The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Best practices, tips, and stories to help you be extraordinary in your classroom and beyond, featuring Curriculum Associates' Director of the Educator Community Sari Laberis.
The Extraordinary Educators Podcast
Fostering Empathy and Belonging in the Classroom with Kelly Rossetti and Amber Venoutsos
Imagine stepping into a school where every face is familiar and every interaction is threaded with empathy and support. That's the reality second-grade teachers Kelly and Amber have created with their PAWS Time initiative, a program that's transforming their school community into an interconnected family. As this episode unfolds, you'll be captivated by their tales of weekly 30-minute sessions where storytelling and activities bridge the gaps between staff and students, nurturing a sense of belonging and mutual respect. It's a move that's not just reshaping the school environment but also creating ripples of excitement in students' homes—something we explore through touching anecdotes and glowing feedback from families.
Read Curriculum Associates' blog: CurriculumAssociates.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter: @CurriculumAssoc
Follow us on Instagram: @MyiReady
Have feedback, questions, or want to be a guest? Email ExtraordinaryEducators@cainc.com to connect with us!
Hey everyone. It's Sari. Welcome back to the Extraordinary Educator Podcast. This week I am joined by two incredible second grade teachers, kelly and Amber, who started the most wonderful initiative at their school, where essentially, kids rotate through and get to meet every single staff member. So by the end of the year, the hope and goal is that they have built relationships with every adult in the school building. Students, faculty, families are all loving it, and Kelly and Amber really dive into how they built this from the ground up. Some ideas for you if you want to get something like this started at your school, and really the small stories that make a big difference and the lessons they've learned along the way. So I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoy talking to them. Here's my conversation with Kelly and Amber. Welcome, kelly and Amber. We are so excited to talk to you today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having us. We're so happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, let's just dive in. You two started this incredible initiative at your school. Can you tell our listeners what it is a?
Speaker 3:little bit about history, how you started and where you are today. Sure, so this actually all started with a phone call between Amber and I back in the spring of 2019. At that point, our building was in a very different place than it is now. Kids were experiencing a lot more emotional dysregulation. We were seeing a lot of things that we weren't expecting to see if things had been building. And Amber called me one day and said, hey, I have this idea. And Amber called me one day and said, hey, I have this idea. What do you think about starting something to increase positive relationships with the kids in our school? And so we developed something called Pause Time.
Speaker 4:So Pause Time the way that it looks today in our school building. We have a K-2 school and pause is the same acronym that we use for our behavior expectations. Every week our entire school community participates together in a 30-minute community building session. It happens first thing in the morning once a week, where all classes will listen to the same story. It typically has a theme for each month related to SEL. So like this month we are working on empathy.
Speaker 4:Next month we're working on cooperation. Next month we're working on cooperation those kind of like life skills. They'll listen to a story and then after the story they'll engage in like in-depth discussions about what happened in the story and kind of notice things about the characters and then they'll complete some kind of hands-on project, super engaging, like either a STEM activity or like a cooperative game with their class All of those things the kids get really excited about. But the best part about it for us is the staff rotation that's included. So every time that we do pause time in the building, each class participates with somebody that's not their regular classroom teacher. We have it set up so that two different teachers from all around the building both classroom teachers and support staff will come in to do this activity with the kids and get to know the kids in that class that week, then move on to a different class the following week.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. So you are telling me that by the end of the year or throughout the year, when a student walks down the hall or a staff member sees any child, the hope and goal is that they know each other on a first name basis.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and when we initially started this program, we had really hoped that it was going to build those connections, make students and staff alike get to know everyone in the building and impact behavior on a positive way. What we've seen, though, has been so much more than just a positive impact on behavior and student staff relationships.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's, let's hear about that. Please tell us, how is your school, community, family, students, staff, what are you hearing? What's been the feedback?
Speaker 4:Our kids kindergarten, first and second grade build continuous relationships with all of the adults in our building from day one when they're in kindergarten, all the way until they're ready to leave us. We've laughed at this every year because on the first day of school, our students will come down the hallway into second grade, where we are, and they walk in. They're like, oh hi, you know, how are you doing, how is your summer. And every year we say, like they already know us, they walk into our rooms on the first day and it's not. You know nerves and anxiety, it's just, I remember you. You were in my class the last two years, Like you've come to visit and you're a smiling face.
Speaker 2:I just got chills Like actually that just takes away like the whole first annoying for like a better terms piece. Like you got to learn their names and the student probably feels so much more comfortable walking in to an adult who they know.
Speaker 4:And I have to say too, like at Open House, we had so many families who have shared that their child got so excited when they opened their letter to find out who their teacher was. Not because they got a specific teacher, but because they recognized oh, my goodness, I know exactly who that is. I'm so excited to go to school now and it just, it's magic.
Speaker 3:And it's also helped us in first and second grade make class placements. When we see students who have really bonded with a teacher, it makes it really easy to place those students in those classrooms. One of our favorite stories is there's a student who is in second grade this year. It's a student who had experienced a lot of emotional dysregulation struggles but when he was in first grade he really bonded with one of our second grade teachers and he would walk down the halls and every time he saw her he would say hers is the most beautiful teacher in the second grade.
Speaker 1:Now it's not either of us. No, it's not either of us. It's not either one of us.
Speaker 3:But he was so enamored with this teacher that we made sure that he got placed in her class this year and he is having a fantastic year. It is totally turned around his time at school because he already had a connection before he stepped foot in that classroom.
Speaker 4:One of the other things we just are in awe about every single week is the high level of engagement in what students are doing Right. So this is only a 30 minute block. It's a very small chunk of what our week looks like. But fairly recently we got a new staff member to our building, our school nurse, who has a pretty busy office on a regular basis for the moment that she walks in until the very end of the day. We have a K-2 school that has a lot of needs from the nurse, and one of the things that she said to our administrators recently was like this morning is so quiet, Like what is happening in this building this morning. Is there an assembly or something? And it happened to be a pause time warning and she didn't have any visitors because our kids are staying in classrooms because they don't want to miss what's going on. It's just very special.
Speaker 3:And not only are they staying in the rooms because they want to be a part of it. We've noticed across our entire building, staff and student attendance is significantly better on days where we have pause time. Several years ago I had a student who was non-life-threatening but in the ER overnight for an issue. She was there very, very late at night. Mom emailed me saying I'm so sorry she was in the ER, not sure if she's going to be at school tomorrow.
Speaker 3:The next day came and she walked into my room and I said why are you here? You had a very busy, long night last night, are you okay? And her response to me was it's pause time. I wanted to see the new teacher who was going to be in my room today. Now, this is not. We're not condoning if you're in the ER over the day, come to school the next day. But it was that important to the child that she got to see that teacher because she said I'm not sure if that teacher will be back in my room this year and I want to make sure I get to see them.
Speaker 2:That that is just. It's so inspiring and that's how a school should feel, right. It should feel like a place you want to be. You should have those relationships and trust and, thanks to you two, your school definitely. I can tell just by the for those listening. They're just smiling ear to ear, talking about this. So thank you for all of that. What are some things that are kind of sticking with people or other? Are there any other anecdotes or stories you want to share before we close out and give our listeners?
Speaker 3:some advice on how to dive into something like this. We have two more really special ones we would love to share. It's also had a really positive impact on our students who experienced trauma. We know we have a lot of students in this day and age who experienced some sort of trauma in their lives, but pause time is a part of their day where they can just relax and be at school and it's low pressure. They don't feel forced to have to do anything. A couple of weeks ago there was a student who has some trauma and they completed the pause time activity for the day. They sat there, did everything that was expected of them and when we shared with the administrator look what this student did their response was that's the first work they've done all week, because it felt okay for them to just be a kid in a room with some new teachers and do something fun.
Speaker 4:One of the other impacts that we've seen across our entire building is an increase in staff morale. It's really easy for staff to get bogged down in everything that they are asked to do and certainly when we have a lot of certain like behavior things going with students, that can be very challenging and it can be draining for people. But we've had moments during pause time where I've had teachers come up to me and tell me that this reminds them of why they got into teaching in the first place. It brings back the reason why we're all here, and if school is fun for staff, then school is fun for kids, and that's when real learning can happen.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well. Thank you for sharing those additional stories. I'm sure everyone listening is inspired and wants to do something similar at their school, but obviously this is a large undertaking. You two have spent six years building this, so if someone is listening and is a teacher and is thinking to themselves wow, that sounds amazing. I want to do something like this at my school. What would be sort of your recommended? Where do you start? What are some next steps?
Speaker 3:sort of your recommended. Where do you start? What are the some next steps? Start really small. This started as a trial in our building for just six weeks of a school year at the very end of the year, with just the second graders in our building and because we were able to start small, it felt really manageable.
Speaker 4:We were able to trial and error some things to figure out what worked, to move forward for the following year Right and then at the end of that year, when it was successful, then we were really able to, you know, kind of morph it into a school-wide model. But starting small is really important. Something else I would tell people that would like to have something like this in their building is just to expect challenges along the way. There will be many, for sure.
Speaker 4:Switching classes and being in somebody else's classroom space is not in everyone's comfort zone, and we have seen that time and time again. It's not that it's not good for us and I, you know, I think the majority of our staff would agree with that too but definitely took some adjustment for people to get used to that. And the other thing is because we're doing something different with kids every week some of our activities we are learning that the next time we use this we will tweak it, you know for sure, and just know that things are going to evolve and change, like all aspects of teaching, as you get going.
Speaker 3:Another thing that we've really learned along the way is support from staff is amazing, but support from administrator is super important as well. Our administration has always supported us from the get go with this. They have the same vision that we do that school should feel good for kids, kids should want to be at school, and we have an amazing staff who has really supported, encouraged and advocated for the program as we've moved forward, and that means the world to both of us.
Speaker 4:I think the last thing that we would tell people is just to take a step back once in a while and truly celebrate the little victories that happen through a program like this. You're not going to see changes overnight, but it's the little things that happen, like the kid who usually is sitting in the back of the room with his hood up and not wanting to participate in anything and clearly going through a lot of stuff, who kind of wanders over to participate in the activity, you know, because it feels like maybe he could handle that in that moment. Or hearing an entire classroom like cheer when a different teacher comes in their room for pause time. And we've really made an effort to take a step back and pull those moments in because it's that kind of stuff that really keeps us going.
Speaker 2:That's incredible and thank you again both of you, kelly and Amber so much for sharing your experience and how you built this, and they also wrote a blog on this for our listeners. We'll link that in the show notes. You should definitely check that out. But thank you so much for both of you for being here and for sharing all of your strategies and ways that you've built this better community at your school. We're so appreciative.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having us. We love talking about this.
Speaker 1:Get inspired by following us on social media and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Asoche and on Instagram at my Eye, Ready. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest or if you want to be a guest email extraordinaryeducators at cainccom. Please subscribe where you listen to podcasts and if you'd like to help more educators, just like you, join the conversation and please leave a review. Remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates, editing by Shane Lowe, social media by Atsiti Hanan, guest booking by Sari Labaris and production by Haley Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of Curriculum Associates.