Community Connections Matter

 

by Jessica Hanvey

LFKS Conference Chairperson

 

It has never been more apparent to me, as a long-time educator, the urgency of making the school and community connection.  After the struggles of 2020, educators and students proved to be resilient, digging to the depths of our professional being in order to meet demands of our society. It is noteworthy, at a minimum, how we responded then and are still grinding ahead today. We need to tell our story outside the building.

In much of our state, we are operating with less. Staff shortages might be the worst that many of us have ever experienced.  We are more prescriptive in our approach to meeting the academic and social needs of kids, but lack the human resources to yield results at the highest potential level.  How does our community fit in the equation?  Our survival depends on it. 

The community is the “why.”  Why should we get involved? Why should we commit our personal time and money? Why do soft skills matter? Who are we preparing our students to serve? How can we increase our capacity to utilize our students as our own resources? 

As a result of our current staff shortage, I reached out to our high school future educators instructor to see if we could engage her students  in live classroom experiences. Two future educators walked through my classroom door, did on the job training, and were a wonderful resource to have for sixty minutes. They also have developed rapport with staff, as well as loaded their toolbox with hands-on skills to succeed in class.

A developed relationship between school and community creates ownership.  When employees and every day citizens have an iron in the fire, everything matters more.  Will these students be on a pathway where they are student interns at our businesses beginning as early as middle school?  Will we have the opportunity to grow our own employees from the ground up?  Furthermore, will we have built a valuable enough bond to bring our students back to our community post secondary education? Creating an atmosphere where students feel compelled to “give back” is the goal.

 As a second grade teacher, I’ve witnessed firsthand the value of these connections being created. A few of my students have developed a relationship with a local farmer as a result of opportunities we’ve been intentional to create.  I envision them as his future employees. What a rewarding experience to watch them engage in soft starts by bringing farm equipment to use to plow fields and harvest crops.  In addition, what a valuable resource our farmer has been to serve on our local school board. 

We sure should aim to build pride in who we’re working together to develop. Our citizens and local businesses have potential to be our best recruitment and retention tool.  The way that they project what we are accomplishing in our school impacts our success.  Connections outside the school walls should begin early and expand over time.  Once community stakeholders feel the connection and have a purpose, the process takes care of itself.  

Jessica Hanvey is the 2023 LFKS Conference Chairperson and teaches in USD 382 Pratt School District.

Making Sense of Snow Piles: Thoughts on Collective Efficacy

By Vicki Bechard, Secretary LFKS

Photo Credit:  Vicki Bechard

As the snow piles up in Kansas – which seems to be a real trend this season – do you sometimes feel like things are piling up in your school world too?  With redesign and the expectation to tailor our instruction to individual student needs that best prepare them for post-secondary success, it can be overwhelming when you consider how many ways we can accomplish those goals.  We know learning is best if it’s engaging, meaningful and relevant.  Oh yes, and we want it to be authentic so students can apply what they know.  Just like the big snowfall, it all looks pretty at first, but after a while, it might feel like more of the same or more than you want to deal with.  So how do we decide what’s best?  What do we keep; what do we change? In other words, how do we dig out from that snow storm of ideas and strategies so we can produce the desired result?  

Efficacy is defined as the ability to produce the desired result.  Today’s research leads us to realize that we want to empower teachers to develop the belief that they can truly make a difference in preparing our students for their future life.  This is called self-efficacy or teacher efficacy.   As learning leaders, growing teachers who believe in their ability to produce the desired result becomes our WHY.  Our WHAT involves identifying the results we want:  Students that can apply what they have learned, be adaptable, and lifelong learners so they can grow in a rapidly changing world much of which is unknown to us now.  But HOW do we accomplish this?  While self-efficacy is good, in most things, we are better together.  When teams of educators work together, believing and acting in ways to achieve these goals, they create a culture in their school that focuses on learning and growth.  Their combined efforts become collective efficacy. 

If we fail to empower teachers, all the redesign initiatives and school improvement plans in the world will be just like the changing Kansas weather, blowing through one day, piling up, and then melting, just in time for the next system to arrive.  And we may not be better prepared for future systems as they arrive.  These initiatives and goals that we worked so hard to create won’t mean a thing if those who are implementing them don’t have the confidence, knowledge, skills, resources, and support to fulfill these efforts.  The question becomes how do leaders change their culture and grow their staff to produce learning experiences that uncover student strengths and passions, and shore up weaknesses so that they can become successful high school graduates ready to face the world?  In the March 2018 ASCD Educational Leadership article, the Power of Collective Efficacy, Donohoo, Hattie, and Eells note:

When teams of educators believe they have the ability to make a difference, exciting things can happen in a school.

How do we make that happen?  Donohoo, Hattie and Eells remind us that “the greatest power that principals have in schools is that they can control the narrative of the school.”  What we think and talk about most typically becomes the focus of our actions.  Examine the conversations (those things that create our personal snow piles) in your school or team.  Are they dominated by talk around schedules, classroom management issues (i.e. student behaviors), testing, absences and tardiness, or following the curriculum?  Are we focused on compliance, or are we focused on growth and learning?  Some of the behavior issues we deal with on a daily basis may just be rooted in the kind and quality of the learning experiences we offer our students and teachers!   For so many, school is about being in your seats when the bell rings, sitting quietly unless you’re called on while the teacher does the work.  So how do we change the narrative to touch the hearts and minds of teachers so they can touch the hearts and minds of students?

Professional Learning will drive the bus on this journey to collective efficacy.  Navigating the snow piles we have created is part of this journey.  Educators want and need to have knowledge and skills to transform their instruction.  We recognize this type of systemic change takes time and deliberate practice. Keep shoveling!  As leaders we want to identify necessary resources, and provide the kinds of support required by these new ways of teaching so they can be effectively implemented. What “snow pile” if you will, needs to be hauled away or melted before the real growth can be seen?  In other words, we want to develop teacher efficacy that can be combined with others to create collective efficacy so the culture of our school is one where everyone believes they can make a difference for students in ways that will facilitate their success.

Donohoo, Hattie, and Eells drive home this point noting that in schools, “If the narrative is about high expectations, growth in relation to inputs, what it means to be a ‘good learner’ in various subjects, and what impact means, then teachers and students will think about learning in a different way.  They will believe that learning is about challenge, about understanding and realizing high expectations, and that setbacks are an opportunity to learn.  Students will also believe that coming to school means investing energy in deliberate practice.”  The snow pile will no longer impede our progress when we make this shift in our beliefs and actions.

Then and only then will we see the cycle of growth evolve so that students are prepared for an unknown future because their teachers are empowered and believe that they can continue to grow and make a difference in how they teach today’s students for tomorrow’s world.   

As the snow is swept away and new growth appears, nurture it and watch it bloom into vivid color.

 References:

Jenni Donohoo, John Hattie, Rachel Eells, “The Power of Collective Efficacy,” Educational Leadership, ASCD, March 2018, Volume 75