Enabling Change

Relationships are Behind All Good Learning

Relationships. They make next gen learning possible.

When I was surrounded by educators at the iNACOL Annual Symposium in Orlando last week, “relationships” entered nearly every conversation. Relationships was not a formal theme of the conference, yet it was on most everyone’s mind.

Perhaps it was a reaction to critics of personalized learning, to the increasingly segregated nature of our nation’s collective consciousness, or a reflection of a profound need—at this moment in the evolution of personalized learning, which was the formal theme of the conference, to state what is most critical for good learning to occur. Whatever it was, relationships was a theme that appeared often, and when it did, it was moving.

Read through this sampling of the words that keynote speakers, presenters, and colleagues used when discussing the role of relationships in next gen, personalized learning.

“Storytelling—relationships—close the space between us.”
—Victoria Crispin, Springpoint Schools in StorySLAM: Teaching and Learning in New Ways

“No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.”
—James Comer, as told by Bryan Setser, rpkGroup in Scary, Urgent, Passionate, Hopeful, Inspiring. Stories Worth Re-Telling! The Moth Comes to Next Gen Learning and iNACOL

“Relationships are a long game. You don’t know what those moments [of connection with students] are going to be.”
—Matt Riggan, Workshop School in Scary, Urgent, Passionate, Hopeful, Inspiring. Stories Worth Re-Telling! The Moth Comes to Next Gen Learning and iNACOL

“We don’t talk about love in education. But isn’t ‘to love’ to really know someone? And when you really know someone, don’t you want the best for them?”
—Diane Tavenner, Summit Public Schools in Opening Keynote: Personalized, Learner-Centered Innovations to Transform Lives and Communities

“I realize people really cared about me, I realize that I’m heard.”
—Javier, a student at South Bronx Community Charter School, as told by Chris de la Cruz, Learning Specialist in StorySLAM: Teaching and Learning in New Ways. Chris was Javier’s advisor, but Javier didn’t want to be helped or advised, so Chris spent their advising time playing the game Connect 4 and asking questions from a New York Times article about falling in love, because he discovered they were simply good questions to get to know someone well. This was what Javier said after a restorative justice circle to mediate a disagreement with one of his teachers.

“They [my teachers] gave me more confidence, and that’s why I’m standing here right now. Maybe the next time you see me, I’ll be a keynote speaker at a conference like this.”
—LaKayla Eberhardt, Lincoln-West School of Global Studies in StorySLAM: Teaching and Learning in New Ways, referencing how her rough transition to her school started to get easier when a teacher invited her to have lunch with her and the school allowed her to “escape my shell.”

“We talk about technology for learning. When will we talk about technology for relationships?”
—Caroline Hill, CityBridge Education in Luncheon Keynote: Learning by Design: Breakthrough Models for Empowering Youth and Innovations for Educational Excellence

“Relationships are important. They are an end, not just a means to another end.”
—Cheryl Lupenui, The Leader Project, and Kau’i Sang, Hawai’i State Department of Education, in Setting Sacred Space: Assessments for Learning from a Cultural Context