Teaching to the Whole-Child

In preparation for the beginning of the school year, I thought I would write about teaching to the whole-child.  As standards have been prioritized and articulated, proficiency scales created, and planning templates established, it is just as important to think of how a teacher can develop immediate relationships with their students.  I recently had the privilege of attending a workshop presented by Clayton R. Cook PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, on the topic of using the whole-child perspective in schools.  As teachers become inundated with pressure, regulations, and a focus on standards-based evidence, teaching to the  whole-child is often abandoned.  Dr. Cook states that academic, emotional,/behavioral, and physical functioning are all interconnected and that the best academic intervention is often a behavioral intervention.  As educators, I believe that we can forget that academic struggles often stem from issues with behavior.  In today's world with failed policy, or lack there of, in issues pertaining to mental health, it has become increasingly important that schools teach using the whole-child perspective.
Caprara, Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, & Zimbardo (2000) & Malecki & Elliot (2002) have found that pro-social skills (cooperating, helping, sharing, and consoling) are a better predictor later academic achievement than is earlier academic achievement.  In thinking how the importance for dedicated time to content academic standards, dramatically increases with each revision, it is concerning to see how there is simply not enough time for teachers to explicitly teach pro-social skills.  That is where teachers have to become creative and proactive in teaching to the whole-child.
Fortunately some of the things that educators can do to create an environment of proactive classrooms are quite simple.  The following list in Dr. Cook's presentation identifies these proactive strategies:

In the slide above, many of these proactive classroom strategies are things that should be occurring naturally in day to day interactions with students.  For example, when seeing a student, a teacher should be smiling and nice, and positively greeting students at the door to precorrect and establish a positive climate.  Positive greetings can go a long way when a student has had a difficult night or morning before school.  The strategy of "Morning Meetings" can be used to build these proactive strategies and strengthen classroom relationships.  They provide an opportunity to explicitly teach to the whole-child. I view adult relationships in the same way when interacting with students.  For more information on the impact of "Morning Meetings" read the Morning Meeting Book, and Awaken the Learner (see below).  When connected, the ideas from these two resources will have a powerful impact on the lives of your students.  Teachers are not any different than their students in that they may have had an extremely difficult night before school, and simply need a positive interaction before starting the day.  What is important is that we are being proactive in establishing a positive environment for students and adults.

In his book, Unmistakable Impact, Jim Knight dedicates a chapter of this book to the importance of partnership communication.  In reality, these communication skills can be transferred to student relationships, personal and professional relationships, and parenting.  This type of communication relies heavily on the importance of a genuine love for your surrounding people.  Knight states that if love is the defining characteristic of successful airlines, food stores, running shoe companies, and car makers, surely it has an important place in school.  Most educators talk about loving their students, but that is about as far as the conversation goes."  He continues on to say how change leaders need to build this within schools, but I don't think it should rest all on the shoulders of these leaders.  If schools are built on the concepts of teams, than every person involved with schools should adhere to the idea of building the emotional connection of love.

To Summarize:

• Academic struggles often stem from behavior or emotional problems
• Remember the importance of teaching to the whole-child
• Be proactive!!
• Use proactive strategies to build emotional connections with students.
• Everyone can provide an environment of love.

Resources for further information:

-The Morning Meeting Book, by Roxann Kriete and Carol Davis

-Awaken the Learner, by Robert Marzano and Darrell Scott

-http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-relationships-strategies-tips

-Classroom Management, by Martin Henley

-Mindset, by Carol Dweck

-http://www.rachelschallenge.org/

Have a great start to the year!