Dear colleague,
A couple weeks ago I made a second PD visit to Traverse City, MI. My work in this district has been focused on developing a single strategy with the middle school teachers there: tracking attempted Moments of Genuine Connection (MGCs). I taught the same session to three consecutive groups of teachers. And as I was going through those reps, I found myself getting clearer on who MGC tracking is really for.
MGC tracking is NOT for the two groups of students you and I will tend to check-in with regularly just on default teacher mode. These two groups are:
- The students we naturally like and enjoy
- The students we are most worried about (e.g., I'm picturing a young man in one of my classes this year who has a reputation for behaviors that are not conducive to learning)
If these were the only kinds of students we needed regular connections with, we wouldn't need to keep track.
MGC tracking is PRIMARILY for the middle group of students who don't fall into the two categories above: the quiet ones, the standoffish ones, the shy ones, the ones who are just there doing what they're meant to do but not drawing attention to themselves. In my classroom this year, I'm talking about students like Adam, a freshman in my upperclassman AP Computer Science Principles course who acts like he wants to crawl under his desk when I look at him.
When I had my first MGC with Adam last week, it was very simple, just like the vast majority of my MGC attempts:
- Adam, what got you interested in computer science? [Listen.] What do you like to do outside of school? [Listen.] Very cool. Well listen, Adam — I’m glad I get to be your teacher this year.
(Interestingly, it was on the afternoon of this initial MGC attempt that Adam popped his head into my classroom on the way to his bus and said, “Oh hey, Mr. Stuart! Have a good night!”)
It's this middle group of students that you keep track of your MGCs for because these are the ones who really notice when you have a brief, genuine conversation with them. By simply attempting these moments with that middle group on a regular basis, a teacher will begin to develop a robust and comprehensive Credibility across the whole student body — not just the kids who tend to be popular (Group 1 in my earlier list) or the at-risk ones (Group 2).
Anyways, I found that insight to be clarifying for me during these early, weary weeks of the school year.
Teaching right beside you,
DSJR
P.S. The person who most benefits from the MGC strategy is, in my view, the teacher. There is something about attempting to connect with 150+ diverse human beings each year that inevitably deepens and widens my soul. I remain so grateful to work a job that requires me to love each of my students in this way.
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