Relationships.  We use this term a great deal in education as we understand that developing and maintaining positive relationships with our students, staff, parents and community is essential to, well, everything.

Positive relationships are the foundation to fostering well-being and achievement in our schools, and authors of “The Third Path” (thethirdpath.ca) argue that “relationships are the core of education…as we require positive relationships in order to learn and grow…the better the relationships are, the more that learning can successfully occur” (thethirdpath.ca).   I don’t think that anyone disputes the necessity to develop and maintain strong, honest, respectful relationships. 

What I have been wondering about however, as the new school year begins, is whether we truly know HOW to develop these types of relationships?  What does this look like in early elementary and how does it differ in secondary school?  When our students enter the classroom, do we have the knowledge, skills and disposition to actual build a strong relationship with students (and their families? And the community?)?  For our district, as we move towards achieving our goal of Student Centered Learning and Pedagogy (by 2019), we increasingly learn about how relationships are vital to this type of learning environment.

Quote obtained from Wikipedia, 2015

When we use the term “relationships” it needs to be more about the practice, and less about the theory.  I think that this is why the thinking from thethirdpath.ca website has me intrigued.  The authors have identified eight conditions that they feel are necessary to support student achievement and well-being – and note that all eight are “relationship based”.  This model helps me to break down the notion of developing and fostering 

strong relationships into subcategories, which then has helped me to increasingly identify the “moves” that we, as educators, need to make (I was continuously reminded of how a student-centered learning environment and pedagogy and inquiry based learning, as an instructional approach, and of how this approach fosters so many of these conditions!).

As educators, can we name the moves that we intentionally make in our practice that addresses each condition and that ultimately promotes the development of strong relationships with every student and family? Do we address all eight in our practice?  Do we see how each practice contributes to the formation of Student Centered Learning Environments and Pedagogy and thus, to student achievement and well-being?

The conditions are:

Safety     Ensuring that our students can count on us and that they can attach to us.  

This ability varies depending upon their life outside of school.  Trust is critical here.  As educators, we must help our students to trust us. Our actions must ensure that students know we believe in them.

Regulation     Adults help children to develop their ability to self-regulate, by providing an environment that is relaxing and calm, and through how we interact with the child when they are in a state of stress.

Belonging      Students need to feel a sense of belonging to their school. We do this by connecting with our students, and when we ensure that the culture, traditions and heritage of the student is reflected in their learning.

Positivity    A learning environment that involves positive experiences for students – where they have “fun” each day and thus, feel good about themselves – is one that promotes “increased self-esteem, greater collaboration, improved social connectedness, increased empathy, and greater generosity”.

Engagement     Finding the right balance in a classroom in terms of instruction and the environment is an art for educators.  However this is crucial as we help students to learn HOW to learn so that they truly are interested. We need to help them to learn to “focus their attention, control distraction and move toward a state of mindfulness and ‘flow’”.

Identity   Students need to be given the chance to express who they are in their work and throughout the school.  They need to be encouraged to be themselves, including their strengths, spirituality, culture, heritage, etc.

Mastery   To achieve mastery, students need to have regular feedback (and I would suggest success criteria) so that they feel a sense of accomplishment.

Meaning   The learning and activities that students engage in must have a real world application, including a real audience, and a real purpose.  They need to be given an opportunity to think about big ideas and to answer essential questions relating to the world.

There is much to consider when we think about relationships, however what I know is that I have seen, heard and personally experienced educators making sure that our students and their families feel a sense of belonging to the classroom and to the school, not only by engaging in caring conversations, but by ensuring that the learning and environment is filled with joy, engagement, voice, support, feedback, and that it honours their individuality.  There are also narratives that demonstrate that we sometimes forget that we must address all eight of these conditions with our students, and in fact, with parents who are part of our school communities.

Let’s take a moment and reflect on how we are addressing these conditions and thus, how we are forming strong relationships through our Student Centered pedagogical moves.  I am beginning to think that perhaps we already know the HOW of forming positive relationships.

Welcome back to each of you and welcome to another great school year!  I am hopeful that each of you found ways to focus on your personal well-being during the past two months, as we know that our own health plays a significant role in both our happiness and the well-being of the children in our schools. I hope that these summer months were filled with a great deal of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation!  It is hard to believe that we are beginning yet another school year and before we know it, we will be celebrating the Christmas Holiday! I want to take a moment to sincerely welcome those who are new to us or who are returning to us after being on leave, and to acknowledge that we are missing some of our colleagues.  We wish them well!

While enjoying activities focusing on my own well-being this summer, such as hiking, kayaking and camping in our beautiful region (and I even tried zip lining!), I engaged in much reading about how we, as school staff, support the development of well-being in our schools and classrooms, each and every day. I read about how relationships are the foundation to the fostering of well-being.  “Relationships are the nutrition of the brain”, says Dr. Jean Clinton.   These two months provided me with time to truly appreciate the nature of the relationships that we have at SGDSB!

What is very noticeable about our schools is the nature of the teams that we have, especially noticeable during the final crazy month of the year.  June brought people working together and supporting each other through the busy month (wow is June getting busier each year?),  to pack up schools, to move furniture, working together on schedules, to plan and engage in end-of-year activities …the list is endless (and I don’t want you stop reading!!).  What I know is that our “Small schools really do make a difference”…in so many ways, because of you and the teams that you are a part of.

I hope that you have taken the time to stop, reflect and to celebrate everything that you do daily to make positive change for the young people in your building and for each other. While our moral imperative is to educate our students, we also know that the culture of our school is vital to our success. We need to love coming to school each day, and together we can continue to create a cutlure in our schools where we feel a sense of belonging and where everyone contributes, regarldess of role.  Thank you for exemplifying our SGDSB values:

Caring, Fairness, Empathy, Honesty, Responsibility, Resilience, Respect, Perseverance, Innovation

Looking forward to seeing each of you in the near future and again, I am wishing you a wonderful start up with our students, helping them to transition and feel a sense of belonging. Thank you for putting students first, for all of the extra time that you have dedicated to readying the schools and grounds (through the many renovations!), preparing lessons, taking courses, and for planning and organizing for the new year. I know that our schools have been filled with busy educators, custodians, librarians, computer techs, and many other staff who are anxious to create warm and welcoming environments.

You truly are

“… Leaders in providing quality learning experiences in our small school communities.”