Learning is fueled by feedback…
School Climate: Please read pages 14-19 and complete this anonymous survey. Then blog to address one strength and one weakness of our overall school climate.
Class Climate: Please give your students this anonymous survey to complete. Feel free to copy and tweak appropriately. We will use the returned data to blog next week.
Strength: Strong Sense of Collective Identity
ReplyDeleteOne of Empower's greatest strengths is its strong collective identity and shared sense of purpose. Students understand expectations, routines are clearly taught, and there is a consistent structure that promotes collaboration, accountability, and supportive interactions. This foundation helps students feel connected and focused on meaningful academic goals.
Weakness: Peer Interaction Variety (I would like to work on this in my classroom)
One area for growth in my classroom is increasing opportunities for student varied peer interaction. Providing more structured chances for students to collaborate with different peers could further strengthen engagement and deepen the overall sense of community. When I taught elementary school, I would put the kiddos in virtual breakout rooms all the time, but now, since I’m teaching middle school; many of my kiddos won’t talk. This makes it difficult in some cases to put them in breakout rooms, because they sit there in silence. Hopefully, I can come up with some ideas to change this, but for now, we typically are whole group!
One dimension our school exceeds is the feeling of being NEEDED among the staff. “We know our contributions are valued because others rely on us for consequential work” (p.17). This has been most important and ultimately, more needed in our school than at any other school faculty I have been a member of. In turn, however, it creates a sense of value and buy in as we are truly working together to make our school successful, something we all believe in.
DeleteI agree with Bynghum about interaction for students. Given our technology constraints, supervision management and time tables, creating successful and meaningful time for students to befriend others is challenging. Our students do not walk the halls together, eat lunch together, ride buses or do extracurricular activities together. This means the friendly interaction must happen during class time. This is a challenge I would love to overcome.
I agree with both of you on the time contraints and challenges with peer interactions! Even with these challenges, it's nice to see that we do have students forming relationships and making friends in classes and during lunch bunch time.
DeleteI think one strength, and one of the best things about Empower as a whole, is that we have a collective identity and share a sense of purpose. We truly support each other and work together in all we do. One thing I believe we all wish we could do more of is offering students time to just talk and interact with each other more than just the first few minutes of class. It’s so easy for students to talk with one another face-to-face, but is more challenging in a virtual environment.
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