Tribes is a community building process that establishes a
caring environment for cooperative learning. It builds a common school language through the use of the community agreements, I statements and community circles among students, staff and parents. These are the community agreements:
1. Attentive Listening: Listening in a caring way. We listen with our eyes (we are looking at the speaker) our ears (we are listening to the speaker) and our hearts (giving them our full attention to show we care)
2. Appreciations (no put downs): This agreement ensures that our students are always speaking to each other in a positive and encouraging way. Put downs and insults are not acceptable choices; instead, we encourage using “I messages” to express feelings and needs.
3. Mutual Respect: This agreement creates mindfulness about the word “respect”. It helps students to understand that we all deserve to be treated respectfully and with care.
4. Right to pass: Choosing the right to pass means that a student needs time to think or process what is happening during a learning experience. We allow the student some time to think and the community can come back to them to check-in to see if they are ready to share in the community. This is NOT a pass on learning or participation.
5. Personal Best: This agreement allows our students to understand that they are expected to work hard and give their best with everything they do and try. Everyone is an individual with their own abilities, talents and skills, but as long as we work hard and try our best, we will succeed.
6. Safety with Body and Heart: This agreement reminds us to use our words and not our hands to communicate feelings and needs. It also reminds us that “words matter”; teaching mindfulness around how we express feelings and needs to others.