Create a Long Lasting, Positive Impact on Learners

It’s been two years since our youngest son, Nolan, left fourth grade. He’s about to enter middle school, yet, it’s evident that his fourth grade teacher, made an incredible impact on him. It’s not because it was one of his most successful academic years, although it really was one of his best years in terms of academic growth. What made his fourth grade year one that has left a lasting impact- two years and counting, is the way his teacher embraced every single child for who they were as individuals and genuinely seemed to love and appreciate each child, despite challenges they may have presented. She is the kind of teacher that no matter what, makes every single child feel significant.

Sometimes It’s the Little Things That Matter Most

At some point each day, I walk into Nolan’s room. Beside his bed on his night stand, it’s not some past report card that is sitting framed, proudly displayed. Rather, it’s a class project that his teacher thoughtfully created at the end of the school year. This picture has been moved around on occasion but is always on display. While other items come and go, this one is a mainstay. However, for about 5 months, it’s sat right on his night stand and it’s the first thing he sees when he wakes and the last thing before going to sleep.

It’s easy to walk past items in our homes that sit in the same place day-after-day, but a few days ago I caught Nolan laying in bed with the picture in his hand as he gazed at it. As I sat down beside him he began reminiscing. He said, “mom, I remember being in class that year and how we rotated around the room to each of my friend’s desk. On each desk was a piece of paper. When we got to each spot, we wrote down an adjective or a strength that described each kid.” Nolan sat up proudly and continued, “after we finished, it was so awesome to see how everyone viewed me.”

Our kids want and need to be seen. They need to be honored for who they are within and we need educators to draw on the strengths of every individual, helping them to see that they have meaningful contributions to share with the world.

#LEAPeffect

Once the lists of adjectives and strengths that students contributed to were complete, Nolan’s teacher created a word cloud in a specific shape that represented something that they child was interested in or passionate about. She even tailored the color scheme to each child. Nolan’s word cloud was in the shape of a snail because that year he had an obsession with snails. Of course, his obsession wasn’t with some cute snail stuffed animal, we’re talking the real deal. Nolan had found a few snails in our yard, and before we knew it, we had a colony of snails in a terrarium, that’s right- they reproduced at least a hundred eggs! He’d spend hours observing their development and adding to their habitat. Many teachers wouldn’t have allowed our snail family in their classroom, but they were embraced just like she did every child who came into her classroom– they were something meaningful to Nolan and she valued his curiosity and interest.

To this day, it’s not just about the picture or the words used to describe Nolan, but it was ultimately the relationships and classroom culture that made a substantial lasting impact on him. I say this because children are very perceptive and while some teachers may say how much they value each child, if it is not felt through body language, tone, and consistent daily interaction, kids see right through the fluff. We are forever grateful for teachers who go the extra mile and really demonstrate they care. Creating a long lasting, positive impact should be a priority for all educators. Below are some L.E.A.P. tips on how you can be the one who is remembered for years to come, and possibly influence a lifetime.

The acronym of L.E.A.P. is broken down as:

• L.uminous Culture—Shine a light on every individual’s creative potential.
• E.mpowered Learning—Encourage students to take ownership of their education.
• A.uthenticity in Learning—Tap into passions to create relevant learning experiences.
• P.otential Soars—Ignite a movement of inspired, confident learners.

5 L.E.A.P. Tips to Create a Long Lasting, Positive Impact

Relationships First

Positive, authentic relationships between us and our students- as well as peer-to-peer relationships- help to foster a fertile learning environment where new ideas are encouraged to germinate and abilities, intelligence, talents and tenacity grow. Greet your students at the door, talk to them about interests outside of school and fine ways to incorporate humor as well (as long as it’s not at the expense of a child). Connecting through demonstrating vulnerability (sharing some of the areas we once struggled in at school) can also be beneficial as it helps learners relate to us.

Every Individual Deeply Matters

We can say that every child deeply matters, but if a student sees their teacher roll their eyes to their colleague(s) or talk about them or another child, you run the risk of losing trust. Show kids that they deeply matter by sitting with them individually, listening, joining or inviting them to lunch, engaging students in activities that develop their sense of self; developing their confidence. Ensure you are walking the talk, remember every single child is someone’s whole world.

The Strengths and Interests of Each Child are Identified and Honored

If you look back on last school year and aren’t sure what the strengths and interests are of each of your learners, I highly encourage you to explore how you can create a culture where every child feels honored for their unique self. Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E. is an excellent framework, with ready to use lessons, that help learners to begin identifying their strengths and interests and then how to leverage them. Additionally, in my classroom we dedicated a bulletin board to highlight each child in our class. We started out with pictures of each that connected with the book, The Best Part of Me. Throughout the year we added to the board, and learners had autonomy on what they wanted posted in their space. We also encouraged classmates to leave kind comments on strips of paper for their peers such as: You are exceptional because_______. Or thank you for _______. These small acts of recognition can have a substantial influence, encouraging learners to contribute more of their positive attributes. Additionally, throughout the year, we carved out time to create in our makerspace and learn through passion projects- empowering learners to explore and develop their interests.

Collaboratively Create a Shared Classroom Vision, Fostering Community

Rather than sharing class rules or expectations on the first day of school, ask learners how they would like their classroom environment and learning to look and feel. It can be helpful to first engage in an independent brainstorm prior to sharing out to avoid the influence of group think. In our class, we reflected individually and then discussed our thoughts with a partner. From there, learners could make adjustments or add on. Next, the pair partnered up with another team of two and followed the same routine. Afterwards, each group of ~4 shared their ideas with the entire class. I jotted their ideas down on chart paper as they shared. Together we looked for overlapping ideas to then create a classroom vision to foster community.

Develop Ownership to Increase Motivation

We can empower learners as leaders by developing classroom ownership. What jobs are you currently doing that could be done by students? When we provide leadership opportunities, learners develop a new sense of classroom ownership. Our class had all of the classic jobs which entailed sharpening pencils and emptying the recycling, but we also developed roles that I knew learners would be even more eager to help with. For instance, it wasn’t me who called students to line up in order of their lunch choice, it was one of their peers. When we empower learners as leaders, autonomy increases, and students begin assuming more responsibility and naturally develop greater pride in their class and education. We included additional jobs that highly motivated learners such as:

• Social Media Experts: taking pictures of awesome learning or projects that they noticed or that others pointed out to share on social media.
• Online Newsletter Creators: different teams wrote our learning targets and what we were doing to work toward them and then I added them to our online newsletter. They included special happenings and any extra information students thought families might be interested in.
• Video Creators for Learning: learners created mini tutorials of how to work through a specific math problem or even how to create inventions using Little Bits. This responsibility was all about documenting the cool learning, exploration, and discovery that took place in addition to explaining strategies pertaining to learning content.
• Character Trait Videos: this team worked on a storyboard to communicate the monthly character trait and how they could help others understand what it means through acting out a skit.

Everything created was then posted to our online newsletter that was updated frequently for families and learners alike. When you empower learners to create the content, it is more likely to be viewed by parents. Instead of my paper newsletter ending up in the garbage at home, families were sending emails thanking me for putting everything online in an engaging way. Plus, families raved about the math tutorials as they saved headaches at home if they were trying to help their child with a concept. The bonus was that each of these jobs required a team approach fostering communication and collaboration, and incorporated numerous standards for learning including speaking, listening, and certain ELA and Math standards as well.

The Impact of a Teacher Lasts a Lifetime

Each of the L.E.A.P. tips shared has the potential to leave a significant, lasting impact on learners. Every child thrives with relationships, understanding that they truly matter and are needed. If we can also help learners to identify, leverage and celebrate their strengths and interests, we begin to develop agency. Together, let’s create a classroom culture where every child is embraced and ownership is cultivated to increase motivation and inspire learning.