LEARNING LOG FOR TRIBES READING CHAPTER 1: A NEW PATTERN OF INTERACTION The interaction between students and teachers,

and the structure of the classroom have changed very little over the past 150 years. The management of schools was dominated by command and control, where teachers gave information to the students who in turn competed it to be recognized. This system, however, does not prepare students for their future lives as adults and dismisses nurturing the social, emotional, physical and spiritual assets and wholeness of children (Gibbs, 6). In todays classrooms the emphasis has shifted to progressive learning, which encourages small group discussion and teacher facilitated learning. Tribes are a democratic group process that develops a positive environment that promotes human growth and learning. This learning community can be used for students, parent volunteers, teachers and administration. Ultimately, when a teacher implements Tribes in the classroom, they are giving their students an opportunity to achieve greater academic performance, assume responsibility of their own behavior, develop critical thinking skills and develop a sense of ownership over their work. I am excited to learn more and implement this new way of learning in my own classroom.

CHAPTER 2: FINDING OUR WAY TO THE FUTURE There are major changes taking place throughout Canada and the world, as we shift from the Industrial Age to the Conceptual Information Age. For the past 150 years human beings were trained to work individually and without influence over their end product or service. As we move to the Conceptual Information Age, however, we require a whole new set of skills to keep up with rapidly changing systems, situations, and data. Therefore, schools need to place students at the center of educational reform, teaching them a new set of skills to prepare them to enter the workforce. These include critical thinking and collaborative skills, as well as social and

emotional competencies. Moreover, we must teach multiculturalism, tolerance, and respect, culturally transforming the school into a place of inclusion. We also need to embrace Nakagawas concept of cooperative pluralism, expand[ing] multicultural education from simply learning about a specific culture to learning about our whole system, how we interact, and how we can build everyones skills and opportunities for active participation and power (22). Schools must also teach pro-social attitudes, principles, and skills, as there is a shift from childrens reliance on family for socialization to peers. Finally, we must foster a sense of community within our schools, teaching cooperation, interdependence, and respect for all people. Ultimately, I want my own students to be invested in their learning and I want my lessons to be relevant and applicable to the world outside the classroom.

CHAPTER 3: THE RESEARCH-BASED COMPONENTS OF LEARNING COMMUNITIES Developing and implementing Tribes was a slow and evolutionary process, ultimately leading to the current whole school model. The first stage was designed to prevent substance abuse and youth behavioral problems. The outcomes of this drug education curriculum were beyond expectations, leading to the realization that teachers could teach core academic content in small groups. Consequently, the second stage was centered on training teachers to build longterm small membership groups for peer support and responsibility, while maintaining a positive culture in the classroom. This led to the current model of the Tribes Learning Community, with the goal to engage all teachers, administrators, students and families in working together as a learning community that is dedicated to caring and support, active participation, and positive expectations for all students (31). There are four philosophy beliefs that are forwarded into a clear action plan for school reform. The first is a refocus of student learning and development, making the school system student centered and teaching diversity to all students. The second is

providing students with a caring culture, which is created and sustained by mutual respect, appreciation, attentive listening and the right to participate or pass. The third belief is to create a community of learners in which students, teachers, administrators, support staff and parents are involved. The final belief is responsive education, preparing teachers to be responsive to how students can best learn and grow socially, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. CHAPTER 4: A PERSPECTIVE ON CHILDRENS DEVELOPMENT A childs development is not predictable, but is often affected by his/her interactions with family, peers, school, and community, as well as their cultural norms, languages, beliefs, and larger forces, such as governments, mass media or religion. At some point along this developmental process, children should move from a world centered on me to an identification of we. Many adults, however, are still narrowly focused on me and mine, which leads to misunderstandings, intolerance, conflict, and war. The Tribes theory believes it is the schools responsibility to help children move beyond me to we and instill every child with the resiliency he or she will need to meet the inevitable stress of life and succeed in spite of it. Numerous children, despite the stress of poverty, divorce or other problems, develop resiliency and are able to withstand severe difficulties. These resilient children often demonstrate attributes of social competence, problem-solving skills, autonomy, and a sense of purpose and future, growing up to be healthy and competent adults. Children are able to develop this resiliency due to protective factors, such as positive behaviors and conditions within schools, families, and communities. The process is a good way for school communities to go about fostering resiliency in students, as it promotes inclusion, influence, and community. The school itself must foster a positive environment through inclusion, sharing, and caring, encouragement of participation and

high expectations for every child. Moreover, schools, family, and community systems must teach and model cooperation rather then competition.

CHAPTER 5: HOW CHILDREN LEARN Teachers need to make the critical shift from 19th-century methods to those that are effective with 21st-century people. Teacher-centered classrooms and whole class instruction are no longer effective, as 70% of teacher talk is spent disciplining, lecturing, giving instructions, and asking questions. In contrast, a student-centered classroom lessens teacher talk from 70% to 25% and spends more time praising, encouraging, and helping students. This breaks down the wall between the teacher and his/her students and transfers the learning and management back to the students themselves. Moreover, teachers need to shift from asking for the one right answer to using open-ended questions, group brainstorming, student inquiry, and group investigation projects. They also need to create equal opportunities for students, fostering an inclusive and multicultural classroom. Integrating the curriculum is another effective way to energize student learning and increase intelligence. Finally, teachers need to reach students who learn in different ways. The predominant focus of the education system favors students who are adept in verbal and logical skills, but discourages those who have different innate intelligences (57). As a teacher, I plan to focus on the students development, rather then curriculum development and foster each childs individual intelligences. Moreover, I want my students to acquire knowledge by working socially with others and to apply information to real-life situations, problems, and projects to gain meaningful lasting knowledge for the future.

CHAPTER 6: WHAT TRIBES ARE AND HOW THEY WORK The four social agreements of the Tribes learning process are attentive listening, appreciation/no put-downs, the right to pass and to participate, and mutual respect. These social

agreements will be reinforced and posted in my own classroom and my students will become the agreement enforcers. I will be sure to remind my students of these agreements often, and transfer the responsibility to the tribes themselves to maintain. The success of these tribes will depend on my own knowledge and ability to orchestrate activities appropriate to the groups particular stage of development. Gradually I will shift my role from being directive and providing much structure, to becoming less directive and transferring leadership tribes within the community. This gradual release of responsibly will encourage students to assume leadership with their own tribes and classroom, eliminating behavior problems and building their motivation and participation. There are three major stages of group development along the Tribes Trail. The first step is inclusion, creating a sense of belonging in the classroom by forming small subgroups to alleviate anxiety. The next step is influence, helping members share leadership responsibility, solve problems, set goals and celebrate diversity The final step is community, as tribes collectively work together to achieve their goals for the common good and celebrate their successes. I plan to gradually implement all three steps in my own classroom in order to create a successful and effective Tribes learning community.

CHAPTER 7: CREATING THE LEARNING COMMUNITY Chapter seven focused on how to create a learning community, which will become essential when I first implement the process in my own classroom. In particular, I found the community circle to be a crucial part of the process as it fosters a special spirit of community among students. The daily circle is also the first step in practising the set of positive Tribe agreements and in implementing the protective factors that foster resiliency. This community circle also helps students make the transition from home life to school, makes them feel included in the classroom before working on tasks and involves them in creating a positive learning

environment. I also learned the importance of a students right to pass, as being a silent observer is still a form of participation and can sometimes lead to greater learning. As a teacher I must meet students where they are, and rather then lecturing at them, invite them to share what they already know and then add to it. This small step, which could take less then ten minutes each morning, will set the tone for the class for the remainder of the day. Defining community agreements is another classroom management technique I intend to implement in my own classroom. Rather then simply posting the basic four Tribes agreements, I intend to brainstorm these agreements in my community circle discussion. Student-made rules will be much more effective, as students are taking responsibility of their own classroom environment and will take pride in sustaining it. I also intend on modeling these four foundations by attentively listening, appreciating others, actively participating, and respecting others.

CHAPTER 8: BUILDING TRIBES Chapter eight focuses on how to build tribes, which will be essential when I am forming my own classrooms learning groups. I intend on matching or separating students to achieve the best mix of skills, cultures, and relationships, balancing the number of boys and girls and guaranteeing that every person has at least one chosen friend in his/her tribe. Moreover, I will implement strategies that build inclusion. I learned that that these activities will help people present who they are, what they do well, and what their expectations, hopes and needs might be (104). Moreover, my own role as a teacher will be the facilitator. I already know it will be difficult at first to be in the background while my tribes tackle a task. I will be busy, however, observing my students, looking for new skills and behaviors to be affirmed and noticing the dynamics within the tribes. Finally, if I notice problems erupting within the tribes, I will not intervene directly but ask my students to reflect to what was going on in the classroom.

Reflecting on group interaction helps students become aware of the impact of their behavior on others and the dynamic of the group. Ultimately, conflict is a natural part of life, but within each conflict there is an opportunity to gain new knowledge. I-Messages are effective ways to deal with conflict, communicating feelings in a way that the other person is not put down or blamed while enabling an individual to state his or her feelings. I plan to teach my own students to use Imessages, creating a positive social climate in my classroom and a successful Tribes Learning Community.

CHAPTER 9: CALLING FORTH POWER & SELF-WORTH In my future classroom, I want the development of every student to be my main focus, while fostering a respect for multicultural diversity. I want students to discuss any problems openly they have in the community circle- including any issues of racism or sexism and as a group brainstorm ways to resolve the problem. I plan to develop my own multicultural curriculum and give students opportunities to talk about their different cultures, customs, languages, and uniqueness. This could include inviting parents or grandparents into the classroom to speak or tell stories about their culture. Multiethnic fairs would be another great way to expose students to different cultures. Moreover, I want to draw attention to not only the differences but also the similarities between ethnic groups, allowing students to see that people are fundamentally the same. Ultimately, celebrating multicultural diversity gives students the learning skills for living in a pluralistic world and can deflate stereotypes, prejudices or conflict within the classroom.

CHAPTER 10: DESIGNING & IMPLEMENTING LEARNING EXPERIENCES Humans can only understand what they have themselves constructed.-Vico The Tribes process highlights the need for teachers to move from traditional whole class instruction to active learning groups. I plan to facilitate learning in my own classroom, gradually transferring the responsibility of learning to the students, monitoring the classroom agreements and managing the interaction of the tribes. In order to ensure knowledge lasts, I plan to make students learning meaningful by allowing them to explore, apply, and do things together. Therefore, I plan on personalizing the learning experience because linking new information to prior knowledge and experiences accelerates learning. Personalized YOU questions is one efficient way to get students to learn new content, as it is relevant to personal experiences and evokes interest or recollection. Moreover, I plan on asking inviting questions that will encourage higher-order thinking and evoke more complete answers. I can also extend student thinking in a variety of ways when implementing Tribes learning experiences. Practising wait time, asking children to think/pair/share or asking students to unpack their thinking are just a few of the ways to evoke higher order thinking. Both of these strategies will accommodate every students needs- regardless of their learning styles.

CHAPTER 11: WORKING WITH PEOPLE BIG & SMALL The Tribes process can be applied in any classroom and in any grade- including kindergarten, special education, middle school and high school. Ultimately, any teacher can easily modify the process to suit the needs of the students and achieve the same outcome. In kindergarten classrooms, the community circle is used multiple times throughout the day. Each tribe has a small space designated for them and many of the Tribes strategies have to be modified to meet the childrens developmental level. The Tribes process can also be implemented in

middle schools, meeting students need for identity, belonging, and power among peers, which is particularly important at this transitional stage of their life. It is essential that the reason behind the activity is made clear and there is a clear expectation for behavior. Furthermore, more adolescents use put downs on each other which need to be addressed and the facilitator must model positive behavior and the agreements in order to achieve a positive classroom climate. Special education classrooms can also use the Tribes process, as it is the best way to mainstream these students because regular students accept individual uniqueness and these special learners are considered part of the community (172). The process also fosters special education students social skills and can be implemented with some modifications in a classroom that is populated with multiple age groups of multi-ability-level students. Finally, Tribes fits throughout the high school system, fostering an environment that is safe physically and emotionally and creates a sense of belonging. Tribes can be used in any classroom, despite the subject and students truly understand the Tribes community agreements. Moreover, permanent advisory groups are created, enabling students to work of developing collaborative skills, discovering their interests, and monitoring their success towards graduation and life after high school. Together, all of these simple modifications demonstrate the flexibility, adaptability, and applicability of Tribes to any and all ages or abilities of students.

CHAPTER 12: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER The full implementation of the school community Tribes process takes time and must move through the five stages of knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation in order to develop a TLC school community. Moreover, in order to implement the process successfully it is important to have the involvement of all the administrative staff, teachers, parents, and students. As teachers and facilitators of this new process, we have to live

the process every day (187). This can be done by supporting and coaching one another, designing integrated learning experiences, identifying appropriate materials and resources, assessing the programs, and planning training for parent facilitators of classroom parent groups. Building a parent network is an important part of Tribe TLC as collaboration between family and school shows great gains in student achievement. In this system, parents reach parents and the learning groups become a side-by-side example of the learning that is happening in the classroom. Parent learning groups grow to understand their childrens current stage of development, learn about resiliency and protective factors, practise the same collaborative skills in their homes, and support the learning goals and objectives of the class and school. Finally, this chapter suggests hosting Celebrations of Learning, which are short presentations of student learning that are scheduled throughout the school year. This gives students the opportunity to show what they have been learning in the classroom and allows parents to experience first hand the benefits of the Tribes process for their children.

CHAPTER 13: ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES & ENGERIZERS Energizers are quick five-minute physical activities used to revitalize the group. These activities help to draw attention back to the classroom after a time away, bridge the gap between different types of academic learning activities, and help people feel connected again with one another and the whole community. Furthermore, multiple intelligences can be reached and are engaged, and there is an added element of fun to the learning.