Every Student Known

Dear colleague,

For the past year and a half, folks on my building leadership team have been giving us faculty members a chance to think about, experiment with, and get consistent with tracking attempted moments of genuine connection (MGCs).

That might seem crazy — I mean, how do you spend 1.5 years exploring a strategy that's as basic as keeping track on a clipboard when you have a one-on-one with a student in an attempt to connect with them? Isn't it super basic?

And that's right — it is super basic. One of the biggest challenges I face when doing PD around the country and world is helping folks think hard about basic strategies like this one. The stuff I focus on in my writing and classroom is laughably simple.

Buuuuuuuut the thing with MGCs is that the more you work with them, the more you find there is to learn. I've been writing about and practicing this strategy for over a decade now, and yeesh — I'm still learning things, still being challenged. And still seeing the fruit.

And speaking of fruit, we had a good harvest come in as a faculty here in Cedar Springs this fall. In a survey to our students, they were given a chance to name an educator they felt they had a connection with. What blew me away is that every single professional in our building was named by at least one student.

That's never happened before.

And what did it take? A few dozen clipboards and dogged persistence. Good faith efforts — not perfect ones — through good days and bad.

It took genuine hearts, too.

• You can't do MGCs just like I do. And I can't do them like you do.
• But we can both keep track. We can both compare notes. We can both keep pushing in, as we're able — improving our personal best as we go.

This is all that it took for our team to accomplish what none of us could have accomplished independently — every kid with a connection, and every adult named by at least one kid.

It's almost like slow and steady wins the race.

Teaching right beside you,

DSJR

P.S. Here's an article from the local School News Network featuring this work.

P.P.S. I've got some space available for PD this summer and next fall. If you're interested, be in touch here. I specialize in helping faculties develop mastery and efficacy around student motivation (helping students care about the work of learning).