Ensuring Student Engagement Through Building Meaningful Relationships

1. Ensuring Student Engagement Through Building Meaningful Relationships Pam Dixon M.Ed. Matt Stephen Ed.D. Arkansas Tech University Center for Leadership and Learning

2. SWIMMING WITH THE EELS? CAN YOU SPOT A DRUM?

3. Let’s take a walk into the past…… Can you remember your K-12 teachers? Is there one special teacher you will never forget? Why is that?

4. Are there teachers you have forgotten? Why?

5. IT IS ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS Students are more likely to be engaged in learning when meaningful relationships exist between them and their teachers

6. ASCD Essential Question How does your community ensure the students are engaged and supported?

7. We Can Ensure Student Engagement Through Building Meaningful Relationships

8. C Teacher Student School Leader/ Support Parent Community

9. School Relationship • Student ↔ Teacher • Student ↔ School Leader/Support • Student ↔ Parent • Student ↔ Community • Teacher ↔ Parent • Teacher ↔ School Leader/Support • Teacher ↔ Community • Parent ↔ School Leader/Support • Parent ↔ Community • Community ↔ School Leader/Support • Student ↔ Student • Teacher ↔ Teacher • School Leader/Support ↔ School Leader/Support • Community ↔ Community

10. A relationship-building plan will not happen on its own. It must be purposely and thoughtfully created by the entire school community. “Be writing – be planning right now!” (Clifton Taulbert, June 12, 2012)

11. Steps to Building Meaningful Relationships on a School-Wide Basis • Revisit school vision and mission. • Needs Assessment: Pose questions and hold informal and formal conversations with internal and external publics. • Form PLCs for action research. • Determine needed actions and assign leadership roles. • Write relationship-building activities into the campus plan.

12. “Step” Activity • Select a relationship area • On a footprint, write one step toward building meaningful relationships • Pin it to the wall under the relationship area

13. Teachers Teacher ↔ Student • Classroom Climate • Mutual trust and positive interactions between teachers and students • Enlarging Process • Nurturing Atmosphere

14. Classroom and School Climate “I have come to the frightening conclusion, I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decide whether a crisis Will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.” Between Teacher and Child Haim G. Ginott (1922-73) Teacher, child psychologist and psychotherapist

15. Discussion How do Ginott’s ideas translate to all areas of school?

16. Based upon John C. Maxwell’s Enlarging Process • See the student’s potential • Cast a vision for the student’s future • Tap into the student’s passion • Address the student’s character flaws • Focus on the student’s strengths

17. “The foundation of learning is to love those you teach.” Stacey Bess June 12, 2012

18. How many teachers on your campus are masters at building relationships with students? Can they teach others to master relationship-building?

19. Nurturing Students “If you look around, you’ll discover that there are people in your life who want to be fed – with encouragement, recognition, security, and hope. That process is called nurturing, and it’s a need of every human being.” John Maxwell, Becoming a Person of Influence

20. Nurturing • A nurturer is a “giver” and a “lifter.” • When nurtured, students receive: • Positive self-worth • Sense of Belonging • Perspective • Feeling of Significance • Hope John Maxwell, Becoming a Person of Influence

21. The Exchange Principle “Leave your place and visit their place” John Maxwell, Winning with People

22. From Student to Teacher: A Love Poem There is a room of which I know that always has a fire aglow. In it sits a chair all plush. The sounds within are all a hush.

23. There are blankets to make me cozy and warm and a bolted door to keep out harm. The book on the table contains a happy ending. It makes my time well-worth spending. There is a cup of hot chocolate by the chair, and the smell of fresh baked bread in the air. How long I stay, I need not worry because time slows down, there is no hurry.

24. This room is in my mind. The times I enter it are few. I am mostly in this room I find when I am close to you.

25. Teacher ↔ Parent • Mission to Serve • Conflict Resolution • Stress Relief Strategies

26. Teacher ↔ Teacher • Collaboration • PLCs/Action Research

27. AFFECTIVE DOMAIN (SCHOOL COUNSELORS) • 1. Everyone is important. Our words are so important! • 2. We have the greatest school in the State. • 3. Model and teach empathy

28. Teaching Empathy in the Classroom http://www.wimp.com/homeroomteacher/

29. Counselors- “eyes and ears” of school Counselor ↔ Teachers Affective Domain in the classroom (i.e. teaching empathy) Counselor ↔ Student Counselor ↔ Community Counselor as major influence in teaching the affective domain to students

30. Administrators No relationship in a school has a greater effect on the quality of life in that school than the relationships between the teachers and the principal. Roland Barth, Improving Schools from Within: Teachers, Parents and Principals Can Make the Difference Administrator ↔ Teachers/Staff Shared Leadership Shared Mission/Vision Building Positive School Culture Building Trust

31. School ↔ Community • Inviting Culture • Two-way Communication • Shared Decision-making

32. Community • Site-Based Decision-Making • PTA/PTO • Volunteers • Business Partnership • Tutors • Mentors • School-Community Activities: Rituals, Traditions and Ceremonies

33. Five Traits of Leaders That Build Meaningful Relationships: • Humble Service • Integrity • Developing Others • Shared Leadership • Inspiring Vision

34. Curriculum Leaders • PREP • Problem Solving • Real-World Learning Activities • Entrepreneurial Skills • People Skills Shifting Gears: Content to Process Ian Jukes and Ted McCain The InfoSavvy Group and Cystar, 2005

35. Steps to Building Meaningful Relationships on a School-Wide Basis • Revisit school vision and mission. • Needs Assessment: Pose questions and hold informal conversations with internal and external publics. • Form PLCs for action research. • Determine needed actions and assign leadership roles. • Write relationship-building activities into the campus plan.

36. Pay-offs to Developing Relationship-Building Activities • Everyone has a deeper understanding of the school vision/mission. • A school culture is shaped that reaches out to everyone. • Students feel valued and supported, and they are more engaged in their learning. • Increased trust, buy-in, and support are given by community members.

37. We are not saying that developing a relationship-building plan is going to be easy…. but it is worth doing it right!

38. For a copy of the PowerPoint, go to www.servantleadersineducation.com and click on Building Meaningful Relationships.

39. Door Prizes