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| Help Us Help Ourselves: Developing Supportive Learning Environments with Students |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
· A culture of respect shatters stereotypes based on age.
· Students respect teachers who listen and ask challenging questions.
· A culture of respect provides all people the opportunity to act on their dreams and learn from their mistakes.
COMMUNICATION
Listen up: An honest and open exchange of ideas is crucial.
· Students are best heard when teachers step back and students speak up.
· Teachers are best heard when they are straight up and explain where they’re coming from.
· All people's ideas and opinions are valuable and must be heard.
INVESTMENT
It takes time: Investing in the future is accepting that students are leaders today.
· Students and teachers must first set their fears aside and take a chance on each other.
· Teachers must provide students with the information, education and support they will need to succeed. They must also develop their own ability to engage students.
· Strong partnerships require patience and courage.
MEANINGFUL INVOLVEMENT
Count us in: Decisions about students should be made with students.
· Teachers need to support students in taking on responsibility based on what they can do, not what they have done.
· Reflection helps everyone appreciate the importance of their education - for themselves, for their communities and for their lives.
· Students and teachers must hold each other accountable for all their decisions and actions.
· Students and teachers should continually challenge the impact of schools in their lives.
When Student Voice is supported, Student-Teacher partnerships can be successfully created. Students must be empowered to change schools if education is going to change. These Principals for Student-Teacher Partnerships offer those guidelines.
This list is an easy-to-handout resource for students in schools!
1. Have a real conversation with a student. Ask a student what they want to do and how you can help make that happen.
2. Create a classroom and school that involves students in meaningful roles.
3. Start a resource library at your school on youth involvement in your community.
4. Teach and facilitate students working together with adults in your class, school, and community.
5. Develop a mutual mentorship program between adults and students.
6. Co-create or support along with students a service-learning center in your school for students and adults to gather and do constructive things together.
7. Listen to students express their concerns and perspectives about community issues and encourage them to take action through service-learning.
8. Be an advocate for students by making sure they’re at the table when you are discussing them.
9. Support positive, community-minded activities for students such as service-learning, students on school boards, KEY Club, etc.
10. Make the concerns of students visible in your school by helping students get in the door.
11. Co-author a letter with students to the administration about student issues.
12. Respect students as you would a peer.
13. Work with students to plan a student-led service-learning project.
14. Take an active role in listening to students whose voice is seldom heard in student leadership, including students who are minority, low-income, have low grades, or don’t interact with their peers.
15. Host a student-teacher picnic to encourage student-adult partnerships.
16. Engage students as classroom consultants, interns, apprentices, and event staff.
17. Be consistent and clear about your expectations of students and adults in your school.
18. Team up with students and youth-led groups to have a town meeting for youth in your community.
19. Identify and network with students in your school who are concerned about their community and the issues youth and others face.
20. Connect with other adult allies.
21. Include students when hiring adults in your school, including staff, teachers, and administrators.
22. Arrange for transportation for students who would not otherwise be able to participate in school and community activities.
23. Team up with students to support candidates for local, state, and national office who make listening and working with youth a priority.
24. Help arrange for a radio station to sponsor a call-in show led by students that allows them to talk about their concerns.
25. Help arrange for concerned students to have an audience with the principal or mayor to highlight their concerns and recommendations.
26. Talk with others about the importance of having a school-wide vision for student involvement.
27. Serve on an advisory council for a student-led effort.
28. Only go to meetings where students are invited or you can bring students with you.
29. Be a friend to students.
30. Advocate for all students’ voices to be heard throughout school decision-making, and discourage unfair opportunities based on sex, race, academic performance, etc.
31. Create student-led experiences in the classroom so students can learn through hands-on experiences.
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