When I asked how I would create a safe space within my future classroom, I immediately thought of  Dr. Martin Brokenleg’s Circle of Courage (above).   This video discusses the philosophy and practice, of nurturing confident, kind and self-determining young people, much better than I could.

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

– Alexander Den Heijer

In practice I believe this looks like; mindful relationship building, open communication with families. I believe that this means holding space for my students to show up every day as their authentic selves and making each student’s wholistic well-being a priority during out time together.   I believe that this means ensuring equitable access for all learners for all lessons and the representation of diversity in the materials that I choose to incorporate into the learning. I believe that this means providing  students with choice+voice over spaces that they choose to work in, the material that we cover, how they would best like to demonstrate their learning and fostering practice of  self-reflection/assessment that is built into the learning.  I believe that this means co-creating clear criteria, using the proficiency scale over grades,  teaching to the core competencies and incorporating FPPL as pedagogy within the classroom community. 

“Our real job as adults is to empower our young people so that they do not need us anymore”

-Dr. Martin Brokenleg

 

::Resource::

Circle of Courage graphic via the Government of Manitoba

Dr. Martin Brokenleg’s Website

The Circle of Courage and Positive Psychology by Larry Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg and Steve Van Bockern