“Can a student ever really reach their full potential in a classroom where they do not feel comfortable or valued? How much can be gained by having an environment that is supportive and connected?

These are two questions that one my kiddos posed in the beginning of her “Check-In Chapter” last week. To me, these are profound–on many levels. But perhaps most profound is that a sixteen-year-old is posing them. A student is asking what many teachers maybe never ask–in the entirety of their careers. Do we really wonder about their comfort and value? Do we ever tie that to their potential? Do we consider what might be gained by creating an environment that is supportive and connected? And do we ever really consider that collectively? Lately there’s been a buzz about “Collective Teacher Efficacy” (Hattie), but in our collective considerations, do we remember to include the human priorities next to our curricular priorities?

Last week, when I presented “How They Feel: Our Beautiful Burden” to the folks at the Royal School District, one of the participants asked me an important question, “How do you reconcile the connection time and the instructional time with Smiles and Frowns?”

How, indeed? It is an important question. Our time is finite. We have never had and we will never have enough time. Unfortunately, this truth too often translates to and results in our budgeting connection time for instructional time. If we don’t get through this chapter, this content, or these standards, then kids won’t be ready for the next unit, the next class, the next grade-level. We know the narrative. We live this narrative. But we also know the rest of the story. We never get through everything we set out to. We never have kids show up exactly where we want them to be. Never. Despite our earnest, collective efforts to make it happen. And then, when someone brings up the idea of using time for things like connection, impossible gets “impossibler.” And there comes a reckoning.

Do we invest in the humans? Or do we invest in curriculum? Yes. We have no choice. We can’t remove ourselves from our professional responsibility. We can’t excuse ourselves from our human responsibility. We have to find balance. That is the reckoning. That is our work. And it saddens me that we have to fret and feel guilty about investing our time in the humans in the room. We know that, despite our efforts, kids will forget a great deal of the content we teach them. But we also know that kids will never forget how we made them feel. And that is the burden I speak of in the presentation. That is the world on our shoulders. But seen another way, that is the world in our hands when they enter our room. That is the beauty. We can control how they feel in our rooms. That is in our hands, and it begins with a simple question. How do we want kids to feel in our rooms?

My first and most important answer (and it’s on my classroom door, and it’s my why for Smiles and Frowns), “In my room, I want kids to feel connected.” Because, I want to know…

“How much can be gained by having an environment that is supportive and connected?”

Much, I believe. And that is why I invest in the humans. I have to balance the books. Because, I want to know…

“Can a student ever really reach their full potential in a classroom where they do not feel comfortable or valued?”

I don’t think they can. And I am beginning to believe that in a little corner of the world (room 206), kids are beginning to believe the same. Maybe they will begin to wonder the same in their other little corners of the world. And maybe, just maybe, their worlds will change.

Happy Wednesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.