Inquiry & Design Institute June , 2007 Those who are required to memorize the world as it is will never create the world as it might be. Anonymous Day 1

 What is community?  Why create community in schools?  Experiencing community building  Ground Rules  Create base teams  Research on community building  Definition of Community  Vision for community building Day 1, 2, 3, 4  KWG (Know, Want to know, Gems of Insight/learning)  Base team question/s DAY 2, 3, 4  What are the conditions for a community to develop?  How do we achieve our vision of creating a classroom community?  How do we build community in the classroom with intention?  Community building tools  Facilitator knowledge  Learning styles and Inquiry model Day 4  How can a strong classroom community support academic learning?  How can community building and content be integrated?  Activity sharing  Action planning.

WHY BUILD COMMUNITY? WHAT IS COMMUNITY?

Ground Rules  Don’t talk over each other  Listen and paraphrase  Respect  No put downs  Focus attention on speaker  Agree/disagree with idea not person  Right to pass  Respect confidentiality  Ouch

VISION HONEST CREATIVE EMPATHETIC RESPECT RESPONSIBLE MOTIVATED SELF RESPECT RELIABLE LITERATE EMPLOYED CONFIDENT HEALTHY SELF SUFFICIENT SENSE OF HUMOR INDEPENDENT PERSEVERENCE RESOURCEFUL PROBLEM SOLVERS GOOD COMMUNICATOR LOYAL RESILIENT CARING PATIENT HAPPY AT PEACE INTEGRITY RESOURCEFUL SUCCESSFUL CONTRIBUTER FORGIVING GOOD PARENTS POSITIVE ATTITUDE WELL-INFORMED GET ALONG W/ OTHERS GOOD SELF ESTEEM CRITICAL THINKER COMPASSIONATE PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS

Creates a Safe Environment: It’s about Prevention “Recent research showed that teachers only intervened in four percent or one out of twenty-five bullying incidents, although teachers thought they’d intervened in 71%. Youth can be very good at hiding bullying behaviors from adults.” From: Sticks and Stones…: Changing the dynamics of bullying and youth violence (1999) by Katherine J. Kocs., MSW. Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resource

Frees the Brain for Learning Caine and Caine refer to “relaxed alertness” as when the brain is at it’s best for learning.

Supports Academic Learning From: Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Wang, M.C., and Walberg, H.J, eds. (2004). Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What does the research say? New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Helps Youth Gain Assets From: The Search Institute:

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. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace

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.”

Swimming to the Other Side © Pat Humphries Chorus: We are living 'neath the great Big Dipper We are washed by the very same rain We are swimming in the stream together Some in power and some in pain We can worship this ground we walk on Cherishing the beings that we live beside Loving spirits will live forever We're all Swimming to the Other Side I am alone and I am searching Hungering for answers in my time I am balanced at the brink of wisdom I'm impatient to receive a sign I move forward with my senses open Imperfection it be my crime In humility I will listen, We're all Swimming to the Other Side Chorus On this journey through thoughts and feelings Binding intuition my head, my heart I am gathering the tools together I'm preparing to do my part All of those who have come before me Band together to be my guide Loving lessons that I will follow We're all Swimming to the Other Side Chorus When we get there we'll discover All of the gifts we've been given to share Have been with us since life's beginning and We never noticed they were there We can balance at the brink of wisdom Never recognizing that we've arrived Loving spirits will live together We're all Swimming to the Other Side Chorus

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.”

“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

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

To those that make it back to live and fight the struggles of their people To those that give up, and to those who do not care To those who abuse themselves and others and those who revive again To those who are physically, mentally, or spiritually incapable by accident or by birth To those who seek strength in our spirituality, and ways of life, and those who exploit it Even our own To those who fall for the lies and join the dividing lines that keep us fighting amongst each other To the outsiders who step in, good or bad, and those of us who don’t know better To the leaders and prisoners of war, politics, crime, race, and religion Innocent or guilty To the young, the old, the living, and the dead To our brothers and sisters, and all living things Across mother earth, and her beauty Would destroy it, and deny the honor that the Creator has given each individual The truth that lies in our hearts All my relations All My Relations by Ulali To our elders who teach us of our creation and our past So we may preserve Mother Earth for ancestors yet to come. We are the land This is dedicated to our relatives before us thousands of years ago And to the 150 million who were exterminated across the western hemisphere In the first 400 years time, starting in 1492 To those who have kept their homelands And to the nations extinct due to mass slaughter, slavery, deportation and disease unknown to them, and to the ones who are subjected to the same treatment today To the ones who survived the relocations and the ones who died along the way To those who carried on traditions and lived strong among their people To those who left their communities by force or by choice, and for generations no longer know who they are To those who search and never find To those that turn away the so-called non- accepted To those that bring us together, and to those living outside keeping touch the voice for many