I’m at the middle school waiting for staff to run “catch-up” trainings. I’m between classes right now, looking at a prominently displayed Mexican flag and a large mariachi hat inside the library. I guess these things are here because it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, currently. I haven’t seen other markers that indicate the month is happening. That doesn’t mean teachers aren’t acknowledging it in other ways. I just might not know. Half the student population at the middle school is Latino.
Monday after the school day ended, I met the staff to provide an hour-long training for how to run a group effectively. We already had a during-school training to provide staff with information regarding the logistics of how advisory would be run last week. In schools today, teachers need to know how long the period is, how the program is organized, who will participate and in what capacity. They need to know our expectations.
But Monday was all about two things–creating safety and building relationships. The counselors I have been working with here helped devise a strategy for how to run the trainings. We agreed that we’d run them similarly to advisory. So we had teacher facilitators from the staff here provide activities and reflections to the staff in small groups. They received color-coded handouts and then had to move to different parts of the library according to one of four colors to meet with their group of teachers.
They reflected on what makes students feel safe in an advisory and how to achieve that safety (and also how to destroy it). They also talked about the best relationship they had with a teacher and thought about how to build strong relationships with their own students. The teachers from this school facilitated all these discussions. I was so impressed at their skillfulness in talking with their peers; they were respected, and the discussions were respectful and thoughtful.
I felt good about the trainings and hope the staff feel good about them, too. It’s a strange tension that we have to think of the difference between the role of group facilitator and teacher. The division is pretty strong for some teachers, and I can see how that would happen with the pressures of the standards and benchmarks that the state mandates these teachers teach.
Allies
With any new program, you want to have allies so that it is successful. I have learned that a technology instructor got some of his students to create a short and clever video which will run for students on Monday. One of the women who has been part of the advisory planning committee is helping her students create and perform a cheer for advisory (she’s a cheerleading coach). An assistant principal has agreed to be our administrative support member on the advisory committee, and the lead guidance counselor has written some clever announcements (such as a call-in radio show about advisory) to help get students excited about the program. I’m thrilled at the support we’re getting so far and crossing my fingers that the program will fly next week when it starts on Tuesday.
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