Schools As Community

"Community of Kindness is not a label, an award, a badge earned; it is a way of life that we are teaching children, parents and staff alike. It is...strengthening in so many ways. The entire social climate of our school is changing and everyone can feel the energy."

- Holly Denman, Principal, Cascade Heights Public Charter School

The school is a COMMUNITY. What type of community varies from school to school, but schools remain the primary daily community participation students and educators share together. Therefore, it is critical to establish the School as a Community in a deliberate and conscientious manner. This means embracing, defining, developing and implementing a Community of Kindness... a safe haven for learning in the absence of bullying, excessive competition and denial of individuality. Does this occur routinely at your school? Is teaching and learning the focus because time is not devoted to conflict resolution?

The concept of Community of Kindness was established to ensure the answers to the previous two questions was and will be a "yes". Community of Kindness provides the systems to be utilized:

• Campus-wide
• Within the classroom
• Across individual interactions

The resulting structured instructional strategies include the inclusion of Mutual Agreements, The Art of Negotiation, How to diffuse and use Power, and many other established leadership oriented processes to redefine schools, educators, and students from K-12th grades. The result is a Community of Kindness framework. This framework cannot be successful without actively enhancing the motivation and learning competencies of those students in need. (e.g. the Unhappy Learner, students with Social Skills deficiencies, and students with specific learning and developmental disorders). Fun & Functional learning was developed to address these needs. Specifically, Dr. Glahn and her colleagues addressed the learning needs of students with Autism, Asperger Syndrome, ADHD, and other learning disabilities. The Fun & Functional educational approach evolved into a holistic educational format which outlines how to impact:

• Educator styles
• Curriculum modifications
• Specific, Responsive Instructional Strategies

Community of Kindness and Fun & Functional go hand-in-hand working both at the ethics/values level and the other at the instructional/curriculum level. Glahn & Associates offer very distinct workshops and consultation to teach the specific set of skills desired by schools, administrators and educators alike.