Meeting students where they are has never been more critical.
My routine student greeting is meeting them at the door and asking that they greet me with their choice of a *hug, handshake, or high five. I can discern a great amount of information from each of them through that brief interaction and I refer to it, ironically, as “taking their temperature.” I imagine this fall my routine greeting will literally include taking their temperature.
Meeting students at the door each day not only gives me an immediate sense of who and how many are coming into my program dysregulated, but after a week or two, provides me with information about their social, emotional, and cognitive development as well as some cultural context. All of these things tell me where my students are. And I learned the hard way over decades of teaching that I can get a lot farther with my students when I meet them where they are and walk alongside them.
Admittedly, this takes a great deal of energy and commitment, but not only does it increase learning success; it ensures a safer classroom, promotes post traumatic growth, and creates a more equitable learning environment.
I believe we can all expect to see a widening developmental spectrum in our classrooms this fall thanks in no small part to the COVID Slide. And this will not just affect academic learning, but creative explorations as well. Given the profoundly positive impact that creativity can have on developmental growth, we want to encourage arts educators to consider how to best use their classes to encourage that growth.
And to start, it is helpful to know where your students are - both to know how to adjust for each day as well as to meet longer term goals. As art teachers, we have a cache of activities that could likely be repurposed to serve as a greeting or an opening routine that provides you with that important information.
As you think through some of your favorite activities, hold them up to this checklist:
Is it relational?
Are there opportunities for students and teachers to directly interact? ie, call and response, passing something from person to person
Does it offer opportunities for self-expression or individualization?
After all, if the student is just repeating what you do, then you will only learn about
yourself. Plus, this primes the brain for creative thinking!
Can it be done repeatedly or routinely?
To be an effective information provider, you can think of the activity like the control in an experiment. Students are more likely to provide you with “honest” information if they are less anxious about the activity itself.
Does it allow for the inclusion of safety measures?
Can it be adjusted to be contactless or provide varying levels of engagement to meet varying comfort levels?
BONUS: Can it make students smile and laugh?
The quickest and easiest way to disperse anxiety and make people feel safe is to see those around them smiling and laughing
This teacher’s greeting received a lot of media attention last fall and is a great example that checks all of the above boxes: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/living/story/teachers-method-taking-attendance-makes-us-class-65340455
Though I have a number of opening routines that I use, sometimes I find it works well to adapt playground games. This past winter, students in my winter session of music classes were so excited when I used their latest favorite, Little Sally Walker. It provided me with the information I was looking for while filling the students with a sense of pride and ownership at my using a game they had taught me.
As time permits, Jenny and I hope to share some of our favorite greetings and opening routines, but again, you probably already have something in your bag that would work perfectly! No sense re-inventing the wheel as they say. Admittedly, some of my favorites are a bit more difficult to faciltate virtually, but we have had a lot of fun trying to work them out.
*Students know that they can make any of these actions contactless in order to honor what feels safest to them.
PS - Just as important (maybe more!) as knowing where your students are is knowing where YOU are. Before re-entering your classroom (whether physically or virtually), give yourself time to recognize what changes you have experienced this year and how you may respond to the world and life differently at this time. Check back soon for our Creative Self Inventory!