Relationship Supporting Structures are established within the school to cultivate familiarity with students’ names, faces, and stories. Structured staff time, like PLCs, prioritizes professional learning, individual student needs, and schoolwide initiatives. Welcoming routines, 4 corners, and 3×30’s nurture a sense of knowing and caring among all. Additionally, rituals and routines are implemented to enhance family connections and partnerships, fostering a supportive and inclusive school community.
Statements Depicting the Ideal Pursuit of a School
- The school implements structures that foster familiarity with students’ names, faces, and stories.
- Structured staff time, like PLCs, is dedicated to supporting professional learning, individual student needs, and schoolwide initiatives.
- Routines promote knowing and caring for one another (e.g. welcoming routines, 4 corners, and 3×30’s).
- The school establishes structures, including rituals and routines, to strengthen family connections and partnerships.
Key Resources
Quotes
“For all students to excel, teachers must learn about them and connect with each child. This is not just about finding out how they learn, but finding out who they are.”- George Couros
“Every child deserves a champion; an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists that they become the best they can possibly be.”- Rita F. Pierson
Reflection Prompts
- What do you do to create an environment where relationships flourish (student-to-student, student-to-staff, staff-to-staff, staff-to-family, etc.)?
- Write down 3 things you can do at your school to develop or further develop structures that build healthy relationships.
- Ask your leadership team to take several minutes to reflect on key structures from the past three years that have been used to build opportunities for students to be known in your school. Ask them to reflect on which ones have been most important to them personally, professionally, and to the school as a whole.
- What current structures are working for students who feel a sense of belonging and that they are known? Can those structures be expanded? Are different approaches needed for different student groups?
- Record some ways that individual educators are using structures at the classroom level to build relationships with students.
All Toolkit Resources
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Supporting Students When They Need It Most: Implement 9th-Grade Success Teams
Serving all kids well requires quality relationships. This is an inherent value found in the identity of schools that are getting it done for each and every student. Implementing a 9th-grade transition team is one step to ensuring students’ long-term success.
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Positive Modeling: Building Strong Positive Relationships
In schools where relationships are strong and positive, modeling is evident. It is a very Little Thing that could have been done yesterday, and you can do tomorrow.
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Foster Relationships and Cooperative Learning: Adopt Block Scheduling At Your School
Block scheduling is better for fostering and nurturing relationships for both teacher to student, as well as student to student relationships.
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All Students Known: Build Structures to Foster Healthy Relationships
Examine what your school does to build opportunities for students to be known. Learn how your school can employ Structures that Build Healthy Relationships schoolwide.
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Build Structures For Healthy Relationships – Leadership Team Activity: Assess How Well School Structures Support Healthy Relationships
An activity for your leadership team to reflect on key structures that have been used to build opportunities for students to be known in your school.
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Student Self-Awareness & Self-Knowledge: Ask the Right Questions to Understand Your Students
Ask students essential questions. This activity is a great way to learn more about your students, while fostering a sense of self-reflection. These questions revolve around the learner’s identity, and can set a tone in your classroom emphasizing self-knowledge as the ultimate goal of learning.