What do we need to consider as we plan to put children first in our schools and classrooms this year?
Time
How is most of your school time spent? When you put children first, most of your time is spent responding to their needs and interests by planning engaging learning experiences, analyzing student work and effort, listening to students' stories and requests, and working with colleagues to maximize your shared efforts for students.
Response
Your program becomes a "students-first" program where the curriculum takes second place to students' primary academic, social, emotional, and physical needs.
Energy
School work invites educators to get involved in all kinds of initiatives. What's important here is to make sure that your time is well spent not wasted. Hence with every invitation you have to consider whether it is time well spent for children or not.
Support
School structure needs to support educators' best work when it comes to serving children well. In this regard, educators need to reach out and ask for what they need to support their best work. Streamlined schedules, reliable assistance, helpful tools and materials, planning time, transparent expectations and schedules, regular communication, and healthy, clean environments are some of the structures that support good work.
Putting students first and above all other matters in school creates a warm, caring, and successful learning environment--the kind of environment all educators are ready and willing to support.
