you give the teachers and students a common language to talk about self-regulation. The RED ZONE was when you were angry, frustrated etc. The YELLOW ZONE was when you were unsettled, annoyed, irritated - or you could feel emotions rising. The GREEN zone was when you were feeling good, happy, open, social, etc.  A teacher could use this program and create resources so that kids could self-identify as to what “zone” they were in - and then also had ways to - if necessary - move out of that “red zone” back down towards the green zone for example.

Basically, in summary - acknowledging that kids have big emotions - and giving kids a common language to describe them - and then having tools to help self-regulate.

MAGGIE

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#FosterBelonging
Connected to Circle Time - Restorative Practice Board. This board of students and teachers and community members act as a support for times when conflict occurs. They can learn how to mediate the conflict and can even help determine next steps for restoration

- Taylor

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#BuildRelationships
There is a Canadian psychologist/ author named DR JODY CARRINGTON. She calls this “greeting or welcoming of students the LIGHT UP. It doesn't need to be over exaggerated - but each student should get a “light up” from a teacher everyday.  https://www.drjodycarrington.com/ She covers it in her book KIDS THESE DAYS (written for teachers) - MAGGIE

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Be IN The Community: I tried to immerse myself as much as was appropriate into the community to meet not just students, but their families, extended families, key community decision-makers, etc. I shopped where they shopped. In fact, if someone needed help carrying groceries home - I was carrying their bags.  I asked local seamstresses to make my clothing. I went for evening walks around the village. I went to all the churches in the community.  I would randomly hang out at the youth house. I would hang out at the “candy store” and give away candies. I would go to local music festivals. I would ask to volunteer at local events. I would read local media - listen to local radio - I would play community bingo in a 3rd language that I did not understand. I would stay for holidays or special cultural celebrations. Sometimes there are “outsider teacher communities” within the larger host community. I was conscious to not always fall into my comfort zone and spend my “social life” with my fellow teachers.  I made a deliberate point to live as much as possible in my host community. This built so many connections to me that helped me IN the classroom that it is impossible to quantify. - MAGGIE

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#FosterBelonging
Generate empathy from sharing our stories and allowing them to make their decisions, giving spaces to know their interests and needs

Enable spaces to students for sharing their interests with students from different countries.

- Estefanía

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Help students share with each other their own learning/leadership decisions and appreciate them all.

- Franco Mosso

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The teacher taking the class outside the class to make them feel one as others. Making them feel there is no place that they don’t belong. They deserved to be in each place. It made children confident about imagining themselves in spaces they didn’t imagine

- Vijay

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Having “OPEN DOORS” - encouraging and welcoming students to visit you during the school day (recess, lunch time, on other “breaks, after school) - that your door is “open” and you look forward to meeting them - hearing their ideas - etc.  Be very explicit about this if it is relatively new to the context

- Maggie

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MUSIC PLAYLISTS I worked with youth who were very hesitant to initially open up to me. So asking questions like “how are you?” sometimes led to long awkward silences and glares as they were still “testing me out”. One hack that worked for me was to ask them their favorite songs and I would make a compilation playlist for the class. I usually had NO clue to what type of music they listened to, so I would also spend time trying to know more about “their pop culture” - favorite songs, lyrics, etc - and then use that as “conversation fodder” in my interactions with them. Of course, I would also play their fav songs during class time as well when they were working on a task, or insert it into a lesson. If I was really on point - I could have the song lined up to play as soon as they walked into the class - like an “entrance song”! - MAGGIE

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AFFINITY GROUPS

Help students create communities in the classroom based on interests so that these students are able to express themselves. It’s not about one student but groups of students

Nene, Nigeria.

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#FosterBelonging
Always start with a YES when a student comes with an idea.

- Ale

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Respect is very important - between teacher and students, between students, teaching kids not to tease

- Sagar

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Student environment is very important - building values and culture through the environment

- Shaurya

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#BuildRelationships
To foster independence we must first invite dependence; to promote individuation we must provide a sense of belonging and unity; to help the child separate we must assume the responsibility for keeping the child close. We help a child let go by providing more contact and connection than he himself is seeking. When he asks for a hug, we give him a warmer one than he is giving us. We liberate children not by making them work for our love but by letting them rest in it. — Dr. Gordon Neufeld, PhD, Canadian Expert in Child Development

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Giving tree - get children to acknowledge where they witness values the previous day , write it and post it on the tree ( a tree in the classroom that children can paint, craft together - plays as a strong visual imagery) - each day a new leaf can be added on a tree - a child writes the value they displayed the previous day outside the classroom.

- Pooja

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#BuildRelationships
Talk to the students about what they like- sit with them in the classroom - take an interview to understand them better.
- Mihaan

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Student environment is very important - building values and culture through the environment

- Shaurya

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#FosterBelonging
Art-based therapy session. Small group session with 8 children. Include what the children wants in the session. Every session, 5-10 mins, children would share what they would like to do. Goal is shared belonging in the group.

- Drashti

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Talk to the students about what they like- sit with them in the classroom - take an interview to understand them better - Mihaan

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There’s a lot of moments where my students open up to me.  And when that happens, it’s so important that you just listen. . .. These are kids that are dealing with divorce, with attempted suicide, they are dealing with gun violence, they are dealing with homelessness.  And they are nine.

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#FosterBelonging
MELISSA SALGEURO – AMERICA – Music Teacher (she won a Grammy and was on ELLEN!)

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The teacher saving music education in the Bronx | Melissa Salguero, New York | Global Teacher Prize