Creating a Climate Filled with a Sense of Community

AEE Annual International ConferenceNovember 2011

Agenda

• Introduction/FramingGathering ActivitiesProtocolsThe Container Concept

• Vision: Why a Sense of Community?Research & Rationale

• Mission: What is a Sense of Community?Definition

• Strategies: Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community

• Closing

Protocols

• Assume Good Intentions

• Ouch/Oops

• Make the experience work

• Right to Pass

• Others?

The Container Concept

Not all Containers are Alike

We Have Choices…We have Influence…

What are the qualities of your container?

VISION:

WHY CREATE A SENSE OF COMMUNITY?

Think about young people (between 2 - 20 years of age) with whom you work or come into contact with on a regular basis.

What skills, qualities, and attributes do you want them to have 20 years from now (when they are between 25 - 34 years of age)?

VISION

• HONEST     • CREATIVE

• EMPATHETIC     • RESPECT

• RESPONSIBLE    • MOTIVATED

• SELF RESPECT • RELIABLE

• LITERATE   • EMPLOYED

• CONFIDENT     • HEALTHY

• SELF SUFFICIENT • HUMOR• SENSE OF HUMOR• INDEPENDENT

• PERSEVERENCE

• RESOURCEFUL

• PROBLEM SOLVERS

• GOOD COMMUNICATOR

• LOVING

• LOYAL • RESILIENT

• CARING • PATIENT

• HAPPY • AT PEACE

• INTEGRITY • RESOURCEFUL

• SUCCESSFUL • CONTRIBUTOR

• FORGIVING • GOOD PARENTS

• POSITIVE ATTITUDE

• WELL-INFORMED

• GET ALONG W/ OTHERS

• GOOD SELF ESTEEM

• CRITICAL THINKER

• COMPASSIONATE

• PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS

•

FREES THE BRAIN FOR LEARNING

Caine and Caine refer to “relaxed alertness” as when the brain is at its best for learning.

Brain-Compatible ElementsFor Learning

• Absence of threat• Meaningful content• Choices• Adequate time• Enriched environment• Collaboration• Immediate feedback• Mastery (application)From ITI: The Model, Integrated Thematic Instruction, by Susan Kovalik, 1994

CASEL STUDY*

* Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning

www.casel.org

… four-year study confirming that school-based social and emotional learning programs that help students build positive relationships, develop empathy, and resolve conflicts respect-fully and cooperatively also have a positive effect on academic performance.

(from article by International Institute for Restorative Practices: www.safersanerschools.org/library/caselstudy.html)

Supports Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

See www.CASEL.org

Teach SEL Competencies

• Self-awareness• Social awareness• Self-management• Relationship skills• Responsible decision making

GreaterAttachment,

Engagement, & Commitment

to School

Less Risky Behavior, More

Assets, MorePositive

Development

Better Academic

Performanceand Success

in School and Life

Safe, Caring, Challenging,

Well-Managed ,

ParticipatoryLearning

Environments

How SEL Supports Good Outcomes for Young People

http://www.casel.org/downloads/Safe%20and%20Sound/2B_Performance.pdf

Resiliency through Positivity

• Joy• Gratitude• Serenity• Interest• Hope

• Pride• Amusement• Inspiration• Awe• Love

From: Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York, NY: Crown Archetype.

Positivity

1. Broadens our minds and our hearts

2. Transforms us for the better

3. Fuels Resilience

1. Asking questions and focusing outward (open to new ideas)

2. Connectivity and attunement of the team. More responsive to one another

3. Bouncing back from adversity rather than getting stuck in self-absorbed advocacy

Positivity Ratio

The Tipping PointFlourishing = 3 to 1

“… only when positivity ratios are higher than 3 to 1 is positivity in sufficient supply to seed human flourishing.” (Fredrickson, 2009)

A Place for Negativity

• Specific negative emotions help us focus and take action (such as in resolving or transforming conflict). Global and unfocused negative emotions overwhelm and poison us.

• The difference between anger and contempt or guilt and shame

WHY? Motivation/Rationale/Vision

Why intentionally create a sense of community in your setting?

MISSION:

WHAT IS A SENSE OF COMMUNITY?

From Group to Community“In genuine community there are no sides. It is not always easy but by the time they reach community the members have learned how to give up cliques and factions. They have learned how to listen to each other and how not to reject each other. Sometimes consensus in community is reached with miraculous rapidity. But at other times it is arrived at only after lengthy struggle. Just because it is a safe place does not mean community is a place without conflict. It is, however, a place where conflict can be resolved without physical or emotional bloodshed and with wisdom as well as grace. A community is a group that can fight gracefully.” ~ M. Scott Peck M.D.

Thomas Sergiovanni states that “the need for community is universal. A sense of belonging, of continuity, of being connected to others and to ideas and values that make our lives meaningful and significant -- these needs are shared by all of us.”

Sergiovanni goes on to say: “… Communities are collections of individuals who are bonded together by natural will and who are together binded to a set of shared ideas and ideals. This bonding and binding is tight enough to transform them from a collection of “I’s” into a collective “we.” As a “we,” members are part of a tightly knit web of meaningful relationships. This “we” usually shares a common place and over time comes to share common sentiments and traditions that are sustaining. When describing community it is helpful to speak of community kinship, of mind, of place, and of memory.”

Community is consciousness of connection, combining and comprising: Courtesy, communication, collaboration, cooperation, consideration, caring, compassion, curiosity, commonalities, common goals, confidence, creativity, courage, challenge, camaraderie, and conceivably chocolate.

CTC Group, 2004

“The people in one’s life are like the pillars on one’s porch you see life through. And sometimes they hold you up. And sometimes they lean on you, and sometimes it’s just enough to know they’re standing by.”

~ Anonymous

This is what we shall look for as we move: freedom developed by human beings who have acted to make a space for themselves in the presence of others, human beings become “challengers” ready for alternatives, alternatives that include caring and community… We want to discover how to open spaces for persons in their plurality, spaces where they can become different, where they can grow.”

It is important to hold in mind … that the person – that center of choice – develops in his/her fullness to a degree he/she is a member of a live community.

Maxine Greene (1988) The Dialectic of Freedom

WHAT?Calling/Purpose/Mission

Your definition or description of “sense of community”

STRATEGIES

CONDITIONS FOR CREATING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

• Safe and Trusting EnvironmentPhysical/Emotional Safety and Relational Trust

• Balancing “Me” and “We”Empowerment and Social Commitment

Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community

The central message of the consumer culture in which we live is: You’re the most important thing on earth. You’re the heaviest object in the universe and everything orbits around you. And we’ve enshrined this idea as ‘human nature.’ Not remembering that most people in most places have had other things very near the center of their identity – the tribe, the community, their relationship with the natural world, or the Divine – something that gave them more of a sense of identity not obsessively rooted in themselves

Bill McKibbon (Interview aired on May 26, 2007)

• PositivityPositivity ratio of 3:1Nurture the positive

• OwnershipFocus (goal setting) and the 3 R’s (Routines, rituals, responsibilities)

Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community

RitualA routine is merely something we do, a ritual has emotional significance. “Rituals are powerful because they speak to a different part of the brain than we use for thinking,” says Joyn Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Inner Peace for Busy People. That’s because rituals bypass words, connecting us to what matters through symbols or gestures. A ritual is a ceremony. A rite-of-passage is a formal ceremony.

• Intentionality Being intentionally inviting and making Time for relationship building

Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community

“People and environments are never neutral, they are either summoning or shunning the development of human potential.”

Purkey & Novak, Inviting School Success

INVITATIONAL EDUCATION

INTENTIONALLY UNINTENTIONALLY

INVITING INTENTIONALLY INVITING

UNINTENTIONALLY INVITING

DISINVITING INTENTIONALLY DISINVITING

UNINTENTIONALLY DISINVITING

HOW?Bold ideas/Actions/Strategies

See Conditions for Creating a Sense of Community

Cairns

• People• Talents/Gifts• Ideas• Insights• Inspiration• Life Experience• Family• Beliefs & Ideals• Values• Theories & Models

What Guides You? What shows you the way?

How did I add to my cairn?

Laurie FrankGOAL Consulting1337 Jenifer StreetMadison, Wisconsin 53703USA

1-608-251-2234LSFrank@mac.comwww.goalconsulting.org