You are Invited and Inviting!

Be a rainbow in somebody's cloud.  Teachers have a hard job.  Putting aside our own hurts and hangups to be the rainbow for our students can be challenging, but, oh so rewarding.  How do we set up a classroom where teachers and students work together toward positive learning goals?  Purkey and Novack (1996) describe such classrooms as intentionally inviting.  Intentionally inviting teachers are consistent and steady with students, notice learning and struggle and respond with feedback.  They seek, maintain, and repair relationships.  

An invitational classroom includes the following elements: trust, respect, optimism, and intentionality.  Setting up at trusting learning environment happens when students feel belonging, free to take academic risks, and solve problems. 

The second and third elements, respect and optimism happen when teachers and students see themselves as caretakers on one another's well being.  Are we psychologically safe?  Do we feel belonging, are our voices heard?  Are students engaged in meaningful learning?  How is this relevant?  As teachers we recognize that everyone is good at something - we just have to find it.

Lastly, the invitational classroom is a place of intentionality.  Doug Fisher says "Every child deserves a great teacher, not by chance, but by design (2016)."  Are we including all students in our learning experiences?  How do we provide scaffolds to get to the grade level concept?  Are we fully planned and ready for potential misconceptions?  Are we modeling growth mindset and demonstrating to students that we believe they can learn?  

In my heart of hearts, I believe that all teachers want to create a learning environment where students belong and feel invited to the learning.  However, life in a large urban district comes with many challenges and we can often get distracted by the noise of deadlines, classroom visits, evaluations, meetings, etc.  Persist my friends, take time to build inviting teacher-student relationship.  Positive teacher-student relationships have an effect size of d = .48 (https://www.visiblelearningmetax.com/).  According to the work of John Hattie, one year's growth is d = .4, so taking time to create a welcoming learning space, getting to know student's name, and something about them is well worth the effort and has the potential to help academic growth.  

Hold steady, dear teacher, there is support for you.  Columbus City Schools now has instructional coaches in each building and also region coaches to help you feel a sense of belonging and safe.  If you would like a thought partner or your team would like additional support, please reach out.  Let's work together to "be a rainbow in somebody's cloud."