See It, Hear It, Feel It: A Pre-K Leadership Classroom

When we describe an early-learning classroom, we tend to think of what we see—the bright colors, the alphabet and number lines, labeled backpack shelves. However, we know that a leadership environment entails so much more! Join Molly, Dr. Eve, and guest Heather Rossi, preschool teacher at Plano Elementary, as they talk about how to move beyond what we see, into a space where students feel like they are loved and they belong.

Transcript

Molly: [00:00:00] From Leader in Me Studios. I'm Molly Garcia. This is The Empowering Teacher for Early Learning. If I asked you to close your eyes and describe an early-learning classroom, what would you share? The bright colors, the alphabet and number lines, or maybe the shapes or labeled backpack shelves? We immediately think about what we see.

Molly: However, we know that a leadership environment entails so much more. Today, we are talking about where worth and potential live in our early-learning classrooms, where we move beyond just what we see and into a space where students feel like they are loved and they belong. Our guest today, Heather Rossi, Preschool Educator from Plano Elementary School in Kentucky, is going to share practical ways to create a leadership environment.

Molly: But first, let's jump into our research connect with Dr. Eve Miller, FranklinCovey's Director of Research. Eve, okay, we know that it is much more than fancy bulletin boards and bright colors, right? So help us understand why it's important to create an [00:01:00] environment where students see, where they hear, and where they feel leadership.

Eve: Absolutely, Molly. Well, okay. In short, the reason classrooms of worth and potential matter and why they are worth every teacher's time and effort is because they are the brain-based path to preparing students for learning.

Molly: Okay, wow, you have to say so much more. You know how excited I get about neuroscience.

Eve: Well, what immediately comes to my mind when you ask about why it matters to build an environment that communicates students' worth and potential is the ability this has to build a student's sense of belonging. And I know, I know, belonging is a term that's thrown around a lot in education circles. And when something becomes so common, it can lose this power.

Eve: So if you're alright with it, I'd like to share what brain imaging has revealed about belonging and the brain that's really [00:02:00] powerful.

Molly: Okay. You know I am always up for talking about brain science. I don't think I've ever heard about the neuroscience of belonging, so I'm excited to hear all about it.

Eve: This is science that is emerging as we speak. There is an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC, and it sits between the emotion and sensation centers of the brain and the frontal lobe.

Eve: And because it sits there in that really powerful spot, it's able to control what information gets processed by the learning part of the brain, the frontal lobe. But this is what we're learning about this part of the brain that's fascinating. It is also where we process our perception of pain. And I don't mean just physical pain, I also mean social pain.

Eve: And that is why when we experience rejection or isolation, we can actually perceive it as painful.[00:03:00] 

Molly: Okay. We even use terms related to pain when we're talking about those social struggles, like “they hurt my feelings.”

Eve: Oh, yeah, totally. Or they broke up with me and our breakup songs are filled with analogies around war and death, right?

Molly: Yeah. I know. I know. I'm thinking of the song “Love is a Battlefield,” right?

Eve: Yes, exactly. So the part of the brain that processes physical and social pain, it also plays a critical role in how we respond to this pain. So when a friend leaves us out of a get together, this part of the brain both communicates emotions of sadness or anger, but it also, because of where it sits in the brain right there by the frontal lobe, um, it also helps us to regulate that feeling of anger or sadness so we don't send a reactive text telling them off, right?

Eve: So, I share this about the brain so that now we can return to your original question, um, and we have this kind of, more of a shared [00:04:00] understanding why certain environments are far more likely to bring out certain behaviors.

Molly: Yeah. Fantastic. I can already sense how this gives me and our listeners a stronger framework to understand that original question.

Eve: Yes.

Molly: So why is it important to create an environment where students can see, hear, and feel their worth of potential?

Eve: So, a classroom where students feel judged by the teacher or their peers, or where hierarchies thrive, like this student's better at this or worse at this and that is known, that is a classroom where actual fear of social rejection can cause students to withdraw to avoid literal pain. And building on this in such an environment, a student will naturally need to dedicate some portion of their cognitive resources to processing the social landscape.

Eve: I mean, that's, that is the information that ACC is sending forward to the learning part of the brain and they will have less [00:05:00] ability to regulate their emotions and behaviors because of this, and they'll have less ability to make effective choices and less ability to learn.

Molly: Yeah. And this dynamic, honestly, Eve, is far too often accepted just as the norm. So give us the good news.

Eve: In a classroom where students feel a sense of belonging there isn't a need to actively monitor the social landscape for threats. And that capacity can go directly into learning, the capacity of the brain that is. In fact, in this classroom, where positive social connections happen, the reward system of the brain activates, and it promotes learning and motivation.

Molly: This is amazing, Eve. Thank you for just helping us to unpack all of this. And, to help us continue unpacking the elements of a leadership classroom we're talking with Heather Rossi, Preschool Educator from Plano Elementary School in Kentucky, and she's going to share practical ways to create a leadership environment that reflects worth the potential in all [00:06:00] students. Heather, welcome to The Empowering Teacher Podcast for early learning.

Heather: Thank you so much for having me today.

Molly: Heather. In your experience, what do teachers tend to focus on when they're setting up their classrooms?

Heather: In early learning, we tend to focus on the physical environment, making sure that our classroom is safe, that we keep eyes on our kids at all locations in the classrooms, and just having that calming environment for them.

Molly: Especially with littles, making sure. I love that you said keeping eyes on them at all times. What ways do you move past just that physical environment of the classroom?

Heather: A lot of it is we start giving them some lead with the learning, making the classroom rules. Like, I have three main rules—take care of yourself, take care of your friends, and take care of your classroom. They then tell me how each of those is gonna look. So then they're owning their classroom. And then we move [00:07:00] on from there and do, “I can…” statements once we introduce each center.

Heather: So you know, it's “I can sit at block center and play safely” and then I had a friend this year be like, “Ooh, I can run in block center cuz it's so fast!” And I'm like, oh, let's go back to our classroom expectations: do we run in the classroom? And you know, those kinds of things. And then they can feel like their ownership.

Heather: And I use tons of visuals so that way they can look at it and be like, okay, that means no running, or that means to sit quietly. Those kinds of things.

Molly: I love that you made that practical for us right away. What are some, like thinking about daily routines or structures that you have in place that really support that leadership environment? Again, it's more than just bulletin boards, but thinking about yeah, the, those daily things that happen.

Heather: So speaking of bulletin boards, on our bulletin board, we have our daily jobs. And of course they're in pictures so the kids know. And they know whose job is who. 

Heather: I have a substitute and I have a [00:08:00] person on vacation. So somebody gets a vacation each week and they love it and I rotate their jobs each week. So they all have time to do that job more than once. The favorite is the class pet, you know, feed the fish. 

Heather: And then, by the end of the year, we were getting to the point where they were like, oh, let me help you do your job because your job's big and my job was little. So it was really kinda neat to see them do that. And then like, having visuals up for hallway expectations. We have quiet voices, we have calm feet, calm bodies. just gives them that extra affirmation that, you know, I can do this, I can see it, I can model it. And I can lead. 

Molly: So the bulletin board becomes the physical aspect of the leadership environment where they can see so are the visuals, but then it goes right into action by letting them actually go out and do an experience and work alongside each other. What impact do you think that has on how they feel when they are [00:09:00] honored with those leadership roles?

Heather: They feel very important. especially during our teaching time. So I have an alphabet leader because we go over the alphabet each day and so that person has the pointer finger and they get to go through and do the alphabet. Well, that's like big to hold the pointer finger, and they feel proud in these moments when they get to do things independently. It really builds their self-esteem, it builds their confidence, and it helps them to be able to help others. Like our “I can” statements: I can put my things away in art center or I can draw in art center, I can help my friend. So I, I saw like some of my older friends, cuz we have three to five year olds.

Heather: Saw some of my five year olds go over and help my three year olds. This is how you cut, this is how you color. So they really take ownership of their classroom this way.

Molly: So thinking about our listeners and our teachers, what results should they expect to get, going into those daily routines? 

Heather: It's gonna make your transition [00:10:00] so much smoother. It's gonna make your daily life so much smoother. You're not gonna feel like you have to monitor every little thing, because from day one, you start these routines and it's, it takes a couple of weeks to get them moving in a fluid motion.

Heather: But once your’re in fluid motion, It's just like clockwork you forget, like I forget, that at one point they didn't know how to do these things and I tell ya, sometimes I take it for granted cuz you know, we get kids all throughout the year,

Molly: Yeah.

Heather: depending on when they come in. And so like they come in and I'm like, oh, oh, I've got to teach them how to do this now because I forget because my other kiddos are just doing and going and making life easy.

Molly: It's who they are as a result of their leadership environment. Oh my gosh, Heather, thank you for bringing the light the impact the leadership environment has on the classroom. And of course, a big thank you to our listeners. Keep shining. You've got this. [00:11:00]