The paper plants on the wall are all different and filled with students’ hopes and dreams. In another room, there is a student signed poster with the class rules. In another space, Tuesday mornings are circle time. Across Spring Lake Park Schools, specific, intentional strategies and practices like these are creating a learner-centered environment.
A learner-centered environment is a space where students feel seen, heard, valued – that they belong. It’s a space to safely develop and practice skills like working together and treating each other with respect and kindness. It’s a place of shared responsibility where each member supports and feels supported in learning.
Teachers across grade levels and schools dip into a shared collection of strategies, tools and resources to support the social, emotional and behavioral development and management practices that create a safe, learner-centered environment. The strategies have names to provide a shared vocabulary around each practice.
Four common practices – hopes and dreams, 2X10, co-created norms and community building circles – provide a peek into what a learner-centered environment means at the elementary level. Many of the same strategies are used at the secondary level, too, though the practical application may look a little different.
Hopes and Dreams
Hopes and Dreams is a practice where students create overall learning goals and/or personal goals for the year. The primary purpose is to get excited and focused on learning. In Jenny Rodriguez' 3rd grade class of Spanish Immersion learners, it's one of the first steps they take each year.
Translation: My wish for this year is:
Improve in math. My steps to achieve it are: 1)Listen to the teacher 2) Practice at home 3) Not getting distracted
"We usually go back to the past and think about goals from last year," says Jenny. "I ask them, ‘What made you feel like you were successful? What were the things you need more support with?’ They start sharing things."
Jenny has found this is a great way to start to get to know her students. She gets insights into what kind of support they need and finds connections.
"I try to show empathy and create that trust with the kids so they can feel free and confident to express what they need," she says.
Jenny shares her own examples. She talks about what she was able to achieve last year and shares things she hopes will go better this year. Modeling a strong example is important. Eventually, each student identifies a goal they would like to achieve along with two to three steps to get to that goal.
This year, students made their own personal paper plants in a pot. Their potted plant hangs on the wall as a visual reminder. They also have a picture of it on their iPads.
"We check in on it," she says. "Most of the time, we keep it up all year, but they can change the goal throughout the year."
Jenny has seen a lot of benefits with this practice. First, it's the motivation. Everyone has a goal they are striving for that they've identified. It provides focus. They also learn how to set goals and work toward them by breaking down the big goal into the small steps to get there.
At the end of each month, the class takes time to reflect on their goal. In the moments of reflection, they assess where they are. This helps students track their efforts - all the things they are able to achieve and the places where they still have opportunities to grow.
"Persistence is how goals are met,” says Jenny. “This practice shows them that. There are some things we encounter that are harder than we expected, and we keep going. Our reflection is always a good time to remember to start with the end in mind. This is not only for the classroom. It's for real life."
2X10
The 2 by 10 is a strategy for building relationships. It's simple math. Spend two minutes each day for 10 consecutive days getting to know each other. Jody Wenum has practiced this strategy with children in her kindergarten class as well as other students in the building not in her class.
"It's connecting with kids outside of the learning to help them feel like you see them and know who they are, and that you are someone to trust, that this is a safe place and that we have a community here," says Jody. "It's about getting to know your students and what's important to them."
For Jody, it goes back to being seen. She remembers being in school and being really shy.
"I just wished the teacher saw me for me," she recalls. "This is a way to help a student like I was be seen and feel safe and comfortable."
While a math equation may seem a little clinical, it's the intentionally around the conversations - that you do it 10 days in a row - that makes the difference and creates the pattern and habit of connecting. Jody finds that often it takes students that long to let their guard down. One kindergartener came to Kinder Camp over the summer and never quite warmed up over the three days.
"I made the conscientious effort to check in every day as school started - making sure he knew that he was seen," says Jody.
Eventually, he did start to open up and share. Now, it feels natural, and they connect all the time.
Jody practices the 2X10 strategy a lot on the way to recess. She'll walk with a student for days in a row and they learn about each other.
"One girl was sharing with me about how her family traveled to Africa and she saw a lot of animals," says Jody. "I asked her what her favorite animal was, and I told her mine was an elephant. She's brought up how we both like elephants since then. We made a connection."
The strategy works for building relationships and community, and it also has benefits for interventions when things go awry. Jody has found when she has to have a conversation about something hard, having built up a relationship over time helps.
She's also taken 2X10 a bit further. When kids share something that makes a connection, she'll often encourage them to ask their parents to send a picture. One mom recently sent a picture with a note saying she didn't know why her daughter asked her to send a picture, but here it is. With that, the lines of communication and connection were opened with the parent.
Co-Created Norms
With co-created norms, students help determine what is important for their participation and learning. The goal is to have shared accountability in creating and maintaining a respectful and safe atmosphere for learning. It's also a great way to get to know students, their experiences and what they think.
On one of the first few days of the school year in Natalie Laciskey's 2nd grade classroom, the class talked about why they come to school. Then, they thought about some rules they should follow at school. Together, they made a list on the board of about 20 things. They let the list sit on the board - and simmer. A few hours later, they returned to it and got to work. They worked to put similar topics together. By the time their work was done, they had three categories. Those turned into the three simple rules for their classroom.
- Persevere.
- Be safe.
- Be respectful.
Throughout the next week, they took time to focus on each rule they had created. They talked about what it looks like and what it doesn't look like. They read books and stories that aligned to each of the rules. After taking the time to understand what each of the rules meant to the class, they wrote them officially on a poster to hang in the front of the classroom. Each student signed their name to the poster.
"I think some students were nervous to sign the poster," chuckles Natalie. "They weren't sure they wanted to agree to all three of these rules."
She's seeing how this impacts the environment in a positive way.
“We had to talk about what perseverance actually means – how it’s easy to give up and harder to persevere,” she said. “Now, kids are using the language. I hear kids say, 'I persevered through hard math today.’ It's one of my favorite things - it makes me smile."
When Natalie notices a student following the rules, she'll give them a shout out. At least once a trimester she shares the shout out with the student’s family through a SeeSaw message or phone call. She wants to proactively communicate when things are going well.
"I often call during dinner time, and when I get an answer, the family may be sitting around the dinner table," says Natalie. "I hear 'I'm on the phone with your teacher.' I know that sometimes it can be a negative when a teacher calls. I want to flip the script."
The classroom rules are posted in the front of the classroom. When a student isn't practicing one of the three rules, Natalie just points to the poster.
"That works about 90 percent of time," she says. "They know they’ve agreed to it."
Community Building Circles
Community Building Circles are a practice that allows people to connect and share their perspectives in a safe space. Circles provide opportunities for students to have honest and deep conversations and build a community together.
In Jessie Johnson's 5th grade classroom, they do circle once a week - every Tuesday morning first thing. They have a topic and there is a "talking piece," an object, that each person in the circle holds when it is their turn to talk before they pass it on to the next person. No one is required to share - and if a student doesn't want to participate in circle, that's okay. It’s a choice.
Jessie chose the talking piece for their circle. It’s a medical bracelet from her husband who has epilepsy. For her, it conveys permission to be personal and vulnerable. At the beginning of the year, students wrote down questions they wanted to ask in circle on index cards. Each Tuesday, a student pulls a random card from the pile. Topics span from serious to hilarious.
"’Tell me about a time you lost a tooth.’ That was a favorite," says Jessie. "Another powerful one was 'What's something lingering on your mind right now?' Sometimes, when one student decides to be brave and vulnerable, it opens the doors for others. The kids have learned that they don't know what everyone is going through, and they sometimes make surprising connections."
The class co-created some simple rules to follow during circle time:
- Respect the talking piece.
- Sit up and be attentive.
- Listen with an open mind and heart.
- Share your truth.
Rarely, Jessie will skip the pile of the questions if the class has been having a harder time. On those days, she might choose a topic to help get the classroom community back on track. It might be a question like, "What does it feel like to be part of a community?" with a follow up, "Do you feel that way in our classroom?" Or, "What is one thing we can do to make people feel like they are part of our community?"
Circle in this room can have two rounds and last up to 40 minutes. They kids made the rules. The second round is often when the real sharing happens. Round two might be an add-on question or a chance to go deeper with the topic.
Students know they can always pass. Jessie emphasizes that listening is just as important as talking. Often, as they hear other stories throughout the first round, their eyes light up. On the second go around, they make a connection, add on to their story, or tell another.
Jessie has observed how circle gets their brains going, builds stamina to focus and also helps with story-telling skills.
"I think the stamina that has been built with this practice has done wonders for learning. We do circle on chairs, or on the floor, or wobble chairs to help with fidgeting," says Jessie, recognizing the needs of 10 and 11-year-olds. "We also painted smooth rocks with phrases, colors, images of things that calm us down. For each circle, the students' rocks go into the middle before we start. At any time, they can go and grab their rock when they need to be calm and focused."
The biggest benefit has been with empathy and connection - those things that make a strong community.
"I had one student whose dad passed away. She will talk about it briefly and at a surface level. One day in circle we shared core memories - and she shared deeply about her dad," says Jessie. "One boy who rarely talks or shares anything then shared a similar thing that he went through. They didn't know this about each other. It showed them that they are not alone, and they have a lot more in common than they think.”
Jessie is going to be gone on a Tuesday coming up. Because circle is sacred, she asked the class what they wanted to do - cancel it, do it another day, do it with someone different.
Their answer? "Keep it. We need circle."