Communication is the essential piece of any successful business. When you find a decline in productivity, the source of the issue usually is narrowed down to a lack of communication. If an employee leaves a position, when asked why they chose to go, it was a lack of communication.
Education is in the business of serving children but seldom communicates with them to ask for their input into building curricula and designing learning plans and strategies. They are not at the level of understanding the complexity of the learning process and knowing the sequencing to map out the progression, but they do know what works for their learning.
The depth of learning for children as they walk through the schoolhouse doors is not the only thing on their minds. Educators need to help unwrap the needs before unwrapping the core standards.
How many times do we hear: “Yea, I understand.” “No, I don’t need any help.” How many times do you look out, and you hear: Nothing
Some children will tell and show how they are doing. Others have walls built up to say nothing, while others act out to keep you further away.
Over my 25-plus years in education, I have seen every type of child, more trauma than I sadly needed to see, and walked alongside many families as we worked through many different issues.
As you go through your days in the office, school, and home, make communication a priority with these practices.
- -Set limits to social media and devices
- -Prioritize communication
- -Identify the need for communication with all
- -Be authentic
- -Add value
- -Manage communication with organizational tools-use; a spreadsheet to document who, when and how you communicated with individuals and what to help remind you if you need to follow up on items.
*Do not force communication.
Building a trusting relationship takes time. Individuals who have built up walls, starting with a journal is one way to begin the conversations. In the words of one of my students, “Thank you for not giving up on me.”
It takes time, work, and consistency.