This week, I have started reading a book by Seth Godin titled Tribes: We need you to lead us. As I am reading this, I am thinking of all my friends who classroom teachers, not only just gifted intervention specialists. I find that many of the ideas that Seth is writing about can be applied to the classroom.
Seth writes that a tribe is “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, humans have been part of one tribe or another. A group only needs two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” As teachers in a building we can either be a group or a tribe. Which do you want to be?
I have said before, being a gifted intervention specialist can be lonely. You may know, I was the only one of three in my district. So I had to create my own tribe. My tribe members were my students. Seth writes that tribes “need leadership. Sometimes, one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth, and something new. The want change.” As the leader of my tribe, I had brilliant students who had shared a label, but not necessarily shared the same interests, personality traits, and learning styles. I had to get us to a shared goal. That goal was to have and create some great moments of learning through some of the topics I would choose, and some they would choose.
So I had, each of my classes become a tribe. To be honest it worked well, most of the time. I had my students for several years, most throughout their middle school years. So, I took advantage of that time frame I was given to create a culture that was tribe-like. I feel like I made a classroom where everyone felt like belonged, could contribute to the class in a meaningful way, and could help lead if the desire in them was there.
I didn’t think about the idea of tribes when I was in the throngs of teaching. I wish I had this idea then. A few weeks ago I read the book Relentless: Changing Lives by Disrupting the Educational Norm by Hamish Brewer. In his book he places emphasis on building relationships with students. He creates tribes for his students to belong.
Students who are gifted, want to feel like they belong. We all want to belong. These students who are gifted want to connect with others they feel are like themselves. I felt like it was my job to encourage that feeling by creating a tribe they belonged to.
How do you see your classroom? Are you the leader of a tribe? Are you creating a culture where students feel like they belong?
Ramblings of a Gifted Teacher 