You Are Not Alone

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By Aleta Margolis , Founder and President

This past week flags flew at half-staff in my hometown of Washington, DC to honor and mourn the six people, three children and three adults, who were murdered in a school shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Walking through downtown DC and looking up at so many lowered flags, I felt a combination of rage about the prevalence of guns in our country, deep sadness about the loss of life, and worry about my teaching colleagues everywhere who are struggling to support students through yet another school shooting, and wondering, “What can we say to them?”

After spending the last several weeks thinking about school connectedness, it seems the appropriate thing to say is, “You are not alone.” If you love Stephen Sondheim as I do, that phrase will start a melody playing in your head. Sondheim’s iconic song?“No One Is Alone” includes the beautiful line, “Someone is on your side.”

What would it take for every single child in every single school to feel in their bones that someone is on their side - that they can count on someone having their back no matter what?

Here are a few places to start, in order to make that a reality:??

• Make?lessons relevant.?Interesting-Important-Useful?will ensure your students’ voices and interests are at the heart of instruction. And this will let them know they are valued.
• Use classroom and hallway walls as places to reflect the people who make up the school community.?Begin with your classroom, see what’s on the walls, on the shelves, everywhere, and ask, “How much of this space reflects the students?”?This activity?will help you think this through. And?this activity?will help you reflect on the messages you are sending your students via the posters on your walls. Are students feeling welcomed and appreciated? Or are they feeling “contained” or “managed?”
• Find ways for community members to tell their stories.?Profile pages?enable students – and teachers! – to share important aspects of their identity, while building skills in writing, reading, and speaking.?Schools can also seek out?opportunities for sharing cultural heritage and background. From school wide recipe collections to oral history libraries?to potlucks and international nights these opportunities build both connection and pride.
• Make art together.?Create a mural – on a permanent space like a hallway or stairwell wall, or on a long piece of butcher paper. The mural can be as simple as a handprint or thumbprint from each member of the school community. Or it can be more involved, connecting to the curriculum by speaking to the values of the school, its history, or notable qualities of the community in which it sits.

Flags at half mast remind us that we are not alone when tragedy strikes. But what is the equivalent of flags at half mast to show us we are not alone when we’re simply doing our best to learn through each day??May we all find ways?this week?to reach out and acknowledge one another, to create spaces where all are welcome, and to nurture a sense of connection in the communities we share.?

Resources for Building School Connectedness

Interesting/Important/Useful

A key to building community in your classroom is recognizing and appreciating what your students find important. That can be difficult as adults, because a lot of times we don’t value the same things they do. But creating space for students to talk about what matters to them can go a long way toward bridging that gap.

Poster Analysis

Walk into a classroom and you will see posters with information that communicate expectations to students. Some posters are required by the school. Others are of our own choosing. Have you ever stopped to think about how they tell students about your beliefs about children – intentionally or unintentionally?

Celebrating Your School's Cultural Diversity

This?Edutopia?article by Clare Roach offers several concrete recommendations for how to?plan and manage a vibrant Culture Night, anchored in the social studies curriculum and?involving?the whole school community.