Sustaining Culture and Community

Pictured above: Seventh and eighth-grade students in morning advisory with Spanish teacher and Advisor, Dareth.

At FSP, all teachers spend significant time at the start of school working intensively on getting to know one another, building community, understanding identity, and creating our classroom agreements for the year.  This is the foundation on which we build open communication and welcoming and respectful classroom communities.  It is the foundation students need to take the risks necessary to learn.

Though the initial work of building community takes about six weeks, sustaining that community is an ongoing process. This takes place in the whole-school rituals that sustain our community– Monday Meeting for Worship, Wednesday All School Community Meeting, and Friday Assemblies.  Classroom communities also engage in regular rituals. Each morning, teachers hold morning meetings in which students hold silence, greet one another, and welcome each other into the classroom.  Meeting times are also used for sharing news, holding silence, playing team-building games, or working together to solve issues that arise.

Teachers spend time each week (and often each day) building community and supporting students around social-emotional skills as opportunities arise.  This week, for example, one teacher worked with students to manage a conflict they were having.  Another led a class discussion about how to better support everyone to feel respected and valued.  Another worked with a student on giving a clear message to classmates. A class spent time revisiting its agreements.  A pedagogical approach that asks students to co-construct learning in community also requires ongoing work on the skills of negotiation, problem-solving, and approaching learning using the lenses of justice and equity. 

Nurturing a learning community in which each person can both share their own Light and recognize the Light in others takes daily work. It takes a recognition that progress is not linear, and that it is through asking questions, taking action, reflecting on our practices, and doing better the next time that we will continue to grow individually and as a community.  It is through this daily practice and close attention to our interactions at all levels that we can sustain FSP’s culture and community.