1. & 16. Community Engagement: Advocating for Young People

1. & 16. Community Engagement: Advocating for Young People

This We Believe (AMLE, 2010)

* Educators value young adolescents and are prepared to teach them. Value Young Adolescents. 
* The school includes community and business partners. Community and Business Partners

This week I participated in four sporting events. Our soccer teams played on Tuesday; volleyball was on Thursday (I take tickets at the volleyball games.); and on Friday night our eighth graders joined the high school band at the Middle School Night football game. At every event parents, aunts, siblings, cousins, grandparents, and members of the community cheered for our kids. At every event parents and community members interacted with coaches, directors, and students. At every event, students saw adults interacting with one another as members of a community, openly supporting students and one another. At these after-school events, parents, teachers, and students work together. It is important to participate in students' lives outside the classroom.

Eighth Grade Band Night

The middle school band director invited faculty to help monitor band students before, during, and after the Friday night football game, designated as Middle School Night where middle school students received FREE passes. The music teacher and I volunteered. We are both new to the school.

We have two middle schools in our community. The two middle school band directors and the high school band director work together as a team to promote band and team spirit. Our band director shared that bringing middle school and high school band students together is something new. He shared that because of the relationship among the band directors, this type of program is a win-win for everyone. Our middle school students are afforded the opportunity to participate in a high school event which promotes their self-esteem as well as provides motivation for them to think about high school and consider being part of a team. At the middle school level, it gives students a sense of belonging.

Our eighth graders, who have been working with band "section leaders" every Tuesday for the past month and practicing songs during their elective time, were invited to warm up with the band in the high school band room, to march into the stadium with them, and to participate next to them all evening. The students enjoyed playing the fight song and several other songs (including The Horse and Smoke on the Water), as well as dancing with the high school students.

We watched the band directors interact with our students' parents as well as with high school band members and their families. We watched them gather eighth graders together and support them in the evening's event. We observed our students as they watched these band directors interact with one another in a positive way, illustrating how much they like what they are doing. We saw our middle school students follow band members and leaders with respect and focus. We watched high school students take our middle school students under their wing. (Oh yes, and I got to meet many of my students' family members.)

At the beginning of the game, I heard one of the high school band members say to our kids, 'Watch this, you will pick it up.' (The students learned how the band members danced to a drum beat when the team scored a touchdown: 90 degree turn while dancing, 90 degree turn while dancing, 90 degree turn, 'whoooa', then back to center; repeat). By the third touchdown the entire band along with our eighth graders were taking 90 degree turns dancing to the beat of the drum line. Fortunately, there were lots of touchdowns last night.

During the third quarter, when the band members were on break, I spoke with one of the section leaders. She shared that three years ago the middle school band director moved up to the high school from our middle school. The student moved up too; she was so pleased to get to work with the director through middle school and now in high school. "She is kind of like another mom to me," she shared. She also commented on the Tuesday after-school band buddy program. "It is a great way for us to get to know the kids who will be playing with us."

I got the feeling that the sense of community goes well beyond our idea of community partners and includes high school students and organizations. What we saw was the opportunity for high school students to mentor young people, high school students making a difference in young people's lives. Our middle school students need high school advocates and this program appears to be making a difference. It was beautiful to watch.

Advice

1. Be Present. Do not assume that your only responsibility is in the job description you signed. Find out what your students are involved in and find a way to attend their events.

2. Find the coaches, the directors, the sponsors in the school and consider how you can advocate for them. If you know the newspaper sponsor, go by and ask how things are going. If your students are going to be part of an event (drama, art, music, sports, Science Olympiad, Battle of the Books, Mathcounts), see how you can help. When teachers know you care about their contributions, children benefit.

3. Teachers are busy. Our job never ends. We spend time planning, assessing, re-planning, and finding ways to meet the intellectual needs of students. By the end of a school day, as a new teacher, you will be tired. However, as important as intellectual development is, we must remember that children (and adults by the way) have social and emotional needs. By attending events, we are advocating for 'them' with our time; we are letting them know that their efforts matter; and we are modeling advocacy for one another. With our presence we are also letting our colleagues who coach, who direct, who work with our kids on their passions, know that we value their support of our students.

4. Finally, do not be afraid to talk to the coaches and directors about the students you teach. They have a great deal of influence on how students act in your class. I have spoken to coaches and band directors to help shape student-behaviors in class. Our students need to know that we are all on the same page helping them grow up to be responsible members of the community.