All educators know that building positive relationships and creating a strong classroom community are vital to a successful school year. Many of us are asking ourselves, how we will create this sense of community as we start the year with virtual learning? How can we build positive relationships and support students we don’t know when we won’t be seeing each other face to face?
P2’s new Relationships Course allows educators to focus on building positive relationships with and among students in order to set the tone for the school year. While the 15 minutes a day set up is familiar to P2 schools, this 2-week curriculum has been created as educators, students, and schools have been trying to figure out what the “new normal” will be this year. The curriculum uses three tenants of the Other People Mindset to focus on how we can form relationships despite differences and the absence of physical presence.
We know educators will be tasked with leading many difficult conversations this year. We know that every school and every classroom are different — and we trust educators on the ground to lead these difficult conversations in a manner that best fits their students’ needs. We believe that the common vocabulary that is created by regular discussions on character strengths and positive relationships will be critical in leading conversations around the challenges that are directly impacting the students in our country.
In the face of these obstacles, educators are finding ways to foster positive relationships in order to create a strong sense of community within their virtual classrooms. The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC) at Harvard University found that “Resilience requires relationships, not rugged individualism…” In order for students to be successful in this new and unknown phase of education, we must not lose sight of what is most important: building positive relationships.
