#Community
- Paul Wiech
- Sep 3, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 4, 2024
Community! A healthy, respectful community of caring individuals can open experiences to the joy we see in the image below.
The folks in the image are a group of paddlers who came together at the start of the stand up paddle board craze 14 years ago. Our community was built by traveling the Finger Lakes during Nomadic Paddles, racing up and down the East Coast, Tuesday Night Time Trials, paddling whenever we could and most importantly sharing downtime and eating together.. The image above was created when PaddleNMore offered to allow us to use the Monster SUP during a race in Ithaca. Our community, with no experience on this big of a SUP, climbed aboard and took off. After a few moments we were paddling in sync and leading the race. When we made our turn to come back to the finish line we were well out in front but that quickly ended. We all love the sport but we enjoy each other much more. What started with one person going into the water ended with everyone getting wet and the race being secondary. I am confident we were last but the image and these folks remain in my life to this day. #community
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” African Proverb
In 2017, while working at TST BOCES, I was given the option to lead one of 2 projects. The choices were implement the Computer Science and Digital Literacy Standards or write a Learning Technology Grant for the TST region. My choice was simple and with the help of a grant writer and my colleagues we were awarded a $600,000 grant to support teachers.
Our grant vision was simple: Creation, Learning, and Joy. We wanted to give teachers the opportunity to explore any area of interest (not necessarily school-related), and our team would provide them with time to work, a sufficient stipend, gear to make it happen, quality food, support, childcare so they could attend, and quality feedback that was ePortfolio-based. What we ended up creating was an amazing community of learners from across our 9 component districts that worked together, set up meetings outside of the scheduled ones and experienced joy in a safe and supportive environment. The folks who participated believe that it was the best and most impactful learning they had done in their careers. #community
What does it look like in Practice?
Agreements!
My question based on those experiences is how do we create a sense of community in the school setting? What I learned from the above experiences is that having a set of expectations that address how we would like to be is key. These give everyone an opportunity to take chances, be vulnerable while being their true selves. In our space we use the National School Reform's "Setting Agreements Activity." Once complete we create a paper artifact and have them on our tables during our first few weeks of learning. After that, since they were created by the group, we generally do not have to address behavior that is not supportive of our group.
Food, Celebrations and Discussion = Community
Food, meals, breaking bread, coffee time, call it what you will, I cannot stress the importance of sharing sustenance and what it does for your community. The conversations that occur allow folks to step back, decompress, and see each other as the amazing humans they are outside of the professional realm. It seems like a simple act, but for some reason, it is a simple way to make everyone feel safe, connected, and valued.
Birthdays, passed driver's test, acceptance in to college can be opportunities to celebrate and make folks feel seen. In our space we find the most obnoxious birthday music and play it loud for everyone to hear and laugh and we almost always have cake and candles! The cake is enjoyed by everyone in our community.
Our lunch and advisory time is when we have discussions with young folks as well. They can be small or large groups but almost always have multiple adults to help guide conversations. The interactions that occur when we remove the hierarchy and exist in an environment based on mutual respect are key to building our culture.
One of my goals for this school year is clarify the decisions we make, big and small, that help build our community. My plan is to document these choices as well as their outcomes so that I can build a model that may be helpful to folks who are interested in this work.
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