March 24, 2025 • 34 mins
In today's episode, we discuss the elements that build community, drawing from our experiences in various settings. We highlight the importance of predictability, humanizing leadership, and intentional communication. Sharing examples from both our personal lives and the makerspace, we note how social interactions and choice foster community among students. Community emerges from intentional practices and shared values, fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration.
Introduction Music by: David Biedenbender
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Episode Transcript
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Ashley O'Neil (00:00):
Yeah, I think it does the the norms, because
(00:04):
there is consistency in how theleadership show up there, right?
Like there are predict. There'spredictability to what you're
what you can expect, even ifeach adult is a little bit
unique. And I think thecommunication part, like how
they have masteredcommunicating, also, it's
Julie Cunningham (00:19):
one of those organizations in which it sort
of doesn't matter what people'slike, cultural values are, or
their political beliefs are,like, it's sort of interesting,
or their faith beliefs, it'ssort of interesting in that
aspect, right?
Ashley O'Neil (00:34):
I think that gets at the humanizing part. Like,
you see this collection ofpeople, but you don't see them
as a collection of demographics,yeah, you just see, like, yeah.
And even your leader,facilitator, even they do a
little bit of that humanizingthemselves, right? Like, you
know, really good facts aboutthem, you know, some
imperfections about them. So,like, there's not, there is a
(00:56):
human factor there, where, Iknow, we call them parasocial
relationships, right? Where,like, you know a lot more about
them than they know about you,but there is a humanizing there
that makes it, I think, makespeople want to come back. Okay,
Introduction (01:10):
now we're recording. So welcome to teach
wonder. Yes, welcome to teachwonder. Do podcast hosted by
Ashley O'Neill and JulieCunningham.
Ashley O'Neil (01:31):
So for this episode, we are trying to think
about the recipe that buildscommunity, because we saw some
examples of it in our homeschoolpractice when we talked a little
bit about that in previousepisodes, about stepping back
and making more space for theparticipants, and that leads to
community. But there's someother patterns or tenants that
(01:54):
we think contribute to that,because not all social
interactions lead to somethingwhere you come back, we've all
been to a thing that you'relike, I'm never doing that
again, right? Or you've all seenfriendships or relationships
kind of fade away as soon as themoment's done. So what is the
value and then interactions thatlead to it? And can we break
down or find what seems to beworking when it comes to
(02:16):
building community?
Julie Cunningham (02:17):
Yeah, and I think if we are going to talk
about, what does it take if weare if we were wanting to build
a community, and we sort of tryto evaluate, okay, then what are
the what pieces do we need to beintentional about in order to
build a community? For me, Istarted by asking myself, what
sort of communities do I belongto, and did I get there
(02:41):
intentionally orunintentionally? And now that
I'm there, and I call it acommunity that I'm a part of, or
I recognize that I'm part ofthis community, what value am I
or someone else getting out ofthe community? What are we, I
guess, both providing to thecommunity right potentially, and
(03:02):
then what are we as membersgaining from the community?
Because I think if those twoparts weren't both there, I
might not stay a part of thecommunity that I see myself as a
part of.
Ashley O'Neil (03:18):
So do you and I thought about it in a different
way. I think I kept my educatorhat on a little bit, and I
thought about the differenttypes of programs that we have
here. And as we've beenreflecting a lot on what's
working here, where are weseeing community in these
places, I have examples orspecific things from three
(03:39):
different types of communitiesthat we have going on in the
MakerSpace.
Julie Cunningham (03:42):
And to be fair, we don't have enough time
for this on our podcast, but wehave had the three programs that
Ashley is going to mention.
We've had a lot of iterations ofthose. So the nice thing about
being in the space that we're inand working with other working
collegially with one another,like we we've iterated the so
(04:04):
we're more or less, I think,happier with programs now than
we perhaps have been over theyears. Not that we've just
because we grow. Right?
Ashley O'Neil (04:17):
It would be a podcast, yeah. Explorer is like,
what didn't work, right? Why?
Exactly like, what are theversions that got us here?
Because you're right, there havebeen a lot of missteps, or a lot
of things where we've like,we're not pleased with what is
going on here, so we've madeintentional changes. Uh, for
sure. Maybe another, anotherepisode, right? Okay, do you
want to share an example firstor
Julie Cunningham (04:37):
so? Um, one of my for me, most interesting
communities that I feel like I'ma part of. And I say interesting
because I don't see the peopleever face to face, and yet, I do
feel like I belong to thiscommunity is peloton, and I am
(04:58):
in no way shape or formmarketing. Peloton. I really
enjoy bicycling outside, butthat isn't always something I
can do easily in Michigan.
Depend, weather dependent,right? So during, I think
probably during when we were athome, during the pandemic, I got
a peloton bike, and I didn'treally get it to be a part of a
(05:23):
community. And so the fact thatI see this now as a community,
and I feel like I'm part of thiscommunity several years later, I
find intriguing. And so I thinkthat's intentional on peloton
part, because they, of course,want to make money from their
product. But some things that Ithink that they do, as I reflect
(05:43):
on what, what makes this acommunity, right, is that
they're, I'm going to call themcoaches. They're instructors,
they're coaches. They really,you really do, feel like they're
talking to you personallythrough the screen, I think, and
part of that's the shout outsthat they give during the
classes. Part of that's thefeedback that they give. Part of
(06:05):
it's, I'm sure, they'reintentional messaging. Part of
it's the work that some of thoseinstructors do on social media
outside of the class. But thepeople are the coaches, the
instructors are humanized. Andat least in the classes that I
take, they encourage you tothink about the other people in
the class as your teammates. Soin some sense, there's some
(06:29):
humanizing. There also theability to give each other sort
of shout outs during class,right to think about your
teammates that way. I'm surethat piece plays a role in both
the communication and thehumanizing, and it's really an
informal group, right? I don'tknow anybody else's name that's
(06:51):
necessarily up on the boardduring a class. I actually even
close the leaderboard during aclass. I don't even watch that
because it's not why I'm there,but also, you do know that there
are other people like you, thatif you're up early working out,
there's other people in theclass, right? If you're up late
working out, there's otherpeople in the class, you're not
(07:12):
alone. So I think you do feellike there's other people doing
this with you. Yeah,
Ashley O'Neil (07:19):
that makes a lot of sense, I think that we would
have been remiss to not includelike, a digital relationship or
a digital community, becausethat is a big part of everyone's
lives here. And I think thatit's it, it matters that we
gravitate or it says somethingabout us as people, that we
gravitate toward those placesthat the the digital section
(07:41):
feels like it's a tool, but it'snot the whole thing, right? Like
the thing that matters is thepeople, and the digital tool is
what just gets us there. So oneexample I think about, we have
students in homeschool, and Iknow I brought this up in
previous episodes, but I've justbeen thinking a lot about them,
because this was my pilot. I'vemade a lot of changes to this
one, specifically this year. Sowe have some students in that
(08:05):
space, or a student inparticular in that space, who
kind of, at the very beginningof the year was going to do his
own thing, like, I am here, I'mgoing to do my own thing. I'm
not really going to like, youguys are here, that's fine, but
I'm kind of here to do my ownthing. And that was, that was
okay, right? Like, he had amission and vision for what was
going to happen, and that wasgreat. But over time, I have
(08:29):
watched as we've provided morechoice. I kind of brought that
up in previous episodes, how nowthat student is asked about,
hey, is so and so going to behere? Is so and so here yet? Am
I? You know, not yet, or they'reon their way, and then when they
show up, that student is aperson that kids gravitate
toward, and in response, he alsogravitates toward those other
(08:52):
students. And so I've seen himkind of emerge as this person
who has a lot of reallyinteresting ideas, a lot of
really new, cool games that canbe played, some new ways to
think about using toys. Hechallenges me all the time on
what we can do in our middlespace, which is very much a
converted office block, madeinto makerspace. So it doesn't
(09:16):
quite have all the bells andwhistles of our traditional
makerspace, but I think one ofthe really interesting things
about that is that I have seenhim blossom, and all of the
students blossom around him withthese social negotiations that
they do. Just this last timethat we were together, they kind
of made a fort, and they didn'thave enough fort boards, which
is a really cool tool, or reallycool tool that we have, and so
(09:37):
they used a yoga mat to kind ofact as one of the walls, because
then that would give them enoughresources and materials. And
another student was buildingwith the fort boards, and they
kind of could have used all ofthem. And so we had a group
playing together, and this othergroup playing on their own, and
he did these reallysophisticated social
negotiations of, can I explainto you what our vision is? Would
(09:59):
you like to. Help us make this.
I think you could help us. Anddo, you know, contribute the
chimney to this thing? And itwas amazing to see that this
group had, I mean, for four toseven year olds, had this great
idea, had looped another childin, got them all involved. And
then when that child said, Well,let me finish this first, they
totally respected, like, hisautonomy to finish his task, and
said, Great, when you're donemaking that, we'd love to have
(10:22):
you join us, and we'd love touse your materials. And that
happened, right? And it happenedwithout any adult intervention.
It happened with a ton ofrespect and dignity for all of
the play that they wanted to do.
And the level of social likenavigation, there was something
cool to see. So one of thethings I think, that I noticed
is that what was an informalgroup, where they kind of
(10:44):
flipped back and forth, and theydidn't really create this maybe
meaningful exchanges, or what Ithought of as meaningful
exchanges, have really become aformal group that cares about
each other, that has, like ashared vision often, and I've
seen the sophistication of whatthey can do grow over time, and
(11:05):
it's been built by themcompletely. So I thought that
was an interesting example. That
Julie Cunningham (11:08):
is an interesting example. So do you
think that they all the norms,not all the norms, but the norms
that they are adhering to? Dothose come from, like the
community, or do those come froman expectation for how they
should behave when they're intheir space, or some sort of
(11:29):
combination? Because many ofthese students don't know one
another or outside of this timetogether, so it's not as though
they travel here as a group, andthey're some could be, but
there's
Ashley O'Neil (11:43):
a diverse group of and interestingly, we have
kids who don't know each other,and then we have siblings. So we
have kids who know each otherreally well, right? And then
kids who don't know each otherat all, and they're all kind of
mixed up together, yeah, I thinkit. I genuinely think, I mean, I
have to contribute some of theirskills. Obviously, they come
with these kind of skills inthis practice language that they
have, I can't take credit forthat that comes from their
(12:04):
family, or things that they'vedone outside. But I think the
other piece of it is that wekind of set up at the very
beginning like what I would liketo see happen, and I got a lot
of feedback from them for whatthey'd like to see happen. If
there is an activity that's notavailable that time, they can
ask me for it, and I put it on apiece of paper, and you make
(12:25):
sure it's available the nexttime. And so I think we've
informally modeled that as agroup like this is how we
interact with each other, andbecause they have so much
freedom and choice, and it is aspace of Yes, I think they
really value that. And thoselike norms have come out of
these, like, low stakes, littleinteractions, right, that have
built, over time into somethingbigger. Like, I don't think in
(12:48):
September had this we want tobuild this thing. We need your
fort board. I think that wouldhave resulted in some friction.
I think there would have been aconflict there. Someone would
have gotten upset ordisappointed, and they wouldn't
have had the tools to make thathappen. But I think because
we've done these littlenegotiations back and forth
about sharing resources, aboutgetting choices for activities,
(13:09):
or me modeling, if you don'twant to do that right now, you
can play over here, and thenwhen you're ready, come back,
like they've seen that happen inall these little ways, I think
it's grown for them. Nice,
Julie Cunningham (13:20):
yes, because I I'm glad you explained that,
because I think sometimes we saynorms, or community norms or and
they're not really, if aninstructor gives these rules up
front or this structure upfront, they're not really the
community's norms until they'reaccepted by the community. So
(13:40):
how, how do we go from these arethe expectations in this space,
right? This being verbalizedpotentially, to Oh yeah, I've
actually those make sense to meand I'm willing to use those.
And that not only do those makesense to me and I'm willing to
use them, but I can use them inthis situation to get something
(14:06):
that I want right,
Ashley O'Neil (14:07):
for sure, for sure. And I think also it is
important we set up we set upnorms often. And in fact, my
next example is about setting upnorms up front, but they don't
really have any meaning to kidswithout the experience in that
context. And so I think that'san important thing for us to
remember. Us to remember. Like,we can say in our classroom or
in our space, we value. Everyonegets a voice, and we all take
(14:28):
turns talking. That isn't reallymeaningful until we've, like,
flex those muscles. And so Ithink for me, it's one of our
shifts when we've come to it'scome to building community is
recognizing, like, they need allof these tiny little practice
points that grows into somethingbigger for it to actually make
sense, especially for kids. Imean, adults are different, but
kids don't have as manyexperiences to draw on. So we're
(14:49):
like building the boat as we'relike writing the rules for at
the same time.
Julie Cunningham (14:54):
And all learning takes practice, right?
So if we don't practice thesethings and we. Know, not given a
space to practice them in, thenit's unlikely that these are
going to be things that we learnhow to do. And so I just want to
clarify, since all of mycommunity examples are personal,
(15:15):
it's because that's where Istarted, right? I started by
saying, Okay, if communitiesimportant and communities
important to students, anddeveloping and creating
community is important tolearning and to education. Then,
what is it about the things thatI feel like and nobody would
ever accuse me of beingparticularly outgoing or like
(15:40):
one a person in which I've like,gone in search of like, being a
part of communities. I findmyself a part of the three
communities that I'm giving youexamples of, almost like, like
the community is is important tome, but it's almost like
secondary to how I got, it'salmost like how I got there
(16:02):
wasn't by looking for community.
So to me, that's interesting andsorry listener, if that's not
interesting to you, but I'mhoping that you can take
something about my examples ofcommunity to say, Oh yeah, I get
that if we were going to developor build a community, this might
be an important piece. So mysecond example is probably for
about three and a half yearsnow, I've been going to dog
(16:22):
training classes, to agilitywith my dog, and I just started
there because I had a differentbreed of dog that had a lot of
energy. And I thought, Okay, I'mnot obedience. Really isn't my
thing, but I could get behindlike doing these games with my
dog. So three and a half yearslater, I've been through a
number of different classes andwith a handful of different
(16:45):
instructors, and I find myselfprobably in a class now, I would
say about, probably about a yearand a half with the same group
of people. So I've found nowthat we are sort of a community,
right? Like we will know whensomebody isn't going to be there
next week, like we will know inadvance somebody will have
(17:07):
conveyed, communicated that,right? There's like a certain
level of respect to who's goingto be in class next week. We not
only know each other's dogsnames, but we know each other's
owners names, humans names,which you can laugh but for a
long time, if you get through avariety of different classes,
all you know are the dogs names,which is totally fine. We have
(17:28):
an expectation, like ourinstructor knows us right, and
knows our capabilities and setsour courses from week to week
based on our community'sexpectations and our community's
abilities. We have a set ofnorms about like communicating
(17:49):
who's potentially Whose turn isit to go next, or feedback to
one another. We feel, all feelcomfortable at this point,
providing feedback to oneanother, which, as adults,
taking risks and learningsomething new is not to go
unnoticed. Um, we spend time,you know, helping each other in
terms of, like, video taping orgetting prepared, or you forgot
(18:12):
this, and I've got your back, orwhatever. But then the last
example I want to give is justprobably a handful of months
ago, our instructor said, Okay,you're all ready to compete. And
we all looked around at eachother like, no way. None of us,
I feel like we're ready tocompete. I feel
Ashley O'Neil (18:31):
like I need to interject and say that when
Julie started going to dogagility classes, she was like,
Don't worry, I'm nevercompeting. Yes, that's accurate.
Julie Cunningham (18:39):
And actually, all of us said that we're here
just to have fun, right? We'rehere just to have fun. We're
here to have fun with our dog.
Like I would had no interest incompeting. I am enjoying
competing, to say on the otherside of that, but so we all
looked at each other like noway. We do not want it. We're
not ready to compete. We're notinterested in competing. What we
decided was as a when we decidedthat competing was not it was on
(18:59):
the table, and we needed to takeit seriously. We decided as a
group that we were all going togo to the try this competing
thing, this competition thing,on the same day, at the same
time, and I think that's alsopart of recognizing this
community piece, like you'regoing through a little bit of an
(19:21):
adversity now. I mean, is thatreal adversity? No, but we were
uncomfortable, right? And you'regoing through that, and you're
going through that together, andyou so you have that shared
experience of beinguncomfortable together, and I
think that is part ofpotentially being a community or
the way in which you treat eachother moving forward, and so I
(19:43):
didn't set out to look for beinga community at dog agility. It
happened for me, and I'm glad ithappened like I rely on this
community for things. Experienceand experiences surrounding my
dog agility, I look forward tocompetitions in which and we've
(20:04):
managed to not all be at thesame competition every single
time, but we've managed to atleast have each other's back,
like one of us will compete withanother, and I feel like that
has developed into a community,and I value that. And so when
I'm unpacking it as when we makecommunities in education, I'm
(20:25):
just thinking about thosethings, not that I want to give
children adversity in order tobecome a community, but I think
in education, sometimes we areuncomfortable and we are put in
uncomfortable, not unsafe, butlearning can sometimes involve
risk and be uncomfortable, somaybe that's part of being a
(20:46):
community.
Ashley O'Neil (20:49):
It's like we planned this. We didn't, but my
next example is about fieldtrips, because field trips are a
challenge for us in a couple ofways. One, we have an
established community, aclassroom that has had a leader
for however many months, right?
Coming into our space, and we'rethe newbies, we have a fair bit
of information we need to impartto them, some of it safety
(21:11):
related, right, how to usematerials, some of it logistics
related, where things are. Andthen we have to kind of explain
the task to them in a way thatmakes sense and give them enough
information, so we've got someinformation to impart. We're
kind of breaking into anestablished group that has all
of these norms and rules that welikely know very little about,
because it's just been a handfulof emails with us and the
(21:32):
teachers, and then we have ourown goals and our own
expectations and norms andvalues from the makerspace that
we want to impart and share,because that is the point of our
field trip, right? Like spoiler,we don't really care if you've
made a robot or a dog or abasket out of your prototype.
What we really care about aresome of these values and skills
and practices and norms that areless tangible and less
(21:55):
interesting to talk about withthe kid. And so we use our
prototypes as the vehicle forthat. So one of the things I
think that we have gone througha million versions of, is how we
do this best, right? And whatwe've currently landed on TVD,
if it'll stay this way, but whatwe've currently landed on is we
really have distilled down ourgoals, and one of our big ones
(22:16):
is developing a sense ofcamaraderie with the students
and rapport quickly, and we dothat often by being a little bit
silly, a little bit whimsical,and by focusing a lot on their
joy and their capability. And soI think by the end of a field
trip, it's really interesting tosee how comfortable the kids are
in this space, how chatty theyare with the facilitator,
(22:36):
regardless of what adult isrunning a field trip, which
staff member, how chatty theyare with them, how how proud
they are to share. Can I showyou my thing? Let me show you my
whatever. So they've built thatrapport with us quickly, and
we've kind of transformed an oldcommunity just temporarily into
something that's just a littlebit different. We hear a lot
from teachers that, oh, thosestudents don't typically get
(22:57):
along well in our space, theyare working together, and it
seems to be quite joyful andsomething kind of exciting is
happening, or we hear, you know,that students aren't really
interested in doing things,typically, it's really cool to
see that they're so chatty orwhatever here. So we see
examples of students kind ofbeing different or showing up
differently in the physicalspace that we have here. And one
of the things I attribute it tois, when we first started field
(23:22):
trips, do you remember how wewould kind of liken it to the,
like, a baking show, and I wouldthink of, like, those intense
American baking competitionswhere it's like, hands up chefs,
and like, there'd be all thisstress. And I think about the
two different environmentsbetween that, and just go with
me, but the great British bakingshow, okay, so like, in an
American baking show, often theyintentionally apply this stress.
There's a massive clock with,like, red countdowns, and the
(23:45):
music is like, dun, dun, dun.
Like, the music is intense, andlike, they're running around,
and there's just like anintensity to the situation that
happens that seems to apply alot of stress to what is already
a stressful situation.
Conversely, if you watch thegreat British baking show, like
we both do, without fail, theyapply a lot of silliness and
(24:05):
whimsy to that space. Outcomesstill the same. You still have
to bake a thing. It's reallydifficult. There's a challenge.
Sometimes the participants getpretty stressed about it, but in
no way are the adult membersright adding or contributing to
that stress. And I think one ofthe things that I think we have
worked on in our space isthinking about how joy can
diffuse anxiousness or stress orother things, right? And how we
(24:29):
can playfully approach that,like, if something gets spilled
in our space, we're pretty funnyabout it, right? Like it's not a
big deal. Sometimes we'll make ajoke about it. When students are
using tools. We talk about howcapable they are, and we're kind
of silly about you don't needthat adult to do that with you,
right? Like we are playful withhow we engage in it to kind of
get them to feel capable aboutthat thing. But you're not going
(24:52):
to see us, the adults, applyingthat stress to the space we see
our job to keep things. Gratefulto keep things calm, to keep
things kind of in that lowstakes environment, right, where
they feel like it's not that bigof a deal, right? And from that,
we can see that the interactionsfrom students are a little bit
(25:15):
different,
Julie Cunningham (25:18):
I think. And I think to your point, we're never
like we celebrate failure here,right? Because we celebrate
iterations, but also we're nevertrying to contribute to failure
like we're trying to alwayscontribute to a student feeling
successful, and therefore, likewe wouldn't want it to we
(25:42):
wouldn't want the risk, thestakes, to feel higher, for them
to feel more likely to fail.
Just the opposite, right?
Ashley O'Neil (25:48):
Yeah, and a lot of things go wrong here, right?
But we know we don't have tohelp with that, right? Like this
is going to be challengingenough. This is enough out of
kids comfort zones. I know youmentioned being uncomfortable.
This is really uncomfortable inhere for a lot of kids, they do
things very different here. It'sa big change, and so we
recognize that we don't have tocontribute to that in any other
way. And I think us realizingthat our role is to provide that
(26:12):
stability, that calm, that joy,has been a beneficial part of
how we build community in a veryfast time frame with new groups
of kids. I'm kind
Julie Cunningham (26:23):
of impressed with our our series of examples,
and how well we're relatingtogether, because you couldn't
have set me up better for mylast example, which is
organization that I volunteerwith, which is adventure team,
and I volunteer with the Midlandchapter, and it's about helping
kids be the best versions ofthemselves through adventure.
(26:46):
And we use a bicycle as a toolfor our adventure. So I work
with we have six groups of kidsat our event, and what I want to
say about building community isthat in order to alleviate what
often can be anxiety inducing,right, putting students in a new
(27:10):
situation and learning somethingnew, which you just mentioned in
the makerspace, is verydifferent from a K 12 classroom,
and we have ways of reducingstudents potentially anxiety and
frustration here, the way inwhich we do it at Adventure team
is very intentional. So everyweek the students come, the
(27:31):
students, the riders come, andthey see the same setup at what
we call base camp, and so theyknow exactly what to do. Every
week they go to their theirnumbered one through six, right?
So they go to their station,they put their bike down at a
cone, and they put their bike sothat the derailer side is up
(27:51):
anyway. There's just, it doesn'treally matter, but there's just
a series of things in which it'sthe same every week. Like you,
you don't enter base camp withyour bike without your helmet
on, you wear your adventure teamshirt every week, so everybody
is identifiable. So all of thoseprotocols allow the learning of
the bike skill and the characterskills to feel less risky,
(28:18):
right? Because everything elseis repeatable from week to week
to week. So you can focus on therelationships with the other
riders, you can focus on therelationships with your coaches,
and you don't have to wonder,what is the night going to be
like, because those routines areset in place intentionally to
(28:42):
build community, and we do acouple of other things, like
putting the youngest kidsclosest to the trailer, which
might feel like sort of thesafest position to be right, and
closest to those other adultswho are there Helping with base
camp, like we always put thepumps for the tire, the air
(29:04):
pumps for the tire, right in thesame place. The tent always has
snacks and water, like justthings like that. So those
routines there help to buildcommunity, and riders can help
one another with where to go andwhat to do next, right? Coaches
are present the leads. Thecoaches are present at their
(29:26):
station, and their station hasthe backpack with the first aid,
and it has all the things theyneed. And so that
intentionality, I think, helpsreally can help to build
community. And then one lastthing that that we do at
Adventure team is that we alwayshave riders grouped by age, and
(29:50):
so they're as likely to makefriends with their peers right
in the same age group,regardless of their ability on
a. Bike. And again, that isintentional. So So I think
communities can be built withsome of that intentionality in
mind, right in ways in which,again, this is an ongoing 10
(30:15):
weeks, once a week over summer.
And so we don't have some ofthat ability in field trips when
we think about ways in which wemitigate, perhaps, anxiety that
students bring into the fieldtrip, but I'm just suggesting
that when we do have an ongoingrelationship, there are ways to
also mitigate things that can beanxiety inducing, and so
(30:38):
structure could be one of those.
Yeah, I
Ashley O'Neil (30:42):
think that's a great like, we talk about
building kids capacity a lot. Wethat was a big focus of one of
our teacher PDS last summer. Andone of the ways we do that right
is by freeing them up to havethe social things, because all
that other stuff is taken careof, right? Like, I don't have to
worry and like, expend my socialenergy and asking where to put
my bike I can expend it, andbeing silly and playful with the
(31:05):
other kids while we're waiting,because I know all that stuff
already, right? So when we thinkabout what are our actual goals
here, and what can we put inplace to reduce the noise so
that kids have the capacity todo the things we really want
them to do, I think that is areally smart, intentional way
for you to build the community.
They all, they all know where tofind each other, right? They're
not going to stay by theirparents, because they're waiting
(31:26):
to be told where to gather. Theyknow where to go, and so all
that informal hangout time couldhappen because they know where
to go. And that's reallyvaluable, yeah. So my last
example is makeshift, andmakeshift is one of our other
programs that's informal in thatregistration opens up like two
weeks before the event. We tendto have a core group that is
(31:46):
pretty regular. We're atcapacity in that, but it can be
always new students, and we havea rotating group of college
students who can participate ourSTEM education scholars. So
sometimes they can come,sometimes they have class. So
that is another variable that'snot always the same. And when I
watch makeshift it reminds me oflike you're looking out. And
(32:06):
there's kids who are kind oflike Beatles. They kind of just
stay in one spot, and they'rethey're dedicated to that thing,
and they stay there the wholetime. And then you have these
kids who kind of like flitthey're like little, little
flying insects, and they kind offloat around, and they land here
for a bit, and then they kind offlit away, and they of float
away and they land here. And oneof the things that it makes me
think a lot about is that weintentionally keep things
(32:27):
informal in that space where thekids can bounce from idea to
idea, they can plant themselvesin the spot and stay there the
entire time. And from that hascome some really interesting
things. Thing, one, kids get newideas from each other, rather
than than asking me a milliontimes over, what can I do? What
(32:47):
can I do? Or me having to like,what are you interested? What
can you do? They are flittingaround and getting inspired by
their peers and getting ideasfrom them, right? And I've seen
that happen a lot, where I fledover and I see that you're
working on blocks, although I'minterested in making a video
game, I'd like to do that too,right? And so that is an organic
way where they start to rely oneach other and see each other as
(33:07):
you matter in this space, right?
Instead of focusing in on theiridea. The other thing I think it
does is it helps develop thoseinformal peer negotiations that
we talked a lot, a little bit inthe homeschool group, right
where I can have an exampleinteraction with this kid,
asking him about what he'sworking on, or just sitting next
to like I see a lot of that withthe middle schoolers, where they
(33:29):
sit next to each other and justwatch what the other kid is
doing. That is building a socialnetwork that they can then cash
in on later. So maybe they'rejust watching each other this
time, and then maybe next timeI'm playing your game and you're
playing my game, or maybe nexttime I'm asking where, like the
paint goes, or I'm asking thattype of thing, and we watch
those little social networksbecome something real, so that
(33:50):
the students who've been herefor years, they're excited to
see each other, they have builta community that isn't, I'm not
the center of right? And I thinkagain, it's one of those things
where, like keeping thingsintentionally informal, allows
them to gravitate and trythings, to see what works and
doesn't work from them, right?
And they can take those risksand experiment and what
(34:11):
community building looks likefor them, and it doesn't look
the same every time. There aresome kids who talk a lot to
other people, there are somekids are kind of on their own,
but they all feel like a part ofthat community in some way or
shape or form.
(34:33):
This has been another episode ofteach wonder. Thank you for
listening. You can findimportant links and information
in our show notes. You
Yeah, I think it does the the norms, because
(00:04):
there is consistency in how theleadership show up there, right?
Like there are predict. There'spredictability to what you're
what you can expect, even ifeach adult is a little bit
unique. And I think thecommunication part, like how
they have masteredcommunicating, also, it's
Julie Cunningham (00:19):
one of those organizations in which it sort
of doesn't matter what people'slike, cultural values are, or
their political beliefs are,like, it's sort of interesting,
or their faith beliefs, it'ssort of interesting in that
aspect, right?
Ashley O'Neil (00:34):
I think that gets at the humanizing part. Like,
you see this collection ofpeople, but you don't see them
as a collection of demographics,yeah, you just see, like, yeah.
And even your leader,facilitator, even they do a
little bit of that humanizingthemselves, right? Like, you
know, really good facts aboutthem, you know, some
imperfections about them. So,like, there's not, there is a
(00:56):
human factor there, where, Iknow, we call them parasocial
relationships, right? Where,like, you know a lot more about
them than they know about you,but there is a humanizing there
that makes it, I think, makespeople want to come back. Okay,
Introduction (01:10):
now we're recording. So welcome to teach
wonder. Yes, welcome to teachwonder. Do podcast hosted by
Ashley O'Neill and JulieCunningham.
Ashley O'Neil (01:31):
So for this episode, we are trying to think
about the recipe that buildscommunity, because we saw some
examples of it in our homeschoolpractice when we talked a little
bit about that in previousepisodes, about stepping back
and making more space for theparticipants, and that leads to
community. But there's someother patterns or tenants that
(01:54):
we think contribute to that,because not all social
interactions lead to somethingwhere you come back, we've all
been to a thing that you'relike, I'm never doing that
again, right? Or you've all seenfriendships or relationships
kind of fade away as soon as themoment's done. So what is the
value and then interactions thatlead to it? And can we break
down or find what seems to beworking when it comes to
(02:16):
building community?
Julie Cunningham (02:17):
Yeah, and I think if we are going to talk
about, what does it take if weare if we were wanting to build
a community, and we sort of tryto evaluate, okay, then what are
the what pieces do we need to beintentional about in order to
build a community? For me, Istarted by asking myself, what
sort of communities do I belongto, and did I get there
(02:41):
intentionally orunintentionally? And now that
I'm there, and I call it acommunity that I'm a part of, or
I recognize that I'm part ofthis community, what value am I
or someone else getting out ofthe community? What are we, I
guess, both providing to thecommunity right potentially, and
(03:02):
then what are we as membersgaining from the community?
Because I think if those twoparts weren't both there, I
might not stay a part of thecommunity that I see myself as a
part of.
Ashley O'Neil (03:18):
So do you and I thought about it in a different
way. I think I kept my educatorhat on a little bit, and I
thought about the differenttypes of programs that we have
here. And as we've beenreflecting a lot on what's
working here, where are weseeing community in these
places, I have examples orspecific things from three
(03:39):
different types of communitiesthat we have going on in the
MakerSpace.
Julie Cunningham (03:42):
And to be fair, we don't have enough time
for this on our podcast, but wehave had the three programs that
Ashley is going to mention.
We've had a lot of iterations ofthose. So the nice thing about
being in the space that we're inand working with other working
collegially with one another,like we we've iterated the so
(04:04):
we're more or less, I think,happier with programs now than
we perhaps have been over theyears. Not that we've just
because we grow. Right?
Ashley O'Neil (04:17):
It would be a podcast, yeah. Explorer is like,
what didn't work, right? Why?
Exactly like, what are theversions that got us here?
Because you're right, there havebeen a lot of missteps, or a lot
of things where we've like,we're not pleased with what is
going on here, so we've madeintentional changes. Uh, for
sure. Maybe another, anotherepisode, right? Okay, do you
want to share an example firstor
Julie Cunningham (04:37):
so? Um, one of my for me, most interesting
communities that I feel like I'ma part of. And I say interesting
because I don't see the peopleever face to face, and yet, I do
feel like I belong to thiscommunity is peloton, and I am
(04:58):
in no way shape or formmarketing. Peloton. I really
enjoy bicycling outside, butthat isn't always something I
can do easily in Michigan.
Depend, weather dependent,right? So during, I think
probably during when we were athome, during the pandemic, I got
a peloton bike, and I didn'treally get it to be a part of a
(05:23):
community. And so the fact thatI see this now as a community,
and I feel like I'm part of thiscommunity several years later, I
find intriguing. And so I thinkthat's intentional on peloton
part, because they, of course,want to make money from their
product. But some things that Ithink that they do, as I reflect
(05:43):
on what, what makes this acommunity, right, is that
they're, I'm going to call themcoaches. They're instructors,
they're coaches. They really,you really do, feel like they're
talking to you personallythrough the screen, I think, and
part of that's the shout outsthat they give during the
classes. Part of that's thefeedback that they give. Part of
(06:05):
it's, I'm sure, they'reintentional messaging. Part of
it's the work that some of thoseinstructors do on social media
outside of the class. But thepeople are the coaches, the
instructors are humanized. Andat least in the classes that I
take, they encourage you tothink about the other people in
the class as your teammates. Soin some sense, there's some
(06:29):
humanizing. There also theability to give each other sort
of shout outs during class,right to think about your
teammates that way. I'm surethat piece plays a role in both
the communication and thehumanizing, and it's really an
informal group, right? I don'tknow anybody else's name that's
(06:51):
necessarily up on the boardduring a class. I actually even
close the leaderboard during aclass. I don't even watch that
because it's not why I'm there,but also, you do know that there
are other people like you, thatif you're up early working out,
there's other people in theclass, right? If you're up late
working out, there's otherpeople in the class, you're not
(07:12):
alone. So I think you do feellike there's other people doing
this with you. Yeah,
Ashley O'Neil (07:19):
that makes a lot of sense, I think that we would
have been remiss to not includelike, a digital relationship or
a digital community, becausethat is a big part of everyone's
lives here. And I think thatit's it, it matters that we
gravitate or it says somethingabout us as people, that we
gravitate toward those placesthat the the digital section
(07:41):
feels like it's a tool, but it'snot the whole thing, right? Like
the thing that matters is thepeople, and the digital tool is
what just gets us there. So oneexample I think about, we have
students in homeschool, and Iknow I brought this up in
previous episodes, but I've justbeen thinking a lot about them,
because this was my pilot. I'vemade a lot of changes to this
one, specifically this year. Sowe have some students in that
(08:05):
space, or a student inparticular in that space, who
kind of, at the very beginningof the year was going to do his
own thing, like, I am here, I'mgoing to do my own thing. I'm
not really going to like, youguys are here, that's fine, but
I'm kind of here to do my ownthing. And that was, that was
okay, right? Like, he had amission and vision for what was
going to happen, and that wasgreat. But over time, I have
(08:29):
watched as we've provided morechoice. I kind of brought that
up in previous episodes, how nowthat student is asked about,
hey, is so and so going to behere? Is so and so here yet? Am
I? You know, not yet, or they'reon their way, and then when they
show up, that student is aperson that kids gravitate
toward, and in response, he alsogravitates toward those other
(08:52):
students. And so I've seen himkind of emerge as this person
who has a lot of reallyinteresting ideas, a lot of
really new, cool games that canbe played, some new ways to
think about using toys. Hechallenges me all the time on
what we can do in our middlespace, which is very much a
converted office block, madeinto makerspace. So it doesn't
(09:16):
quite have all the bells andwhistles of our traditional
makerspace, but I think one ofthe really interesting things
about that is that I have seenhim blossom, and all of the
students blossom around him withthese social negotiations that
they do. Just this last timethat we were together, they kind
of made a fort, and they didn'thave enough fort boards, which
is a really cool tool, or reallycool tool that we have, and so
(09:37):
they used a yoga mat to kind ofact as one of the walls, because
then that would give them enoughresources and materials. And
another student was buildingwith the fort boards, and they
kind of could have used all ofthem. And so we had a group
playing together, and this othergroup playing on their own, and
he did these reallysophisticated social
negotiations of, can I explainto you what our vision is? Would
(09:59):
you like to. Help us make this.
I think you could help us. Anddo, you know, contribute the
chimney to this thing? And itwas amazing to see that this
group had, I mean, for four toseven year olds, had this great
idea, had looped another childin, got them all involved. And
then when that child said, Well,let me finish this first, they
totally respected, like, hisautonomy to finish his task, and
said, Great, when you're donemaking that, we'd love to have
(10:22):
you join us, and we'd love touse your materials. And that
happened, right? And it happenedwithout any adult intervention.
It happened with a ton ofrespect and dignity for all of
the play that they wanted to do.
And the level of social likenavigation, there was something
cool to see. So one of thethings I think, that I noticed
is that what was an informalgroup, where they kind of
(10:44):
flipped back and forth, and theydidn't really create this maybe
meaningful exchanges, or what Ithought of as meaningful
exchanges, have really become aformal group that cares about
each other, that has, like ashared vision often, and I've
seen the sophistication of whatthey can do grow over time, and
(11:05):
it's been built by themcompletely. So I thought that
was an interesting example. That
Julie Cunningham (11:08):
is an interesting example. So do you
think that they all the norms,not all the norms, but the norms
that they are adhering to? Dothose come from, like the
community, or do those come froman expectation for how they
should behave when they're intheir space, or some sort of
(11:29):
combination? Because many ofthese students don't know one
another or outside of this timetogether, so it's not as though
they travel here as a group, andthey're some could be, but
there's
Ashley O'Neil (11:43):
a diverse group of and interestingly, we have
kids who don't know each other,and then we have siblings. So we
have kids who know each otherreally well, right? And then
kids who don't know each otherat all, and they're all kind of
mixed up together, yeah, I thinkit. I genuinely think, I mean, I
have to contribute some of theirskills. Obviously, they come
with these kind of skills inthis practice language that they
have, I can't take credit forthat that comes from their
(12:04):
family, or things that they'vedone outside. But I think the
other piece of it is that wekind of set up at the very
beginning like what I would liketo see happen, and I got a lot
of feedback from them for whatthey'd like to see happen. If
there is an activity that's notavailable that time, they can
ask me for it, and I put it on apiece of paper, and you make
(12:25):
sure it's available the nexttime. And so I think we've
informally modeled that as agroup like this is how we
interact with each other, andbecause they have so much
freedom and choice, and it is aspace of Yes, I think they
really value that. And thoselike norms have come out of
these, like, low stakes, littleinteractions, right, that have
built, over time into somethingbigger. Like, I don't think in
(12:48):
September had this we want tobuild this thing. We need your
fort board. I think that wouldhave resulted in some friction.
I think there would have been aconflict there. Someone would
have gotten upset ordisappointed, and they wouldn't
have had the tools to make thathappen. But I think because
we've done these littlenegotiations back and forth
about sharing resources, aboutgetting choices for activities,
(13:09):
or me modeling, if you don'twant to do that right now, you
can play over here, and thenwhen you're ready, come back,
like they've seen that happen inall these little ways, I think
it's grown for them. Nice,
Julie Cunningham (13:20):
yes, because I I'm glad you explained that,
because I think sometimes we saynorms, or community norms or and
they're not really, if aninstructor gives these rules up
front or this structure upfront, they're not really the
community's norms until they'reaccepted by the community. So
(13:40):
how, how do we go from these arethe expectations in this space,
right? This being verbalizedpotentially, to Oh yeah, I've
actually those make sense to meand I'm willing to use those.
And that not only do those makesense to me and I'm willing to
use them, but I can use them inthis situation to get something
(14:06):
that I want right,
Ashley O'Neil (14:07):
for sure, for sure. And I think also it is
important we set up we set upnorms often. And in fact, my
next example is about setting upnorms up front, but they don't
really have any meaning to kidswithout the experience in that
context. And so I think that'san important thing for us to
remember. Us to remember. Like,we can say in our classroom or
in our space, we value. Everyonegets a voice, and we all take
(14:28):
turns talking. That isn't reallymeaningful until we've, like,
flex those muscles. And so Ithink for me, it's one of our
shifts when we've come to it'scome to building community is
recognizing, like, they need allof these tiny little practice
points that grows into somethingbigger for it to actually make
sense, especially for kids. Imean, adults are different, but
kids don't have as manyexperiences to draw on. So we're
(14:49):
like building the boat as we'relike writing the rules for at
the same time.
Julie Cunningham (14:54):
And all learning takes practice, right?
So if we don't practice thesethings and we. Know, not given a
space to practice them in, thenit's unlikely that these are
going to be things that we learnhow to do. And so I just want to
clarify, since all of mycommunity examples are personal,
(15:15):
it's because that's where Istarted, right? I started by
saying, Okay, if communitiesimportant and communities
important to students, anddeveloping and creating
community is important tolearning and to education. Then,
what is it about the things thatI feel like and nobody would
ever accuse me of beingparticularly outgoing or like
(15:40):
one a person in which I've like,gone in search of like, being a
part of communities. I findmyself a part of the three
communities that I'm giving youexamples of, almost like, like
the community is is important tome, but it's almost like
secondary to how I got, it'salmost like how I got there
(16:02):
wasn't by looking for community.
So to me, that's interesting andsorry listener, if that's not
interesting to you, but I'mhoping that you can take
something about my examples ofcommunity to say, Oh yeah, I get
that if we were going to developor build a community, this might
be an important piece. So mysecond example is probably for
about three and a half yearsnow, I've been going to dog
(16:22):
training classes, to agilitywith my dog, and I just started
there because I had a differentbreed of dog that had a lot of
energy. And I thought, Okay, I'mnot obedience. Really isn't my
thing, but I could get behindlike doing these games with my
dog. So three and a half yearslater, I've been through a
number of different classes andwith a handful of different
(16:45):
instructors, and I find myselfprobably in a class now, I would
say about, probably about a yearand a half with the same group
of people. So I've found nowthat we are sort of a community,
right? Like we will know whensomebody isn't going to be there
next week, like we will know inadvance somebody will have
(17:07):
conveyed, communicated that,right? There's like a certain
level of respect to who's goingto be in class next week. We not
only know each other's dogsnames, but we know each other's
owners names, humans names,which you can laugh but for a
long time, if you get through avariety of different classes,
all you know are the dogs names,which is totally fine. We have
(17:28):
an expectation, like ourinstructor knows us right, and
knows our capabilities and setsour courses from week to week
based on our community'sexpectations and our community's
abilities. We have a set ofnorms about like communicating
(17:49):
who's potentially Whose turn isit to go next, or feedback to
one another. We feel, all feelcomfortable at this point,
providing feedback to oneanother, which, as adults,
taking risks and learningsomething new is not to go
unnoticed. Um, we spend time,you know, helping each other in
terms of, like, video taping orgetting prepared, or you forgot
(18:12):
this, and I've got your back, orwhatever. But then the last
example I want to give is justprobably a handful of months
ago, our instructor said, Okay,you're all ready to compete. And
we all looked around at eachother like, no way. None of us,
I feel like we're ready tocompete. I feel
Ashley O'Neil (18:31):
like I need to interject and say that when
Julie started going to dogagility classes, she was like,
Don't worry, I'm nevercompeting. Yes, that's accurate.
Julie Cunningham (18:39):
And actually, all of us said that we're here
just to have fun, right? We'rehere just to have fun. We're
here to have fun with our dog.
Like I would had no interest incompeting. I am enjoying
competing, to say on the otherside of that, but so we all
looked at each other like noway. We do not want it. We're
not ready to compete. We're notinterested in competing. What we
decided was as a when we decidedthat competing was not it was on
(18:59):
the table, and we needed to takeit seriously. We decided as a
group that we were all going togo to the try this competing
thing, this competition thing,on the same day, at the same
time, and I think that's alsopart of recognizing this
community piece, like you'regoing through a little bit of an
(19:21):
adversity now. I mean, is thatreal adversity? No, but we were
uncomfortable, right? And you'regoing through that, and you're
going through that together, andyou so you have that shared
experience of beinguncomfortable together, and I
think that is part ofpotentially being a community or
the way in which you treat eachother moving forward, and so I
(19:43):
didn't set out to look for beinga community at dog agility. It
happened for me, and I'm glad ithappened like I rely on this
community for things. Experienceand experiences surrounding my
dog agility, I look forward tocompetitions in which and we've
(20:04):
managed to not all be at thesame competition every single
time, but we've managed to atleast have each other's back,
like one of us will compete withanother, and I feel like that
has developed into a community,and I value that. And so when
I'm unpacking it as when we makecommunities in education, I'm
(20:25):
just thinking about thosethings, not that I want to give
children adversity in order tobecome a community, but I think
in education, sometimes we areuncomfortable and we are put in
uncomfortable, not unsafe, butlearning can sometimes involve
risk and be uncomfortable, somaybe that's part of being a
(20:46):
community.
Ashley O'Neil (20:49):
It's like we planned this. We didn't, but my
next example is about fieldtrips, because field trips are a
challenge for us in a couple ofways. One, we have an
established community, aclassroom that has had a leader
for however many months, right?
Coming into our space, and we'rethe newbies, we have a fair bit
of information we need to impartto them, some of it safety
(21:11):
related, right, how to usematerials, some of it logistics
related, where things are. Andthen we have to kind of explain
the task to them in a way thatmakes sense and give them enough
information, so we've got someinformation to impart. We're
kind of breaking into anestablished group that has all
of these norms and rules that welikely know very little about,
because it's just been a handfulof emails with us and the
(21:32):
teachers, and then we have ourown goals and our own
expectations and norms andvalues from the makerspace that
we want to impart and share,because that is the point of our
field trip, right? Like spoiler,we don't really care if you've
made a robot or a dog or abasket out of your prototype.
What we really care about aresome of these values and skills
and practices and norms that areless tangible and less
(21:55):
interesting to talk about withthe kid. And so we use our
prototypes as the vehicle forthat. So one of the things I
think that we have gone througha million versions of, is how we
do this best, right? And whatwe've currently landed on TVD,
if it'll stay this way, but whatwe've currently landed on is we
really have distilled down ourgoals, and one of our big ones
(22:16):
is developing a sense ofcamaraderie with the students
and rapport quickly, and we dothat often by being a little bit
silly, a little bit whimsical,and by focusing a lot on their
joy and their capability. And soI think by the end of a field
trip, it's really interesting tosee how comfortable the kids are
in this space, how chatty theyare with the facilitator,
(22:36):
regardless of what adult isrunning a field trip, which
staff member, how chatty theyare with them, how how proud
they are to share. Can I showyou my thing? Let me show you my
whatever. So they've built thatrapport with us quickly, and
we've kind of transformed an oldcommunity just temporarily into
something that's just a littlebit different. We hear a lot
from teachers that, oh, thosestudents don't typically get
(22:57):
along well in our space, theyare working together, and it
seems to be quite joyful andsomething kind of exciting is
happening, or we hear, you know,that students aren't really
interested in doing things,typically, it's really cool to
see that they're so chatty orwhatever here. So we see
examples of students kind ofbeing different or showing up
differently in the physicalspace that we have here. And one
of the things I attribute it tois, when we first started field
(23:22):
trips, do you remember how wewould kind of liken it to the,
like, a baking show, and I wouldthink of, like, those intense
American baking competitionswhere it's like, hands up chefs,
and like, there'd be all thisstress. And I think about the
two different environmentsbetween that, and just go with
me, but the great British bakingshow, okay, so like, in an
American baking show, often theyintentionally apply this stress.
There's a massive clock with,like, red countdowns, and the
(23:45):
music is like, dun, dun, dun.
Like, the music is intense, andlike, they're running around,
and there's just like anintensity to the situation that
happens that seems to apply alot of stress to what is already
a stressful situation.
Conversely, if you watch thegreat British baking show, like
we both do, without fail, theyapply a lot of silliness and
(24:05):
whimsy to that space. Outcomesstill the same. You still have
to bake a thing. It's reallydifficult. There's a challenge.
Sometimes the participants getpretty stressed about it, but in
no way are the adult membersright adding or contributing to
that stress. And I think one ofthe things that I think we have
worked on in our space isthinking about how joy can
diffuse anxiousness or stress orother things, right? And how we
(24:29):
can playfully approach that,like, if something gets spilled
in our space, we're pretty funnyabout it, right? Like it's not a
big deal. Sometimes we'll make ajoke about it. When students are
using tools. We talk about howcapable they are, and we're kind
of silly about you don't needthat adult to do that with you,
right? Like we are playful withhow we engage in it to kind of
get them to feel capable aboutthat thing. But you're not going
(24:52):
to see us, the adults, applyingthat stress to the space we see
our job to keep things. Gratefulto keep things calm, to keep
things kind of in that lowstakes environment, right, where
they feel like it's not that bigof a deal, right? And from that,
we can see that the interactionsfrom students are a little bit
(25:15):
different,
Julie Cunningham (25:18):
I think. And I think to your point, we're never
like we celebrate failure here,right? Because we celebrate
iterations, but also we're nevertrying to contribute to failure
like we're trying to alwayscontribute to a student feeling
successful, and therefore, likewe wouldn't want it to we
(25:42):
wouldn't want the risk, thestakes, to feel higher, for them
to feel more likely to fail.
Just the opposite, right?
Ashley O'Neil (25:48):
Yeah, and a lot of things go wrong here, right?
But we know we don't have tohelp with that, right? Like this
is going to be challengingenough. This is enough out of
kids comfort zones. I know youmentioned being uncomfortable.
This is really uncomfortable inhere for a lot of kids, they do
things very different here. It'sa big change, and so we
recognize that we don't have tocontribute to that in any other
way. And I think us realizingthat our role is to provide that
(26:12):
stability, that calm, that joy,has been a beneficial part of
how we build community in a veryfast time frame with new groups
of kids. I'm kind
Julie Cunningham (26:23):
of impressed with our our series of examples,
and how well we're relatingtogether, because you couldn't
have set me up better for mylast example, which is
organization that I volunteerwith, which is adventure team,
and I volunteer with the Midlandchapter, and it's about helping
kids be the best versions ofthemselves through adventure.
(26:46):
And we use a bicycle as a toolfor our adventure. So I work
with we have six groups of kidsat our event, and what I want to
say about building community isthat in order to alleviate what
often can be anxiety inducing,right, putting students in a new
(27:10):
situation and learning somethingnew, which you just mentioned in
the makerspace, is verydifferent from a K 12 classroom,
and we have ways of reducingstudents potentially anxiety and
frustration here, the way inwhich we do it at Adventure team
is very intentional. So everyweek the students come, the
(27:31):
students, the riders come, andthey see the same setup at what
we call base camp, and so theyknow exactly what to do. Every
week they go to their theirnumbered one through six, right?
So they go to their station,they put their bike down at a
cone, and they put their bike sothat the derailer side is up
(27:51):
anyway. There's just, it doesn'treally matter, but there's just
a series of things in which it'sthe same every week. Like you,
you don't enter base camp withyour bike without your helmet
on, you wear your adventure teamshirt every week, so everybody
is identifiable. So all of thoseprotocols allow the learning of
the bike skill and the characterskills to feel less risky,
(28:18):
right? Because everything elseis repeatable from week to week
to week. So you can focus on therelationships with the other
riders, you can focus on therelationships with your coaches,
and you don't have to wonder,what is the night going to be
like, because those routines areset in place intentionally to
(28:42):
build community, and we do acouple of other things, like
putting the youngest kidsclosest to the trailer, which
might feel like sort of thesafest position to be right, and
closest to those other adultswho are there Helping with base
camp, like we always put thepumps for the tire, the air
(29:04):
pumps for the tire, right in thesame place. The tent always has
snacks and water, like justthings like that. So those
routines there help to buildcommunity, and riders can help
one another with where to go andwhat to do next, right? Coaches
are present the leads. Thecoaches are present at their
(29:26):
station, and their station hasthe backpack with the first aid,
and it has all the things theyneed. And so that
intentionality, I think, helpsreally can help to build
community. And then one lastthing that that we do at
Adventure team is that we alwayshave riders grouped by age, and
(29:50):
so they're as likely to makefriends with their peers right
in the same age group,regardless of their ability on
a. Bike. And again, that isintentional. So So I think
communities can be built withsome of that intentionality in
mind, right in ways in which,again, this is an ongoing 10
(30:15):
weeks, once a week over summer.
And so we don't have some ofthat ability in field trips when
we think about ways in which wemitigate, perhaps, anxiety that
students bring into the fieldtrip, but I'm just suggesting
that when we do have an ongoingrelationship, there are ways to
also mitigate things that can beanxiety inducing, and so
(30:38):
structure could be one of those.
Yeah, I
Ashley O'Neil (30:42):
think that's a great like, we talk about
building kids capacity a lot. Wethat was a big focus of one of
our teacher PDS last summer. Andone of the ways we do that right
is by freeing them up to havethe social things, because all
that other stuff is taken careof, right? Like, I don't have to
worry and like, expend my socialenergy and asking where to put
my bike I can expend it, andbeing silly and playful with the
(31:05):
other kids while we're waiting,because I know all that stuff
already, right? So when we thinkabout what are our actual goals
here, and what can we put inplace to reduce the noise so
that kids have the capacity todo the things we really want
them to do, I think that is areally smart, intentional way
for you to build the community.
They all, they all know where tofind each other, right? They're
not going to stay by theirparents, because they're waiting
(31:26):
to be told where to gather. Theyknow where to go, and so all
that informal hangout time couldhappen because they know where
to go. And that's reallyvaluable, yeah. So my last
example is makeshift, andmakeshift is one of our other
programs that's informal in thatregistration opens up like two
weeks before the event. We tendto have a core group that is
(31:46):
pretty regular. We're atcapacity in that, but it can be
always new students, and we havea rotating group of college
students who can participate ourSTEM education scholars. So
sometimes they can come,sometimes they have class. So
that is another variable that'snot always the same. And when I
watch makeshift it reminds me oflike you're looking out. And
(32:06):
there's kids who are kind oflike Beatles. They kind of just
stay in one spot, and they'rethey're dedicated to that thing,
and they stay there the wholetime. And then you have these
kids who kind of like flitthey're like little, little
flying insects, and they kind offloat around, and they land here
for a bit, and then they kind offlit away, and they of float
away and they land here. And oneof the things that it makes me
think a lot about is that weintentionally keep things
(32:27):
informal in that space where thekids can bounce from idea to
idea, they can plant themselvesin the spot and stay there the
entire time. And from that hascome some really interesting
things. Thing, one, kids get newideas from each other, rather
than than asking me a milliontimes over, what can I do? What
(32:47):
can I do? Or me having to like,what are you interested? What
can you do? They are flittingaround and getting inspired by
their peers and getting ideasfrom them, right? And I've seen
that happen a lot, where I fledover and I see that you're
working on blocks, although I'minterested in making a video
game, I'd like to do that too,right? And so that is an organic
way where they start to rely oneach other and see each other as
(33:07):
you matter in this space, right?
Instead of focusing in on theiridea. The other thing I think it
does is it helps develop thoseinformal peer negotiations that
we talked a lot, a little bit inthe homeschool group, right
where I can have an exampleinteraction with this kid,
asking him about what he'sworking on, or just sitting next
to like I see a lot of that withthe middle schoolers, where they
(33:29):
sit next to each other and justwatch what the other kid is
doing. That is building a socialnetwork that they can then cash
in on later. So maybe they'rejust watching each other this
time, and then maybe next timeI'm playing your game and you're
playing my game, or maybe nexttime I'm asking where, like the
paint goes, or I'm asking thattype of thing, and we watch
those little social networksbecome something real, so that
(33:50):
the students who've been herefor years, they're excited to
see each other, they have builta community that isn't, I'm not
the center of right? And I thinkagain, it's one of those things
where, like keeping thingsintentionally informal, allows
them to gravitate and trythings, to see what works and
doesn't work from them, right?
And they can take those risksand experiment and what
(34:11):
community building looks likefor them, and it doesn't look
the same every time. There aresome kids who talk a lot to
other people, there are somekids are kind of on their own,
but they all feel like a part ofthat community in some way or
shape or form.
(34:33):
This has been another episode ofteach wonder. Thank you for
listening. You can findimportant links and information
in our show notes. You
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