Building Community: Belonging and Connection in the Classroom
The focus of this podcast episode revolves around the imperative of fostering a sense of belonging and connection within the educational milieu. Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, elucidates the significance of establishing community ties not only for students but also for staff, contending that such connections are foundational to the overall educational experience. He recounts his recent community tour, which served to illuminate the cultural and historical contexts from which students emerge, thereby enhancing the educators' understanding of their students' lives. This endeavor is posited as essential for cultivating empathy and empowering teachers to engage meaningfully with their students. Ultimately, the episode advocates for a proactive approach to community engagement, emphasizing that educators must endeavor to comprehend the environments in which their students reside to inspire greatness effectively.
Delving into the profound significance of fostering a sense of belonging and connection within educational institutions, Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, articulates the essentiality of community in the classroom. The discussion commences with an exploration of the initial days of a new academic year, emphasizing the pivotal role that establishing relationships plays not only for students but also for faculty members. As he recounts his recent experiences in the Winnebago Public School District, he highlights the importance of understanding the cultural and historical context of the students' backgrounds. By embarking on a community tour, educators gain invaluable insights into the lives of their students, which can significantly enhance their approach to teaching and learning. This episode underscores that building community is not merely a peripheral endeavor; instead, it is a foundational aspect of effective teaching that cultivates an environment conducive to learning and growth.
Moreover, Mr. Kleve emphasizes how laughter and joy among colleagues can fortify trust and camaraderie, thus creating a supportive school culture. He posits that community engagement extends beyond the classroom walls, asserting that educators must immerse themselves in the communities they serve. The podcast encourages teachers to initiate their own community explorations, thereby fostering authentic connections with students and their families. Ultimately, this episode serves as a clarion call for educators to recognize the profound impact that community and belonging have on the educational experience, advocating for a holistic approach to teaching that champions empathy, understanding, and collaboration across all stakeholders involved in the educational process.
Takeaways:
- The establishment of belonging and connection within the classroom is paramount for fostering a supportive learning environment for both students and educators.
- Engaging with the community through tours allows educators to gain invaluable insights into the lives and backgrounds of their students, which enhances relationship building.
- Professional development that emphasizes community involvement cultivates empathy and understanding among teachers, ultimately benefiting the student-teacher dynamic.
- It is essential for educators to explore the neighborhoods where their students reside in order to better understand the cultural contexts that influence their learning experiences.
- Creating a sense of community within the classroom requires intentional efforts, including building relationships that extend beyond academic interactions.
- The importance of recognizing and appreciating the diverse experiences of students contributes significantly to a positive school culture.
Links referenced in this episode:
- BeAFunkyTeacher.com
Companies mentioned in this episode:
• Be a Funky Teacher
• Winnebago Public Schools
• South Sioux City School District
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:He'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Well, I'm going to start this podcast off with three rings.
Speaker B:I am thankful for today.
Speaker B:This reflecting on the last 24 hours.
Speaker B:I am thankful for my working Toyota RAV4 that has almost 200,000 miles on it.
Speaker B:I bought this vehicle from my cousin and it's nothing fancy, but it does get me where I need to be.
Speaker B:It helps me to haul my gear.
Speaker B:It helps me to get back and forth to school.
Speaker B:My new school down in Winnebago and it's just taking care of what I need to do.
Speaker B:I, I really like it.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:And it's a little adventure mobile for me as well.
Speaker B:Taking me to my adventures.
Speaker B:Second thing I'm thankful for laughter with the new staff yesterday.
Speaker B: was my first day back of the: Speaker B:But I'm not coming coming back to school but I'm coming to a new school district.
Speaker B:Very exciting to be at the Winnebago Public School District and just getting to meet the new fellow new staff there.
Speaker B:The we had some laughter with the new staff and I just the laughter that we had yesterday was what I'm, what I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:You know, nothing builds trust faster than sharing joy and laughter with colleagues who care.
Speaker B:And I can already tell just the colleagues that I met with yesterday.
Speaker B:The colleagues we met with administration yesterday and went through some stuff.
Speaker B:I can tell that they're there for the right reasons.
Speaker B:And it's just I'm so excited to be able to get to work with them in, in our, our new school district and we can kind of learn and grow together as teachers who are new to this district.
Speaker B:And the third thing I'm thankful for, screws.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:Because with Screws.
Speaker B:I built some really cool movie moving shelves.
Speaker B:Like moving shelf things that I can put under.
Speaker B:Not shelves, but they're.
Speaker B:What are they?
Speaker B:Like, little, like scooter things, almost where I can move stuff easier and maneuver stuff in my classroom.
Speaker B:I've built other, many other things over the years.
Speaker B:Now I just was thinking last night how appreciative I am of screws and how they.
Speaker B:There's a power in using them to create really cool, useful things that can make spaces a lot more functional.
Speaker B:So it seems silly, but it's really not because of how powerful and important they are.
Speaker B:So sometimes it's the smallest things, a vehicle, a laugh, or a handful of screws that could be so powerful and be so meaningful to us as individuals.
Speaker B:I'm trying to think about, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to start every single podcast with three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:It's kind of a, a new thing I'm starting to do because I, you know, my mom, Peggy Cleave, she was very big when she was alive.
Speaker B:She was really big on having gratitude and being thankful for what you have and thinking about, you know, three things that you're thankful for every day.
Speaker B:And so I'm trying to lean into that a little bit more here with this new school year.
Speaker B:Trying to be humble, be, be grateful, be thankful for, for what I have big things and little things.
Speaker B:And so I, I've challenged myself to think every day that I do this podcast, hey, what are three things I am thankful for?
Speaker B:And so that's something that you're going to see in, in coming into these podcasts.
Speaker B:Every, every podcast I'm going to start with, hey, what I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:I, I challenge you to do the same as well.
Speaker B:I is just there's, there's nothing more powerful and humbling than thinking about what we're thankful for.
Speaker B:All right, the next part of this podcast is reflecting on yesterday's day one and a highlight of day one.
Speaker B:We had really the, the theme of this podcast is why every teacher should start the year with a community tour.
Speaker B:Now, yesterday we got the tour tour the Winnebago community.
Speaker B:It was wonderful.
Speaker B:We, we, we loaded up in a vehicle, loaded up in a van.
Speaker B:Now our school district's on the smaller side.
Speaker B:I, I've been in a little bit bigger of a school district with sour soup.
Speaker B:Winnebago is kind of smaller.
Speaker B:We load it up in a, in a van and started to tour the Winnebago reservation and the neighborhoods where Our students are going to be coming from to the, you know, this just wasn't about seeing the streets.
Speaker B:It was about trying to understand the story, the culture and the history that shapes our students lives and where they're coming from.
Speaker B:Before we can expect students to learn from us, we need to be willing to learn from them, you know, and that really does start with where they live and what matters to their community.
Speaker B:So looking at where they live, looking at it was great too because we, when we were driving around we saw some kids and it was kind of funny because we had some kids, you know, that were waving and we had some kids that saw the school of band and ran inside like no, you're not coming for me yet, school's not starting.
Speaker B:So, so kind of made me, kind of made me smile.
Speaker B:You know, the different kids reactions to seeing the school van driving around just kind of this made me laugh but made me smile too.
Speaker B:And just knowing that in a very short time next week that these kids are going to be coming to our school and going to be ready to work with us or ready or not.
Speaker B:They might not be ready, but yet we're going to take them where they're at and try to set them up for, for some lifelong success.
Speaker B:So that, that was such a highlight getting a tour the community yesterday.
Speaker B:And I just can't help to think what a powerful thing this is.
Speaker B:Why do all schools not do this?
Speaker B:I think all schools and all school districts should do this.
Speaker B:I think of, I'm just thinking of when I was in South Sioux City sometimes I would do home visits for if I had to do, I had to follow up on like a parent teacher conference to finish.
Speaker B:If it wasn't happening at school for whatever reason, you know, I would go out to the schools.
Speaker B:I, I even during the COVID time I did, we got to go out and wave at kids in their homes.
Speaker B:And that was, that was great getting to this travel to the neighborhoods to wave the kids outside their homes during the COVID time.
Speaker B:And just as I think about this, I would say whether a district is really affluent or if it's high poverty or whatever a community looks like.
Speaker B:I think this community based professional development matters where you're getting the school staff out into the community.
Speaker B:Especially if they're not from the community, especially if they don't live in the community.
Speaker B:We just thinking about yesterday, our tour guide, she lived in a community and she was, she's in the passenger seat.
Speaker B:She was this neat woman who just, she has her own children are in the School district.
Speaker B:She is very vested into the school district.
Speaker B:It was very happy and proud to talk about the community, talk about the layout of how the neighborhoods are in Winnebago.
Speaker B:That was powerful and that was exciting to see.
Speaker B:So when students talk about different areas and even like when they talk about different slang, sometimes they describe different areas of the community with slang terms and getting to understand some of those terms too.
Speaker B:Or if they talk about, hey, they're, they're doing something in a certain part of town, we know what they're talking about.
Speaker B:It just makes our interactions and our relationship building with students to be that much more powerful.
Speaker B:And I think that any school district and any school should be doing this.
Speaker B:I don't care if they have to load up every school bus in the district, taking them around, taking teachers and paraprofessionals around to explore the communities.
Speaker B:I think it's valuable and I think it could be useful.
Speaker B:And I actually, my former principal, Ben Schultz, a great principal out of South Sioux City, he and I had this conversation about he got to do that as an administrator in one of his school districts that he was in, I think out of Omaha, where they got to go around and kind of tour the community and explore the community.
Speaker B:Out of Omaha, Nebraska when he, when he was there before South Sioux City and he talked about how powerful that was.
Speaker B:So I do know that there are some school districts who are doing this.
Speaker B:I don't know how many, but boy, it was, it was so exciting to see our, our school district and Winnebago doing that.
Speaker B:That got me so excited.
Speaker B:I do think that it gives teachers and staff members context before the content.
Speaker B:It can help grow teachers empathy and compassion when seeing students worlds beyond the classroom walls.
Speaker B:How powerful that that is.
Speaker B:This isn't just an extra thing or just a thing just to check off.
Speaker B:This is, I would say this is essential.
Speaker B:Professional development can really help shape how we teach, how we relate to our students and how we build belonging within our classroom walls.
Speaker B:You know, I think about how this tour changed my lens just seeing the community.
Speaker B:Well, it definitely helps me understand some of the, some of the names of some of the neighborhoods that students will use and students refer to some of the slang terms.
Speaker B:It helped me see that there is actually interesting enough, I mean, there was a couple of houses that, that had chickens running around outside their house.
Speaker B:There was one house that has a pig in a community.
Speaker B:Hearing some of the people living in the community, our tour guide mentioned some of the names that lived in the community and just kind of how the person who was giving the tour related to the community and talked about, helped me to connect and, and already gives me a step up on and how I can build those connections with my students.
Speaker B:And boy, that, that gets that that's pretty, pretty awesome that I got to be a part of that.
Speaker B:It, you know, and I do also think that is it getting to visit a community and to explore the, the layout of a community and it does encourage leaders to really think in terms of that.
Speaker B:It's not just about teachers teaching students.
Speaker B:It's a community effort.
Speaker B:It's a community effort.
Speaker B:It's just not just what we do in the four walls of our classrooms.
Speaker B:It's that village mentality that it takes that village and it sure does.
Speaker B:And I don't care what school or what school district you're in, it takes a community effort.
Speaker B:And I think it kind of set the tone for all of us new teachers coming in to this district.
Speaker B:Well, I'm a veteran teacher, I'm new to this district and it really set the tone in my mind that hey, the community is really important.
Speaker B:The community is really invested in the student success and student learning.
Speaker B:And so when you see the heart of our students world, it can teach us more than just strategy, it can really teach us soul as educators.
Speaker B:So if your school does not offer something like this, I want to encourage you to create your own version of it.
Speaker B:Well, first off, maybe you can approach your principal.
Speaker B:If you're listening to this as a teacher, reach out to your principal, say hey, is this possible for our staff?
Speaker B:Because maybe we've never done it before or is this possible for our new teachers?
Speaker B:Or if that's not a reality, that's not something that can happen.
Speaker B:Well, maybe you can create your own type of thing, type of community walk where you're talking with families or attending some local events, or walking the neighborhoods, or biking the neighborhoods or driving the neighborhoods of where your students live just to get a better sense of, of the community and what that looks like and what that feels like it, you know, and I'd ask you, I challenge you to ask yourself this question.
Speaker B:What's one way that you can connect with students community this week or the first week of your school, whenever your school week is starting, what is one way you can connect that to the community?
Speaker B:Not just the students coming in.
Speaker B:And we know that how important relationship building is with students, but how can you connect to the community at large and the community that your students are coming from, the neighborhoods that your students are coming to you from.
Speaker B:Once again, it doesn't matter how.
Speaker B:It doesn't matter the socioeconomics.
Speaker B:I think that every teacher, every staff member should be out in the community seeing where our students are coming from that feed into our schools.
Speaker B:So Community Connection.
Speaker B:All right, let me say that again, because I'm trying to think how I want to say that here.
Speaker B:Community Connection builds truly authentic classrooms.
Speaker B:If we want to inspire greatness, y', all, if we want to inspire greatness in young people, we have to know where they're coming from.
Speaker B:We have to see where they're coming from.
Speaker B:We have to feel where they're coming from.
Speaker B:So, that being said, I want to remind you to remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye, now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky teacher?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
