Christmas WS's!Yet again our guest blogger, Joanne Arcand, brings up a topic we had no idea existed. Today, she talks about the advantages of the TRIBES schools.
By Joanne Arcand
Have you run into a TRIBES trained teacher yet? I have taught at a few TRIBES schools and they’re pretty amazing. The teachers who follow the TRIBES methodology with all their heart seem to be lucky and have the polite, attentive kids every year.
Maybe the teacher is dating the Principal and gets the first choice of students during reorganization. Maybe they have bribed the kids with a pizza party if the supply teacher writes a good report.
Perhaps the teacher told them I was like that teacher in wayside school who could wriggle her nose and turn kids into apples. Better not wriggle my nose, just in case it throws them into a panic attack.
I actually know it’s the simple fact that they have bought into the TRIBES idea.
If you are a parent of a child in a TRIBES school, my advice is to use it to your advantage. Kids today are being asked to learn fast, because the jobs they will be applying for do not (in most cases) even exist right now. We can’t expect to train them for all possibilities. We can be expected to give them all the tools they will need to learn the skills when they are expected to learn them. This means learning basic math techniques and facts, learning nutrition, basic biology and ecology, persuasive reasoning, literacy skills, and the ability to identify and support the skills in those around us.
It is this ability to ‘identify and support the skills in those around us’ that I rely on to find a good plumber, electrician, doctor, auto mechanic, lawyer, and all those other specialized fields that I can’t possibly fit into my tiny cranium without pushing other information out. These collaboration skills are needed to be taught because they don’t come naturally to many. We need to listen to each other, understand that we all have gifts and needs, and work together to keep the climate positive.
Even as a teacher, I understand that the ways I teach math might not reach all learners. If I create the right environment, the learners I do reach will be able to help me reach them all.
TRIBES helps teachers to do that. With a 24 hour course, teachers are empowered to practice the four agreements which help make a collaborative community of learners. Here they are in a nutshell (OK, not actually in a nutshell…more like “here they are in a web-based-document-format”)
- Attentive listening (turn off the phones and tv, maintain eye contact, and use non verbal signals to encourage the speaker)
- Appreciation/no put downs (try to make it about the effort or contribution, no just “good work”)
- Mutual respect (the hardest to define, but this includes no gossiping, remembering manners, maintaining honesty and respecting the time and effort needed to produce something)
- The right to pass (sometimes students need to quietly observe an activity rather than contribute themselves-this doesn’t apply to marked activities or to responding to the teacher or parent)
Even as adults, the TRIBES principles can help in our careers. They act like a good moral compass to remind us to correct the cashier who gives us too much change (out of respect for him/her), to give the seat on the bus to the man with the cane, and to turn off the Blackberry during the meeting. We’re all in this boat together. The better we work together, the more we’ll get done.
Joanne Arcand is trying to juggle her role as a math teacher with her other life as mom of twin boys. She lives in Oakville, Ontario.
