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For students of all age ranges as educators, parents, and or role models our duty is to provide learning minds with the opportunity to draw their own conclusions. If a space does not feel "safe" it is our nature to retrieve or adapt and hide aspects of ourselves to adhere to the needs of others. This is human nature, which is often more influential in adolescence.

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As children, we often adopt the beliefs of our parents, sometimes neglecting deeper exploration of our own. Perhaps when we get older, we revisit some of these beliefs and adjust accordingly based on our experiences and new learning, or perhaps not.

As educators, we often adhere to the basic ideas and practices we've experienced ourselves as students in lieu of reviewing these beliefs regularly and adjusting as needed for the students who sit before us.

In 16 years as an educator, the students I've had the honor of working with have changed a lot. Regardless of the school community, I've been in, the ideas, expectations and learning needs of my kids were ever-evolving and because of that, it would be remiss of me to not evolve with them.

When I began teaching, I largely went with what I knew. My teaching style resembled that of the teachers I enjoyed most who worked for me. Looking back at it now, it was ego-centric and misplaced, but I didn't know any better. My career started without a formal student-teaching experience like most early educators get. I came in as a second career educator going an "alternative route" to certification. Instead of student-teaching, I had a mentor.

But we were all working from a more traditional toolbox.

It took about six years for me to realize that I needed to do things differently. This coincided with a comfort level with content that I didn't have in the beginning as well as a comfort with teaching. I ramped up my professional reading and started getting involved with professional organizations. From there it was email listservs, and conferences and more reading.

I did a lot of reading and listening.

Enter Twitter. This game-changing move got me blogging and interacting with different educators from all over the world. It is because of the great shifts in my own practice and in turn, the great shifts in student learning that I recognized that my beliefs weren't serving my students (and maybe never served some of them... ever).

Too often, we fall victim to believing that our students learn the way we learned best and then we and they never evolve.

Some educators come to this on their own and seek out additional professional learning and others, need a nudge. That nudge can sometimes be in the form of department-wide conversations which lead to consensus.

In our last department meeting, in an effort to better integrate our experience as an interdisciplinary department, organized teachers into heterogeneous groups to explore educational topics worth coming to a consensus on.
The topics addressed by the 8 groups were:

no zeros

redos/retakes/late work

differentiation

extra credit

restorative justice vs punishment

assessing for learning

student-centered learning

Groups were asked to read a short article independently and annotate it in terms of what validates or challenges their ideas. They were asked to make a group chart paper of ideas they agreed with from the article and which ones challenged their beliefs. They were also asked to come up with questions that would be used at the next meeting to engage in a Socratic Seminar on the different ideas as we come together to hear each other's ideas and beliefs.

Each group presented their chart papers briefly (and I will share their ideas in a document prior to next month's meeting) and then answered an electronic exit ticket which offered me some information in terms of how to move into our Socratic Seminar.

Change is hard for everyone and sometimes unless we are exposed to different options, we don't even know they exist. It's my job as a team leader to present ideas and offer a forum for discussion so that we can all hear and grow together.

There has been mixed feedback from the meeting but I'm going to suspend my concerns until our next meeting when we have some more time to flesh things out. One suggestion I heard was to reassure staff that my expectation wasn't for immediate change. It sounded preposterous to me, but if that is what they need, I will definitely remind them that I will never make major decisions about change in isolation; we must come to it together.
How do you help your staff push their thinking on important educational topics? Please share

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Offer a Safe Place to Challenge Beliefs (Opinion)

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Change is hard for everyone and sometimes unless we are exposed to different options, we don't even know they exist. It's my job as a team leader to present ideas and offer a forum for discussion so that we can all hear and grow together.

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I found this article particularly interesting as I hope to teach first grade on day. And at that age students are very much still developing their social-emotional skills and the overall dynamics of the classroom. Using Symonds Elementary as an example they found that a morning meeting with students adhering to Responsive Classroom Model has revolutionized the day to day classroom management. This method consists of a fun greeting from the students to the teacher and vice versa. Then asking the group a question about themselves allows the students to engage in teamwork and practive good communication skills with their peers. I think about when I would come back from the weekend and my teacher would always as "What is something fun you did this weekend"? I always loved feeling included. Then you follow that up with some sort of social or academic skill based activity. And end with an overall morning message from you to them describing what the rest of the school day looks like. Keeping an open line of communication with someone of any age really, helps to enable trust and mutual respect. And also can prove to be fun in the classroom.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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A safe place starts with emotional safety and trusting your surroundings. It can "range from achievement-related stress, often coming from parental pressures, to overcoming language and social class barriers, family problems, and peer group and personal social concerns." This assures us that emotional safety plays a key role in student engagement in the classroom. We never know what emotional baggage a child comes into the classroom with. Therefore, making the role of a teacher one of both authority and nurture.

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Creating an Emotionally Healthy Classroom Environment

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Making students feel safe and earning their trust are critical elements for turning your classroom into an emotionally healthy environment.

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Psychological Safety in Synchronous Learning

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Psychological Safety in Synchronous Learning

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Although this discusses students not in their early developmental stages, this still greatly applies to all of us. As a result of COVID there has been an increase in dependency on technology. Students from the University of Dundee reported after doing their own case study on students at their school that they favor anonymous methods of participation as to not face ridicule or judgment for their opinions or intellect. And that smaller groups promote more freedom of creativity and allows students to share their opinions more freely and comfortably. I think we can all agree that when COVID hit a lot of things about socializing with people changed. We spent a year hiding behind technology, making it even more important now to honor eachother especially in educational atmospheres.

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The Role of Psychological Safety in Enhancing Medical Students’ Engagement in Online Synchronous Learning

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The COVID-19 pandemic instigated a global change in the delivery of undergraduate medical education, with an eminent shift from in-person to online teaching. The virtual methods that were utilised to a limited extent previously have now become the mainstay…

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This source is different from the rest as it is directly from the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, making it very dependable and well-researched. Three alumni from Georgetown University agree that the first year of college is actually a very developmental important time for everyone. College is considered more intense due to a bigger workload in college causing elevated social and emotional effects on students. "In the fall of 2015, 91 entering first year students at a private university in the U.S. participated in a mixed method study using written reflection responses and in a pre/post survey using Keyes (2009) Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). Gains were seen in psychological well-being with an increase in flourishing as compared to early semester moderate flourishing. Students reported that having one course that provided a safe space for them in their first semester, and that addressed well-being in college, was critical for them to succeed and thrive in their first year". They found that in the mont of November towards the end of the school year students experienced much more comfortability in creating their safe spaces whether it be a class or a friend.

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Myriam Vuckovic Georgetown University Joan B Riley Georgetown University Brian Floyd Georgetown University

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The First Year Colloquium: Creating a Safe Space for Students to Flourish | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

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College is one of the most formative times in an individual’s life. Its intense living-learning environment can promote students’ extreme self-confidence and positive development, or alternatively, can result in low levels of well-being. The first year in college is an opportunity for faculty and staff to engage with students to help them build learning skills, a sense of responsibility, and ownership of their college experiences. The aim of this study was to examine the impacts of a first year colloquium on student well-being. In the fall of 2015, 91 entering first year students at a private university in the U.S. participated in a mixed method study using written reflection responses and in a pre/post survey using Keyes (2009) Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). Gains were seen in psychological well-being with an increase in flourishing as compared to early semester moderate flourishing. Students reported that having one course that provided a safe space for them in their first semester, and that addressed well-being in college, was critical for them to succeed and thrive in their first year.

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Everything is linked to emotional well-being

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Everything is linked to emotional well-being

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In the book titled "We Belong" by Laurie Barron and Patti Kinney they found that in order to have a sense of belonging a student needs trusting relationships, safety, consistency, social and emotional competence, engaging student centered instruction, and team work. Throughout the book they pinpoint 50 different strategies to create community while also managing the classroom. One take away for me personally is in the chapter discussing trusting relationships. It says that, "positive relationships with teachers are particularly beneﬁcial for students facing the risks associated with poverty" (27). Hinting at the fact that genuine interest in your students lives can promote positive change in their lives and inspire them to keep engaging in the classroom.