Teachers and staff ensure they make eye contact along with a high-five, handshake, fist pump, or another creative way that says, "Good morning! I see you and you belong here!" That positive interaction also measures student behaviors or attitudes to give teachers insight and allow them to engage in conversation of what’s going on in that child’s life.
“This is an opportunity for students to come to a safe space where they are loved and cared for all while receiving a high-quality education,” said Vanessa Robert, dean of special education and intervention at Canton. “Having a threshold at arrival and providing a strong start that engages almost all of the students sets the tone for the day.”
Practices like that help National Heritage Academies (NHA) schools curb the potential lull that might occur when students return to the classroom from summer vacation. They also establish a culture built on defined values that allow teachers and students to hit the ground running. Core values that NHA schools hold such as “behave with care” and “take ownership for the success of our students” seamlessly carry over from one school year to the next.
“If we have the behavior with care, we can focus on the constancy of the school culture, then we feel that Week Zero (the first week of school) will have more meaning besides having a honeymoon phase,” Robert said.
This school year will be a different kind of preparation for Robert as an administrator. She is entering her first year as a dean at Canton after teaching for more than 10 years and was honored as Michigan Regional Teacher of the Year. In her time as a kindergarten teacher, she worked to establish trust with families, beginning with Kindercamp.
She continued to foster trust by making her classroom a welcoming environment. She took time to get to know families at engagement events in the days leading up to the first day. Because of all that effort before the school year started, a sense of comfort was present before the first bell had rung.
“I think establishing that trust comes from empathy, and it comes from a place of being empathetic, understanding and talking to that student like a person,” Robert said. “I think having that moment where you’re getting to know your students and understanding where their background is and really homing in on, ‘Hey, this is what I’m here for. I’m here to help you.’”
Establishing a consistent culture begins with how the previous school year ended and instead of having to start each school year fresh, the previous year’s successes become a concept of how to build on where they left off in the spring. For Principal Cathy Miller and her team at Pathway School of Discovery, there are no days off – the process of getting ready for the next school year begins just days after wrapping up the previous year.
For example, an administrative retreat gives staff a chance to plan out the summer and set milestones. Then email reminders throughout the summer detail expectations and refer back to notes made throughout the year of things to address at the start of the next school year. “(As a leader) don’t just assume everyone remembers everything from the previous year,” Miller said.
For families, the summer months bring parent orientations, engagement events, and a Kindercamp for parents and first-time students to stay connected, Miller added. Some of the events are school-wide and some are segmented by grade level, but Pathway leaders have strived to establish a consistency that creates an expectation for teachers and students throughout the building.
“We’ve done a really good job of ensuring that we are making everything school-wide,” Pathway Dean of Upper Elementary Christina Stegnicki said, adding the consistency school-wide allows leaders to support teachers and teachers to support students because the routines are the same.
From the start of the day to dismissal, and from the beginning of the year until the final bell, these established routines and procedures make a positive impact on students’ behavior throughout the school year and reinforce NHA schools’ Moral Focus-based pillars.
“Setting those strong expectations is super important because then they’re building that relationship, and we can focus in on the culture and really home in on those values that NHA has been talking about,” Robert said.
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About Canton Charter Academy
Canton Charter Academy is a tuition-free, public charter school in Canton, Michigan, serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is part of the National Heritage Academies network, which includes more than 100 tuition-free, public charter schools serving more than 65,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade across nine states. For more information, visit nhaschools.com.
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